“Beijing shows China century can wait” | Shi Jintao

Shi Jingtao is making the point I’ve touched in over the years. That China can’t be a superpower as long as it coddles its victimhood complex. It’s also true that it has/had a lot to be victim about. It constantly reminds us of its “hundred years of humiliation”. The Opium Wars, unequal treaties, barbarians, not just at the gates but right inside the  backyard, the house, dictating what you could do, where you could go, where you couldn’t. Vast swathes of eastern China carved up by the imperialists, the colonialists. So there is all of that. And fair enough, to be pretty pissed off with it.

But still, if you want to have soft power, and Beijing has said it does, you can’t forever be playing the victim, or speeching at the podium with barely suppressed passive aggressiveness, as do China’s “wolf warriors” and senior leaders. You can’t be super sensitive to the rest of the world criticising you, as China is — think Xinjiang, think investigation into the source of Covid (for which they punished Australia). 

Shi also makes a point I’ve been making about the June 4 commemorations… or rather lack of them. Making hing Kong ever more like any other city in China. But also making a “Streisand effect”. Now ever more people know. 

All except that, ironically, that Shi would be unable to publish in China an opinion piece like this very one.So we’ve still got some brave people, a brave newspaper, and some leeway. All is not (yet) lost.

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