When China Rules the World

Alarmed by the threat to their Chinese operations, Carrefour vehemently denied the rumours about it funding the Tibetan government-in-exile and declared its opposition to the splitting of China. To contain the protests, China ’s internet gatekeepers began restricting searches using the French company’s name. Meanwhile, President Sarkozy sought to defuse anger over the protests in Paris by offering a tacit apology for ‘wounded’ Chinese feelings. With French companies growing increasingly concerned about a boycott of their goods by Chinese consumers, Nicolas Sarkozy wrote a letter to Jin Jang, the Chinese athlete, offering his ‘sympathy’. He acknowledged the ‘bitterness’ felt in China about the French protests and the attack on Jin Jang, referring to it as a ‘painful moment’ which he condemned ‘in the strongest possible terms’. ‘I must assure you,’ he continued, ‘that the incidents on that sad day, provoked by certain people, do not reflect the feelings of my fellow citizens for the Chinese people.’ The letter was handed to Jin Jang in person by the head of the French Senate during an official visit to Shanghai. Mr Sarkozy also sent his chief diplomatic advisor to Beijing in an effort to calm feelings.

Earlier that year another French company, Peugeot Citroën, found itself on the wrong end of Chinese public opinion when it carried an advert in the Spanish newspaper El Pais featuring a computer-modified Mao Zedong scowling down from an advertising hoarding at a Citroën car. At the bottom of the ad was the slogan: ‘It’s true, we are leaders, but at Citroën the revolution never stops.’ The ad was attacked on Chinese internet bulletin boards for ‘hurting our national pride’ and ‘damaging the whole Chinese people’. It was hastily withdrawn by the company, which described the ad as ‘inappropriate’ and expressed regret for any ‘displeasure’ caused. Its statement read: ‘We repeat our good feelings towards the Chinese people, and confirm that we respect the representatives and symbols of the country.’ Then in May, Christian Dior, the French fashion brand, became the latest global company to learn the hard way about the danger of offending Chinese sensibilities. Facing the prospect of a boycott of its products, the company dropped the American actress Sha ron Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested that the recent earthquake in Sichuan province was karmic retribution for how Beijing had treated Tibet. In the same month the Dalai Lama collected an honorary doctorate from the London Metropolitan University, which attracted considerable criticism in the Chinese media. In June the university’s vice-chancellor met with officials at the Chinese embassy and ‘expressed regret at any unhappiness that had been caused to Chinese people by the recent award’. It was widely believed that the apology was not unconnected with the fact that 434 students from China were currently studying at the university and that Chinese students have become an extremely lucrative source of revenue for British universities. In their different ways these examples testify to the importance of the Chinese market for many foreign companies and universities, and the extent to which foreign political leaders are prepared to bow to Chinese sensitivities. They underline the growing influence on the global stage of Chinese public opinion, concerns and attitudes.

A new world order, the future shape of which remains unclear, is being driven by China ’s emergence as a global power. As we saw in the last chapter, the most advanced expression of this process is in East Asia, where, in little more than a couple of decades, China has become the de facto centre of the region, an increasingly important market for every country, the key driver of the new economic arrangements presently taking shape, and the country that all others are increasingly obliged to take account of and accommodate, even if the manner of China’s diplomacy remains determinedly and self-consciously sotto voce. So far the changes wrought by China ’s rise have done little to disturb the calm of global waters, yet their speed and enormity suggest that we have entered an era of profound instability; by way of contrast, the Cold War was characterized by relative predictability combined with exceptional stability.