China's Uncontrolable Nationalism

Every country has nationalists, some more than others. Some of those are extremists, some are more passive, but they are rarely centralized, controlled, or pushed by one entity. Nationalists in the US during the Civil War were led by charismatic ideologues, people who could 'talk real pretty' and incite emotions in the crowd based on what the speaker knew would spurn emotion. Modern extreme nationalists in the U.S. function more or less the same, but I'd say to a smaller degree. They have a target base group of people, and cater to that, generally not moving much from that base.

(What I am talking about are those movements in which the state in question is the supreme, and only worthwhile actor. All others are inferior. I am not referring to Nationalists like Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, or movements that are moving for national independence. Both groups in the Chinese Civil war used Ethnic nationalism to push their causes. )

Previous large scale extreme Nationalist movements, specifically in World War II seemed to have more of an ethnic, rather than a national focus. They coincided with National borders for the most part, but remained ethnic.

This brings me to modern day China. I realize I'm skipping over and simplifying many many things, but my point is that nationalism today in China is ... different. It is controlled, but also not by the central government.

Look at what has been going on in Tibet. The Chinese media blames it on the Tibetans and the exiles. The rest of the world sees it a bit different.

From this, Chinese, and in particular youth, see the rest of the world's media, and people as 'Anti-China'. This, I am sure, was started by a subtle but planned push in the governments' central propaganda ministry, hoping to keep the foreign media information at bay from becoming believable to the Chinese people.

The scary thing, is that a little push has turned into something that needs to be quieted. Sites have popped up showing the 'falseness' of CNN.

Why is this unnerving? Simply because it acts like an avalanche, and if it is accidentally pushed too far chaos would erupt.

Friends of mine in China have started to add " <3 China" in front of their MSN name, to prove their solidarity with China. Even friends who know the media is manipulated, and hates talking about government have added the heart. The propaganda becomes so strong people join it without second thoughts. The Internet has been the main engine pushing the spread of this new resurgence of nationalism.

This is just to protest the protests along the Olympic Flame route against the Chinese government's actions in Tibet. Imagine what would happen if the nationalism went further in response to something bigger.