Nationalism

Anti-Japanese protests sprouted all over China again after the escalation of the Sino-Japan disputes over Diaoyu Island. Like seven years ago, streets were crowded with angry people who burned Japanese flag, broke into Japanese restaurants, swept away Japanese products in stores and smashed Japanese cars. Despite a GDP two and a half the size of that in 2005, and hosting two international events - Olympics in 2008 and World Expo in 2010, China shows little improvement in terms of the growth of civil society and independent thinkers. Dictatorship successfully proved its efficiency of driving the mass by its stultifying propaganda no matter how absurd the logic might be. Meanwhile, the re-ignition of nationalism also reveals the political and economic dilemma that China is facing today.

Foreign enemies, either real or fictitious, always make things easier for the domestic government. It's hard to imagine how Kims can survive without all the surrounding "enemies". Similarly, Chinese government rid some blames from the public by turning people's attention towards abroad threats. In late July, people were complaining about the poor infrastructure in Beijing, which resulted in over 70 deaths in a rainstorm. But soon after the Olympics began and Chinese athletes received some unfair treatment in London, people seemed to forget about the outdated drainage systems or corruption in Red Cross China, and showed great patriotism and higher supports for the government. Articles eulogizing China and disdaining other countries - Britain in particular, can be found everywhere online. When the Olympics finally ended, and some people called on reflections on previous unsolved domestic issues, it came the time for the government to intervene. By offering official acquiescence to these "small demonstrations" against Japan, Chinese government killed two birds with one stone. It not only staved off the post-Olympic reflections on the state-run sports system and appeals for auditing government expenditure, but also downplayed recent trial of Bo Gukailai as well, the result of which happened to be announced right after the protests. People have poor memories. All the politicians need to do is to get things done when the public's attentions are distracted.

Politics is always dirty, but what really chilled my heart were the components of these demonstrations. In stark contrast to participants in riots in Europe last year, Chinese protesters are much older. They are not naive teenagers who look for excitement through violence, instead they are mature adults who should have full capacity of conducting their behaviors. However at least some of them did not really understand what these demonstrations were about. The guy in the right picture wore a T-shirt saying "Boycott Japanese products", but held a Canon DSLR firmly in hands. Another photo shows people smashing private Toyota sedans during the demonstration but ignoring government-owned Toyota SUVs. The chaos, euphemistically contorted by media as "patriotism" attracted a large herd of copycats, who took advantages of the disorder to satisfy their lust for destruction and hatred for rich population. They viewed the protests nothing but a violent carnival justified by mainstream media.

With an experienced government too smart to manipulate people's behavior, and a population too tame to think, it's hard to imagine any change in the offing. However it will also be interesting to see how long the government of China can still concoct enemies and lead the public astray. China is very good at gymnastics, as we can tell in the Olympics; but what China really needs is mental gymnastics. This time, not for a small group of people, but for the mass.