News reports from China since a massive earthquake there May 12 have noted the aggressive government rescue efforts and the unusually free access given to Chinese and foreign news media. The media access has been especially striking given recent government efforts to control coverage of unrest in Tibet. Poshek Fu is an Illinois professor of modern Chinese history who was born and raised in Hong Kong and who studied in Shanghai and Beijing in the mid-1980s. Fu was interviewed by News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.
The spotlight is clearly on China because of the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. In what ways do you think that has affected the government's sensitivity to foreign coverage?
In our globalizing world, with its explosion of border-crossing communication technologies, the Chinese government has increasingly learned that suppression of foreign coverage has limited effects and would create only damaging views of China, impeding its efforts to become a major global power. The 2008 Olympic Games, which Beijing hopes will show to the world the progress and prosperity of a new China, is obviously an important factor contributing to further opening up to foreign coverage. Also, the Chinese government might have learned to distinguish natural disasters from "man-made" disasters (such as organized dissent) and to respond accordingly.
What messages or image do you think the Chinese government is trying to project to the world, and to its own people, in its response to the earthquake?
The prompt response of the Hu Jintao government has won widespread praise, both inside and outside China. I think the political message has come through powerfully from the relief efforts, which started a few hours after the earthquake, involving more than 100,000 soldiers and police, and with a clear emphasis on openness, care, collective determination, popular mobilization and saving life by all possible means. The message is that China is unified, efficient, caring of its people, enjoys popular support, and can overcome any difficulties or disasters in achieving its dream of becoming a major global power.
Several news reports have contrasted the government's recent rescue efforts with its secretive and poor response in 1976, when an earthquake in the city of Tangshan killed at least 240,000 people. Were there lessons learned from that, especially by political leaders, which have influenced their response to this disaster?
The response to the recent earthquake is a marked contrast to that of 1976, which shows how much China has changed. Back then, the government was riven by factional struggles to succeed Mao Zedong. It was slow to act and censored all coverage of the earthquake. Fears and rumors prevailed. The country was soon thrown into crisis that led to the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" and the opening of China by Deng Xiaoping. If there is any lesson the present leadership has learned from 1976 - as shown by the prompt arrival of Premier Wen Jiabao to Sichuan and his widely publicized acts of empathy - it is the understanding that openness, popular support and a public show of care for the well-being of the people are the best way to overcome a disaster.
Negative foreign attention on China, such as in the recent case of Tibet, has brought a strong nationalistic response from many Chinese citizens, including those studying abroad. What should we understand about Chinese attitudes and how they see their place in the world?
Nationalism has accompanied the rapid globalization of China since the 1980s. Integration with the global capitalist order brought with it enormous changes in social relations, economic life and cultural identity. Western consumer goods, media culture, and cultural values overflow China. As a result, they are often asking themselves what makes the Chinese Chinese in this rapidly changing world. On top of this is the concern for the continuing stereotypes and prejudices against China in many parts of the world, despite all its changes. In this context, nationalism has swept through particularly urban areas as a ready answer to the complex questions of identity and globalization. Aware of the problems this rising popular nationalism might create for China's globalization efforts, the government has recently been trying to put a brake on its further growth. From this view, the popular mobilization in response to the earthquake could be understood as an attempt to steer nationalism in a positive and productive direction.