On his blog, Richard Spencer writes about a recent hardline speech by the Communist Party secretary in Tibet and his “with us or against us” stance that forces observers, including foreign journalists, to take sides:
China is not a right/wrong, black/white sort of place, and when we gather, we scorn articles disseminated from London or New York or wherever talking about how the rise of China will inevitably destroy the decent, god-fearing world as we know it or, alternatively, that the whole place is one wireless-connected, nightclub-hopping hive of creativity, wealth and bright young things.
No, we are agreed, the Manichean, you’re either with us or against us view of China expressed in some quarters is oldthink. We have all moved on.
And then, just as we think we are winning, someone goes and spoils it for us. Often, from the Chinese government. Yesterday’s spectacular contribution was this speech from the Communist Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Zhang Qingli.
…But it seems to me that the problem with Zhang’s speech anyway is not that it’s gibberish but that it is, in fact, true. And that’s where it challenges fundamentally all our sophisticated attempts to introduce nuance into what we think and say about China.
It’s possible to see both sides of the story when it comes to exchange rates, DVD piracy, educational methods, the rich-poor divide.
But Zhang has reeled off a list of arguably more fundamental issues, to do with China’s national and political identity, and asked us to take our stands. And where, at the end of the day, is that stand to be? [Full text]
