Author: Eeshan Seth
One of the most striking features of China’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China that took place earlier this month, in addition to having one of the biggest fireworks displays in history, was the firing of 60 military cannons into the clear Beijing sky. The canons were lined up, as is to be expected, immaculately, with a line of soldiers in perfectly matching green military uniforms, each standing next to a stack of ominously glittering yellow-golden canisters of ammunition. The cannons fired in perfect synchronization.
China’s 60th anniversary represents, in striking visual form, the image that China wishes to portray to the world. Far from being a country eager to keep peace and build a harmonious future with its citizens and its neighbors, China has revealed that the gap between its public platitudes and actions remains vast. China’s birthday bash is an opportune moment to examine some gaps in the idyll. China’s strict authoritarianism and abridgment of human rights, in addition to its uncompromising stances with regard to problems with its neighbors, are just two areas where China’s talk of striving for harmony ring hollow.
The extravaganza, while directed primarily at a large domestic audience, was broadcast to a worldwide contingent of viewers eager to see China’s birthday party and, perhaps, a more tranquil side of the country’s Communist Party. After all, China’s leaders have talked a lot about the nation’s “harmonious” and “peaceful” rise and have stressed that the rapid growth of their economy and military as well as political influence is all in peace. Instead, the world witnessed a staggering display of weaponry, military hardware and soldiers marching in perfectly rigid posture. As The Economist noted, China demonstrated that “it is a big power with a medium-power mindset, and a small-power chip on its shoulder.” By parading such a massive military contingent, The Economist asserts, China betrayed that its world view had not increased in maturity as its own power and influence had grown.
China is, despite some nominal progress, authoritarian. The party, the government and the state security apparatus (which are all one in the same) still use their power to abridge human rights in the name of state security. Before the march of thousands of goose-stepping soldiers commemorating the 60th anniversary, China rounded up numerous dissidents across the country and blocked the public in Beijing from viewing or attending the event. As World News recently reported, Human Rights Watch has estimated that more than 43 ethnic Uighur men from Xinjiang province have disappeared after riots there in July.
A Tibetan exile group recently said that China had executed four people after riots in Tibet last year. These are vivid examples of how the leaders of China understand peace. Mass executions and lives cut short are symptoms of a Chinese justice system bereft of justice. All of this must not merely concern human rights activists. If this is how China deals with its own people and challenges its authority now, how will it deal with its neighbors and competitors in the future?
China’s harmonious vision doesn’t extend to its surrounding countries either. Taiwan, of course, is a primary concern for China, and the country’s leaders have committed themselves to taking back the island. To help achieve this, China has placed approximately 1,000 missiles across the Taiwan Strait pointed at the island, according to The Economist. Apparently, the military show of force is not just for anniversaries.
Taiwan, however, isn’t the only land that the leaders in China want to add to the country. China has territorial disputes over numerous islands in the South China Sea and with many of its southeast Asian neighbors, an entire state in India’s North East and a string of islands in Japan. The important thing, however, is not that China has border disputes, but how the country deals with territorial problems. The fact that China handles international disputes in overtly militaristic and uncompromising terms raises the greatest concern.
In essence, China’s combativeness reveals its insecurity. It is often those nations that bray most loudly about their strength, power, vitality and omnipotence that don’t quite have the goods. After all, a superpower is a superpower only when it no longer has to say so. Ultimately, it is in China’s own self-interest to form a stable relationship with its people and the world. Actions, transparency and clarity are a far more sustainable long-term national strategy than an uncompromising line of military cannons.
Eeshan Seth is an undeclared sophomore. He can be reached at seth@oxy.edu.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
