The dangers of China’s fervent cyber-nationalism

A 10-year-old child was approaching the walls of a Chinese class in Shenzhen, southern China, when a man came up and stabbed him.

He died of his injuries. The killing shocked Japan and China, and sparked a diplomatic furore.

The Chinese government claimed that it had been influenced by xenophobia, and the international secretary put the blame on “malicious and anti-Japanese” social media posts.

Online observers have noted the shooting happened on a politically sensitive day – 18 September, which is the celebration of an incident that led to the Chinese occupation of Manchuria in China in the early 1930s.

What transpired for some as a sign of virtual nationalism, which has been sprang up as rising anti-foreign rhetoric in recent years, transferring into the real world.

Articles about World War Two events have proliferated on the Chinese online for years, with the Chinese war enduring as a contentious subject for separatists on both sides. In China, Japan’s military atrocities have long been a tender point as Beijing maintains that Tokyo has not entirely apologised.

The online postings are a part of a larger trend that includes strikes on Chinese citizens for being anti-patriotic and xenophobia. Experts ‘ claims that this online nationalism has mostly been unchecked by the Chinese government, with on-line patriotism stoking anti-foreign mood as well as charges against Chinese officials as one explanation.

Some people wonder if this has gone to far. The most recent in a line of efforts to ensure philosophical beauty has been dubbed the” Cultural Revolution 2.0″ by them as the online attacks that portray Chinese people as being anti-patriotic. They see echoes of the violent, state-sponsored campaign against so-called enemies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP ) that traumatised the country in the 1960 and 1970s. In massacres carried out by young militias like the Red Guards, hundreds of thousands of people died. Neighborhoods and communities turned on one another.

In a recent article, author and university teacher Zhang Sheng noted that “in the past persons summoned the Red Guards, then persons summon the ‘ little pinks ‘” – a popular name for the virtual troops of online separatists.

Some cyber-nationalists had a very unique take on the tragic death of the Chinese student on Taiwanese social media.

” I have no opinion on how Japanese die if they do n’t apologise for history”, read one popular comment on Weibo, while another pointed out that the Japanese had killed many Chinese during World War Two” and have n’t apologised till this day. How could they even come close to being referred to as” civilized”?

A Chinese official reportedly wrote texts in a private group chat informing members that it was okay to shoot a Chinese child and that it was against our laws to kill Chinese. He has since been placed under investigation, according to local media outlet Phoenix News.

Beijing heavily censoring discussion of the incident online and calling it an “accidental, individual case” and an “isolated incident” as Japanese officials demanded answers for the “despicable” crime.

This is the third highly public attack on foreigners in recent months, which China has described as “isolated incidents.”

In June, a Japanese mother and her son were attacked at a bus stop outside a Japanese school, and a Chinese woman died while trying to shield them. This happened just weeks after four US university tutors were stabbed in a park in Jilin. While the motives for both attacks were also unclear, they spurred anxious discussion that they were linked to xenophobic rhetoric online.

Not just foreigners are facing the ire of cyber-nationalists. Chinese business and public figures have also been subject to criticism in recent months for being insufficiently patriotic.

Beverage giant Nongfu Spring is considered a Chinese business success story, with its mineral water bottles a ubiquitous sight across the country’s convenience stores and restaurant tables. Nationalists, however, attacked the business in March for using Japanese elements in its product design. The iconic mineral water bottle’s red cap was thought to be a reference to the Japanese flag, while one of its logos was said to resemble a Shinto temple.

It resulted in a brief but intense online campaign: some called for a boycott, while videos of people angrily stamping on Nongfu Spring bottles and chucking their drinks down the toilet were all over social media.

In the same way, a nationalist blogger accused the author, who won the Nobel Prize for literature, of “beautifying” Japanese soldiers and writing insensitive poetry. The blogger later filed a controversial lawsuit against him for insulting China.

These actions have sparked a lot of concern. Hu Xijin, the former editor of state-run newspaper Global Times, warned that nationalistic attacks on creatives like Mo Yan could have a chilling effect.

And the outspoken liberal intellectual Yu Jianrong claimed that “dangerous populist tendencies, which deserve our utmost vigilance” were to blame for the recent stabbings of foreigners.

