CHINA: WHEN THE MASK SLIPS

R

obert Kagan, writing in the Washington Post yesterday, says that the image of itself which China seeks to display to the world -- that of a model postmodern twenty-first century power -- is only part of the story.

But occasionally the mask slips, and the other side of China is revealed. For China is also a 19th-century power, filled with nationalist pride, ambitions and resentments; consumed with questions of territorial sovereignty; hanging on repressively to old conquered lands in its interior; and threatening war against a small island country off its coast.

At a fundamental level, the 21st century China is the last remaining colonial empire, albeit under the constitutionally mandated permanent rule of communist technocrats (if that isn't a contradiction in terms). It is, as Kaplan writes, "still fighting battles for empire and prestige left over from a distant past."

Wai Lhasa Rising, posting at Students for a Free Tibet blog. And another wai to SFT for finding this video of an ITN report from Tibet. This is what a real colonial war for empire looks like in 2008.

Labels: China, Tibet

- posted by Agam @ 3:19 PM 0 comments

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