Former US ambassador to China Gary Locke (駱家輝), a third-generation Chinese American with Hakka ancestors from China’s Guangdong Province, has served as governor of Washington state and was the first Chinese-American to become US ambassador to China.
However, Locke did not embrace his Chinese heritage anywhere enough for Beijing.
Furthermore, he did not do whatever China’s powerful wanted him to do and was as a result insulted with a string of racist slurs, including being called a “banana” and the “god of plague” by China’s second-largest state-owned news agency, the China News Service, upon his recent departure from his post in Beijing.
When China talks about Taiwanese embracing their Chinese heritage, this attack demonstrates its standard, arrogant racism.
If you disagree, then you are forgetting your ancestors and should be gotten rid of.
Politicians like President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and their ilk always obediently talk about being “Chinese” and are viewed by China as belonging to the same group, with the same mind and aspirations.
The way in which this state-owned media outlet criticized the outgoing diplomat reveals China’s complete lack of respect for personal dignity, personal identity and the freedom of choice.
It also reveals the contradictory state of mind of China’s leaders — megalomania combined with a sense of inferiority — which causes them to prefer being bullied by “white” people, over being challenged by a Chinese-American with Western thinking — what the China News Service calls a “banana.”
Chinese often show a degree of megalomania, but in fact they love all things foreign; however, “foreign” only extends to “white people,” or, to be more diplomatic, “Caucasians.”
Locke, an Asian representing the interests of Caucasians in China, was enough to anger the Chinese. Combined with the fact that Locke is not Caucasian yet believes in values normally held by Caucasians makes a recipe guaranteed to curdle the blood of any rabid Chinese racist.
The values that Locke represented made senior Chinese officials who maintain their power by talking about being “Chinese” look out of touch.
Locke flew economy-class, carried his own luggage and bought his own coffee. The former ambassador released information about air pollution in Beijing and cared for human rights. All these things struck a raw nerve with Beijing’s rich and powerful.
This is why Locke was blamed for the haze in Beijing’s skies and criticized as having “forgotten his ancestors” because he does not speak Mandarin.
However, to the very end, Locke showed that he is a man of courage. Just before leaving Beijing, Locke said that China should improve its human rights situation, mend its relations with Japan and reflect on why Chinese are increasingly losing faith in their government.
Some people in Taiwan have lost their courage and become accustomed to toeing Beijing’s line. These people constantly talk about being “Chinese” to curry favor with Beijing’s leaders. They are precisely the ones who need to remember what Locke said about China when he left the country: “On a personal level, I am proud of my Chinese traditions and proud of the contributions China has made to human civilization over the last few thousand years. However, I am also a real American.”
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Drew Cameron
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry