Behind China’s bloody rhetoric
China’s warning that its critics should be careful their eyes aren’t ‘‘poked and blinded’’ need not, in itself, cause bloodshot reactions from these shores. China’s crunching of democracy in Hong Kong must be confronted in measured, meaningful and disciplined ways. Not by getting het-up by splutterings. Jacinda Ardern is right to treat as rhetoric, rather than threat, the retort from Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that, regardless of how many eyes are on China, anyone who dared to undermine its sovereignty, security and development interests needed to be careful not to get poked in them.
Zhao, after all, is one of the ‘‘wolfwarrior’’ diplomats who’ve been promoted because of their talent for headline-grabbing vitriol. This time he was doing so by playing with metaphors. We are part of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership and a signatory to its sharp, and deserved, criticisms of the Chinese resolution that disqualified four prodemocracy lawmakers in Hong Kong.
To accuse China of conducting a campaign to silence all critical voices in the former British colony was simultaneously an entirely justified stance and a statement of the bleeding obvious, echoing a chorus of condemnation worldwide.
If China is not minded to feel chastened or encouraged into changing its behaviour – and there would seem to be fat chance of that – the real question is what’s to be done about it. That’s a matter of global concern.
We all like to be the heroes of our own story but we shouldn’t make this all about ourselves. Given that our Five Eyes partners are the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, we are hardly the ones likely to be looming large in China’s thinking.
And what is so much of the world particularly worried about just now? Donald Trump’s parting shots. China rightly recognises in him an enemy, pure and simple.
He casts them reliably in the villain’s role, from trade to disputes in the South China Sea, to telecommunication intrigue and epidemics – with varying degrees of justification. China’s certainly scary. So is the US. Frankly, the Snowden leaks demonstrated that the dynamics of the Five Eyes network aren’t blithely to be trusted as benign either.
Surely it’s little wonder that, as Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Global Times has reported, China is preparing for any ‘‘final act of madness’’ byway of parting shot. So without diminishing the political and human rights issues at play, it’s important to detect and filter out some of the more amplified thunderings on a ‘‘don’t you dare’’ theme.
Some of Ardern’s soothings might be looked at askance, too. It’s one thing to cast Zhao’s comments as unsurprising, as if it’s the diplomatic version of sporting trash talk, but the message could be drawn that, just as we can safely disregard the retaliatory menace in their statement, they can safely disregard the Five Eyes scoldings. A case, perhaps, of recognising that what we’re hearing is China in a bull shop.
After all, Ardern’s at pains to point out that disagreements on particular points can be separated to enable progress on others. Like trade and investment and tourism.
Maybe they can. This doesn’t mean they reliably will be. Remember, Zhao’s warning included those who opposed his country’s ‘‘development interests’’.
And what is so much of the world worried about just now? Donald Trump’s parting shots.