Even the state media has accused online nationalists of “making patriotism a business.” One commentary by CCP mouthpiece People’s Daily said those who” stir up public opinion and add fuel to the flames in order to… gain traffic and make personal gains, should be severely punished”.

Some claim that the ruling party contributed to the ignominy.

” State-endorsed patriotism” and Beijing’s constant warnings about foreign influence has contributed to the “intense nationalism” we see today, says Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s communication school. The legal risk of being deemed unpatriotic, she claims, has made things worse.

The Chinese government has now made the “distortion and smearing ] of ] heroes and martyrs” a crime, as demonstrated in the lawsuit against the author Mo Yan. It has also passed a sweeping anti-espionage law and launched a campaign encouraging the public to report suspicious activity by foreigners.

It has intensified efforts to foster patriotism in schools, where Chinese children are taught from a young age that they must love both their country and the CCP, to legitimize its rule.

Meanwhile, a global surge in Sinophobic sentiment during the Covid pandemic and growing suspicion of China in the West due to trade tensions has fed a sense among some Chinese that their country is being unfairly discriminated against by foreigners.

China’s slowing economy and a spreading social malaise have also played a role. “Many people in China are confronted with severe social and economic worries. Inflation, housing crises, youth unemployment, and evaporating pensions are all causing anxieties. Nationalism is a readily available and highly potent framework for venting those frustrations,” says Florian Schneider, an expert in online Chinese nationalism at Leiden University.

All these factors have resulted in nationalist bloggers becoming a prominent fixture of the Chinese internet in the last few years. Well-known influencers can amass millions of followers – and potentially earn income from the traffic – by pumping out patriotic content extolling the virtues of China and the CCP while denouncing their enemies.

While they often act in the name of revolutionary leftist fervour, their behaviour is actually more similar to the far right found in other countries who lead xenophobic and reactionary movements, Professor Schneider tells the BBC.

They “have hopes of returning society to some imagined former glory,” and they see all manner of elites and foreign powers as obstacles to this goal because they are “populists who are trying to make China great again.”

Sometimes authorities appear to listen to concerns.

After a public outcry in July, they quietly dropped a contentious amendment to a national security law. They made it clear that a proposed ban on “hurting Chinese people’s feelings” could “violate the legitimate rights and the general life of the public.”

Chinese social media platforms have tried to rein in online nationalists by periodically suspending their accounts.

Sima Nan and Guyanmuchan, two well-known nationalist influencers, have been subjected to censorship without warning. The blogger who attempted to sue Mo Yan, whose lawsuit was also rejected by the courts, was also at odds with them.

One vlogger, who shot to notoriety this year after he posted a video accusing a shopping mall of putting up decorations that resembled the Japanese flag, was similarly shut down. His video was described as” a malicious report that rides on the online traffic of patriotism,” according to a scathing state media commentary.

Authorities still appear to have a tight grip on online nationalists.

While dissenters are swiftly shut down or in some cases arrested in the name of social stability, nationalist bloggers are allowed a freer rein, despite their sometimes inflammatory rhetoric. These voices have even been boosted by state media’s republishing of their content.

The BBC has contacted the Chinese government to ask why nationalist content does n’t appear to be censored as much as other sensitive content.

That could be down to the fact the state views online nationalism as a useful safety valve to “dissipate dissent in a way that does not undermine its authority”, particularly during its current economic troubles, where” society really needs an outlet to express frustration”, says Dr Luqiu.

The government “harnesses nationalism to its advantage, only intervening when it risks spilling over” into an uncontrollable situation by encouraging nationalists and then occasionally reining them in.

Beijing may seem risky, but it has successfully fended off significant obstacles to its authority in recent years, such as the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in 2019 and the White Paper protests in 2022 against strict zero-Covid policies.

The government is thus confident it can manage the dangers, and it means nationalism is likely to stay despite the backlash, analysts say.

Nationalism is a mixed blessing for China’s leaders, and at the moment, Professor Schneider says,” We are witnessing the costs of that.”

” But will the leadership reevaluate or even give up its nationalism in favor of something less harmful?” I would n’t hold my breath”.

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