Throughout the history of Qing Dynasty China, Empress Dowager Cixi’s (慈禧太后) decision to throw her lot in with the Boxers was the high-water mark of stupidity. Despite being made of flesh and bone like the rest of humanity, the fanatical Boxers boasted that they were “impervious to sword or spear,” and began indiscriminately killing foreigners in Beijing’s Legation Quarter. Cixi’s endorsement of the Boxer Rebellion implanted in the minds of the outside world that Chinese are unworthy of trust, love or respect.
Cixi’s actions led to the Eight Nation Alliance launching an expedition to relieve the besieged foreign legations. The rebellion was quelled, Cixi fled Beijing and the Qing Dynasty entered a period of terminal decline.
Today, history is repeating itself. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), an emperor in all but name, in an “imperial edict” on May 31 ordered Beijing officials to create a “trustworthy, lovable and respectable” image of the country. It is a tacit admission of failure: Xi’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy has made China unworthy of trust, love and respect in the eyes of the world.
Xi’s policy reversal came after democratic nations, unwilling to be pushed around any longer, have begun to take collective action, and he is trying to rebrand his modern-day “Boxers” in the image of Boy Scouts.
Chinese officials have been handed an impossible task: to rebrand wolves as huggable pandas. For a time, the West has courted pandas, with pro-Beijing figures in the US being described as “panda huggers” by their detractors. However, the panda’s lovable exterior has been peeled back to reveal the savage beast underneath, and few would dare to embrace them now, regardless of cosmetic changes.
While the credo of the Boy Scouts is honesty, a good deed every day and taking pleasure in helping others, Xi is rolling up his sleeves for battle and has allowed his envoys to strut and swagger unchecked on the world stage. Xi has called this “facing the West on level terms,” but he has allowed China to be humiliated.
Under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the country has stolen and cheated its way to power under a smokescreen of bragging and bluster, trampling over international norms along the way. Beijing’s despotism has finally turned public opinion in democratic nations against China.
Xi has bought off a few third-rate intellectuals, reinstated Confucian values and employed US public relations firms to polish his image, but actions speak louder than words: The CCP has left an indelible stain on China by being irresponsible and secretive, breaking rules and encroaching on the rights of other nations.
The UK befriended China after World War II and has been held hostage by Beijing over Hong Kong; Japanese business magnates have long been under the spell of the Chinese market, constantly looking to China before every decision they have made; and France and Germany have been too wrapped up in their own internal affairs and focused on the EU.
However, Beijing’s broken commitment to maintain Hong Kong’s freedoms marked a turning point. Beijing’s “rise” on the back of unfair tactics and its despotism are forcing democratic nations to band together to “compete” with China.
Beijing crushes dissent at home, and steals and ransacks abroad. It concealed the COVID-19 outbreak within China’s borders and has shown willingness to use military force to resolve territorial disputes.
The CCP is clearly unworthy of trust, love or respect. Democratic nations must unite again to hurt China where it is most vulnerable: its economy. A new multination alliance is needed to deliver a final knockout punch to the CCP, just like the Eight Nation Alliance did to the Boxers.
James Wang is a senior journalist.
Translated by Edward Jones
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