China’s ‘nationalist bubble’ partly to blame for suspicions over global role, envoy to US concedes
- Li Kexin of China’s US embassy says his country’s pride in advances and promotions by media may have played roles in raising foreign concerns
Nationalism and the Chinese media are just as much to blame for exaggerated perceptions of the country’s geopolitical strength as the imagination of foreign observers, Beijing’s number-two diplomat in the US said on Wednesday evening.
Impressions of China’s might were 60 per cent reality, 20 per cent the imagination of the outside world, and 20 per cent the result of the country’s “nationalist bubble we’ve created by ourselves”, said Li Kexin, deputy chief of mission at China’s US embassy in Washington.
In remarks delivered at the US-China Policy Foundation’s 2018 gala dinner, Li attributed that bubble to China’s sense of pride in being a “fast catching-up nation” – a state of affairs in which he said the media had played a “very bad role”.
Recent months have seen Beijing and its state media apparatus try to dampen rhetoric about the country’s technological advances, specifically the government’s “Made in China 2025” strategy.
The plan to become a world leader in technology and innovation has ruffled feathers at the highest levels of US government, with President Donald Trump last month calling the strategy “insulting” and citing it as evidence that China seeks to take over the world economically.