Opinion | The 'Yellow Peril' Reaches British Shores
By Tom Fowdy
Yesterday, anti-China MP Iain Duncan Smith declared to the House of Commons that a warning from Britain's intelligence agency, MI5 had been circulated accusing a woman known as Christine Lee of allegedly engaging in interference on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Lee, of Hong Kong origin but not a Chinese national, who runs a "British Chinese Project" an NGO of which promotes people to people ties, was accused of having made donations to the constituency parties of several MPs in years past, including in the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats.
Despite this, there was no serious evidence that Lee was acting on behalf of any government or the pursuit of policy objectives. Irrespectively, the British mainstream media run riot with the story branding her an "agent" and a "spy" using intensely emotive and assumptive language without any due verdict, whipping up a mass hysteria and paranoia about "Chinese interference"- which the public subsequently lapped up. Were this not about China, at a minimal the situation might have been described as "lobbying" an extremely common process in political circles, yet it has been whipped up, exaggerated and spun into a sinister spy story.
The mass promulgation of media and public induced fear of China is classically known as the "Yellow Peril"- a long running literature theme of presenting the country as a large and existential threat to the west and its values, either on a political or cultural scale. Traditionally, this kind of discourse was explicitly racist and was more dominant in Australia, whereby the fear of Chinese migration led to them being banned from migrating to the country and the implementation of the "White Australia" policy. Despite this, there are nonetheless recurring racial themes subtly utilized today, such as scapegoating China for the spreading of diseases and pandemics, associating their culture with "stealing, cheating and dishonesty" and so on.
The difference is with the past is that these longstanding prejudices are now concealed, packaged and utilized by the international media under the guise of what is frequently stated as the "Chinese Communist Party" or "CCP" as it goes. This phrase is essentially used now as a linguistic pejorative which is presented as a morally justifiable label to blame, scapegoat, insinuate and attack all things related to China under one label which deflects from accusations of racism or bigotry. This itself has also been blended with a culture of Anti-Communist McCarthyism, becoming a brush to smear, attack and discredit anything linked to China of which clashes against the political agenda being pushed. It is an almost spontaneous form of attack to discredit a company, product or person by saying "it is linked to the CCP".
Of course, this itself is a caricature of how China works. The CPC is presented in everyday discourse as a sinister cabal of men ruling China with a tyrannical fist against the will of everyone. In reality, the CPC is a mass party of over 95 million members (almost as much as the population of Vietnam) which is distributed throughout every single level of government and officialdom down to the most local authorities, including China's ethnic minorities too. Their members are not automated drones, spies or agents who have no will or critical input of their own and all acting in a coordinated plot, but real and ordinary people who live normal lives with hopes, dreams, opinions and aspirations.
Appreciating this, Britain's march to cry yellow peril hysteria at "Chinese infiltration" and "interference" is overblown, nonsensical and inappropriate. The United Kingdom has on its own accord, done more to interfere in China's own affairs, both past and present, than China has to Britain. Did Beijing annex the Isle of Wight for 150 years as a colony, then return it to them and demand a stake in its political future? Or is China accusing Britain of having engaged in oppression in Ireland, Scotland elsewhere? Ultimately, the march to Yellow Peril is a deeply counterproductive and destructive sentiment in the UK which will hurt ethnic Chinese people unavoidably, create suspicion, bitterness and tensions. It must be shown for what it is.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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