What Doklam videos say about China
of Doklam. This is an interesting approach, even it was spoiled by the sheer ham-fistedness of the first effort.
The second was a slight improvement. On Monday, Xinhua released another video on the topic of Doklam, this time minus the overt racism, and with a tone that, by Beijing’s standards of bluster, is almost conciliatory. A male staffer (conspicuously unshorn by faux facial hair) suggests that India and China are both ancient civilizations, and “not born rivals.” But he cannot resist the customary fingerwagging about the need for India to be “sober” and guard against “strategic myopia.”
At this rate of progress, it will be a long time, before Delhi need worry about the effectiveness of Beijing’s propaganda directed at ordinary Indians. As any number of Sinologists have pointed out, the Chinese government struggles to exert any kind of soft power in the world, and especially in Asia. This is not because of its authoritarian nature: the Soviet Union was able to win friends, especially in the developing world, despite being a totalitarian state. Nor is it because the Delhi demonizes Beijing: for one thing, the Indian government has been quite restrained, and for another, the United States was able to project soft power in India even when Indira Gandhi portrayed it as a foe.
The videos show the problem lies with the Chinese government, and its default posture of condescension toward its neighbours. Even when seeking to speak directly to Indians, Beijing succumbs to its propensity to hector and harangue — and winds up making a laughingstock of itself with its target audience.
Meanwhile, even as we giggle about fake beards, there’s real reason for the world to worry about what’s going on the India-China border. If frontier fisticuffs are indeed a quotidian part of the lives of the soldiers there, then their restraint is the more remarkable for it. But to indefinitely count on their continence would be irresponsible of their political masters.