'Unhappy China' Fuels Nationalism Debate
A HOT-SELLING new book that excoriates the U.S. and calls for China to be more assertive is fueling a debate among Chinese about nationalism and their country's role in the world.
'Unhappy China' is a collection of essays by five authors who argue that China has been too deferential to a Western world that is hostile toward it. They argue that China needs to use its growing power and economic resources to carve out its own position of pre-eminence. 'From looking at the history of human civilization, we are most qualified to lead this world; Westerners should be second,' the book says.
The authors, a group of scholars, single out the U.S. for special scorn, and say their book's message -- aimed largely at younger Chinese -- has been helped by the economic crisis. 'This economic problem has shown the Chinese people that America does have problems, that what we've been saying is right,' said Wang Xiaodong, in an interview Friday in Beijing with three of his co-authors: Liu Yang, Song Qiang and Huang Jisu. The fifth author is Song Xiaojun.
Since being released March 13, the book has sold out its initial shipments in many Chinese bookstores and landed on the best-seller list at leading online retailer Dangdang.com. The publisher has printed 270,000 copies of the book so far, and says sales are far outpacing expectations.
Yet much of the response has been negative, reflecting the complex place that nationalism holds in today's China. Several reviews in the Chinese media have ridiculed 'Unhappy China' as a blatant attempt to cash in on nationalistic sentiment. The book is a way to 'fish money from the pockets of the angry youth and angry elderly,' wrote one critic in the China Youth Daily, a leading state-run newspaper.
An English-language article by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, claimed the book had failed to hit a chord with average Chinese, and quoted blistering critiques from bloggers and academics calling its nationalism embarrassing and unconstructive.
'Nationalism is necessary. But nationalism has boundaries. You can't bully other countries,' wrote Li Yinhe, a prominent sociologist at a government-backed think tank. 'Especially in a country like ours that lacks a democratic tradition, the main responsibility of our intellectuals and patriots is to promote the process of China's democratization, rather than to incite nationalist sentiments.'
'Unhappy China' echoes some of the sentiments of an earlier nationalist volume, 1996's 'China Can Say No,' and the two books share a co-author, Song Qiang. But the new book is getting particular attention because it comes as the economic crisis has severely damaged the West and, in the minds of some Chinese, left China's position relatively strong.
China's leaders have themselves been more assertive recently. Premier Wen Jiabao in January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, blamed the U.S. for creating the current economic crisis. And earlier this month, he expressed 'worries' about China's holdings of U.S. government debt given questions over Washington's economic policies. Last week, Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central-bank governor, proposed adopting a new global currency to replace the dollar as a world standard.
But Chinese officials, like their Western counterparts, also have called for more international cooperation to help pull the global economy out of its current slump.
The authors of 'Unhappy China' reject such talk, reciting a litany of grievances against the U.S., from a monetary policy that threatens to devalue China's holdings of U.S. Treasurys to Washington's continued support for Taiwan. 'We also have many people who think China should cooperate with the U.S.,' Liu Yang, one of the authors, said in the interview. 'But the U.S. attitude toward cooperation is wrong, it's unequal.'
Many of the prescriptions in 'Unhappy China' echo positions China's government currently espouses: strengthening the country's reliance on domestic technology and innovation, and bolstering its military, for example.
The authors, however, reserve some of their greatest resentment for China's current political and economic leadership.
'I've already lost all hope in China's elite,' says Mr. Wang, who calls them 'irresponsible,' 'corrupt,' and 'lacking any vision.'
Instead, the authors aim 'Unhappy China' largely at a generation of younger Chinese. They see the angry protests by mainly young Chinese last year against foreign criticism of China's Tibet policies and its hosting of the Olympics as a 'milestone' for relations with the West.
'America will face a less friendly China in the future,' says Mr. Wang. |
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