Abstract
Chinese nationalism began to rise when the Cold War ended in 1989. During the first two decades of twenty-first century, Chinese nationalism as strong force has impacted Chinese public opinion as well as government decisions to a large extent. In the eyes of Chinese political elites, nationalism is a force for unity that can keep China together as the communism has lost its appeal. This study explores factors which best explain the origins of Chinese nationalism in our era. For this purpose, I utilize qualitative analysis of nationalist discourse and deeds to gauge nationalist sentiment among the contemporary Chinese people and its political elites. The evidence suggests that nationalism in China mainly comes from Chinese great pride in its major economic achievements in recent decades, the perceived injustice and insults done to China when it was dismembered by the imperialist powers in nineteenth and the first half of twentieth centuries, the current provocative moves against the rising China, and the Chinese government’s propaganda campaign.
Highlights
Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free-market reforms in 1979, China has been among the world’s fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging 9.5% through 2018, a pace described by the World Bank as “the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history.”
In 1978, the Chinese government decided to break with its Soviet-style economic policies by gradually reforming the economy according to free market principles and opening up trade and investment with the West, in the hope that this would significantly increase economic growth and raise living standards
As China’s technological development begins to converge with major developed countries, its level of productivity gains, and real GDP growth, could slow significantly from its historic levels unless China becomes a major center for new technology and innovation and/or implements new comprehensive economic reforms
Summary
Prior to the initiation of economic reforms and trade liberalization nearly 40 years ago, China maintained policies that kept the economy very poor, stagnant, centrally controlled, vastly inefficient, and relatively isolated from the global economy. Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free-market reforms in 1979, China has been among the world’s fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging 9.5% through 2018, a pace described by the World Bank as “the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history.”. Such growth has enabled China, on average, to double its GDP every eight years and helped raise an estimated 800 million people out of poverty.
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