VietNamNet Bridge - For Vietnam, the counterproductive lesson
of China's one-way communication policy should be seriously considered.
With a racist psychology, many Chinese
people really have an ugliness. And this ugliness is being reinforced, directly
or indirectly, through the one-way communication policy of the Chinese
government.
1. In 2000-2001, in the process
of learning of the influence of Chinese culture, especially their vices to the
Vietnamese culture, I read the book "The Ugly Chinaman" by Boyang - a
Taiwanese journalist. The more I read and pondered, the more I saw the Chinese
people actually have very bad habits, such as racism, excessive self-esteem…
A few years later, I had the
opportunity to work with many colleagues from mainland China. They were quite
good at professional knowledge, but about the culture, in addition to the
description of Boyang, there was a common feature that Boyang did not mention in
his book. That is: the new Chinese, whether they are scientists, were also
propagandized by the Chinese government in a one-way communication style,
making stereotypes that are difficult to remove, especially in the debate
related to the border and island conflicts, particularly the dispute in the
East Sea between China and Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam.
For example, in an attempt to
find out the real cause of the border war in February 1979, according to the
interpretation of the Chinese side, I asked three Chinese colleagues who were
about 30 years old, obtaining doctor degrees in China and went to England to
work together with my team. After an hour of exchange, all three had the same
conclusion: China invaded Vietnam because China helped Vietnam a lot during the
Vietnam War but Vietnam joined hands with the former Soviet Union to threaten
China.
Vietnam invaded Cambodia, a close
ally of China. By persistent border conflict, Vietnam demanded border division
in its favor. They did not deeply analyze the arguments to see whether they are
satisfactory or not and what were the real causes of the so-called other
causes.
This is in stark contrast with
the scientific working style, digging deeply into the reasons, considering the
external factors… of scientists like them.
2. On February 22, 2013, Ms. Rose
Tang, a Chinese-American journalist who used to teach at the Princeton
University took photos of a plate in Chinese and English "Not serve the
Japanese, the Filipino, the Vietnamese people and dogs," at the Beijing
Snacks and posted on her personal Facebook. These photos have caused a huge
outrage in the Vietnamese community. Then, the plate was removed, but the
restaurant owner refused to apologize for racism.
This is only the personal attitude
of the restaurant owner, but it reflects that the racial psychology is very
popular in China, especially in the escalation of tensions in the marine
sovereignty dispute between China and Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan. The
situation becomes especially tense with Vietnam and the Philippines as China is
increasingly showing its intention to monopolize the East Sea by the very
unreasonable "U-shaped line", despite the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS).
When the Japanese government
nationalized the Senkaku Islands, a series of attacks to Japanese shop
happened. When the Philippines sued China to the international court, the
Chinese government strongly opposed, and a Chinese restaurant hung that racism
plate.
Recalling Boyang’s comment on
racism "I just want to say that the mind of discrimination of the Chinese,
compared with racism, is even at a low level, because it is the mind of local
discrimination" to see that racism is real and is actually a disease of
the Chinese people.
3. In fear of tensions caused by
China for its neighboring countries in recent times, especially when China is
rising, with superiority in economic and military power over its neighbors, the
racism psychology is a very worrying thing. It reminds people the image of the
Nazis before the World War II.
At that time, the psychology of
racism was also popular in these countries. They considered only their races as
preeminence and are worth for living, while other people are just secondary,
even deserve to be eliminated. The psychology of racism and extreme nationalism
in the fascist countries is one of the causes leading to the devastating war.
Will China follow this trail?
Whether China will cause disaster to humanity by the extreme narrow-minded
nationalism that the Chinese government supports more or less promote, directly
or indirectly, through the one-way propagation of disputes and conflicts of
interest with other nations?
The answer is not clear. But one
thing is for sure, if the Chinese government does not have timely adjustment to
limit the psychology of racism and extreme nationalism, it seems very clear
that the thing that no one wants may happen again.
That would be a too expensive
lesson, not only for China and the victim countries, but also for the humanity.
With the psychology of racism,
many Chinese people are really ugly. And the ugliness is being reinforced,
directly or indirectly, through the one-way communication policy of the Chinese
government.
4. For Vietnam, the lessons of
the side effects of the one-way communication policy of China needs to be
seriously considered.
One-way propagation can be
temporarily effective for the state, but in the long run it will be harmful to
people's knowledge and the growth of the nation. The people can only grow if
they have access to the diverse flows of information and have the freedom to
participate in the discussion, in an attempt to find out the truth in the
forest of information. In other words, the nation can only grow if its people
are entitled to free access to information, freedom of discussion; that means
freedom of the press is guaranteed.
With small things like the racism
of a Chinese restaurant, speaking out to protect dignity is needed. But this
will become meaningless if Vietnam keeps being poor and lagging behind them. If
the country does not develop, leading to ethnic contempt on the international
arena, first of all, this fault belongs to the leaders of the country, and then
each citizen.
Therefore, it is more important
to develop a powerful. This requires the efforts of the leaders first, then
each citizen.
If Vietnam prospers, that
discrimination just likes a breeze, there is nothing ominous? If Vietnam is
poor backward forever, the angriness for discrimination cannot help much.
Giap Van Duong
(Source: Tia Sang)
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