\nIt is not just the United States that has been confronted with China\u2019s new assertive approach. PEN-International, a Swedish non-governmental organisation (NGO), gave a free speech award to a Swedish book merchant incarcerated in China. In response, China\u2019s ambassador warned on a public radio channel: \u2018We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns.\u2019<\/p>\n
And then there is Canada. The Canadians arrested the top financial executive of telecom giant Huawei, who is also the daughter of the company\u2019s founder. China\u2019s ambassador accused Canada publicly of \u2018Western egotism\u2019 and \u2018white supremacy\u2019. He received a promotion and is now his country\u2019s ambassador to France.<\/p>\n
Through these acts, China is making a radical break with its public diplomacy of the past, which has traditionally been conflict-averse. Diplomatic rows were not deemed beneficial to China\u2019s main task of building up its economy. Now that China has become a major power in the world, it is in a position to adopt a more self-aware and nationalistic tone. This is the broadly understood explanation.<\/p>\n
Within other professions in China too, ambitious officials attempt to outdo each other in following Xi\u2019s commandments. \u2018Freedom of thought\u2019 was removed from the charter of a top Chinese university. A pledge of loyalty to the CCP was added to the same university\u2019s charter and to several others as well. A discussion about this measure was immediately deleted by the censors of Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.<\/p>\n Losing touch<\/strong> When Deng Xiaoping inherited an impoverished country from Mao Zedong, he encouraged officials to adopt a pragmatic and results-oriented approach to develop China\u2019s economy. \u2018Cross the river by touching the stones, be careful\u2019 he instructed them. They conducted economic experiments in their respective regions and reported the outcomes. A feedback loop came into existence: officials learned which policies actually were successful, on the basis of which Beijing again adjusted national policy. It led to impressive results; between 1980 and 2015 hundreds of millions of Chinese were raised out of (extreme) poverty.<\/p>\n Army of yes-men<\/strong> Disastrous consequences<\/strong> Are decisions in Beijing really taken solely on the basis of what sycophants think Xi wants to hear, or are they also reached using the \u2013 less pleasant \u2013 facts? No information comes out about the internal discussions at the top of the CCP and so we cannot be sure. But the fact that Xi likes to refer to Mao (and rarely mentions Deng) seems bad news for the decade to come. Of one thing we can be sure, however: if we want to explain the new aggressive tone of China\u2019s diplomats abroad, we need to look beyond the external relations of the PRC.<\/p>\n Joris Teer<\/strong> is the founder of Teer Strategy, an Amsterdam-based firm for strategy development and geopolitical analysis. Ardi Bouwers<\/strong> is the director of China Circle (based in The Hague) and a sinologist.<\/p>\n Published on the Asia Dialogue website<\/strong> of Nottingham University<\/a> on 29 January 2020. In 2019 China ushered in a new era for its public diplomacy. Its ambassadors \u2013 armed with new Twitter accounts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s.jpg",3171,2075,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s.jpg",3171,2075,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s.jpg",3171,2075,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-300x196.jpg",300,196,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-1024x670.jpg",780,510,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s.jpg",1536,1005,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s.jpg",2048,1340,false],"flash-square":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"flash-big":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-800x400.jpg",800,400,true],"flash-grid":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-370x270.jpg",370,270,true],"sow-carousel-default":["https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/xi-jinping-books-s-272x182.jpg",272,182,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Ardi Bouwers","author_link":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/author\/ardi-bouwers\/"},"rttpg_comment":4,"rttpg_category":"Blog<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"In 2019 China ushered in a new era for its public diplomacy. Its ambassadors \u2013 armed with new Twitter accounts […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2631"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2648,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions\/2648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinacircle.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Xi-plate.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nInternal party politics<\/strong>
\nHowever, by merely focusing on China\u2019s foreign relations, an important factor remains overlooked, namely: internal party-political manoeuvring. For Xi Jinping, loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), its ideology \u2013 and in the end, to himself \u2013 trumps everything. This forces ambitious party officials constantly to prove that they are his best-behaved pupils. Opting for confrontation with the West is an excellent way for diplomats to get their boss to notice them.<\/p>\n
\nAlthough this is an effective way to silence criticism, the party leadership risks losing touch with what is actually taking shape in society as a consequence. Such far-reaching dedication to Xi therefore mostly represents a risk to China itself. It inhibits the Chinese state\u2019s ability to be self-critical in assessing its policies.<\/p>\n
\nCrucial elements of this feedback loop were its relative openness and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Local party officials did not have to fear failure. In contrast, by demanding absolute loyalty Xi is creating an army of yes-men: party officials who welcome every policy proposal \u2013 however faulty \u2013 with cheers of approval. Daily news broadcasts underscore this development, as ordinary Chinese look and listen to the Chinese leader in awe. Xi Jinping guides the way and elaborates on his policies. No-one asks questions. Nobody initiates proposals.<\/p>\n
\nThis development can have disastrous consequences, as China\u2019s history has shown. During Mao\u2019s Great Leap Forward in the middle of the last century, local party officials reported one record harvest after another. Anyone who had the guts to say that Mao\u2019s economic policy of collectivisation was a disaster (in full accordance with the facts on the ground) was labelled a counter-revolutionary or a \u2018rightist\u2019, fired and prosecuted. Criticism of party officials and attempts to point out shortcomings went unheard. Failed harvests led to a massive famine, killing tens of millions of people.<\/p>\n
\nAnd in Dutch in De Volkskrant<\/strong><\/a> on 26 December 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"