НАЦІОНАЛІЗМ У СУЧАСНОМУ КИТАЇ: ВІД КІНЦЯ XIX СТОЛІТТЯ ДО ПОЧАТКУ XXI СТОЛІТТЯ

Abstract

In this article, the author specifies that two kinds of nationalism which have had deep rooted tradition in the history of modern China: One is positive or constructive and the other is negative or destructive. The research traces back the origin of modern Chinese nationalism to the aftermath of Opium Wars in the 1840s, when China was under the rule of Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), to its recent development in the early 21st century. It argues while the positive nationalist sentiment has united Chinese people to resist the foreign invasion since the late 19th century and to defy the repression of the communist rule in 1976 and 1989, respectively, however, since the late 1990s, nationalism in China has been exploited and manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party to divert people’s attention from China’s domestic problems, achieve the Party’s political goals, and legitimise its authoritarian and repressive rule in China. Such virulent and rampant nationalism culminated in the early 2000s and manifested in many violent anti-Japanese demonstrations and protests across the country. Those anti- Japanese sentiments were not only limited in political, ideological, and territorial levels, but sometimes they permeated into the fields of entertainment, sports, as well as education. Compared to the anti-Japanese emotion during the second world war in China, which had united the whole nation and inspired all walks of Chinese people to withstand and pull back the Japanese invaders, the hatred towards Japan in the early 21st century had little to do with true patriotism. Rather, the enmity stirred by the Chinese Communist regime produced nothing but chaos, violence, social scandals, and even hooliganism and fascist behaviours. The article concludes that the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe forced Chinese Communist leaders to redefine and re-adjust Communist ideology by supplementing it with more nationalist characteristics, so that it could be a more persuasive and more effective means of defending the legitimacy of the one-party state. However, it needs to point out that the vainglorious and fanatic nationalism could not be taken advantage by any political ruling parties, as this kind of nationalism would not have any value for political legitimacy. At the end, the research might foresee that negative nationalism is a double-edged sword, but the positive one is not. The Chinese Communist regime in the future might be under the shadow of negative nationalism and driven by it, which may lead the country to the very dangerous situation of a dead end. In short, the Party is just shooting itself in its own foot.