http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/04/AR2008050401599.html
The Facets Of Chinese Nationalism
By Yang Jianli
Monday, May 5, 2008; Page A17
Frequently the past few months, I have been asked about the wisdom of
using the Olympics as an op****tunity to push China to improve its
human rights record. Underlying these questions is a sense that
international pressure may have played into the hands of the Chinese
Communist Party by triggering nationalist emotions and rallying
indignant Chinese people behind the regime.
This concern is understandable. It is critical, however, that people
distinguish among the four types of nationalism in China today to
determine how best to pressure the regime to make improvements.
First there is pragmatic nationalism. In everything but name,
communism is dead in China. The Communist Party's pragmatic
nationalism is one of the two lifelines to which it clings; the other
is rapid economic growth. China's leaders understand that continued
prosperity is the key to their continued rule. They have engaged in a
delicate balancing act of fanning nationalist emotion to promote
loyalty among the populace while at the same time tightly controlling
this emotion to limit its potential damage to China's standing in the
global economy. This pragmatic nationalism is a doctrine driven by
national interest, not ideology.
The same is true of "vassal nationalism." The majority of vassal
nationalists are China's elites, and they move in lock step with
pragmatic nationalism as dictated by the government. They become angry
and indignant at the right time and place, when and where the party
thinks they should. But this fury can pass like the weather; vassal
nationalists seem to overcome their emotions the moment the party
hints that they ought to. For example, many Chinese who don't normally
feel uneasy about the country's state-controlled media, or the
regime's tireless policing of the Internet, vehemently protested some
"unsatisfactory" re****ts on Tibet by Western media outlets in recent
weeks. This inconsistency is the hallmark of vassal nationalism.
The third type is popular nationalism, which pursues China's unity,
strength, prosperity and dignity. This type of nationalism sometimes,
but not always, values human rights and democracy at its core. These
Chinese nationalists can be quite reasonable, accurate, righteous and
pro-democracy when it comes to local politics; their judgment is based
on their own experiences. But they can be illogical, inconsistent or
emotional regarding foreign relations -- especially on Taiwan -- or
minorities, because they rely on state-run media for information about
these issues.
The fourth kind of nationalism in China could be called human rights
patriotism. People who espouse this type of nationalism include the
recently sentenced human rights activist Hu Jia, land rights advocate
Yang Chunlin and the blind Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng.
This type of patriotism holds human rights as its core value and
democracy as its goal; pursues Chinese glory by seeking to gain
dignity for each compatriot; promotes strength and prosperity by
striving to liberate people's minds, ideas and potential; and aims to
safeguard the country's integrity through recognition of the integrity
of each individual and ethnic group. The Dalai Lama, having long taken
the middle-road approach through nonviolent means, is a human rights
patriot even from the perspective of the greater China. So is Taiwan's
elected president, Ma Yingjeou.
So how does this influence what we should do before the Summer Games?
The worst option would be to fall silent; this would only embolden the
regime. More than that, popular nationalists, with strength and
prosperity foremost in their minds, might well align more closely with
the Communist Party. Given China's strengthened dictator****p, rapid
economic growth and ever-expanding military forces, they do not really
have a choice.
Since I left prison last year, I have advocated conditional
participation in the Olympics. Participation must be predicated on
some minimum standard of human rights. Applying this pressure will
help enlarge the public space for discourse for human rights patriots
in China.
The international community should help by forming a broad coalition
of human rights patriots to sup****t the concerted peaceful protest
activities inside and outside of China. Continued pressure on the
regime to renounce its strategy of violent repression and to instead
enter into a dialogue with the coalition of human rights patriots
should be applied.
If all of this were to happen, the pragmatic nationalists would
probably cede some ground -- they understand the language of pressure
-- and then we could sup****t the Beijing Olympics as a great
celebration of the beginning of a real democratic transition in China.
Far from being impossible, this goal is attainable. Its success
depends upon our persistent efforts.
Yang Jianli was released in April 2007 after completing a five-year
prison term in China, where he was sentenced for attempting to observe
labor unrest in 2002. He is the founder of Initiatives for China.
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