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Asian AngleDonald Trump’s biggest mistake in US-China trade war: not realising the Chinese will never genuflect again
- China’s collective memory of a century of humiliation by foreign powers, beginning with the First Opium War, has steeled its resolve
- American politicians just do not understand the power of national self-esteem that underpins China’s resilience, writes Leslie Fong
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What stiffens the back of China’s leaders and people as they confront a United States bent on subjugating their country through economic and other means?
I would argue that it is their collective memory of the century of humiliation by foreign powers that began with the First Opium War (1839-1842), a period of unforgettable injury to national pride best captured in that infamous sign “Dogs and Chinese not allowed” which was hung at the entrance of a park in the so-called British concession inside Shanghai.
American politicians who think of relations between nations only in terms of transactions and deal-making just do not understand the power of national self-esteem that underpins China’s resilience – or the strength that the Chinese can draw from the depths of their soul.
Australia’s former prime minister Kevin Rudd does, and in a commentary published in The New York Times last week, he argued that America’s disregard for Chinese nationalist sentiments had all but closed any window for a speedy resolution of differences between the two countries.
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