뉴스레터

Nationalism has emerged as an element of conflict in East Asia

The foundation held an international conference on October 14 under the theme of “China’s Great Power, East Asia and Nationalism” both online and offline. The conference was largely divided into two parts and discussed about ‘China in the era of Xi Jinping’ from the perspectives of Indo-Pacific region and Europe, and from the regional perspectives of East Asia, respectively. In his welcoming address, Lee Young-ho, president of the foundation, mentioned that they are gathered today to discuss about China as a world power of the 21st century, not the one of new China in 1949 or the one in the period of reform and opening during the 1980s. Likewise, East Asia is not the same from the cold war period that occurred in 70 years ago or the period of détente in 40 years ago. Today, China and the U.S. are heading towards a fierce conflict. Thus, we hope that the participants of today’s conference can share the perception and awareness of the international society on China to join hands for ‘cooperation’ in the future.”

Both the U.S. and China urges neighboring countries to ‘take their sides’ by citing the so-called the ‘Indo-Pacific region’ and the ‘one belt and one road’ initiative. Joseph Nye mentioned nationalism as the reason behind the current contentious relations between the U.S. and China, instead of socialism and capitalism. He took an example of 1914, not 1945, as a metaphor for history. He argued that the First World War broke out due to the nationalism that shook the entire Europe, instead of socialism and capitalism. Intellectuals of East Asia also commented on ‘nationalism’ as the origin of regional conflict of today.

Perspectives of Korean scholars

First, Kim Han-kwon (Korea National Diplomatic Academy) diagnosed that there were growing calls for the ‘Chinese nationalism’ in the era of Xi Jinping. China went through two periods that required the Chinese nationalism during the modern and contemporary history. First was the mid-late 19th century when the Chinese order collapsed completely after the Opium War and Chino-Japanese War. To overcome the disaster, the country needed to establish its identity as the Chinese nation and view of state. Second was the end of cold war in the late 20th century. The Chinese leadership witnessed the collapse of old Soviet Union and Communist East European countries, and the Tiananmen Square protest for democracy. Thus, the patriotism and nationalism replacing the communism became the pillars supporting the leadership and legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party after the reform and opening.

Professor Lee Dong-yul of Dongduk Women’s University also added that they held onto whole country and Sinocentrism, instead of the concept of a nation-state and culturism from the traditional era, and the culturism shifted to nationalism during the process of conflicting with the Western power (Japan). He also argued that the nationalism took the form of resistance under the anti-foreignism resistance in the early period. After the reform and opening, however, it has changed to the nationalism with attributes of patriotism on the outset.

Prime Minister Xi Jinping continued to emphasize the ‘common sense of Chinese nation’ starting from the 100th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party, to his new year’s address, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in both sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in March, to during the period amid conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan (alongside the conflict between the Western society and Russia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine). In the 5th meeting of the NPC held on March 5, he said, “We need to renew the sense of a single union as the Chinese nation, intensify the national unity and spread its education, and all ethnic groups should live together…as a large family of the Chinese nation we should hold and protect each other to build a great nation…and take action to win a victory of the 20th Conference of the Communist Party” (Guang Ming Daily, March 6, 2022). Namely, the Chinese nationalism has emerged with national ideology in the era of Xi Jinping to overcome the identity confusion during the process of globalization and achieve the vision of rising China.

Perspectives of the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and East Asia

Professor Alexander Bukh of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and Jason Young, the Director of New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre of the same university, gave their presentations on the “Perception on China in Korea and Thailand”, and “Chinese nationalism and international authority from the perspectives of New Zealand”, respectively. Also, Nicola Casarini from the IAI & the London School of Economics, presented on the “One belt and one road initiative of China in Europe and changing images of China.” They all pointed out the increasing nationalism in China as it become a world power. For instance, one said that there were conflicting views on the one belt one road policy in Europe as the Eastern and Western Europe had different opinions. However, he also warned that such policy served as a reason for dividing Europe, contributing to spreading the negative perception in Western Europe.

As for the perspectives of India, Swaran Singh from Jawaharlal Nehru University, gave his presentation on the “conflict between the U.S. and China surrounding the Indo-Pacific strategy and the stance of India” an argued that it was not proper to place India between them as the country considers itself as a global superpower.” Reeja Nair from the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, analyzed the “Trends of Chinese nationalism as a powerful country in India.” She said that the Chinese nationalism is the origin of border dispute between India and China. Meanwhile, Sandip Kuma Mishra from Jawaharlal Nehru University said that “We need to link the ‘One belt and one road’ of China, ‘Act East policy’ of India, and the ‘New Southern Policy’ of Korea together to find ways to achieve win-win situations. To make this happen, we should first free ourselves from prejudice of tension and conflicts.”

Alan Chong from the S. Rajaratnam School in Singapore and Lam Peng Er from the National University of Singapore, gave presentations on the “Chinese military in Southeast Asia and paramilitary nationalism in the era of Xi Jinping” and the “Current status of Chinese nationalism in ASEAN region”, respectively. Chisako Masuo from Kyushu University, Japan, warned that the exclusive ideology of Chinese nationalism under the regime of Xi Jinping may spread to neighboring East Asian countries from the perspectives of Japan.

Chelsea C. Chou  from National Taiwan University delivered her presentation with the title “Chinese authoritarianism and emergence of nationalism,” and argued that the recent China’s robust military drills in the Taiwan Strait could be said as a warning to Taiwan and the U.S. But she pointed out that it also reflected the domestic circumstances of China that it had to provide a strong reaction against the support of the U.S. for Taiwan considering the heightened sentiment of nationalism in the country. It was read as a gesture to show its people that the government would not condone the actions of the U.S.

After the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)

In the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (October 16, 2022),  Prime Minister Xi Jinping said “From now on, the main objective of the Communist Party of China is to unite all people from every ethnic group and complete the task of building a modernized socialist powerhouse in China. That is to achieve the goal of the 2nd 100 years of struggle and to implement the activities for the great revival of Chinese people through ‘modernization of country based on the Chinese way’ through the multi-pronged strategies” (The People’s Daily, October 21, 2022). Here, the keywords are the ‘Chinese dream’ and making China as a ‘national community or ethnic Chinese community’ and indicate that the future directions of China has changed completely from the ‘Unique socialism of China’ and the construction of a ‘modernized socialist powerhouse in China’ under the era of Deng Xiaoping.

Lastly, I want to emphasize that the ‘Chinese nationalism’ supported by the ‘ideology of Xi Jinping’ has exerted a great influence on the national strategy of China for the past 10 years. Korea has already witnessed the ‘Northeast project’, ‘THAAD retaliation’ as well as the recent cultural conflicts (surrounding Kimchi, and Hanbok). In this regard, we need to closely watch whether China, that intends to become a powerhouse of the world, becomes a dominating force controlling countries in the East Asia  or decides to partner and coexist with the neighboring countries peacefully,  and we need to conduct research and study handling such topics, and develop related policies urgently.