So I rarely get into politics on my blog – but this is hitting home a bit. The recent news about The Hague favoring the Philippines on the discrepancy on the South China Sea and where China can claim its land has scared me.
Seems to me more of a military positioning thing – that China wants to be able to have military position there in case of any global wars. The people in China are saying USA is behind the other side, not wanting China to get that military position – thus lobbying internationally to block China.
So when China didn’t win the favoring a couple days ago – Chinese government basically said it doesn’t matter – because they won’t follow the international rules anyway – that this land has always been China.
OK – So why does this make me nervous?
Well, because seems the news and positioning in China has been making the people more patriotic and nationalistic – and all over my social media streams in Chinese social media (wechat) are many of my Chinese friends saying that they will go to war for this.
It scares me because pretty close Chinese friends are saying such things as foreigners must die, and they will fight for this. And then there are ones saying that the world has been making money from China, and the foreigners make money from China but don’t respect it. Others saying they will support China and the war.
Maybe it is just a one or two day surge of patriotism, maybe this happens in USA too? As a foreigner in China – it scares the heck out of me. And especially as an American – as it seems China is blaming America mainly for this south China sea debate.
Why does it matter where I was born? Why are borders so important? To me, these seem like out dated systems for simple minded people. I like to support people who are hard working and intelligent – regardless of which borders their mother was in when they were born.
But I guess to have the masses thinking like this is a couple generations away.
For now, we will still have this “us vs them” thinking in various countries.
But if this does escalate – it scares me. What if there is a war? Will I get my visa declined in China and have to leave? Do I go to Hong Kong? Back to USA?
Or worse, what if a mob of people gather and I happen to be an innocent American citizen bystander walking down the street at that time. Get attacked and beaten.
Well, I cannot control everything around me, and I need to live my life.