Editor’s note for Thursday, October 22, 2020

My thoughts today:

Hyper-nationalism and the online hounding of government critics, such as Wuhan Diary writer Fāng Fāng 方方, is the subject of an interesting Wall Street Journal report today, as well as a report on the new website, Rest of World, titled “Kicked off Weibo? Here’s what happens next.”

The WSJ says that the drowning out, or even doxxing, of government critics this year is “taking a darker turn”:

In the past, China’s internet censors allowed for limited debate around social issues. During Mr. Xi’s eight years in power, fears among liberal-minded Chinese have grown over a return to the feverish politics of the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong ’s war on “counterrevolutionary elements” that brought the country’s society and economy to the brink of collapse in the 1960s and 1970s.

Back then, more than a million died. While today’s dynamics are less desperate, Geremie R. Barmé, a longtime China historian now based in New Zealand, said they combine “the vitriol, hysteria and violent intent of its Mao-era ancestor with the forensic detail afforded by digital surveillance.”

Intolerance for opposing views in China often exceeds that in the West, he added. “If America or Europeans think they have ‘cancel culture,’ they don’t have a clue.”

The 70th anniversary of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea is being commemorated this week (see Xinhua reports in English, Chinese). Expect more nationalism and coded attacks on the current U.S. posture towards China.

Meanwhile in the U.S., China is the “threat of the century” according to Trump’s national security adviser, reports Reuters: “In a 20-minute broadside against China, Robert O’Brien told top British and U.S. military and intelligence officials that China was a predatory power that repressed its people and had sought to coerce both neighbours and Western powers.”

He also accused Beijing of using “cyber-enabled espionage to target companies developing COVID vaccines and treatments in Europe, the UK and the United States all the while touting the need for international cooperation.”  

O’Brien also has a piece in Foreign Affairs on the same theme.  

It’s not just the U.S. sensing a threat: The “Five Eyes” — an informal intelligence sharing alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. — is “finding new focus with China’s rise as a global power” says Bloomberg:

China is now “generally recognized as being a threat to all of the Five Eyes and to the West generally,” said Richard Fadden, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and former national security adviser to the prime minister.

Upcoming events: 

• Access Members can register for this year’s NEXTChina online conference by using the promo code NC20ACCESS. Click here to learn more and get tickets.
• On Tuesday October 27 at 9 a.m. EST, you can check out a live recording of our new China Corner Office podcast, hosted by Chris Marquis, professor of management at Cornell University. The show will feature one-on-one conversations with experienced China business people.
• Also on Tuesday October 27, you can go straight into another online event at 10 a.m. EST: Teetering on the edge of uncontrolled decoupling — getting smart on international tech risks is a panel discussion with an all-star cast, hosted by the New America think tank.

Our word of the day is Five Eyes (五眼联盟 wǔ yǎn liánméng).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief