The rise of China has fostered national pride among its citizens. Some see a disturbing trend that any public criticism is met with a fierce rebuke, which could result in online harassment and the loss of a job, a report said.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that political researchers say the surge in nationalism is to be expected. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, wrote in the Financial Times that China’s rise is “changing” the world order.
“For as long as I can remember, people have said that China cannot succeed,” Dalio wrote. “Communism doesn’t work. Authoritarianism doesn’t work. The Chinese aren’t creative. They have a big problem with bad debts and property speculation. Yet every day we see China succeeding in exceptional ways.”
He pointed out the country’s economy grew at about 5 percent over the past year, and about half of the world’s IPOs will take place in China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has promoted nationalism and has focused on achieving the “China Dream” of national rejuvenation, the WSJ reported.
In 2018, Yu Zhengsheng, a top Chinese official, told the annual Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that patriotism has been a top priority. The Associated Press said Xi’s goal was to “mobilize all the sons and daughters of [ethnic Chinese] to work together for the greater national interests and the realization of the Chinese Dream” – to be the world’s top power.
Limits on debate seem to be one of the ways Chinese officials could achieve that goal. Internet companies and many in the population seem like willing participants. Alicia Fawcett, a researcher at the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council think tank, told the Journal that the People’s Liberation Army has taken part in information operations. Social media companies in China reportedly promote “positive energy” on their platforms.
TREND FORECAST: What Ray Dalio surmises is years’ old news to Trends Journal subscribers. As Gerald Celente has long noted, “The 20th century was the American century, the 21st century will be the Chinese century. The business of China is business, the business of America is war.”
Celente has noted that while America spent countless trillions waging and losing endless wars and enriching its military industrial complex, China has spent its trillions advancing the nation’s businesses and building its 21st century infrastructure.
And, as we have been reporting, while America and Europe have outsourced their manufacturing to China and developing nations to increase profit margins, China’s dual circulation/self-sustaining economic model is directed toward keeping jobs and trade and profits within the nation, thus relying less on global trade.
China Turns Inward
“Technology self-reliance is the strategic support for national development,” Chinese Communist Party officials said in a 29 October statement announcing a new five-year plan that forecasts a “protracted battle” with the U.S. over global trade.
Developing its own technological capacity is key as the U.S. threatens bans on apps WeChat and TikTok and has laid sanctions on Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, as a result of which the company soon may run out of chips it uses to make smartphones.
China’s leadership has concluded that the U.S. will not be a reliable partner no matter the outcome of the presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal, and so is placing a stronger focus on domestic companies and markets to drive growth.
Foreign investments and technology will play a reduced role under the new plan.
Party leaders also promised to raise the per-capita GDP to the level of “moderately developed countries” by 2035.
