Why Do So Many Chinese Expect War? -- Julian Snelder, National Interest
A professor of classical music in Beijing startled me in 2010 when he said, “When I look at my students, I fear we are headed for war within five years.”
“War with whom?,” I enquired.
“With anyone.”
His students don't seem like fenqing (“angry youth”). They are in a musical conservatory, after all, not a military academy. Many have overseas connections. But they are also ambitious, emotional, fiercely nationalist and for them war – any war – would be a gratifying affirmation of their country's ascendance. Like the 2008 Olympic Games but with real explosions, not fireworks. These kids lap up PLA propaganda films like Silent Contest even as they dream of Juilliard. My professor friend worries they just haven't thought things through, that their various aspirations are totally misaligned.
Read more ....
My Comment: I worked and lived in China in the 1980s, and I have been back and forth at least 30 times since then. I am lucky to have scores of friends and associates in China, and we are always drinking, eating, talking and debating everything .... politics, economics, the international situation, and (of course) how to make money. As to the possibility of future wars and conflicts .... that is where the discussions have recently gotten interesting. To put it bluntly .... I have seen this change in the mindset of the Chinese over the past three decades .... especially in the past few years. The reason why is simple .... Chinese nationalism has become dominant .... and it has replaced Mao's interpretation of Communism the bind that keeps the country together. Unfortunately .... this rise in nationalism and the coverage and promotion of it is creating an atmosphere where everyone in China is now expecting a war or conflict .... and that China should do everything in its power to not only be prepared for it .... but to even instigate it to enforce their territorial and strategic security concerns. To say that this is a worrisome development is an understatement .... but understandable when viewed from a historical perspective. Asian wars and conflicts have been ongoing since the beginning of time .... and it was (and is) never a question of "if" the next war happens .... but when.
Update: On a side note .... regular reader and commentator James sent me this great post on the "Chinese Century" .... China's Century? Not if We Don't Give It Away (The Diplomad 2.0).
6 comments:
Next item I visit I will be Canadian, English, Australian, a New Zealander, Portuguese,or something innocuous.
The comments of the site referred above are interesting. Aizino your comment puzzles me, what are you referring to.?
A person could potentially get beaten up if there is war fever or xenophobia increases greatly.
I watched the Battle of the Red Cliffs at the National Centre for the Performing arts and the guy in front of me was over the top patriotic. He was really feeling his oats over China's increased standing in the world. Now him specifically was not the problem. He was too middle class or too upper middle class to get into trouble. But someone younger or poorer might not be so circumspect.
We have yahoos in America too. They are mad at some Middle East terrorists group and they whack a Sikh.
Not all of Beijing is nice. the Northwest side looked kind of sketchy.
Any comments?
Aizino,
Yahoos are sub tribe and direct descendants of the Dullards.
DULLARD, n. A member of the reigning dynasty in letters and life. The Dullards came in with Adam, and being both numerous and sturdy have overrun the habitable world. The secret of their power is their insensibility to blows; tickle them with a bludgeon and they laugh with a platitude. The Dullards came originally from Boeotia, whence they were driven by stress of starvation, their dullness having blighted the crops. For some centuries they infested Philistia, and many of them are called Philistines to this day. In the turbulent times of the Crusades they withdrew thence and gradually overspread all Europe, occupying most of the high places in politics, art, literature, science and theology. Since a detachment of Dullards came over with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower and made a favorable report of the country, their increase by birth, immigration, and conversion has been rapid and steady. According to the most trustworthy statistics the number of adult Dullards in the United States is but little short of thirty millions, including the statisticians. The intellectual centre of the race is somewhere about Peoria, Illinois, but the New England Dullard is the most shockingly moral.
by Ambrose Bierce
https://enelnuvol.blogspot.com/2016/07/provar-pokemon-go.html?showComment=1603719685740#c287905924018638690
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