Just shortly after Hua Chunying accused the U.S. and other Western countries of trying to use the Xinjiang situation to stir chaos and contain China, claiming that China is no longer “the late Qing Dynasty beneath the iron heel of the Eight-Power Allied Forces,” and while a huge wave of anti-U.S. and anti-Western anger is brewing across the country, the “Global Times” and its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, who had previously incited anti-Western sentiments on the internet, have turned around in these two days to try to de-escalate the situation. It is indeed too strange.

The “Global Times,” which has always acted as the Chinese Communist Party’s narrative fighter, published an opinion piece headlined, “There are bad eggs in the crowd boycotting H&M today!” The article said that some people hurled abuses at artists who did not respond to take a position. “As if it was a coordinated effort, some people immediately ‘recalled’ the incident in 2012 when some Chinese boycotted Japanese cars due to the Diaoyu Islands dispute, throwing a half-new, half-old label on the situation - ‘economic Boxer Gang.’ Some people have also ‘called on’ Chinese Americans to rally in support of the motherland by wearing Chinese sports brand Li Ning,” promoting “accelerationism” and “encouraging people to go to the extremes, then disseminate their actions to create division.” It also cited comments from netizens, “Don’t make things difficult for the ‘workers’,” and suggested that some of the boycotts in the past had gone to extremes, with domestic businesses eventually taking the brunt of the damage.

It is obvious that this is an attempt to defuse the incident, and Hu Xijin’s intention to put out the fire is even clearer. He said, “This does not mean the Chinese market is ‘severing ties’ with those companies, let alone ‘sabotaging’ them.” Such a statement is much too gentle and is a far cry from the previous shouting match. He also said, “When we express our emotions and wishes, we must also accept the complexities involved and leave some space for moral aspects of the game. ...I don’t want our society to be impervious to ‘political correctness’ in the realm of public life. It is imperative to allow for some leeway.” In other words, no one should be made to feel compelled or forced to take a stand.

It is hard to fathom that the original instigator has turned into a firefighter! Why would there be such a contradiction? For one thing, it is likely that the matter is not yet defined at the highest level, especially when Xi Jinping has not yet given a directive, which is why there are conflicting positions in different departments that are not in sync. The second is that while the foreign affairs bureau is stoking the fire, the propaganda machine is trying to extinguish it. The fact that the two systems are locked in an internal struggle indicates that there are people within the party who do not want to blow up the situation, fearing that foreign backlash will be even greater and that nationalist sentiment in the country will get out of control, making it even more difficult to wind down the whole incident.

This is why the clever people of China, who have long been aware of these patriotic stunts, are just showing off a little patriotism in public. To really burn and throw away their beloved brand-name products? Only the most stupid people will do that. Those who previously smashed Japanese cars during the anti-Japanese saga are still wanted for arrest!

(Poon Siu-to, veteran journalist)

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