Human history is a history of constant struggle with the virus.Whenever a new virus appears, it is not just an enemy of a society and a country, but an enemy of all society and all countries, which requires the cooperation of the international community to deal with it together.However, when international cooperation is needed, in the United States and some countries in the West, racial discourse and behavior against China or Chinese are also rapidly burning.
The Wall Street Journal publicly published an article written by Walter Russell Mead with the title of China is the Real Sick Man of Asia.Regardless of the author's view of Chinese issues, a mainstream Western media uses such naked racism titles, which is profound.The Washington Post published a new type of coronary virus in John Pomfret on February 5th to regain awakening of the Chinese racist melody (The Coronavirus Old Racist Tropes Against Chinese People) for the Chinese, discussing that the United States has grown up its increasingly growing anti -Chinese society again.mood.Other mainstream media also noticed this new trend.In fact, the isolation policies and excessive response to China and some Western countries in the United States and some Western countries also implies strong racist factors.
The racial behavior of the United States and some Western countries is deeply ingrained.Not long ago, Skinner, the then Director of Policy Planning of the U.S. State Council, said that when discussing Sino -US relations, the relationship between the United States and China is a completely different struggle between civilizations and different ideology.And saying that this is the first time we face a powerful competitor of non -white people.This remark once again pulled the theory of civilized conflict proposed by American scholar Huntington in the early 1990s to the forefront of US foreign policy.Although the United States, which has been prevalent for many years, the race -based diplomatic theory is no longer recognized and accepted by most people, this theory that has had a huge role in history has become the racial complex of some people at the subconscious level.Once you have a chance, you will return to the US diplomatic discourse.
Can't ignore racism theory to speed up and look up
With the continuous deterioration of Sino -US relations, people have no reason to despise or ignore the acceleration of this racist theory.As far as international relations are concerned, the most concerned about the United States and the Western world today is the severe challenges facing the free international order led by the West.The foundation of Western freedom international order lies in its internal affairs, or that external free international order is an extension of its internal free and democratic order.Today, the challenges facing the West are mainly problems with internal order, affecting its external order.However, the West does not look at it like this; on the contrary, the West generally believes that the biggest challenge to Western free international order comes from the outside, especially China and Russia.The United States has also officially regarded China and Russia as the largest opponent in the United States.For the United States, how to cope with China has become the highest agenda for US diplomacy.To effectively cope with China, there must be a theoretical guidance, just like the X Article of George Kennan after World War II (X Article) as the theory of the Cold War of the United States to curb the Soviet Union.
Liberalism originated in the West, and the so -called liberal international order is also established by the West. This process inevitably makes this order racial nature, regardless of whether it is recognized or not.Inside the West, there is no unified Western liberalism because of the different history, culture, and national conditions of various countries; or in other words, the expression of liberalism in Western countries is different.At the international level, because the national interests of Western countries are different, the liberalism they understand is different, and the methods of trying to build world order with liberalism are also different.In other words, liberalism has always been diverse and never exists in a uniform liberal or free international order.
However, in terms of race, Western liberalism has a high degree of unified identity, that is, the world is simply divided into white and non -white people or the West, and the purpose of white and Western is the entire international order liberalization.More importantly, because the internal affairs are the foundation of diplomacy and the foundation of the free international order is internal affairs, so the West must establish the internal affairs of the member states of this system while establishing a free international order.
Under this theoretical cognition, intervention in the political change of the domestic government or contemporary power has also become a subject of Western diplomacy (especially British and American countries).John Dunn, a political theorist in Cambridge University in the UK, believes that British and American political theories are valuable theories.People can also extend this to diplomacy, that is, British and American diplomacy is valuable diplomacy.What does value mean?British scholar N. J. Rengger explained very well to this, that is, to answer two related questions, that is, who I am to do with me.The end of these two questions can be returned to religion. The answer is that I am the people of God, and I want to implement God's will.From this perspective, whether it is the past religious conflict (such as the Crusade East) or the civilized conflict today, the value logic behind it is the same.
Historically, there is a process of development and diffusion of liberalism, namely from the West to Non -West.From the perspective of development, liberalism must first solve the internal problems of the West, and then solve the problems of Western and non -West.
The freedom, equality, and fraternity established by the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution can be said to be the core of liberalism, which is considered universal.Enlightenment thinkers must not only achieve these values in France, but also promote these values to the world.The Enlightenment thinker De Condorcet believes that the West must play the role of generous liberator and liberate those who are sacred but authoritarian and ignorant conquerors.Another thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau is even more aggressive. He even proposed the theory of forced freedom, thinking that if people do not be free, they must force them to get freedom.
These theories have not only had a huge impact on the internal development of the West, but also became the leading ideas of Western colonialism and imperialist foreign policies.For example, France strives to sell these values to colonies that have been ruled by its rule through colonial policies, especially in Africa, and treat these countries as the sphere of influence.For many years, France's defense against the United States in Africa is even better than the Soviet Union, because France is worried that the freedom value of France will be replaced by the freedom value of the United States (France does not think that the Soviet Union representative can make people make people allow peopleAccepting value).
