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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy
Shi Jiangtao
Shi Jiangtao

As I see it | China should stop US decoupling at any cost, even humiliation, ultranationalist writer warns

  • Those who advocate triumphalism and proactive decoupling risk causing ‘endless harm’, bestselling co-author and nationalism standard bearer says
  • China would pay the greater price, Wang Xiaodong warns, as he causes stir with call for a return to Deng’s moderate policy

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Deng Xiaoping Portrait Square in Shenzhen. Photo: Sam Tsang
Shi Jiangtao
China is about to close yet another difficult year, marked by a deepening feud with the US and the seemingly interminable coronavirus pandemic.
Faced with the twin challenges of a slowing economy and a new Cold War brewing on its doorstep, China has shown both resilience and defiance as it tackles an increasingly hostile global environment. And leading this fightback has been its army of propagandists and Wolf Warrior diplomats, busy spinning an alternate narrative where China is defeating a Western plot to contain the rise of a popular, benevolent and peace-loving power.

But beneath the triumphalist narrative about greater ideological and cultural self-confidence, and the inevitable decline of the West – as well as the nationalist fervour thus induced – there is deep dissatisfaction and an acute sense of crisis.

Wang Xiaodong, one of the five co-authors of Unhappy China. Photo: Weibo
Wang Xiaodong, one of the five co-authors of Unhappy China. Photo: Weibo
Last week, an influential conservative figure caused a stir with his stark warning that China faced the risk of being fully isolated, and a rare call for a return to late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s moderate “hide-and-bide” diplomacy.
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Wang Xiaodong, a writer who won fame as a co-author of the 2009 ultranationalist bestseller Unhappy China, has claimed that the country’s top priority should be to avoid a full US-China decoupling at all costs, even if it meant suffering humiliation.

He offered his rather cold-eyed analysis of China’s predicament on the heavily censored Chinese social media site Weibo, saying his evaluation was based on conversations with numerous government officials, economists and military officers.

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Billed as the standard bearer of Chinese nationalism by Baidu Baike, a Wikipedia-like site, Wang took particular aim at those who advocate triumphalism and proactive decoupling, warning that this would mislead the public, undermine the Communist Party’s governance and “cause endless harm”.

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