“Nationalism has become arguably the single most important Chinese political current in recent years, shaping both government behavior and public responses to it.”
foreignaffairs.com
foreignaffairs.com
“Chinese nationalism captures the public imagination not because it resonates with some value system or cultural identity but because it celebrates China’s material accomplishments and generates feelings of pride and satisfaction on that basis.”
“The character of contemporary Chinese nationalism allows it to amplify public support for the party-state when national economic performance is high but does not allow it to function as a backup source of political legitimacy when the economy is struggling.”
Public expressions of unhappiness, mockery, and outright condemnation of government policy became commonplace, perhaps most distinctively in the form of the online “run-ology” discourse.
Even after the partial rehabilitation of “traditional culture” in recent decades, the connection of Chinese political discourse to anything resembling a set of “organically Chinese” sociopolitical values remains weak by the standards of modern nationalist politics.
Surveys show that the Chinese urban population responds positively to institutional reforms that enhance the legal professionalism of government policy, even when those reforms restrict, rather than protect, individual rights and freedoms.
Unlike “common prosperity,” it does not require major welfare spending at a time of fiscal crisis. Therefore, whatever else the government might try over the coming years, it will almost certainly have to maintain its investment in legality.
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