Lingnan University

Academic Year 2011/2012

Subject: Modern Political Ideologies (GEB/POL217) Topic: Nationalism in China

Instructor: Dr. Wong Yiu-chung (Department of Political Science)

Student number: Ng Ping, Ice (1167972) Siu Kwok Chun, Jack (1178749) Tutorial class: Thursday 12:30-13:30 Word Count: 2611words
1

Introduction
Since 19 century, Nationalism is one of the major political ideologies in the world. It leaded to the independence of Germen and Italy, caused the outbreak of First and Second World War and resulted in the wave of decolonization in Asia and Africa. Today it still plays an important role in the world. China, consisting 56 types of nations, is also influenced by nationalism greatly. In this paper, we will explain what are nationalism and Chinese nationalism. We will use two case studies which are Anti-Japan and Xinjiang to illustrate what is the role of nationalism in todays China and how it affects the governance of China.

Definition of Nationalism
To define the meaning of nationalism, it includes a combination of factors and reasons. In different nation, there has a unique history and comment value to construct its own nationalism. Nationalism is people have a strong sense of identification in individuals and groups with the nation1. The ideology emphasis on the individuals have primordially attached to their nations in a natural way. Adapt the concept of a

scholar, the groups of people in a nation may share with the same language, race,

(Greenfeld, 1996) 2

religious, culture, ethnicity, kinship and community2. The collective solidarity bonded people with those kinds of symbolic ties. People will easily identify them as a member of a nation with a norm of national self-determination, even though they are not in the same region3. The nationalism can be usage of associate a process of formation, re-unification or growth of a nation; a consciousness and perspective of belonging to the nation4. In this perspective, many elites and politicians use it to organize or gather the people, with a strong nationalistic commitment. In theoretical speaking, nationalism have vantage point for keeping the country in stability. China has already experienced many times of separation and re-unification even though the invasion of others. It is difficult to define which factor is the original reason of unify of Chinese. The same culture of Yellow River, the Han ethnic majority, the rooted concepts of confusions are possible to reunify Chinese people. This common cultural history has a product came out called Culturalism5. The concepts based on this historical background affected the unification formed by Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Moreover, the deep influence of Confucianism also leading Chinese people to emphasize on the concept of one big family. In briefly to define, the Chinese nationalism is a heritage of collective history of Sino-culture. More accurately, the

2 3 4 5

(Anderson, 1983) (Stern, 1995) (Smith, 2010) (Townsend, 1992) 3

paper will focus on the modern Chinese nationalism. The emergence of modern Chinese nationalism is under the threats and traumatic circumstance with the foreign imperialism such as the United State, Britain and France in late 20th century.

The origins of nationalism in China

China has already experienced thousands of years history. It is difficult to define the exact origins of the nationalism. In this part, the point of view will set at the year of 1919 as the start point of the modern Chinese nationalism. In the late 20th century, the Qing dynasty was facing the collapse because of the administration crisis. The weak performance in diplomacy of the Qing government with the foreign superpower makes the empire became the sick man in Asia. Foreign imperialism great powers such as Britain, France, and United State divided China into parts of their influenced territory. Many nationalist formed the organizations to against the dynastic government such as Sun Yat-Sin, the founding father of the Republic of China. In 1911, the Qing dynasty collapsed, the Republic of China established. The power bargaining in the top level of the government led the chaotic situation did not stop and suppressed. In 1919, China attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the
4

conqueror nations. The results came out that the China did not benefit from the treaty. The Treaty awarded the German rights in Shandong province included Qingdao and Jiaozuo Peninsula to Japan. Many intellectuals and nationalists raised mass demonstration to condemn the governments actions6. People see this behavior as betraying the countrys benefit. According to the studies of Charlotte Furth, the meanings of the May Forth movement can interpreted as following:1) In June 1919, the protests against the Treaty of Versailles recognized as the origins of the nationalist and communist revolution movement. 2) The traditionalist who did not support the modernization used the Confucianism to oppose the movement. It led the wave of anti-Confucianism 3) The movement inspired the new enlighten campaign of new-culture, which rise by a group of intellectuals from Peking University, scholars who studied aboard such as Lu Xun, Hu Shih. 4) The aftermath of the May Forth movement arisen the political activists to organize educational and political reforms. The protester voiced the slogan of Fight back the sovereignty from the foreign hegemonies and depose the diplomatic ministers Tsao Ju-lin(Cao Ru-lin) and Chiang Chung-Hsiang(Zhang Zhong-xiang) The May Forth movement has the historical meaning on aspects of culture and politics. It also sees as the symbolic movement of nationalism and anti-imperialism awakening the China.

