Chinaphobia
Recently,
we have seen many news and articles on this subject published by North
American, Australian and European newspapers and journals. To me, this is
based on fear-mongering, rather than any real concerns about China's growing
influence in world politics. These 'news items' remind me of Islamophobia,
Antisemitism (before the Nazis came to the power) and anti-immigration attitudes
prevalent in the US, Europe and Australia. I call this new trend Chinaphobia.
In the last few months, many articles have been published on subjects related
with the Uyghurs, Hui and Tibet in China, concerning human rights. I
agree with some of these articles but disagree with most of them; however, I
believe this fear mongering is not about real academic concerns, or human
rights but are instead tied more directly with security and policy-oriented
scholarship, and most importantly, racism.
On the other
hand, I do not argue that China is a perfect place on earth concerning human
rights, democracy, openness, and so on. However, China is a developing country,
changing rapidly from a rural populated society to one with
an urbanized social structure. Modernization is taking place;
people's everyday lives are changing from Shandong to Xian. We need
to look at these changes, and tie them to the
underlying social, political and economic transformation in the
country. Do you think there is a perfect democracy in Europe, when we
see a proliferation of right wing and anti-immigration
movements? Do you think there are absolute human rights in the US
in the context of the Black Struggle, and the experience
of American Indians and other minorities? Do you think Australia
loves Indians, Chinese, Muslims and Middle Easterners or
the aborigines? We have a saying in Turkish, that before
you criticize or assume the intentions of others, you need to take a look
at the mirror!
Of course,
China is trying to influence the foreign and domestic politics of other
countries, but so is the US, Germany, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and every other
country. Nothing is new here. This is the reality of
international relations and comparative politics. If you would like
to understand the soft power approach, we should review the Fulbright
scholarship or the British Council in Turkey, right? Is China doing anything
very different from these examples of soft power political
influence in academia? We should answer this question objectively.
Every
country in the world has certain social, political and economic problems,
obstacles and challenges, like China, Turkey, US or Germany. We, scholars and
academicians should study these issues without prejudice or any political
agenda. This short piece is a good presentation of prejudice with political
agenda within academia. Racism is still alive.
Any
thoughts or feedback are very welcome.
Best,
salaam and peace to all,
Tugrul
Keskin
Shanghai
University
China
