Quotable: Shirley Kan on an American narrative to challenge China’s “victimization”

Donald M. Bishop, "Quotable: Shirley Kan on an American narrative to challenge China’s 'victimization'," publicdiplomacycouncil.org

Saturday, October 1st 2016

Boxer Indemnity Scholars, 1909

A historically-grounded narrative is needed to counter China’s charges, which have real implications for American and other national policies. The PRC plays the “victim” card to its advantage, seeking to compel compliance by putting others on the defensive, to undercut American leadership, to deflect blame, to incite others to regurgitate its case, to indoctrinate internal opinion to support the regime, to stoke “nationalism” for leverage, and to arm psychological warfare that positions Beijing as “just.”

Headline:     Countering China's Psychological Warfare

Subhead:      An American narrative is needed to disarm China’s victimization rhetoric.

Author:         Shirley Kan

Source:         The Diplomat

Date:             September 26, 2016

Link:  http://thediplomat.com/2016/09/countering-chinas-psychological-warfare/

Key Quotes:

• The government in Beijing claims that China is the long-suffering victim of Western powers, Japan, and other countries. In this narrative, China’s rulers bear hardly any faults. Without any sense of irony, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) repeats its Orwellian twist that China is the “victim” in the South China Sea, though it is the strongest claimant and bullies others to submit to China’s control of areas by using militarized, environmentally-damaging claims to fragile reefs, rocks, islands, and maritime areas within an egregious “nine dash line.”

• The PRC propaganda machine manipulates messages by citing a so-called “century of humiliation.”

• A historically-grounded narrative is needed to counter China’s charges, which have real implications for American and other national policies. The PRC plays the “victim” card to its advantage, seeking to compel compliance by putting others on the defensive, to undercut American leadership, to deflect blame, to incite others to regurgitate its case, to indoctrinate internal opinion to support the regime, to stoke “nationalism” for leverage, and to arm psychological warfare that positions Beijing as “just.”

• In fact, in a fuller history of more than 100 years, the United States has supported reforms in China for progressive government, liberalization, and education for generations of people, as well as integration of China into the international community (even for the regime of the Communist Party of China).

• First, the United States declared an “open door policy” in China in the late 1800s.

• Second, the United States extended educational scholarships to help China.

• Third, the United States supported the establishment of a new Republic of China (ROC).

• Fourth, the United States and the ROC, together with other countries, fought as allies in World War II.

• Fifth, in the 1970s, the United States implemented a policy for the “opening of China.”

• PRC propaganda relies on Orwellian labels, like “Great Leap Forward” and “China’s Dream.” However, the American narrative of its contributions to China’s modernization trumps the PRC’s “victim” card in its psychological warfare.

Author: Donald M. Bishop