Advertisement
Ukraine war
OpinionComment
Winston Fung
Winston Fung

Opinion | China can help bridge divide with the West by offering to mediate between Russia and Ukraine

  • The hostility between China and the West can be seen in terms of Beijing being cast as a member of an outside group
  • By mediating in the conflict, China would show it is truly on the same page as the West in wanting peace

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
39
Illustration: Stephen Case
Winston Fung
“Dialogue of the deaf” was how the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell described the recent EU-China summit, at which both sides talked past each other. Brussels tried to convince China to abide by sanctions on Russia. Beijing instead focused on EU-China trade.
This is evidently symptomatic of the growing gulf between China and the West. The bigger question, though, is what is causing this gulf? Most analyses point to power politics or ideological competition, but there is something else which drives this gap: identity.

Increasingly, the West and China regard each other as the “hostile party” based on opposing identities. China must understand how this identity dynamic works and craft its policies accordingly if this gulf is to narrow.

Social identities are how people define themselves based on their group membership(s). Individuals distinguish between their own group(s) (the in-group) against an outside group (the out-group), highlighting negative aspects of outside groups to enhance the self-image of their own group.

An in-group differentiates itself from an outside group by its attributes, including norms – the rules and expectations about how members behave in a given context.

In the case of China and the EU, while “Western” countries are politically diverse with frequently conflicting goals, most share basic norms as liberal democracies, including holding elections and the protection of fundamental rights.

Advertisement