It is not often that ordinary Chinese people publicly say that they are disappointed with their government. They are ashamed of their government. That they want to renounce their membership in the Communist Party. And that they think the People’s Liberation Army is a waste of taxpayers’ money.
It is even rarer for such angry comments to come from the kind of nationalists who generally support whatever their leaders demand of them.
For much of Monday and Tuesday, many Chinese applauded harsh rhetoric from government, military and media figures trying to thwart President Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Then, as Ms Pelosi’s plane touched down in Taiwan late Tuesday evening, some social media users commented on how disappointed they were with Beijing’s lame response.
No military action in the Taiwan Strait, as they expected. No shoot down, no missile attack, no fighter jet flying past Mrs. Pelosi’s plane. Just a few denunciations and announcements of military exercises.
Many people have complained of feeling abandoned and lied to by the government. “Don’t do a power show if you don’t have one,” wrote a Weibo user with the handle @shanshanmeiyoulaichi2hao shortly after the flight landed. “What a loss of face!”
The user went on to say that the government doesn’t deserve people who waited hours to see how history could be written. “A great nation. How ironic!”
The strong emotions online have shown the complexity of public opinion that Beijing will have to manage if it decides to invade Taiwan. And they have demonstrated that nationalism is a double-edged sword that can be easily turned against the government. Some anti-war commentary that managed to evade censors, if only for a moment, also opened a window into the psychological impact of the Ukrainian war on Chinese audiences.
Some netizens have compared the People’s Liberation Army to China’s men’s soccer team, the country’s laughing stock as it has only qualified for the World Cup once. They sneered at the news that the PLA would conduct military exercises near Taiwan. “Save gas,” said a WeChat user. “It’s very expensive now,” replied another.
On WeChat, the comments section of a short military exercise video became a board for dissatisfied people to complain. Among thousands of comments, a few Communist Party members said they would like to quit out of shame. A military veteran said he would probably never mention his military experience again. “Too mad to fall asleep,” commented one user with the handle @xiongai.
The comments section was later closed.
Many users seemed particularly disappointed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “When China said ‘strongly condemn’ and ‘solemnly declare’, it was only to amuse ordinary people like us,” wrote a Weibo user with the handle @shizhendemaolulu, referring to the language used. by Foreign Office spokespersons about Ms. Pelosi’s visit.
“So tough on national governance and so loose on foreign affairs,” the user wrote. “Completely disappointed!”
On Wednesday afternoon, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, responded to a question about the public’s disappointment by saying that she believed the Chinese people were rational patriots and had confidence in their country and its government.
The Chinese Communist Party has used nationalism as a tool of government since the Mao era. Xi Jinping, China’s current supreme leader, has taken it to a new level. “Nationalism is becoming a central pillar of the party’s and Xi’s personal political legitimacy,” wrote Kevin Rudd, chief executive of the Asia Society and former Australian prime minister, in his book “Avoidable War: The dangers of a catastrophic war”. Conflict between the United States and Xi Jinping’s China.
The unification of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing considers part of its territory, with the mainland is a centerpiece of Chinese nationalism.
But as Mr. Rudd and others argue, it has sometimes proven difficult to control the nationalist genius once it is out of the bottle. “This issue has become progressively more prominent under Xi Jinping, as nationalist appeals have moved from the margins to the center of China’s propaganda apparatus in all areas,” he wrote.
This week’s online backlash is an example.
Most Chinese did not pay much attention to Ms Pelosi’s impending visit to Taiwan until Monday afternoon, when a flurry of official and semi-official statements led many to believe that China might take severe measures, possibly military, to deter it.
Zhao Lijian, a Foreign Ministry spokesman who may be China’s diplomat best known as a “wolf warrior”, warned the United States on Monday that the PLA would “never sit idly by”. China will certainly take resolute and strong countermeasures to defend its own sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the website of People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, a two-paragraph article about his remarks has been viewed 2.7 million times.
That evening, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, which covers Taiwan, posted on Weibo that it was awaiting orders to fight and would “bury all invading enemies”. The post has been liked over a million times, and the embedded video, featuring footage of bombings and explosions, has been viewed over 47 million times.
And then there is Hu Xijin, retired editor of the Global Times, the Communist Party tabloid that has probably played the biggest role in stoking Chinese nationalism over the past three decades.
Mr Hu first suggested on Twitter last week that China should shoot down Ms Pelosi’s plane if she flew to Taiwan. On Weibo, he called on his nearly 25 million followers to “support all government countermeasures and share the hatred of the enemy”.
“We will definitely launch strong countermeasures to hit the United States and Taiwan,” he wrote on Tuesday. “So harsh that the Taiwanese authorities will regret it.”
After Ms. Pelosi’s plane landed in Taipei, China issued many strong condemnations and announced a daunting series of military exercises around Taiwan. But the absence of any direct military action left many nationalists feeling aggrieved. Their heroes, including Mr. Hu and Mr. Zhao, have lost some of their halos.
Now they have mocked Mr. Zhao by posting a short video of him making harsh statements on Monday.
Late Tuesday evening, Mr. Hu’s Weibo account was inundated with furious, sarcastic and abusive comments. “If I were you, I would be so embarrassed that I wouldn’t dare to say a word and hide until Taiwan reunification day,” commented a Weibo user with the handle @KAGI_02.
Ren Yi, a Harvard-educated nationalist blogger, wrote a searing comment early Wednesday morning, urging to limit Mr. Hu’s influence.
In a post on Weibo, Ren said high unmet public expectations could damage the government’s credibility. He blamed those unrealistic expectations on Mr. Hu, saying his messages were taken too seriously because he once ran a party newspaper.
Mr. Ren is not alone in wanting to dethrone Mr. Hu, who is now a columnist at the Global Times, from his position as the most influential Chinese journalist. Other commentators and social media personalities are also calling for him to be held accountable. Mr Hu wrote on Weibo on Wednesday morning that he had become a “punching bag”.
But some comments also pointed out that Mr Hu was only part of China’s response to Ms Pelosi’s visit, and suggested that all the blame placed on him could indicate the government may be looking for a goat. emissary.
There are also anti-war voices on Chinese social media. Some people have argued that only online warmongers should be sent to the front line. Some parents fear that their children will be recruited. Others have tried to urge their compatriots to look to Ukraine and Russia to understand that war means death and economic destruction.
Zou Sicong, a writer who has been traveling in Poland for a few months, urged WeChat users to have a realistic understanding of the war, saying he had learned what ordinary Ukrainians and Russians had been through.
People should be happy nothing happened on Tuesday night, he said. “You should feel lucky that you can still do your business, pay your mortgage, go to work tomorrow, get tested for Covid and live,” he wrote. “Please pray for yourselves and your loved ones so we can come out of this approaching storm unscathed.”