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Beijing’s nationalist push to shore up support for the ruling Chinese Communist Party has stoked tensions with Washington, Jessica Chen Weiss has mentioned.
In an article in Foreign Affairs, Weiss mentioned: “Although the main objective of Beijing’s nationalist push has been to build domestic support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it has also stoked tensions with Washington, as each side tries to outdo the other in shifting blame and avoiding accountability for its handling of Covid-19.”
“The tit-for-tat rhetoric has already accelerated a race to the bottom in US-Chinese relations and hindered cooperation in fighting the pandemic. For the United States, this more nationalistic Chinese approach will present even greater challenges going forward, hindering US leverage and deterrence in ways that will constrain US policy options,” she added.
Relations between the US and China have worsened in latest instances over a spread of points together with the dealing with of coronavirus pandemic.
But over the long run, she acknowledged that nationalism will show much more of a hindrance to Beijing’s ambitions because it undermines Chinese efforts to appeal to worldwide support and present world management.
“Wolf warrior diplomacy might appease Chinese nationalists at home, but it will limit China’s appeal abroad. And xenophobia and repression in the name of national stability–whether toward African migrants in Guangzhou, Central Asian minorities in Xinjiang, or ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong–have given the lie to Chinese efforts to project a benevolent and magnanimous image,” she mentioned.
China has confronted criticism for huge abuse of human rights of Uighurs in Xinjiang province.
“Even if Beijing recognizes these problems, it will be costly–although not impossible–for the Chinese leadership to constrain the nationalism it has unleashed,” mentioned Weiss.
She famous that to some extent, Beijing has already tempered its most aggressive nationalist rhetoric within the face of home and worldwide pushback in latest weeks.
“Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian has denied that China is trying to export its coronavirus response model. Leading military hawks have cautioned Chinese nationalists against using force to reunify with Taiwan,” she mentioned.
“Censors have shuttered social media accounts promoting “fabricated and misleading” claims about India, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam. But regardless of this modest tamping down of nationalist rhetoric, even China’s inside reporting means that world anti-Chinese sentiment is at its highest level because the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square,” she added.
In latest instances, China has tried to bully smaller neighbouring international locations, aggravating tensions within the area.
Still, she mentioned, extra assertive nationalism is probably going to stay a characteristic of Beijing’s rhetoric and diplomacy, with vital implications for US coverage.
“The more the CCP prioritizes nationalism and public stability relative to economic growth as sources of domestic legitimacy, the less leverage the United States and other outside powers have, particularly on issues of central importance to China’s leaders, such as territorial integrity,” the article learn.
Citing the instance of Hong Kong the place China has imposed draconian nationwide safety legislation to crush dissent, she mentioned: “Take Hong Kong, where Beijing has feared both democratic contagion and a separatist threat to national sovereignty. Threats of economic sanctions have been ineffective at deterring Beijing from pushing through new national security legislation that effectively ends Hong Kong’s autonomy.”
She highlighted that after mobilized, nationalism creates stress for the federal government to discuss powerful and placate home audiences, rising the prices of restraint.
Cautioning that US policymakers aiming to form the trajectory of China’s behaviour and affect should contemplate each the short- and long-term results of nationalism on Chinese politics and coverage, she mentioned insurance policies to power near-term Chinese restraint may make medium- or long-term belligerence extra doubtless by hardening the general opinion local weather inside China.
“In crafting strategies to deter or punish Beijing, policymakers may end up increasing domestic Chinese demands for tough retaliation, including countermeasures against the range of foreign interests that benefit from access to China–whether scientific, journalistic, or corporate,” she mentioned whereas including that the extra the CCP leans on nationalism, the much less frightened the United States needs to be about China as a rival for world management.
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