Within less than a month, two mass demonstrations highlighted vastly different political systems. A million people marched through Taipei on March 26 to protest China's "Anti-Secession" Law and its authorization of force against Taiwan. Organized by non-governmental organizations in cooperation with the Democratic Progressive Party, participants converged from 10 staging areas in an orderly fashion, with restraint and non-violence.
The only expression of angry outrage was the destruction of a flag of the People's Republic of China. The issue? Taiwan's survival as a democracy, and a perceived threat of force.
Contrast this with the April 16 demonstrations against Japan in Shanghai. With the implicit sanction of the government, emotional outrage turned to damage and violence, and cries to kill Japanese.
The issue? A belief that Japan had not apologized for atrocities in World War II and that the Japanese government was issuing textbooks that covered up wartime actions in China and other occupied countries.
The ability of Beijing to foment violent demonstrations on flimsy charges tells us several things about the continuing communist dictatorship.
China's versions of history are manipulated and highly selective. Not only is there exaggerated victimhood imposed by Japanese and Western imperialism in official textbooks, but views counter to official versions are not allowed. As in the old Soviet Union, public opinion remains constrained by the party-state. In the 1950s, the USSR was China's best friend and ally. After 1960, Moscow became the revisionist enemy.
For over a century, China has remained in the shadow of Japan, and this enmity and resentment has been reflected in the press and education, though periodically subdued for the sake of better economic and cultural relations.
If China wants historical truth, the best place to start is at home. The atrocities committed by the Communist Party against the Chinese people are at least as extensive and numerous as Japan's. The communist approach to historical revision is expressed in the official version of the Tiananmen massacres, nearly 16 years ago. The whole affair was whitewashed by the leadership, and the student dissidents jailed, executed or sent abroad.
The Chinese press pointed to the strident anti-Japanese demonstrations as evidence of broad revulsion and China observers sense the steady growth of a new Chinese nationalism.
This resurgent nationalism will have anti-foreign elements, and could easily turn against the US. China's new economic strength is indeed engendering a national pride and confidence, and days of "national humiliation" are a thing of the past.
China wants to take her place in the sun and continues to see Japan as the historical rival. The close relationship with the US, and the recent declaration that the US and Japan will cooperate in dealing with any crisis over Taiwan, encourage Chinese to see themselves as encircled.
The historic meetings between India's and China's heads of state, and closer relations with Myanmar and the Commonweath of Independent States indicate the emergence of a "western strategy" to offset the resistance encountered on the eastern maritime periphery.
Koizumi's new apology to China has averted a crisis, although this does not fully satisfy Beijing.
A major objective of the Chinese mob and street theater was to intimidate Japan about seeking a seat on the UN Security Council, and thus achieving international equality with China. However, this use of mass mobilization for political purposes too closely resembles the China we hoped had passed into history -- the China of frenzied Red Guards and of artificial mass campaigns to strike fear into the hearts of opponents. With economic reform firmly in place and pragmatists of the Deng Xiaoping (
The whole affair reminds us how China has not changed in non-economic matters, and that the leadership remains deaf to democracy and human rights. Religion is on a tight leash. Although a few registered churches are allowed to open under supervision of the state for a few hours every week, and Article 36 of the constitution stipulates freedom of religious belief, unofficial Christianity grows underground, despite imprisonment, torture and execution of believers.
Basic legal safeguards are non-existent in the judicial system, and prison conditions are harsh. Privacy rights are routinely violated, and the government maintains tight restrictions on freedom of speech and the press. Increased control and monitoring of the Internet has led to arrest of dissidents, and most "Netizens" practice self-censorship, or face the long arm of the law. Freedom of association and assembly are virtually non-existent -- except when government-sanctioned, as in cases to protest the target du jour, such as the US or Japan.
China declares that it is a major global power and implies that it must be accorded the respect due its economic clout and huge population. The EU courts China as a partner to limit what it sees as American overreach. Businessmen remain silent, knowing that protests over human rights will lock them out of the lucrative China market. India, the world's largest democracy, naturally wants harmony with its northern neighbor, whose warm relationship with Pakistan may prove to be the key to peace in South Asia.
US-China relations will be one key to global peace and prosperity in coming years. While critics accuse the Bush administration of using force to further US interests, Washington has been consistent in pursuing democratic values and human rights -- witness Iraq and Afghanistan. China, on the other hand, prefers to stand with the likes of genocidal Sudanese, the repressive ayatollahs in Iran, the socialist monarchy in totalitarian North Korea and the military junta in Myanmar.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Robert Bedeski is professor emeritus of the department of political science at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
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