The China Threat?

Writing from Shanghai, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof says that what worries him isn't China’s growing military prowess, but the fervent nationalism the government has cultivated among its youth. Kristof believes Chinese attitudes towards the Japanese exemplify the destabilizing effects of “blind nationalism.” Such attitudes originated during Japan’s occupation of China before WWII. In the Rape of Nanjing of 1937, Japanese soldiers killed tens of thousands of civilians, an event “so brutal there's no need to exaggerate it.” But exaggerate it, China has, Kristof believes. Kristof says such hyperbole “nurtures nationalism by defining China as a victim state, the world's punching bag, that must be more aggressive in defending its interests.” As China’s hard-line communist ideology weathers more and more capitalist affronts, the Chinese government has been “pushing nationalist buttons” to hold the country together. Kristof warns the rise of ferocious nationalism among its youth has dangerous historical precedent, and believes it is a matter the US and other countries should respectfully raise with China’s President Hu Jintao. – YaleGlobal