Nasty rhetoric from Hu Jin Tao makes me scared.
"Hostile international powers are strengthening their efforts to Westernise and divide us," (Hu Jin Tao, 2011)
Hu's speech last year was seen by many as an part of an effort to strengthen China's cultural soft-power, which has received much attention. However, I strongly believe it's main focus is internal.
It tells Chinese people that there's a constant threat ("and we're the only ones who can deal with it") and also to ignore other social problems like corruption ("because we've got more important things to worry about").
In many ways, as a Westerner living in China, I feel scared by this kind of rhetoric. It stimulates the worst kind of nationalism (are there any good kinds) and when I hear things like this on the lips of a leader, it's not long that I will hear it again in a taxi, at a friends house or in the street. Most foreigners I know living here are pretty nice people studying Chinese, teaching English or working as advisers for joint-venture technology projects, but speeches like this cast us all as agents of subversion.
At times I can feel quite confident about China and the way that the government deals with some kinds of problems. However, at other times I'm reminded how quickly and easily jingoism catches on here, and how the spectre of 'evil Western powers' looms much larger in the Chinese consciousness than do the atrocities committed daily by their own government.
Food for thought.