A short study into the Chinese Communist Party and whether it’s reckless to attach the label of Nazi to this oppressive regime.
I was accosted by a prostitute on the Bund! “You what?” I can hear you reflecting. It’s not as painful as it appears. Separating Shanghai by the Huangpu River the Bund is a mile long waterfront with the financial centre Pudong to the east and Puxi in the west. Domestic and foreign tourists flock to revel in the colonial style architecture in the west and bask in the juxtaposed ultra-modern skyline opposite.
It’s an area synonymous with scams (often initiated by prostitutes) and I was armed with linguistic ammunition in which to deflect whatever swindle was to be employed. In fact I was content in speaking my usual drivel to the lady who had accosted me. I adopted a tactic that often confuses my ‘victims’. “I’m a lighthouse keeper from the nether regions” I often muse. “Since I only need to change the oversized novelty light-bulb every six months nobody needs to be on the premises. That means I can travel the world.” Normally they return a look of dismay; is this guy normal or a freak?
You’re probably curious how a prostitute in Shanghai connects to my analogy of the Chinese government subscribing to Nazi dogma. I’ll explain. The prostitute – a charming lady although I forget her name – bombarded me with questions. She hoped such a tactic would compel me into dropping my guard and consequently revealing details about my ‘wealth’. She would then increase her prices accordingly!
A linguistic tug-o-war commenced. She proceeded with her inquisition while I plotted to find out more about her life as a Chinese citizen. Eventually she relented and a discussion on China past and present unfolded.
Are the Chinese Racist? (by Western Values anyway)
Speaking over coffee and orange juice (I don’t like coffee so I had orange juice … but I guess you don’t need to know that) I asked this elegant lady her thoughts on America, Europe and Australia. Certainly not for the first time during my visit to China it was conveyed to me that as a tourist I was welcome. Yet if I wanted to live permanently in China I would not be. The Chinese are protective about their culture and many view immigration as a characteristic that undermines nationhood.
The most pressing conversation on the subject of nationality and racism happened in a hostel dormitory one afternoon. A quick glance at my new room-mates as I entered the dorm for the first time, and then a swift ‘hello’, I settled on my bunk-bed. Tired and sweaty I headed into the bathroom to shower. On my return and brandishing my hair gel a young lad in his twenties asked if he could possibly use some to style his hair. I happily provided him my ‘rough-it-up-putty’.
Next to him hung on the wall, a neatly steamed pair of trousers. In his hand was a shirt that he was currently steaming. I enquired why he was ironing out the wrinkles from his clothing. “I have a job interview teaching English in a school” he explained. A conversation aptly flourished. What interested me was his perceived notion of racism in China.
Perceptions on Racism
Originally from Ecuador, like many young people he aspired to advance his life and head to China seeking new opportunities. Qualified to teach English, a job as an English teacher seemed achievable. But, sadly his skin pigmentation was a defining factor. “You’d be okay” I was told “because you’re white. They prefer whites to other people” he concluded. This contention did not surprise me. While I never experienced overt racism anywhere in China, an underlying sense of nationalism and suspicion of foreigners existed, and it’s probable these attitudes emanate from governmental guidance.
“Clean up the foreign trash!”
“Don’t turn our hometown into an international rubbish dump.”
“This is China, not Nigeria!” (1)
These are a sample of some of the recent comments on Weibo (Chinese social media) that have emerged since the Covid-19 pandemic. Primarily directed at Africans living in China, this vitriol has increased in recent weeks. The Chinese communist government has encouraged prejudice and discriminatory behaviour and subsequently as the world has demanded an investigation into the origination of Covid-19, the Chinese government has felt under international threat. A usual tactic adopted by the Communist Party is to displace blame onto foreigners. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian recently tweeted:
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan”. (2)
| I hope you’re enjoying my article. If you are check out my study on Communism in this article: HERE. Hammer & Sickle and the Swastika; Equally Evil? Communist Mao Zedong Case Study |
Chinese Communist Party: An Established Tactic of Racism
If the Chinese Communist Party seeks a political distraction, it often deploys distraction tactics.
For instance a Chinese propaganda campaign about national security used a comic called ‘Dangerous Love’ in which it warned Chinese women about the perils of dating foreigners.
Cemented by Chairman Mao Zedong, bizarre propaganda tactics were quite usual from the 1960’s on-wards. The author Jui-Wei Yang contends that the seeds of modern China embrace an active pro racist and anti-multiculturalist sentiment. Jui-Wei Yang cites:
“…to achieve their goals the Chinese communist party, continue to promote their own value of who is our people, to the Chinese people and in the same time, take extreme measures to suppress alternative views, including executing people for treason to our people, for speaking out against this Communist views and destroying symbols that undermine this communist view point, especially Confucius ideology.” (4)
Pro racist rhetoric remains a core feature of the Chinese Communist Party even though the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s ‘purist’ philosophy of Communist utopia have long been abandoned.
Yes But is the Chinese Communist Party Nazi?
My original quest was to explore if China’s Communist Party embraces a form of racial superiority akin to the version cultivated in Nazi Germany.
Let’s turn to the controversial country of Hong Kong where protesters regularly demonstrate in an attempt to preserve their fragile rights. Beijing has repeatedly rejected the so called ‘one country two systems’ framework which has generated tensions between the Hong Kong demonstrators and the Chinese Communist Party. Symbolised in the image below, these tensions have prompted some protesters to liken China to Nazi’s. The gold stars of the Chinese flag are arranged in the formation of the Swatika.
This harrowing symbol demonstrates the grievances of the protesters. Moreover the visual graphically connects the Chinese Communist Party to the uniqueness of the Holocaust.
But is this association legitimate? One can perhaps understand the dilemma and anxiety of the Hong Kong protesters but are they overreacting by linking the Chinese government to mass slaughter?
