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As China-EU ties regress, Brussels’ envoy asks: are we back in the Mao era?
- Nicolas Chapuis picks up on the phrase ‘evil spirits and ghosts’, used by Communist Party mouthpiece about challenges to China’s development
- He compares the hostile tone to ‘niugui sheshen’, a phrase made popular by Mao Zedong, notably during the Cultural Revolution
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The European Union’s top envoy to Beijing has warned that China is adopting a hostility towards the West that is comparable to the Mao era, amid souring ties with Europe.
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Speaking at a reception for journalists held by the EU embassy in Beijing on Thursday, Nicolas Chapuis noted the tough language used by China to define its situation, and referred to an article by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily that said China would continue its development despite “evil spirits and ghosts”.
Chapuis compared the phrase to one used widely in the time of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, to refer to people the authorities deemed unwelcome.
“I do not recall in 42 years of my diplomatic career in China such language being used,” he said. “Are we back to niugui sheshen?”
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The phrase “niugui sheshen”, which translates as “ox demons and snake spirits”, was made popular by Mao, especially when intellectuals and elites were targeted during the Cultural Revolution – a decade of political turmoil begun by Mao in 1966 that lasted until his death.
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