Chinese netizens blast Trump as Beijing keeps its cool

SINGAPORE — While the Chinese government was cool in its response to United States President-elect Donald Trump’s protocol-breaking call with Taiwan’s president, the reaction of Chinese netizens were the exact opposite - hot and bothered.

What fanned the flames further was Mr Trump’s unrepentant tweets, following the phone call, which taunted China that it did not ask permission to devalue its currency, tax US imports and build military installations in the South China Sea.

Taking to China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo, Chinese netizens blasted Mr Trump, with one user calling him “a mad dog” and another user accusing him of having a “swindler mentality”.

“Even though he won the election, he is not qualified as a President. Without the necessary virtues to rule, disaster will come,” said the second user.

The Chinese state media was equally emotive, with the nationalist Global Times newspaper’s Chinese edition running a page-one story on Mr Trump’s “inability to keep his mouth shut”, damning his “provocation and falsehoods”.

Such visceral responses are not surprising, given that the Taiwan issue - laden with historical baggage - hits an unusually raw nerve with the Chinese, even more so than other disputes like the South China Sea.

Another reason for the emotional response of Chinese netizens is heightened sense of national pride due to China’s economic development, said Professor Huang Jing, Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

He said the ruling Communist Party has been playing the “victim card”, with a narrative that the country was historically victimised by the Western powers. “This makes Chinese nationalism a little bit violent, explosive and narrow minded.”

Another reason for the strong reactions is because the government has kept a lid on social opinion, especially on domestic issues linked to security. But people have discovered social media to vent their frustrations, especially in foreign affairs, he added.

The outcry online however is unlikely to affect how the Chinese government reacts to Mr Trump and his approach to Taiwan, said international relations experts, who note that Beijing’s response so far has been a measured one.

“They (outbursts by netizens) reflect Chinese traditional opposition to perceived foreign interference in their internal affairs. They do see Taiwan as part of China. These sentiments are rooted in history. However, I don’t think they have much impact on Chinese leader’s foreign policy decisions,” said Prof Zhang Baohui who is with the Department of Political Science at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.

Dr Chong Ja Ian from the National University of Singapore’s Political Science Department added under the Trump administration, the US may turn more hawkish toward China.

“None of this would be preferable to China...and I believe their leaders understand this. So they are likely to try to avoid unnecessary provocation of the incoming administration as much as possible, especially since the Chinese economy is more brittle at the present time.”

He noted that China may instead focus its fire on a more convenient target - Taiwan.

“However, as we have seen pressure on Taiwan only further alienates its population from China, complicating the Chinese goal of unification,” he added.

“So while there may be a lot of calls for a more robust Chinese response to what is frankly just a telephone call between Presidents Tsai (Ing-wen) and Trump, the options are far from clear for Beijing.”

The issue of Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war, is a diplomatic minefield that is tough to clear. What makes it even more explosive is how decades of propaganda has penetrated the psyche of the Chinese that Taiwan is part of China.

“Chinese customs confiscates globes and atlases that have the effrontery to show Taiwan in a different color from the mainland. Chinese education officials tear Taiwanese adverts out of conference booklets. Chinese students throw hissy fits at Taiwan being listed as a country at Model U.N. events,” noted Mr James Palmer in the Foreign Policy magazine.

“Most of the time, when Beijing says something has “hurt the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese,” it’s petulant bulls***; on Taiwanese issues it comes closer to the truth.”

This psyche is “bone deep”, added Mr Palmer.

Mr James Char from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies pointed out: “Similar to other countries, sovereignty and territorial integrity are integral elements of any ruling party’s political legitimacy. The Taiwan issue is a core national interest of the Communist Party-ruled China.”