Ethnic Cleansing of the Uighur people by the Chinese Communist Party.
Published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), is a report that condemns the Chinese Communist Party for facilitating the transfer of thousands of Uighur people to so-called ‘re-education camps’. In an attempt at re-education, the Chinese state attempts to eliminate religious and ethnic autonomy. Loyalty to the Chinese state is the objective of such camps.
Effectively sweat shops, the re-education camps force workers to work for little or no money. Routinely forced to work in sweat shop conditions are approximately 80,000 Uighur people the report claims. It also implicates 83 global brands who have supply chains connected to the labour camps. Among the brands cited are:
“Amazon, Apple, BMW, Google, H&M, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Volkswagen.” (5)
Fukuyama Was Wrong!
The 1990’s witnessed exponential economic growth and accompanying it was the spread of liberal democracy. The American author Francis Fukuyama proposed a thesis in The End of History and the Last Man citing that socio-cultural evolution into liberal democracy is the final destination for humanity. He revised his thesis a few years later but nonetheless this distinct theory has been embraced by many academics.
Corresponding with this global liberalisation was a belief that China would embrace the global markets and increase its wealth. As such, it was hoped it would loosen its totalitarianism and slowly embrace democratic liberalism. Such theories have now been dispelled as untrustworthy. While China has certainly embraced capitalism the Chinese Communist Party has maintained – and under Xi Jinping – increased its reliance on authoritarianism.
If the ASPI report is accurate the Chinese Communists seek to unite China with social purity. Like Nazism in Germany, for the totalitarian state to succeed social divisions would need to be overcome and homogeneous society created.
China: The New Nazi Economy?
National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (Albert Hirschman 1945), suggested two methods through which trade relations could further power relations. The author cites “… one nation may bring to bear upon other nations, the method of coercion being military or ‘peaceful’.” (6)
Hirschman was writing in response to the threat stemming from Nazi Germany. Nonetheless, enhancing trade via military aggression isn’t currently a tactic Beijing is directing towards the West, and likewise the West isn’t adopting such tactics towards Beijing. But just as importantly is Hirschman’s argument of the “influence effect” in which one country fosters unequal trade benefits which according to Hirschman: “spell dependence of the country that receives the gain on the country that bestows it”. (7)
While the Nazi regime of Germany sought to exploit via military gains it also aspired to diplomatically influence countries to soften them to its dogma.
This quotation from The Australian explores this theory: (8)
Likewise it’s conceivable the Chinese Communist Party seeks to undermine its foreign competitors through peaceful means, however, military intervention concerns should be considered for regions geographically connected to or in close proximity to China; Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet or the autonomous region of Xinjiang for instance.
The Nazi Economic System
In simple terms one can define the Nazi economy as a combination of some of the features of capitalism and a socialist planned economy. Imposed by the regime was an economic planning mechanism. However, class structures remained unchanged and private enterprise encouraged.
The reality however, is that Nazi Germany retained private ownership of production. Regulated by the regime, production, output, quantity and distribution were subject to control.
Does the Chinese Communist Party Have Such Control?
According to recent data (accurate at the time of writing) China has 109 corporations listed on the Fortune Global 500, but just 15% of those are in the private sector. Even though the outsourcing of ownership to private investors has been adopted by the Chinese Communist Party, it still controls huge quantities of Chinese industry.
In the telecoms industry the government introduced mixed ownership. They sold $11 billion of China Unicom shares to 14 private investors as a step towards making the company more answerable while yielding returns on investment. Importantly, China Unicom remained state controlled. The Chinese economy structure is similar to what was created in Nazi Germany. The state has ultimate control over most enterprises including private businesses. The technology company Huawei is a primary example.
Surely There Are Differences?
Hitler wanted to commit mass genocide and foster world conquest; an ambition already declared by the Nazi regime before securing political power. The Chinese Communist Party are certainly not resolute on replicating ethic annihilation. Instead Xi Jinping is more concerned with restoring China’s power status after its “century of humiliation”. (Financial Times published a fascinating debate on this topic. See reference 9).
The more pressing analogy is between Communist China and the Soviet Union, particularly as some scholars (see historian Niall Ferguson for a full debate, reference below (10)) are suggesting we are entering a new Cold War period, Cold War II. The relationship between China and the United States has been teetering close to the edge of a cliff for some time. But unlike the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union, the US has much trade and business entwined with China.
Whereas the Soviet Union wanted to export its Communist ideology throughout the world, China is content with its own identity based on Confucius.
Brutality to its neighbouring countries was a Nazi tactic. Contrastingly, Soviet brutality was primarily levelled towards its own populace. As already discussed China’s direction has been on a similar trajectory.
Chinese Communist Party: The New Nazi’s … or not?
I agree with FT scribbler Edward Luce that it’s rather reckless to postulate that China is emerging as a country ready to embrace Nazi dogma. After all Xi Jinping is not Hitler and China is not Nazi Germany. But I do think it’s prudent to contemplate what the future may behold. After all as George Santayana concluded, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
References:
2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52833063
4. Racism in China: Mao’s war on racial tolerance and multiculturalism: Does the Chinese communist party, try to secure their power by promoting racist and anti multicultural values? Jui-Wei Yang, 2014
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2020/04/04/the-fate-of-uighur-muslims-in-china-from-re-education-camps-to-forced-labor/#3bb9de0d2f73 (This is a very good source on the Uighur Muslim injustices).
6. National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade, Albert Hirschman, University of California Press, 1945 P. 13
7. National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade, Albert Hirschman University of California Press, 1945 P. vii
9. https://www.ft.com/content/b6ce2cba-d7d5-11e9-8f9b-77216ebe1f17 8. http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/politics/the-new-cold-war-its-with-china-and-it-has-already-begun