On the First of July this year, the CCP celebrated its centenary… a hundred years of “protecting the Chinese people against Barbarians”. The dangerous truth behind this statement may not be immediately
recognisable, but it is indeed a core strand of the CCP’s propaganda – used to retain an iron grip over the vast Chinese population. The CCP
has silently and steadily promoted (both overtly and by inaction) two types of thinking within local Chinese communities – Racism and Han supremacism (which looks at non-Han people as others, and by
extension inferior). The origins of such thinking are ancient. Chinese cultural apprehensions about outsiders can be traced back to over 1500 years ago when the
‘Five Barbarians’ or Wu Hu (? ?) invaded and established their kingdoms in large swathes during the rule of Jin dynasty. According to scholars of Chinese societal norms, the belief that mankind is organised
into distinct, hierarchically organised biological groups, and that Hans are at the apex, is deeply ingrained in large sections of the Han Chinese population. And similarly, the idea that ‘everyone who is not Han is a
barbarian’ has been silently but surely spread across China. The barbarians are, therefore, inferior by definition… and must be treated as
such. In fact, it was only in 1858, when the Treaty of Tianjin was signed with the British, that Chinese administrators stopped referring to outsiders as ‘Barbarians’, at least in official documents. While it is true that as European and East Asian powers invaded and
fought in China, in the 18 th and 19 th centuries, it reinforced their wariness for strangers and outsiders. And so upon liberation, leaders of the CCP established themselves as the protectors of Chinese society
from such external threats. It is beyond debate that the intentions of these original leaders were both honest and noble, and they did lead the Chinese people out of a traumatic phase with admirable results. However, the threat has long since passed.
Today’s truth is that no country in the modern world has any real interest in conquering China or oppressing the Chinese people. This
reality, however, is one that Xi and the CCP cannot allow the people of China to accept – as it could mean that the Party was no longer
essential for China to develop and prosper!…‘The Century of Humiliation’
has, therefore, been a cornerstone of the CCP’s narrative to retain political control within China. The CCP, over the last hundred years, has continuously reinforced the belief that outsiders, or strangers, who look and live differently from the Han, are a threat which must be countered by the Chinese people as
one – following the course of action decided by the CCP. This notion has also been deeply enmeshed with Chinese self-identity, through ideas like Hua Yi Zhi Bian (Chinese and Barbarians are different) which is a
common refrain among sections of Chinese society. Notably, such thinking involves ascribing inferiority to both external cultures and internal “others” such as the Muslim minorities. Unfortunately, the chance of this being reversed from within the Chinese population is low, as one prominent China scholar writes “centuries of emphasis on
collective thinking have disabled their minds of seeing things in an alternative way.”
‘CCP vs the Barbarians’ has been central to the version of Chinese Nationalism that the CCP has promoted over the last century. Based in a
fear of the “others”, sustained by narratives about an existential threat from Western barbarians, this avatar of Chinese nationalism gives absolute power to Xi and his cronies. Within China, organised strong-arm actions against foreigners are not uncommon, and the CCP has seldom chosen to intervene or discourage such practices. A few years back, the Beijing Police started a Strike Back Hard campaign to ‘clean out the foreign trash’ – and this was publicly supported by media
persons closely linked to the CCP leadership. Furthermore, illegitimate actions of the CPP in the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Tibet and even at the border with India, have been enabled by invoking this type of sentiment. In essence, actions taken by the global community to stop the CCP from violating international laws and norms, are used by Xi to bolster his own legitimacy! This has further emboldened Emperor Xi… who in recent years has unveiled his vision for the Sinocentric Global Order. Disguised as a win-win shared developmental initiative, Xi’s Belt and Road strategy, seeks to establish order to world under the enlightened leadership of the CCP. There is an unspoken belief, among CPP leaders in particular, that
only Civilized Mandarins can show Barbarians the proper way of life. The spate of social and economic crises across the world are being seen by the CCP as an opportunity.
A widely liked post on Chinese Social Media which read “It is about the instinct of survival. The West has lost this instinct, China has it!” is
indicative of the CCP’s present line of thinking. The Party will continue to use domestic fear mongering and promote wariness of outsiders
internally, while advancing its designs overseas – through strong arm tactics, intellectual and technological espionage, diplomatic double-speak, and fiscal obfuscation. In a hundred years, the CCP itself has transformed from an incredible
collection of brave and visionary young men, who sought to save a civilisation – to a coterie of self-serving people, led by an authoritarian
dictator, who continue to place their own interests above those of the Chinese people, and the world! The Great Wall of China was built ages ago to ward off barbarian
hordes, but in its new avatar of – informational, ideological and cultural
firewalls, the CCP’s invisible great wall ensures that Chinese people continue to remain wary of outsiders, allowing Xi to bend the truth, to
stoke fears and passion, and tighten his grip on the throne!…..In one century, CCP’s original intentions and mission have been subverted, and altered fundamentally to ‘serve the few’ within the CCP – and the people of China, and the world, now suffer the consequences.