Wang Xiangwei

China Briefing | Do China’s leaders care about what foreigners say about the country?

Yes and no. China still craves international endorsement, but believes it is no longer the humble apprentice who used to learn from the masters in the West

Rather than try to change the English-language international media’s echo chamber, Chinese officials are busy constructing an echo chamber of their own

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Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:30am, 18 Dec 2021Updated: 10:07pm, 11 Jan 2022

Do China’s leaders still care what foreigners say about the country? Do they get it that Beijing’s aggressive approach to its changing international environment has lost it friends and stoked disapproval in many parts of the world?

Those are typical questions I receive from foreign friends inside and outside China, who genuinely care about the country and worry about what they see as a constant hammering of its reputation, sometimes self-inflicted.

The answer is: yes and no. As mentioned in this space last week, China’s leaders have developed a sophisticated internal reference system to stay informed of the latest developments at home and abroad. At a time when the leadership crows about how today’s China is closer to the centre of the world stage than at any other time in history, they crave international endorsement. Every time China announces a major policy or holds a key political event, the state media busies itself reaching out to foreign officials and analysts to sing praises even though the pool of commentators appears small, often from Russia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Cuba.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Xinhua

In June, President Xi Jinping publicly urged senior officials to craft a “credible, lovable and respectable” image for the country, a line he repeated at a major conference of writers and artists in Beijing on Tuesday.

But that is not how people outside the country feel. China’s wolf warrior diplomats respond aggressively to foreign government officials or individuals who challenge Beijing’s narratives on sensitive issues; the state media pushes back strongly against critical reports in the overseas media and labels them as anti-China; the nationalistic online warriors within China go after anyone who tries to present views different from the official line as unpatriotic or appeasing to the West.

The fight is nowhere more intense than in China’s open confrontation with the United States over ideology and values. When US President Joe Biden convened a virtual Summit for Democracy this month, Beijing released a series of documents in an attempt to show that China is more democratic than America.

Put simply, China gives an impression that it brooks no criticism from anyone, constructive or otherwise.