Why the left should be wary of the New Cold War on China

There’s a New Cold War brewing. Once again, the world is being divided into West vs East and nations are being asked to choose a side. This time, however, the enemy of the West isn’t Russia, but China.

I am not looking forward to this New Cold War and the moral superiority that having a clearly defined enemy brings to the people who like to bellow their political opinions on TV or on social media. I am not looking forward to being repeatedly told that China is the biggest threat to Western Civilization since The Great Turkish War in the 17th Century, with the same sense of immovable certainty that was used to tell me that Saddam Hussein definitely had WMDs and that there was no alternative to austerity.

We should resist the simplistic, demonising arguments about how awful China is. This kind of rhetoric easily spills over into outright hatred, and is often a cover for the people gagging for a “legitimate” reason to hate people who look different to them. Everyone remembers the War On Terror, right?

Not a remorseless enemy

On the left, we need to be ready to counter a tide of people, from a loud man in a pub, to a Tory MP on Question Time, to a conflict-stirring opinion columnist, terrifying people into hatred by endlessly saying how dangerous China is.

To whip up as much hysteria as possible about this new Red Peril, China is often described as remorseless and impervious to reason. As if China is the Borg, or the Reapers from Mass Effect, not a nation of 1.4 billion people that has all the diversity of human character that any other nation has. The point of this rhetoric is to dehumanise China so that any measure will be accepted in the New Cold War.

Lessons from the Old Cold War

There is something almost funny about watching some of the people most responsible for pushing the “globalisation is inevitable” narrative now earnestly insisting we must undo globalisation to stop the spread of a nefarious web of Chinese influence. If the age of globalisation is over and we’re going back to the age of Cold Wars, then those of us on the left must learn a crucial lesson from the previous Cold War.

There were many on the left who saw the Soviet Union as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist and thus inherently good. Viewed through modern eyes, Jean-Paul Sartre’s praising of Joseph Stalin is beyond cringe. Although never a majority, some on the left were willing to overlook the Soviet Union's authoritarian government, the secret police, disappearances of dissidents, mass starvation and abandonment of Marxism in all but name, simply because the Soviet Union was the enemy of the capitalist West. We cannot afford to be so simplistic in the 21st Century.

Against demonisation

Critiquing the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarianism, their treatment of the Uyghurs minority, their treatment of Hong Kong protesters, the conditions that are allowed in many Chinese factories (conditions that Western company’s exploit to provide us with cheap goods or even expensive goods - hello Apple) and the destruction of the environment are all valid.

Criticising China, specifically the Chinese government, doesn’t make you Donald Trump. It can be done without frothing at the mouth about people from another country who are a remorseless danger, in a way that is both deranged and fills people with fear.

We mustn’t demonise China the way Trump and his ilk do. The very notion that China is so culturally different to us that we cannot peacefully coexist is already alarmingly common. There is real danger in this becoming mainstream. It will spread racism if frightened, angry and stupid people assume that everyone Chinese is a 5th column for a hostile foreign power. Just look at the rage targeted at all Asians because of the pandemic.

Priorities for the 2020s

Whipping up hatred for another country is also a great way for our leaders to distract us from the problems we have at home. Tories and Republicans would much rather we worry about China than about our own government's destruction of the environment and the terrible economic and social conditions in Britain or the US. The West can spend the 2020s fighting China, or fighting climate change.

Our leaders would rather we were frightened and angry at China, rather than focused on the far reaching social and economic changes needed to avoid a climate catastrophe. They would rather the West’s energy be poured into fighting endless proxy wars, instead of cooperating to build the green infrastructure that the planet needs.

Be wary of hatred

The issue of China requires some nuance. There is a lot to criticize about the Chinese government. On the left we must not fall into the trap of simply saying Tories/capitalists are bad, therefore China is good. This overlooks the terrible things going on in China right now. We must also be aware of the dangers of whipping up hatred, and be on the lookout for those looking to profit from a rising atmosphere of suspicion of people with a certain ethnicity.

There is more to be gained from a world where we cooperate instead of hating each other. Cowardly leaders would rather their peoples hate each other. The greatest threat to our leaders is that we rise above their base propaganda. We mustn’t be tricked into hating people who are different from us.

The peoples of the world have more in common than we know, and this idea frightens the powerful of the world more than hot or cold wars. Let us not be tricked into hating people because it serves those who want us distracted from the real issues. Let the people of the world decide they would rather have peace and cooperation than a New Cold War that serves the interest of the powerful.

"The Bund , Shanghai , China" by MNmagic is marked with CC PDM 1.0