The article addresses the response of some Chinese to recent newspaper articles criticizing the new ambassador from the U.S. to China, Gary Locke. A Communist party newspaper, Guangming Daily, accusing the U.S. of using Locke's Chinese-American identity to seduce the Chinese people and subvert the government. But online response to the newspaper article turned the critique in an unexpected direction.
Two
quotes from the web summarize an attitude I am quite sure was not the intended
response of the newspaper:
"To be honest, I’m looking forward to being colonized," a user of China’s popular Sina Weibo microblogging service writing under the name Yan Lu’antong commented Tuesday. "We welcome this kind of ‘neo-colonialism’ with open arms!!!" added another user, Liu Xiaodong.
There
is an interesting parallel in Mengzi (Mencius) (you can read the text at the
bottom of this entry). The main gist is this:
King Hsuan saw the tyranny of Yen over his people and decided to overthrow
his power and relieve the people of their suffering. Then, after King Hsuan had done so, he
proceeded to inflict his own oppression on the people. The feudal lords of that area decided to stop
King Hsuan. He asks Mengzi what he should do in this situation.
As an advisor to the king, Mengzi tells a story of one T’ang. He was so virtuous and practiced such benevolent leadership over his people that, when he went to war against a tyrannical king in the east, the people in the west complained that he did not come to them first and relieve them of their oppression. And when he went south, the people in the north complained that he did not come to them first.
The
point is, when people are suffering under a bad government, they long for
someone to relieve them of their suffering, and might even be willing to accept
it from an outsider, a foreigner. They don’t
mind if he invades their country, and they even welcome it with open arms,
offering gifts with gladness.
If
there are some here who would welcome with open arms the ambassador of
another country, what does that say about the situation here, and the
people's sentiments about their rulers? It would seem there are some (and I would not say even a majority, just some) in this country would would echo the words of the western and northern barbarians, "Why don't you come to us first?".
I would add, though, that they are more than likely being sarcastic, and
if the U.S. were to actually send men in uniform there would be quite a
different reaction, even from these Weibo-ers (Weibo is the Chinese version of
Twitter; for an interesting commentary on Chinese social media and I think
social media in general, check out this bit o’ journalism on the world’s second
most influential person of 2010, according to Time magazine).
This
passage in Mengzi also has interesting implications for the U.S. government, as
it pursues its international policy of invasion and reform in other countries
like Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps many
people initially welcomed them with open arms, and many have found relief. But what is the response of the people in those
countries now? Certainly the U.S. has
done many good things like built schools, hospitals, and other humanitarian
projects, and the issue of carrying out reform while fighting violent insurgents
is complicated, but what legacy will be left behind? How will the people remember these past 10+
years? And what is the ideological foundation for
such an international policy?
Here
is the text of the Mengzi passage, found in Mengzi 1B.11:
The men of Ch’i attacked and annexed Yen. The feudal lords deliberated how they might go to the aid of Yen. King Hsuan said, "Most of the feudal lords are thinking of going to war with me. In what way can I stop this from happening?""I have heard," answered Mencius, "of one who gained ascendency over the Empire from the modest beginning of seventy li square. Such a one was T’ang. I have never heard of anyone ruling over a thousand li square being afraid of others."[Mengzi continued,] "The Book of History says,T’ang began his punitive expeditions with Ke..With this he gained the trust of the Empire, and when he marched on the east, the western barbarians complained, and when he marched on the south, the northern barbarians complained. They all said, “Why does he not come to us first?” The people longed for his coming as they longed for a rainbow in time of severe drought. Those who were going to market did not stop; those who were ploughing went on ploughing. He punished the rulers and comforted the people, like a fall of timely rain, and the people greatly rejoiced."[Again, Mengzi said,] "The Book of History says,We await our Lord. When he comes we will be revived."Now when you went to punish Yen which practiced tyranny over its people, the people thought you were trying to rescue them from water and fire, and they came to meet your army, bringing baskets of rice and bottles of drink. How can it be right for you to kill the old and bind the young, destroy the ancestral temples and appropriate the valuable vessels? Even before this, the whole Empire was afraid of the power of Ch’i. Now you double your territory without practicing benevolent government. This is to provoke the armies of the whole Empire. If you hasten to order the release of the captives, old and young, leave the valuable vessels where they are, and take your army out after setting up a ruler in consultation with the men of Yen, it is still not too late to halt the armies of the Empire."
translation by D.C. Lau