White superiority theory becomes the mainstream ideology in the West
Here points to different freedom values held by different western countries.Indeed, before the United States moved towards the entire world stage, in order to compete with European countries, the United States proposed liberal values on neighboring countries, and proposed and established the principles of good -neighborly and friendly intervention, democracy, peace, and justice with American countries.
Although there is competition between Western countries during the process of expanding to non -Western expansion and even leading to war between them, all the expansion in the West has a unified theoretical cognition, that is, white superior theory.This theory reached its peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming a theory widely used in international order.At that time, the West believed that there was only one civilization standard in the world, that is, Western civilization, saying that the West said civilization, civilization is the West.White superior theory has become the mainstream ideology in the West. Behind it has both Western hard power and Western soft power. Hard power is represented by economic military power.After the industrialization of modern times, the West has become a comprehensive power in all aspects of economy, military, and society, and no non -Western countries can be compared with Western countries.In the Japanese and Russo -Japanese War from 1904 to 1905, Japan defeated Russia, which was the only exception; but Japan's success was just regarded as a result of Westernization.
In terms of soft power, social Darwinism appeared in the 19th century, and soon became popular in the West.The expansion provides theoretical foundation.Darwin proposed the theory of evolution of things in the heavens and the survival of the fittest, and he did not explicitly understand the evolution as progress, although he seemed to acquiesce this understanding.Social Darwinism applies Darwin's theory of species evolution to interpret social development.Because Western species are strong (defeated other countries), the West is advanced, progressive, civilized, and moral.Among colonial and imperialism, the difference between white and non -white people completely replaces the differences between all other types, including the diversity of nations, religion and the country.
The white superior theory in inventing and developing in Europe was quickly spread to the United States.In the 19th century, the White only theory prevailed in the United States to respond to tens of millions of new immigrants from China and India.The United States also applies this to international affairs.It should not be forgotten that the predecessor of the United States' Foreign Affairs in the international relations and foreign countries today is the Journal of Race Development.Race Development Magazine was launched in 1910 and focused on US foreign affairs. It was later renamed Journal of International Relations. In 1922, it was renamed as a foreign affairs today.
The racism in the 19th century biological sense was replaced by cultural diversity after World War II.This transformation is not mainly because the West has changed its views on non -Western, but because of the bloody racial massacre inside Western.During World War II, Hitler in Germany had a massacre on the Jewish nation, causing nearly 6 million European Jewish death.
Beginning in the 1970s, the civil rights movement of ethnic minorities within Western countries rose, especially the American Black People's Rights Movement. Western countries' views on racial issues have changed, and at least they have converged.Cultural diversity has risen, and it is manifested as the theory of melting furnaces in the United States. It is believed that Western civilization can tolerate and even digest social groups from different races.In the academic and policy community, people consciously do not talk about some sensitive issues (racial problems are one of them), forming a political correct principle.
However, after the US terrorist attack in the United States, the situation has changed dramatically.The theory of civilized conflict proposed by Huntington is regarded as confirmed worldwide.After that, Huntington specially published a book. Who are we?The challenges to the recognition of the United States have expressed great concerns about the decrease in the number of white American and the increase in other national population, and referred to this phenomenon a threat to US national security.After that, different forms of terrorism occurred in European countries.The West began to doubt the tolerance ability of Western civilization, and the intellectual and politicians began to publicize the failure of cultural diversity.This also constitutes the background of policy debate around the West around immigration and terrorism over the years.
Non -Western racist thinking
According to experience, racial factors have never disappeared and will not disappear in the Western foreign policy.In different backgrounds, people can converge, or hypocritical, but racism will still float on the table in different ways from time to time, and play a policy role.From the medieval religion (God) to the modern race (white superior theory), to contemporary democratic freedom value (value alliance), its theoretical and behavioral logic is highly consistent.
To make matters worse, many non -Western countries have received this perception at the subconscious level because they have been ruled by Western for a long time.The rise of studying the West in Japan quickly became a militarist, trying to prove the superiority of the Dahe nation's other peoples in Asia, at least to achieve the goal of sitting up with the West.To this day, the social groups of many non -Western countries are still in ideological colonial state, and there is unrealistic fantasies about the West.
In some places, people's thoughts and behaviors are more than that of the West. Some people artificially create disguised ethnic or races through various tools and means for some specific interests, such as strengthening different social groups.Different identities and conflicts between them, such as the coming first comes to the latecomers, the local people to the foreigner, the democracy and the dictatorship, and so on.These so -called quasi -ethnic groups have led to political disputes and conflicts, and they will definitely cause greater and stronger conflicts in the future.
However, in terms of macro, with the rise of non -Western countries, especially the rise of civilized countries such as China, Russia, and India, Western racism may be checks and balance and curb.In terms of realism, equality (including race) in all aspects of international relations is related to the power balance between the country.China, Russia, and India are both civilized countries and have their own unique value system.This means that the rise of a diversified international order inevitably become the future development direction of the world.The foundation of multiple international order is not only hard power, but also a soft power with value as the core.In other words, the future world is a world where the gods coexist.
(The author is a professor at the National University of Singapore and East Asia)
The article only represents personal point of view
