The rise of Chinese nationalism on the internet is drawing attention from commentators. Such often aggressive views are being cited as evidence to support the 'China threat' theory, and some Western observers worry that the venting in cyberspace is spreading to the streets. But is this the case?
A closer look shows that those who espoused nationalist sentiments in online polls, forums, games and blogs tend to do so only in the virtual environment.
Opinion poll findings on the mainland back this observation. Web polls and street surveys frequently show widely divergent views: while many Chinese express fervent nationalist rhetoric on the internet, especially when they can do so anonymously, the responses culled from street and telephone surveys tend to be more measured and rational.
China watchers should be prepared to study two sets of opinion polls. As Shen Min, manager of the leading Chinese polling company, Horizon Research Consultancy Group, explained: 'Internet polls are randomly visited and clicked on, and they attract the attention of the relatively young and relatively well-informed activists. Most other people have access to less information, and are less able to analyse what information they have. In general, opinions on the internet are more aggressive and more radical.'
This 'split identity' is common in role-playing games. Like gamers who role-play, activists can take on the part of a Chinese nationalist when it suits them. In a study of the nationalist rhetoric used in the discussion forum of a virtual-war-gaming website, researcher Zhou Yongming found that its members saw themselves as part of an imagined military community.
What does this development tell us? Given the restrictions in Chinese political space, nationalist discourse is one of the very few platforms that allow people to take part in cabianqiu - kicking the ball from the side, or acting on the fringes - to exercise their freedom and develop their identity.
Yet these fringe players have little intention of pressing the party-state to act on their expressions. The subtlety of this has not gone unnoticed. When leading British sinologist Christopher Hughes analysed the discourse of various Chinese nationalists, he found that most were 'either not particularly interested in nationalism or were highly sceptical concerning its possibilities for solving the problems faced by the Chinese state'.