China's weakness in its strength

 China has been called out for making false predictions for a while now, and recent events give us one more chance to do so.

By Aadi Achint

When people talk about China, they always talk about how big their military is and how they have the second largest economy in the world. Because of the Chinese "Great Firewall," it can be hard to get a clear picture of what is going on inside China. Everything the Chinese do and say gives the rest of the world the impression that they are strong. Until recently, people around the world believed everything a Chinese spokesperson said and often based their opinions on what they said. China has been called out for making false predictions for a while now, and recent events give us one more chance to do so.

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Let's start with the SCO summit, where Chinese President Xi Jinping was supposed to make his first international appearance since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Before he went to the summit, he stopped in Kazakhstan for a short time. Kazakhstan is the gateway to China's dream of the BRI going through Central Asia, Europe, and Russia, so the short stop meant a lot. If Kazakhstan isn't on China's side, the whole dream is just a bunch of lines on a map. Recent events in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, as well as the fact that China's Belt and Road Initiative deals in African countries have been criticised, have raised serious questions about the BRI's effectiveness.

Kazakhstan had a lot riding on the pet project of Chinese President Xi and the "March West" policy, which was created in 2013 at the start of the BRI. It looks like the Chinese President is coming to this country to make sure that his entry point is safe. Before this visit, the Kazakh government had to make some changes to the protests that Uighur people in Kazakhstan were holding to get their family members out of Chinese camps.

People always think that Russia's power in the Central Asian republics is getting weaker and that the Chinese are trying to make a strong foothold in the area. People always say that Russia's weak economy is the main reason why things like this happen. People always forget that Russia's alliance with Central Asia has little to do with economics and more to do with military cooperation. This was shown by the CSTO during the Kazakh protests and the recent fights between Tajiks and Kyrgyz.

The president's next stop was Uzbekistan, where the SCO summit was being held in Samarkand. During the summit, we saw the members of the organisation talk to each other and have bilateral meetings to talk about different things. We also saw the Chinese President act very carefully and keep a social distance because he was afraid of Covid-19. His presence seems reluctant, especially since the virus is always on the minds of Chinese people. President Xi didn't go to the informal dinner planned for the leaders, saying that he couldn't because of Covid-19.

The SCO summit itself shows a weakness in China, since it was very important for China that this summit go well, especially given how things are going in the world right now. In March, the Chinese foreign minister went to India and tried to make sure that Prime Minister Modi would be there in person at the summit. Even China said nothing about the idea that these two leaders might meet in the middle of a military crisis. One could go even further and say that the Chinese had to follow the path of disengagement, which they have been avoiding by using well-honed tactics to keep things from moving forward. Even then, no meeting took place. On the surface, a possible meeting between the Chinese President and the Indian Prime Minister would have been a big win for the Chinese because it would have shown the West how valuable India is.

We also saw cracks in the relationship between Pakistan and China when the Chinese president asked the Pakistani leader why Chinese people and investments in Pakistan weren't being protected and kept safe. Even though the two countries agreed not to talk to each other during this summit, the relationship between them was brought out into the open.

The Chinese president also talked about "colour revolutions" that were started by outside forces and asked each country to keep the peace in the region. The fact that the Chinese president brought up the colour revolutions, which have shaken up authoritarian governments around the world from the early to late 2000s, is a clear sign of fear. Some happen on their own, and some are started. In 2011, something called the "Jasmine Revolution" scared the Chinese. A lot of cities had to be put on high alert to stop protests that were supposed to bring democracy to China.

If you listen to or read what the Chinese have to say about their own society, all they do is sing and dance about how peaceful things are and how the Chinese communist party is reaching new heights every day. This is in contrast to the Chinese leader, who talked about "colour revolutions" at a time when people were worried about the country's internal stability because of the "zero Covid" policy, the failure of banks, and the collapse of the real estate market, to name just a few things that are hurting the Chinese dream.

Chinese President Xi Jinping seems worried about being re-elected as China's leader at the 20th party congress in October. He would work twice as hard to clear a path for himself. His whole trip to this summit was a way to show that he was sure of his power and status at home. Beijing announced the date of the congress in August, which showed that plans for this big event were going well. Even though Xi Jinping was trying to show a strong image, the SCO didn't show it.

We must also look at what is going on inside China to understand why the CCP and its leader are afraid and feeling weak. The Chinese have recently come up with the term "Internet Civilisation," which means that they want to have more control over what Chinese people say and how they talk about different things online. The CCP has done so much to silence people's voices that they are now looking into how to break the code language that Chinese people use to get around the Chinese firewall. A high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party said that China had blocked about 20 billion pieces of "illegal and bad information" and closed the accounts of about 1.4 billion internet users since 2019. Simple math shows that almost every Chinese person has an account.

CCP has also told retired members not to say anything bad about the big political event going on in the country right now. I'm sure everyone knows that when the CCP gives a warning, it means something bad is going to happen. The leader of China has done everything he can to keep his own supporters close and silence voices he doesn't like. The Chinese President has also been successful in putting one of his supporters in charge of police in the central government and in getting rid of "corrupt" CCP officials.

When you put all of these and many other small things together, you realise that the strength of the Chinese portrait is just an old Chinese proverb by Sun Tzu: "Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak."

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Content Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/defence/the-weakness-in-the-strength-of-china/2689415/