Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials and members of the public in China could be heard cheering the misfortunes of the US. One journalist at an official English-language newspaper called a friend, opening the conversation with the laudatory exclamation "Nice job!" The friend on the other side was left flabbergasted. Discussions on the Internet were even more outrageous -- "The blasts were skillful like no other, the imperialists all went running for cover!" "Using a plane wasn't strong enough; they should have used an A-bomb!" "Homage to bin Laden for exercising the will of the Heavens!"
Such hateful, bloody words cause anguish for Chinese with any feelings of compassion. Many have asked, "How come we the Chinese people have become so devoid of sympathy and humanity?"
This phenomenon has drawn extensive attention and reflection in Chinese cultural and intellectual circles. A scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the anti-American sentiments being voiced by the Chinese people and their schadenfreude over the massacre of US civilians are mainly the result of brainwashing by the Chinese Communist Party. Sino-US relations deteriorated after the government brutally suppressed the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. The government then embarked on an all-out vilification campaign against the US through its media and educational systems.
In a series of Sino-US conflicts -- such as the Yin He (銀河) cargo ship incident in 1993 (in which the US demanded a search of the ship on suspicion it was transporting chemical weapons ingredients to Iran), China's failed bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games, the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia and the EP-3 collision -- the authorities have distorted reality and done everything they could to slander the US. During the Kosovo crisis, for example, the Chinese media overwhelmingly sided with Slobodan Milosevic and hyped up anti-American and anti-NATO reports. A reporter told me that the government likely felt ashamed looking back on those biased reports now that the situation in Kosovo has settled down.
The class struggles trumpeted in Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) era have also contributed to widespread anti-American sentiment. They beautified war and poisoned the souls of the Chinese people. After Mao's death, the government did not promote humanitarian education because of their aversion to Western values. This has led to a dearth of humanitarian concern and a lack of respect for life throughout Chinese society. There is an indifference toward disasters that befall others, especially to other countries. Meanwhile, terrorist and fascist books, such as Unlimited War (超限戰) and China Can Say No (中國可以說不), are openly celebrated and become bestsellers.
Some people even believed that the more people who die the better because that will help ease the world's overpopulation problem. Now that the US has moved to punish the terrorists, they have turned into excited spectators, hoping for a big, ferocious war. What's most frightening is that many college students and even college professors harbor this attitude.
Today's Chinese are soulless, said a misanthropic writer, and perhaps it would have been better if the Allied Powers or Japan, instead of the Chinese Communist Party, ruled the country.
Wu Suli is a columnist for the Hong Kong-based Open Magazine.
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