China’s Overkill

By S.P.SETH

Isn’t it ironic that more China becomes a major global player; the more it shows signs of insecurity? One encounters this all the time whether its communist leadership is dealing with dissidents, the Dalai Lama and, more recently, Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uighur Congress.

Rebiya Kadeer (62), who lives in exile in the United States and is the mother of 11 children, is accused of igniting the recent riots in Xinjiang, triggered by the killing of some Uighur workers at a factory in Guangdong.

How she did all this from thousands of miles away in the United States is hard to comprehend! But Beijing is adamant, calling her a criminal, and a terrorist.

Earlier, she spent five years in a Chinese jail even though, at one time, she was said to be China’s richest businesswoman.

The point, though, is that when the Chinese leadership decides to go after some person(s) or group, they don’t worry about the plausibility of their accusation.

Indeed, the ferocity with which they pursue their victim (in this case, Rebiya Kadeer) is breathtaking.

Sample this interview with one Pan Zhiping, a researcher at Xinjiang Academy of Social Science. Talking about Rebiya with the Weekend Australian, she described her as “rotten meat, the kind that only attracts flies… The human rights she advocates are evil rights, murderers’ rights.”

Whatever might be the academic credentials of Pan Zhiping, she certainly is an apt pupil of China’s political establishment.

While an ordinary Chinese academic might verbalize the establishment’s anger, the government always has a ready- made case to condemn their victim.

They have already procured and flashed letters on TV from her two children and other relatives (including some of her grandchildren) to testify that Rebiya started the riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.

Does Beijing really think that the world is so gullible as to believe this stratagem of pitting children against their parents?

But Chinese leaders have a history of believing their own propaganda by equating coercive confession as willing admission.

Rebiya’s children are the convenient pawn in this political chess game, and the regime has no moral qualm in these matters.

She said, while visiting Australia, that, “It is shameful that the Chinese Government has tried to turn the children of a mother against her.”

And added, “… It is immoral violence. It is a forgery, transparent propaganda.”

Incidentally, five of her 11 children are living in China. Two of her sons are in Chinese prisons.

Rebiya Kadeer’s Australia trip has infuriated Chinese authorities for allowing a “criminal” and a “terrorist” into Australia in disregard of Chinese representations.

She has been in Australia to attend the premier of a film based on her life (The 10 Conditions of Love) at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The Chinese diplomatic mission in Australia tried unsuccessfully to stop this documentary being screened in Melbourne.

As a retaliatory measure, Chinese films, that were part of the Melbourne Festival, were withdrawn.

The Australian ambassador in Beijing was summoned to explain, and Melbourne’s Lord Mayor was threatened that his city’s sister-city relationship with Tianjin might be ended.

But the Australian authorities stood their ground both on the screening of the film and the grant of visa to Rebiya Kadeer.

But she hasn’t been granted audience with any of the officials and ministers here.

Rebiya Kadeer has almost overnight become the Dalai Lama of the Uighur people.

Like the Tibetan people, the Uighurs fear ethnic cleansing and cultural decimation.

One must say it defies common sense why China, a strong country of 1.3 billion people, cannot devise a workable policy of accommodating its ethnic minorities like the Tibetans and the Uighurs?

But then the Communist Party of China has always sought to deal with its presumed enemies by demonizing them.

Which brings us to the insecurity inherent in a system where the ruling party has monopoly power.

The CPC’s insecurity borders on paranoia. It believes that it alone can ensure social stability and consequent economic growth in the country.

Hence, any challenge to its power is a challenge to the nation, because both the party and the nation are indivisible.

And Beijing demands utmost loyalty not only from Chinese citizens but also from citizens of other countries with Chinese descent.

The party is, therefore, seeking to rally overseas Chinese as well around the flag. Which is a dangerous exercise, as it tends to elevate national chauvinism to a transcendental level.

At a recent congress of the overseas Chinese, Wang Zhaoguo, a Politiburo member, reportedly called on the delegates to use “blood lineage” of their common Chinese descent “to achieve outstanding results in uniting the broad masses of overseas Chinese.”

And to emphasize the indivisibility of national and party interests, he told the delegates to “do a better job of uniting the force of the circle of overseas Chinese around the party and the government.”

This is quite a dangerous exercise that Beijing is embarking on quite openly.

The Chinese diplomatic missions are already quite active in organizing and mobilizing overseas Chinese in their respective countries. This happened during the anti-Tibetan rallies and about the time of the Beijing Olympics.

But Wang’s brazenly open call on the Chinese citizens of other countries to rally around the flag, the party and the government is a sinister development.

Has Beijing realized that this could create a backlash against Chinese living in other countries by raising concerns about their loyalty?

And if Beijing persists with such politics, it won’t be long before some of them start being seen as a potential fifth column.

China might feel emboldened that with its new reach and power, the benefits of rallying millions of overseas Chinese around the flag far outweigh any potential danger from hostile reaction in other countries.

It probably thinks that no Asian country (where most of the overseas Chinese live) will dare create trouble for its “blood lineage” for fear of crossing China.

If this is the line of thinking dictating China’s policy, it is not a good omen for the region and the world.

Such overkill is the mark of a blustering but essentially paranoid country.