【悉尼晨报】Rally around flag, China tells diaspora

Roadblock

Rally around flag, China tells diaspora

http://www.smh.com.au/world/rally-around-flag-china-tells-diaspora-20090726-dxin.html

John Garnaut Herald Correspondent in Beijing

July 27, 2009 - 12:00AM


Safeguarding ethnic unity ... the congress was told Uighur-Han bloodshed had been caused by outside separatists. Photo: AFP/Peter Parks

BEIJING has called on the Chinese diaspora to unite around the Communist Party on the basis of "blood lineage" and to spread the "truth" about separatism in Xinjiang.

Wang Zhaoguo, a Politburo member and a former head of China's United Front Department, congratulated delegates at the Eighth National Congress of Returned Overseas Chinese and their Relatives for using "blood lineage", "home-town feeling" and "professional linkages" to achieve "outstanding results in uniting the broad masses of overseas Chinese". But Mr Wang exhorted them to "do a better job of uniting the force of the circle of overseas Chinese around the party and the Government", according to the text of his speech posted on the congress website.

Many of Australia's 700,000 ethnic Chinese are steadfastly loyal to Australia and ignore Beijing's overtures, or embrace cultural and ancestral links without identifying with the Communist Party's politics.

But many also feel pulled between two homes, particularly since relations between Australia and China have sharply deteriorated this year.

"In Australia we're suspected of being spies for the Chinese Government but in China we're suspected of being spies for Australia," said Stephanie Wang, an Australian commerce and law student at Melbourne University who attended two Beijing-sponsored cultural trips to China last year, after being approached by a Chinese consulate official.

The communist Party and its traditional opponents, the Kuomintang, have competed for influence with overseas Chinese groups for nearly 90 years. Since 1949 the competition has been played out between China and Taiwan.

From the late 1970s Beijing refocused its overseas efforts towards drawing remittances and investments to the mainland and mitigating the country's "brain drain", as millions of China's brightest took advantage of open-door policies and left for study and business overseas.

In the 1990s its efforts intensified, particularly with the new wave of Chinese emigrants and students, and evolved into a broader push for ethnic loyalty irrespective of citizenship.

This is posing new challenges to foreign governments, intelligence agencies and overseas Chinese communities.

"This is the dynamic of the transnational China, or virtual China, that has won the allegiance of most of the activists and elite among overseas Chinese communities," said William Callahan, professor of international politics at the University of Manchester and author of a forthcoming book about Chinese nationalism.


"This transnational nationalism gains power from very primordial sources. It is based on Han China's essential bloodline from the Yellow Emperor," he said, adding that the movement had gained momentum after the former president, Jiang Zemin, wrote an inscription at the mausoleum of the legendary hero in 1993.

Official Chinese media signalled the political importance of the congress by publishing a rare photo of the entire Politburo standing committee in attendance, including the President, Hu Jintao.

Wang Zhaoguo, who is a close ally of Mr Hu and was previously his boss at the Communist Youth League, told delegates "to have a broad understanding of the truth that national unity is a blessing and national separatism a disaster".

Policies set at the congress can filter down to institutions such as the United Front Department, the State Council's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, Chinese embassies and consulates and the Ministry of State Security, all of which are responsible for organising and monitoring overseas Chinese business, student, cultural, media and political networks.

Many reformists in China say the more important channel flows in the other direction, with those who return bringing back a new understanding of pluralistic society and accountable government.

Chen Guosheng, the head of languages at RMIT University in Melbourne, said many new Chinese migrants and students became more patriotic towards the mainland after they left, because language barriers and cultural shocks led them to feel "lost" and discriminated against in their host countries.

"But when they attend events like [Chinese] National Day and Chinese New Year celebration they feel they are back into the cultural environment familiar to them, their pride and dignity restored," she said.

Their patriotism was enhanced by satellite access to China Central Television, the academic said.

Beijing and some overseas Chinese networks are helping to propagate Beijing's views and discredit foreign media reporting on this month's Uighur-Han bloodshed in Xinjiang province, that has claimed about 200 lives.

A Xinjiang representative, Wang Yonggang, told the congress the recent violence was caused by outside separatists rather than any internal ethnic conflict.

"Xinjiang is called the 'west gate' of China and people in Xinjiang have the responsibility of guarding the gate," he said. "We should safeguard ethnic unity as much as we care about our lives."

Richard Rigby, director of the Australian National University's China Institute and a former head of North and South Asia analysis at the Office of National Assessments, said China's renewed emphasis on overseas ethnic ties ran the risk of undermining its success in reducing perceptions of China as a threat and of Chinese communities as a potential fifth column, particularly in South-East Asia.

"It could also cause difficulties for the many overseas Chinese whose primary or, in fact, sole, loyalty lies with their country of residence," he said.