China Engulfed Itself In the Flames of Nationalism

This is a translation of the original 中國大玩吞民族主義之火，我們呢？ by Pang Li (黎胖), a journalist and columnist. Originally published by Voice Tank. Translation by Stacy Tang.

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Chinese TV shows and movies showing Chinese soldiers shooting down Japanese fighter jets with handheld grenades have often baffled foreign audiences. How did these works pass China’s censorship, and how are they even popular?

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese regime has invested much in rewriting history to serve its own political agenda. The new book China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism (Rana Mitter, 2020) dives into this project and China’s intentions with this project.

Internally, the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976; externally, US President Richard Nixon visited China in 1971 to build an alliance against the Soviet Union. These two watershed moments led to China’s great shift.

The Chinese Communist Party: Nationalist-in-Chief

Until the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese regime’s central dogma is international Communism. China upheld the ideals of classless authoritarianism and export of revolutions; national history was suppressed. With the end of the Cultural Revolution, China needed a new official ideology to justify its rule. Anything Western was out, so an inward look at Chinese nationalism was in. This nationalism stressed the “humiliation” of China under imperialism, particularly focusing on the Sino-Japanese wars during World War II. The history of the war was the basis for the manipulating and fanning nationalistic fervor to “cleanse” the society of Western thought. This project was particularly accelerated after the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen Massacre.

This was during when the US cozied up to China in order to form an alliance against the Soviet Union. With the help of the Americans, China actively tried to reenter the global community. Stressing its anti-Japanese history gave China an excuse to portray itself as a peace-loving co-founder of the post-war world peace and order. As China became a superpower and the second largest economy in the world, this history then became the basis for anti-American sentiment and world leader ambitions.

Beginning from the historians, museums to books and motion pictures, all sorts of commemorations and depictions only increased since then. They include both government and private sector projects. The Chinese Communist Party tried to take credit for the war away from the Nationalist Party (KMT) and portray itself as the true wartime leader of China (even though the Allied Powers dealt with the KMT as the representative of China).

China’s emotional blackmail against Japan

The “Rape of Nanking” in 1937 was the perfect story for China to ignite a flame of hatred and extremist nationalism. China has equated the massacre of civilians in Nanjing by Japanese soldiers to the Holocaust, and paints itself as an innocuous victim of atrocities. China has dangled this narrative against Japan as leverage and accused Japan of being unapologetic, even when Japan has given financial and technical aid, as well as developmental loans.

The Chinese government has also let the private sector a lot of leeway to interpret this history. All sorts of propaganda and events have propped up, from literature, interviews, visits to historic sites, private sector museums, fervent social media influencers and now “patriotic” movies and TV shows.

Not fooling anyone else

These activities and projects have garnered a lot of attention within China. Abroad, however, they have not been well received at all. From works of entertainment to exporting anti-American political or ethical narratives, they’re rarely adopted by other countries. The US’s image in Asia is built on the American effort during World War II and creating and leading the post-war world order; China has not been successful in challenging the US’s position in Asia.

Not only does China want to revise other nations’ understanding of World War II, China wants to use their narrative to challenge the current postwar order. China insists that it is a “victim” that has not been compensated and still has “lost territories” from the war. China further insists that it has rights to territories that Japan has relinquished (including Taiwan and the South China Sea), that it deserves more reparations for “rising peacefully,” and that it should be respected as a creator of world order. (China claims their rights arise from the Cairo Declaration, and Taiwan’s KMT also echoes their claims; the book calls this the Cairo Syndrome.)

Although Southeast Asian states also share a complex history with Japan, they are now more concerned with China. The author points out that China’s narrative have met resistance around the world, because no one is interested in a country that has become a superpower whine all day about being a victim.

Nonetheless, the book points out that as China becomes stronger, it will increasingly force everyone else to sit through their story. So far, China has not been able to put forth an ideology and global system like the Soviet Union to challenge the US; instead China is seeking to infiltrate and replace the US as the head of today’s existing system. Even as the US becomes more isolationist, China does not seem able to achieve their goals in the short term.

China also tries to influence Taiwan with their narrative. The KMT insists that it was the party that led China in World War II, but essentially buys into China’s story. As the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continues to rule, Taiwan’s own historical memories will be the mainstream.

The book points out that after the fall of communism and the Tiananmen Massacre, China has turned to nationalism to consolidate its rule and to pry itself into the world system. The book reminds readers China’s project of revising history to seek international prestige, expand its territories and challenge the US. Moreover, China has co-opted the concepts of transitional justice to paint itself a victim.

Taiwan Has Its Own History and Doesn’t Need to Dance to the CCP’s Tune

Finally a word for Taiwan: the book highlights the deviations in historical memories between the Chinese and Taiwanese societies. This means that Taiwan does not need to look to China for historical interpretation. Taiwan’s own history, such as the recent TV drama Three Tears in Borneo, reflects the efforts of Taiwan to rediscover its own historical memories to replace the KMT’s China-centric views.

When the Taiwanese no longer share the memories of World War II with China, it is a way for Taiwan to break free from China. Surely it will invite the ire of Chinese nationalists who believe Taiwan should remain within China. The question for Taiwan is whether to subsume into Chinese history as a lowly frontier “renegade” territory, or to protect its own sovereignty and unique identity.

(Feature photo by Kai Song on Pixabay)