On “Angry China” from Economist

 Related articles in Chinese: 中文提纲－On “Angry China” from Economist, 网友力作：解构英国经济学人文章－愤怒的中国

Reading the May 1st article “Angry China” from Economist, I finally realized what it means when people talk about the world is moving on, but the west is being left behind at their own choosing.  One does not need to dig hard to find what the west always thinks and does when dealing with developing countries.

 

First off, people outside of America should know the significance of the day of May 1.  It’s the International Labor Day originated from the US ironically.  It was on this day every year workers around the world march for unity and better lives.  That scene scared many, and today, many in the west are scared of the “thousands of Chinese people waving xenophobic fists”.

 

I say, go ahead, be afraid.  You really should be if you are on the other side of what the Chinese people are demanding, just like many were scared of the marching workers.

 

What do the Chinese people really want then?  How about a little bit of understanding when we are angry at the killing of 19 innocent civilians on the streets of Lhasa?  How about a little bit of understand when we are angry at the blatant lies and demonization from the western media?  How about a little bit of understanding when we are angry at the relentless China bashing from the western politicians?  How about a little bit of understand when we are proud to support the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

 

Is it too much to ask for just a little bit of understanding from the west?

 

Navigating through all the never-gets-old babbling and we shall find the answer at the end of this article:

For China, that means learning to respect foreigners’ rights to engage it even on its “internal affairs”. A more measured response to such criticism is necessary not only to China’s great-power ambitions, but also to its internal stability; for while the government may distract Chinese people from their domestic discontents by breathing fire at foreigners, such anger, once roused, can run out of control.

 

Very good suggestions indeed, and very genuine as well, but from whose standpoint?  I am afraid that the west hasn’t woken up to the fact that 12% of the world population cannot speak for the whole world forever, and that day is coming faster than they realize.

 

I share the author’s concern for the stability of China, the region and the whole world.  To solve the problem proposed in this article and others around the world, we first have to identify the sources of the problems and who can be part of the solution.

 

What the author suggests is nothing but to insist that the Chinese should get used to the fact that the west is going to continue to stick their noses in China’s internal affairs.  I have a feeling that this suggestion is to the whole world as well.  The author further suggests that for our own good, the Chinese should gladly accept this fact, throw out of our sovereignty and dignity, and tolerate what we have been tolerating for the past 200 years, more than 500 years for the African and the aboriginal population in Americas and Australia.

 

It is exactly this type of ignorance and arrogance scares not just me, but the majority of the 88% of the world population.  The west likes to portray themselves as the solution of the world problems, but the fact of the matter is, they have created most of the problems around the world and the more they try to “help” the worse it gets.

 

And more profoundly, the rest of the world is catching up to this fact, and the rest of the world is developing faster than what the west wants to acknowledge.  In other words, the Asia is rising and returning to its rightful place in history, and the shift of economic and political power from the west to the east is also happening faster than the west admits, as Kishore Mahbubani eloquently pointed out in his new book “The Asian Hemisphere”.

 

Until the west accepts this fact, it will remain the biggest obstacle to a more prosperous and safer world.  So the $10 million question is, will they?

 

The answer, unfortunately, is no, at least not in the near future.  So, the west will continue to create tensions around the world, it will continue to be scared by the reactions, it will continue to offer advices, and it will continue down the road of increasingly being the laughing stock of the rest of the world, it will continue to become inevitably irrelevant, it will continue to try desperately to hold on to their power, and therefore the west will continue to be the part of the problems and not the part of solutions and increasingly so, until one day, hopefully it becomes more realistic and programmatic, or we will see it fads away as quickly as it reached the mountain top.