The Chinese historian Zhang Lifan has become outspoken in recent years on the need for China to undertake ambitious economic and political changes. His family has been deeply involved in modern Chinese political life: Mr. Zhang’s father, Zhang Naiqi, served as the head of the national Food Department during the first years of the Communist government, but in 1957, he was labeled a rightist by Mao Zedong and tortured. He died in 1977, one year after Mao’s death.
When Xi Jinping, the current Chinese leader, took power in late 2012, Mr. Zhang expressed hope that Mr. Xi would be influenced by old acquaintances who were pressing him to carry out broad reforms. But as Mr. Xi has pushed a campaign of ideological tightening, closing the space for Chinese liberals, Mr. Zhang has been revising those hopes.
More recently, Mr. Zhang has been analyzing an arts conclave that took place in Beijing in October and drawing parallels with the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, organized by Mao in 1942. Mr. Xi presided
over the October meeting, which was aimed at bringing cultural production under greater Communist Party control.
On hand were several prominent artists and party officials. But what attracted the most attention was Mr. Xi’s praise of a young blogger, Zhou Xiaoping, who writes anti-Western diatribes and essays based on conspiracy theories. One essay published by the state news media this year was titled “Nine Knockout Blows in America’s Cold War Against China.” In another, Mr. Zhou wrote that the West had “slaughtered and robbed” China and other civilizations since the 17th century, and was now “brainwashing” it.
Mr. Xi said Mr. Zhou’s work exhibited “positive energy,” a term used by officials to praise things that promote the party line. This month, Mr. Zhou spoke at the World Internet Conference in Zhejiang Province, an event that was the brainchild of Lu Wei, who is in charge of regulating and censoring the Internet in China. The conference was dedicated to advancing the idea that countries should have their own sovereign Internet space.
In an interview, Mr. Zhang discussed Mr. Zhou, Chinese nationalism and the rise in anti-Western rhetoric from the Communist Party establishment. (Mr. Zhou declined a request for an interview.)
What viewpoint do you think Zhou Xiaoping represents in his writing, and what is the overall message of his essays?
Zhou Xiaoping doesn’t have his own viewpoint. He is not a person with his own independent thinking. He focuses on figuring out what the leadership wants and delivers just that. He has figured out that the leadership wants the people to blame foreign countries for various conflicts in society and has been promoting nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment ever since.
Why do you think Xi Jinping endorsed him at the recent arts summit? What signal was Mr. Xi sending to other Chinese or to foreigners?
Every emperor needs his minions. The Xi leadership likes how well Zhou Xiaoping serves their purpose, and they especially like how young, inexperienced and innocent he is.
Is Zhou Xiaoping representative of a wider and increasingly popular anti-foreign sentiment within the Chinese political establishment?
Members of the Chinese political establishment are not anti-foreign themselves. Xi sent his own daughter to be educated to the United States. [The daughter, Xi Mingze, was a recent undergraduate at Harvard University.] The anti-foreign sentiment is merely a political necessity. The people have many grievances, because income disparity has reached crisis levels. The political establishment needs the public to turn their rage toward foreign countries.
There has been a surge in this anti-foreign rhetoric in the last year. For example, Chinese state newspapers constantly talk about the “hostile foreign forces” behind events that the party deems to be threatening. Why has this rhetoric been on the rise?
Chinese society is highly and increasingly polarized. The rich get richer and the poor poorer. The rich and powerful need to turn attention away from them.
What does the stoking of this sentiment by senior Chinese officials say about China’s role in the world? What kind of position does China want to occupy in the world in relation to other nations, and especially the United States?
China wants to be the top tribe in Asia, which means direct competition with the U.S. for that role. China wants to build its own free trade zone to challenge the sphere dominated by the U.S. China wants to set up a development bank in Asia to challenge the World Bank. China is in competition with the U.S. on many fronts. Other Asian countries will try to benefit from the competition between China and the U.S.
Historically, when was the last time we saw this kind of language being used to this degree by Chinese state and party figures? Is this a throwback to an earlier era?
Historically, during every period with many deep conflicts within the country, there has been a surge of anti-foreign sentiment from the party. There was the Korean War. While the entire nation focused its attention on fighting the U.S. in Korea, the party accomplished a lot domestically. The system of central control was set up during that period. Land reform went forward without much trouble. The national food distribution system was set up during. The Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaigns were carried out during that period.
Then there was the Cultural Revolution. The party was very much against the U.S. as well as Russia.
What does this say about both how Xi Jinping sees himself and his leadership style?
It says Xi is clever in using Zhou Xiaoping to spread anti-foreign sentiments, but not clever enough to realize that it won’t work in the era of the Internet. I highly doubt the general public will be fooled by Zhou Xiaoping.
How much of this message is catalyzed by what appears to be a weakening U.S. role in foreign policy around the world, and by pushback against the United States by other world leaders such as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia?
Mikhail Gorbachev said recently that he feared a new Cold War [between Russia and the West]. But in the world we are in today, ideology is no longer important. It’s not about ideology at all. It’s all about interests.