Chinese public opinion turning against open trade?
“For years,” the excellent Chublic Opinion blog says, “online opinion leaders tend to hold the view that China should open its door wider, which would benefit consumers with cheaper and better imported goods and services, and, more importantly, exert much needed external pressure on the inert state-owned sector.”
But now, with state propaganda integrating economic nationalism into the “national rejuvenation” narrative that Xi Jinping’s government is building up, many online voices are arguing for China to ensure it is self-sufficient in technology and for state measures to stand up to American aggression. “If Donald Trump’s trade war has any effects,” the post argues, “one of them would be uniting the Chinese internet under the flag of industrial self-armament.”
Read the whole thing for a perceptive analysis of the national mood — there’s more nuance than I can convey here. If you enjoy that post, listen to our Sinica Podcast interviews with the blogger Ma Tianjie, Lines of fracture in Chinese public opinion and Islamophobia in China, or check out Ma’s new group blog, Panda Paw Dragon Claw.
