Confident, vocal, and performative, China’s patriotic fervor has grown up a lot over the past decade. And with self-interest coexisting with sentiment, it will be dismissed or underestimated at our peril.
In the spring of 2008, the Olympic torch wended its way around the globe on its way to Beijing. It was due to arrive by 8 p.m. on the 8th of August at the Bird’s Nest stadium, to light the cauldron and open the summer Olympics after a ceremony of fanfare and drumbeat. After two decades of rocketing growth and rising prosperity, many Chinese citizens felt this was finally an opportunity to be proud of their nation’s accomplishments.
Yet in Europe and North America, a firecracker string of protests had broken out, threatening to mar China’s debutante moment. Beijing had recently cracked down on uprisings in Tibet, and protesters showed their anger by waving Tibetan flags and chanting “Shame on China!” as the Olympic flame passed through their cities. Some even tried to grab the torch itself.
In retaliation to this snub, Chinese patriots rallied around the flag both metaphorically and literally. They organized counter-protests, jumped on critics online, and briefly boycott
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Did Eric Dai expose a Chinese scheme to steal critical military technology? Or did he steal millions of dollars from a Chinese company by exploiting geopolitical tensions? It's not entirely clear, but Dai's saga hits all the high notes of current U.S.-China tensions, including convoluted plots to illicitly acquire U.S. semiconductor technology and extraterritorial schemes to harass, intimidate and coerce the Chinese diaspora. What is clear is that, for Dai, who founded a successful Chinese investment firm but is now seeking asylum in the U.S., it feels like World War III.
The former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia talks about why engagement hasn’t failed, it just hasn’t succeeded yet; why strategic empathy is so hard to do; and why the U.S. needs an approach to...