(Schwartz, 1973) 5

Chinese Nationalism in China today

To the current Chinese government, Nationalism is important but dangerous issue. Below we will use two case studies which are the wave of Anti-Japan and the riots in Xinjiang to illustrate how Chinese Nationalism favors and hinders the governance of China today. The Anti-Japan wave of China in the recent years can be seen as a successful instance for Chinese government to exploit Chinese Nationalism in helping its governance. To start with, the high dissatisfaction rate in China forced Chinese government to use nationalism to transfer the attention of the public from local to the foreign. With the further opening up of the social and economic reforms, many social problems are resulted and the social contradiction is more acute than before. Dissatisfaction of the public raises up that may harm the rule of PRC. To consolidate its ruling power, PRC should transfer their discontent from itself to other areas. In this sense, Japan was used by Chinese government as a target to vent the discontent of the public, unite the people and thus, to ensure the social and political stability. Besides this, the improvement of the Sino-American relations also leaded to Japan as new target for the Chinese Nationalism. After the 9.11 attacks, China gave strong support to US. For instance, China voted in favor of UNSCR 1373 supporting the coalition military action in Afghanistan in 2001 publicly and contributed $150
6

million of bilateral assistance to help the reconstruction of Afghan after the defeat of the Taliban7. Since then, the Sino-American relations had changed drastically. In the 1990s, USA was the imaginary enemy of China, acting as a target for China to divert attention of the public. Because of the disappearance of imaginary enemy, it was urgent for China government to find a new imaginary enemy. China, hence, was not surprising that it located Japan as new target of Chinese Nationalism.

Japans behavior was another vital reason for the anti-japan wave. Due to the historical factor especially the invasion of Japan to China in the World War II, it is sensitive to talk about some special issues such as the dispute of Diaoyutai or so-called Senkaku Islands, the Japanese history textbook controversies, the problem of visiting to the Yasukuni Shrine and the negation of Japan on the Nanking Massacre, etc. Such issues seriously stimulated the dissatisfaction of Chinese towards Japan. Certainly Chinese government will not give up this valuable chance to shift the focus of the public to Japan. Pushing by the Chinese government, Chinese people motivated the wave of anti-Japan. Japans behavior, therefore, inspired the Chinese people's national consciousness and xenophobia, resulting in the anti-Japan wave.

Bilateral Relations After Tiananmen, U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/china/29871.htm 7

Along with the above background, the anti-Japan wave broke out in 2005. Due to the Japanese state approval of the Japan Fusosha history textbooks and Japan's effort to become the permanent members of UN Security Council, a series of anti-Japan activities were held in various parts of China during the March 2005 to April. Signature campaign was held in China like Heilongjiang8 and demonstration occurred in Shanghai, Hangzhou and other parts of China9. What is more, in 2010, because of the Senkaku boat collision incident, anti-Japanese demonstrations held in October 2010 in Xi'an, Chengdu and other places of China. During the demonstration, participants attacked the Japanese stores10, burned Japanese flags and even tried to attack Japanese Embassy11. Such actions of the participants clearly showed the intensity of Chineses anti-Japan emotion and reflected the Chinese Nationalism. Following the anti-Japan wave, the Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated seriously. For instance, during the anti-Japan wave in 2005, in April 17 meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing refused the request of Japan to demand an apology, saying the Chinese government did not do anything to harm the Japanese people. He further asked the Japanese government for their hurt the Chinese people's feelings to apologize12. One more

8 9

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-04-01/03506254841.shtml http://www.ifeng.com/phoenixtv/72623842526232576/20050416/536538.shtml 10 http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/sino_jp/pages4/sino_jp101018a.shtml 11 http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/china/2010/10/101026_chongqing_demo.shtml

12

examples is after the demonstration in October 2010, Chinese and Japanese leaders did not hold talks during the East Asia Summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 29, 2010
13

. The speech and action taken by the PRC leaders showed their support

towards the Chinese Nationalism which targeted on Japan. Although Chinese government lost the opportunity to build up good the Sino-Japanese relations, the effectiveness of Chinese government to use nationalism to achieve its political aim is obviously successful. To begin with, it successfully shaped Japan as a new imaginary enemy of China and transferred the attention of the Chinese people from the social problems in China to the emotion of anti-Japan. The following result was that with the focus on the Japan, the pressure for the request of social and political reform was relieved which in turns helped to maintain CCPs rule in China. Secondly, the anti-Japan wave leaded to the rise in the sense of the nation identity in China, facilitating the governance of China. Facing the action of Japanese, Chinese people became more unite. They participated in the demonstration and signature campaign together, showing a clear exclusivity of nation towards Japan. Meanwhile, through the wave the identification of Zhongguo ren was stressed and the sense of belongings as a Chinese people increased. More importantly, the higher
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/template/apple/art_main.php?iss_id=20050418&sec_id=4104&art_id =4819945 13 http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2010_10/30/2948171_0.shtml 9

the level of national cohesion, the less the problems government needs to deal with and the easier the government to rule. It is understandable that why the successful application of Chinese nationalism can help the governance of Chinese government. The increase in the support of the Chinese government is another result showing that Chinese government successfully exploited the Chinese Nationalism. During the anti-Japan wave, Chinese people hoped the government could take a tough and firm stance to against Japan. And the PRC response to this demand very well. As mentioned in the above passage, the Chinese leader such as Li Zhaoxing showed strong support to the Chinese people. As a result, more people agreed PRC represented the interest of the Chinese nation and thus believed PRC was reliable. Thought the support from the Chinese leaders, Chinese Nationalism, hence, helped a lot of the PRC in gaining the public support.

