I Weiwei: ‘Too late’ to curb China’s global influence

Leading Chinese dissident, artist and filmmaker I Weiwei says China’s influence has become so great that it can no longer be effectively stopped.

“Decades ago the West should have been really worried about China. Now it’s already a little late, because the West has built its strong system in China and it will be hurt to cut it. That’s why China is arrogant.”

I Weiwei has never mingled his words about China. “It’s a police state,” he says.

The artist famously designed the Bird’s Nest Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but got into serious trouble after speaking out against the Chinese government. Eventually, in 2015, he left China to come to the West. He previously lived in Berlin and settled in Cambridge last year.

• Profile: I Weiv
• I Weiwei: Changed Man

Mr. Aye believes that China today uses its immense economic power to impose its political influence.

It is certainly true that in recent years China has become more and more ser.

Increasing influence

Until almost a decade ago, China introduced a humble face to the world. The official government slogan was: “Hide your light and write your time”. The ministers stressed that China is still a developing country with a lot to learn from the West.

Then Xi Jinping came to power. He became secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and president the following year. He introduced a new tone. The old humility faded, and there was a different motto: “Fight for achievement.”

In some ways China is still a developing country, with 250 million people living below the poverty line.

Yet it is already the world’s second-largest economy, and will overtake the US in the next decade or so. At a time when American rights are clearly declining, China’s influence in the world is becoming increasingly apparent.

From Greenland and the Caribbean to Peru and Argentina, and from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Pakistan and Mongolia, I have personally seen clear signs of China’s growing political power and involvement.

Tom Tughandhat, chairman of the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, recently accused China of pressuring Barbados to have the Queen as its prime minister.

Today, China has a significant presence in virtually everywhere in the world. Any country that challenges its fundamental interests suffers for it.

When the Dalai Lama visited Downing Street, Anglo-Chinese relations were deepened. And recently, when the Speaker of the Czech Parliament visited Taiwan, a top diplomat warned that “the Chinese government and people will not sit idly by and face the open provocation of the Czech Senate Speaker and the anti-China forces behind him and let them go.” Must pay a heavy price “.

Multiple standoffs

Yet Hu Zhijin, the clear and highly influential editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper, rejects any suggestion that China is an international bully.

“I want to ask you, has China ever forced any country to do anything against its will? It is the US that has maintained sanctions around the world, especially economic sanctions on many countries. Do you know which country? What is China allowed?

“Have we ever allowed the whole country? We only expressed our dissatisfaction on specific issues, and only in response when our country is openly offended.”

Nevertheless, China is currently embroiled in a furious situation across countries: Taiwan, Australia, Australia, Japan, Canada, India (with which China recently fought a violent border war), Britain and of course the US.

The language that the Global Times sometimes uses sounds like the worst rhetoric of the old Mao Zedong days.

Mr Hu recently wrote an editorial describing Australia as “chewing gum under China’s shoes”. When I asked him about this he said that the current Australian Australian government had repeatedly attacked and annoyed China.

“I think they’re like a piece of gum stuck under my shoe. I can’t shake it. It’s not a nice feeling. I said it as an expression and that’s my opinion right.”

On Hong Kong

Mr. Hu is close to President Xi, and we can assume he would not have said this unless he knew he did not have the support of China’s top leadership. When I asked him for his views on Hong Kong, he did not back down.

“The Chinese government does not object to Hong Kong’s democracy and independence, which includes the right of Hong Kong people to demonstrate peacefully on the streets.

“But the key is that they have to be peaceful … We support a more definite use of force by the Hong Kong police against violent protests.

“If violent protesters threaten police life, when they make very sharp projections and throw petrol-bombs or Molotov cocktails at police, I believe the police should be allowed to use their guns, and they should shoot. . “

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Strict material, and if police in Hong Kong actually started firing on protesters, it could lead to a huge international backlash.

Most foreign observers believe that China’s aggressive behavior in fact hides the underlying panic.

The Communist Party is not elected, so there is no way to know how much real support it has in China. Surviving a serious crisis may not be certain – for example, a major economic collapse.

President Xi and his allies are haunted by the memory of how the old Soviet empire was simply destroyed between 1989 and 1991, as it has no support from ordinary citizens.

Mr. Hu does not accept that a new Cold War has begun. China’s controversy, he says, is basically a U.S. He made the point that President Donald Trump’s attacks on China are closely linked to the November 3 presidential election, and his efforts to win it.

Indeed after the election, the atmosphere is likely to improve – which wins.

China is so big, involved in everyone’s life, the U.S. And his allies to remain in a state of complete hostility against him.

But it only reinforces Mr. Ai’s warning: that it is too late for Western nations to defend themselves against Chinese influence.