Jaspreet wrote:I wonder why are Chinese being so shrill and childish about this?
Jaspreet-ji
You need to understand the psyche of constant advertisement (I didnt use the word "propaganda", I dont want to reduce intelligent debate to empty rhetoric) by the CCP to the public.
The original raisin-dieter of the communist party was communism (from all according to his deed to all according to his need). When that failed to deliver (and also some clever diplomacy by Unkil to drive in the Sino-soviet split), they switched to a semi-capitalist system. Now what is the raisin-dieter of communist party now ? Without communism, which serves as a self evident justification of the existence of the party (just like the justification for the existence of the american constitution rooted in liberty and equality is self evident), why need a party ?
That is when CCP switched to stability and nationalism from communism and social justice. The former is needed to supress internal dissent, the latter is needed to co-opt the local population into seemingly contradictory foreign policy manoevers. To reinforce the message of stability and nationalism, you need three ingredients
1. A foreboding of the dangers of lack of stability and identifying fleeing betrayers. (Dalai lama pleading for his monks to not be beaten up ? Well they are the Dalai Clique splittists.)
2. A sense of victimhood and historic injustice. Japan/USA/Imperial wester powers/Russia
3. A sense of imminent victory to set right this historic injustice. Decadent west, peaceful rise, reunification around the corner, Japanese humiliation imminent
In addition to stability and nationalism, the CCP needs to sell another crucial idea. The idea that the one party rule is the only way to achieve stability and rise. I find it surprising that nobody in China asks so why is US stable and nationalistic ? There are the usual excuses of "but decadent imperialism/but china needs chinese system". You have to admire and give this round to the CCP for convincing the population.
Now the sense of victimhood and the sense of impending victory should be finely balanced. The former as tool of demagoguery to force the people to act and rally behind the CCP, the latter to boost their morale. Too much of the former, you break the spirit of the people and too much of the latter, the population gets complacent and starts questioning the party. Thats why you find the frequent "Japanese Raped us, but we defeated them too" (victimhood/victory)
I find the "but India is a slum and is not developed" to be funny. The reason it is funny is that the switch to the stability/nationalism rhetoric from the communism/social justice rhetoric has one and only one bridge. That is roti/kapra/makan.
In this context, you should note that there is no contract between a democratic government and its citizens which specifies that the citizens will prosper. The only contract is that of freedom --- the citizens can choose the rulers and make decisions on the freedom they agree to give up to the government for common good (freedom to kill for example) and the freedom they retain to protect against tyranny and safeguard happiness (freedom of movement, assembly, speech, religion). Within this umbrella of freedom, people gather, set up businesses, work hard and prosper. On the other hand the contract between CCP and the people seems to be --- we will feed all of you, build skyscrappers, make sure the white men (and the brown) think that we are the top of the world. Some of our goons might break into your house and imprison you though.
Well, we like our system, they like theirs.
But I am astounded that the land that gave us confucious and tao, counts skyscrapers and lack of slums as points of pride and justification of the governance system. I would have expected to see a river of tears for massacres such as the great leap forward and cultural revolution. Oh well.
Interestingly as OT China is one example which makes me question the premise of "Historical and cultural attitudes" hypothesis to explain the behavior and wants of the people. These historical and cultural attitudes can be wiped clean by effective propaganda and information control, erasing the society's consciousness over atmost two generations.
Jaspreet wrote:I wonder why are Chinese being so shrill and childish about this?
Because of past victimhood and impending victory.