The limitation of nationalism in contemporary China

In ideologically speaking, the ideal type of state government is the nation-state14. It means a social and political concept that a union of people who share the same or similar cultural heritage, ethnic relationships, and language, living

14

(Greenfeld, 1996) 10

in a particular piece of territories, with a government and sovereignty15. Undoubtedly, China is a country with vast territory. It is not easy for government to operate this sizable country. Moreover, China is not a nation-state. China has 56 ethnic groups. Han people is the ethnic majority, the percentage to total population is 91.51%16. Although the Han people are the majority group of China, there are many ethnic separatist incidents occur from the establishment of the country. Xinjiang Uyghur is one of the three major groups of ethnic minorities with the Tibetan, Mongolian. Their cultural background and living style, social structure are widely difference with Hans. In this part, the issues of Xinjiang Uyghur separatist happened in recent year will be used to examine the limitation of the nationalism in China. Xinjiang Uyghurs live in the autonomous region in the North West side of China. The population is 21.81 million; include 45% Uyghur, 41% Han and 7% Kazakh17. The thoughts of people for independence have risen in the recent year. It causes a numbers of riots with conflict with Han people in 2009. The issues of ethnic conflicts got international attention after the riots took place several days after a violent incident in Shaoguan, Guangdong on 26th June, 2009. According to state media, a former worker disseminated rumors that six Uyghur

15 16

(Townsend, 1992) (China, 2012a) 3-5 Basic Statistics on National Population Census in 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010 17 (National Bureau of Statistic of China, 2012b) 3-7 Total Population and Sex Ratio by Region 11

men had raped two Han women. Official sources later said they found no evidence to support the rape allegation. On 2526 June, tensions at the Guangdong factory led to a ethnic brawl between Uyghur's and Hans, during which two Uyghur co-workers were killed. While the official Xinhua News Agency reported that the person responsible for spreading the rumors had been arrested, Uyghur's alleged that the authorities had failed to protect the Uyghur workers, or to arrest any of the Han people involved in the killings. They organized a street protest in Urumqi on 5 July to voice their discontent and to demand a full government investigation in Xinjiang. The main unrest continues until 7th July, over one hundred people die. A numbers of riots and demonstrations sustained occur for at least two months. This series of unrests raised the attention from the foreign media. The central government blocked the Internet and telecom service until May 2010. The details of this incident were highly suppressed by the government. The Chinese government has accused the World Uyghur Congress fomenting the unrest in Xinjiang in 2009, then listed as terrorists and separatists. The cultural disparity caused the conflicts between ethnic minorities and Han people. The appearance, languages and living style are different in two ethnic groups. They do not see themselves as Chinese. The ethnic minority groups advocate the independency have being a taboo of Chinese government. The scholar studied the
12

reasons of the conflicts because of the fail in the fusion of ethnics groups and the Chinas preferential policies18. The minorities can preferences of the policies such as education and family planning. For example, the minorities can have two to four children under the practice of One-child Policy. More than that, the Ethnic Minorities Education Aid Special Fund gave the subsidies for the minorities. The responses for the minorities are not willing to embrace these preferences. The conflicts between ethnic groups still exist. The minorities separatists advocate to against the totalitarianism, religious intolerance of the Beijing government. The minorities continue to fighting for the independency.

Conclusion
In short, Chinese Nationalism is a double-edged sword to the Chinese government. On one hand, it plays a favorable role in helping the rule of PRC like the anti-America wave and the anti-Japan wave. On the other hand, however, it is very dangerous for the governance of China like the independence movement of Xinjinag and Tibet. It is highly possible that Chinese Nationalism will still play an important role in the future China so for people who study the contemporary China, Chinese Nationalism is a necessary and crucial issue that should not be neglect.

18

(Safran, 1998) 13

Reference
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso. China, N. B. (2012a). 3-5 Basic Statistics on National Population Census in 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010. Retrieved from China Statistical Yearbook 2011: http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2011/html/D0305e.htm Greenfeld, L. (1996). Nationalism and modernity. Social Research; Spring, 63, 1, pp. 3-40. National Bureau of Statistic of China. (2012b). 3-7 Total Population and Sex Ratio by Region. Retrieved from China Statistical Yearbook 2011: http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2011/html/D0307e.htm Safran, W. (1998). Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China. London ; Portland, Ore: Frank Cass. Schwartz, B. I. (1973). Reflections on the May Fourth movement : a symposium. Cambridge, MA: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University. Smith, A. D. (2010). Nationalism. cambridge: Polity Press. Stern, C. P. (1995). Why do People Sacrifire for Their Nations? Political Psychology, vol.16, no.2, pp. 217-235. Townsend, J. (1992, jan). Chinese Nationalism. The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 27, pp. 97-130.

14