Britain's changed relationship with China
- By John Ross
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 5, 2014
To illustrate the consequences of these facts, it is merely necessary to note that a Chinese woman's life expectancy is 77 years, and literacy among Chinese women over the age of 15 is 93 percent. An Indian woman, in a country which at the time of the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 had a higher per capita GDP than China, has a life expectancy of 68, and the literacy rate in India for women over the age of 15 is only 66 percent. The magnitude of that difference for the overall well-being of humanity may be judged by the fact that women in China and India together account for one in every five people in the world.
In contrast, the interventions of the U.K. government in the internal affairs of other countries have produced chaos and enormous human suffering. Looking only at recent events, in Iraq, more than 100,000 people (as many as a million according to some studies) died as a consequence of the U.S. and U.K. invasion, and reactionary and internationally dangerous terrorist organizations such as ISIS now control large parts of the country as a result. Since the U.S., U.K. and other countries took military action in Libya, chaos has developed as arms have been exported to extremists in numerous African countries, and the latest reports show that ISIS is now establishing itself in the eastern Libya.
The principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries exists for a very practical reason. If one country intervenes in another country's internal affairs, it artificially alters the situation, so that chaos results when the interfering country inevitably withdraws, as the horrific outcomes in Iraq and Libya illustrate. China's government, which bears responsibility for the development of almost one fifth of the world's people, is therefore entirely correct to try to prevent other countries from interfering in its internal affairs.
As someone who writes regularly on China's Weibo and who has received literally hundreds of thousands of comments from people in China, I know that China's people are simultaneously hostile to Britain's attempts to revive its colonial past through interfering in Hong Kong and interested in Britain's many great cultural and economic contributions to the world. I wish I could report an equivalent knowledge of China's great historic and culture in Britain.
China, in my experience as a foreigner working there, is moving towards "intelligent patriotism" that is achieving a balanced appreciation of Britain's past - rejecting Britain's interference in China's internal affairs while acknowledging that something valuable can be learnt from Britain.
Hopefully, Britain will arrive at a parallel understanding. For a long period, Britain had the power to forcibly impose its will on other countries, the seizure of Hong Kong being just one example. Actions like this should be a source of national shame for Britain. But those things which other countries are keen to voluntarily receive from Britain are a source of great national pride and are seen as part of humanity's common "intellectual capital."
China teaches Darwin's theory of evolution in every school and invites innumerable British figures from Hamlet to Harry Potter into their country as welcome guests, all while keeping out British MPs who do not understand that the age of colonialism is over and China will run its own internal affairs. Hopefully, in the future, Britain will learn to demonstrate the same good sense in its choice of whom it sends out as China demonstrates in its choice of whom to receive.
The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/johnross.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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