Beyond the Great Wall #7 : China’s Challenge in early 2020

Beyond the Great Wall #, 7 is the first edition of the notorious Beyond the Great Wall Forum that occurs in the year of 2020. On this occasion, the Institute of International Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada (IIS UGM) invited two key speakers to scrutinize the threats to China in the early years of 2020 which may impede the economic development of China. For the main speaker, IIS UGM invited Nurrudin Al Akbar, a doctoral student in Political Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada brought up the topic titled as “Wuhan Jiayou: China’s tale in Challenging the Social Construct in the Era of Pot-Truth?”, Dr. Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro, a lecturer in the discipline of International Relations, Universitas Gadjah Mada became the second speaker who brought out a contextualization in the book “Red Flags: Why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy?”. In this BTGW series, IIS UGM invited Indrawan, a researcher at IIS UGM as the moderator.

As we all know that in early 2020, China struggles to face the dire dispersion of the Coronavirus disease 209 (Covid2019), which has now become a global pandemic that spans through a myriad of states globally. Nuruddin stipulates that there is a trend of narration and construction by the International media nor the Western which situated China as the “convict” who initiated the Coronavirus. The construction and narration become relevant, due to its capability to influence the international community’s perspective towards China. Hence, creating an accusation over China’s negligence in hindering the dispersion of the aforementioned virus. According to Nuruddin the negative construction towards China by in turn may hamper the Chinese government’s efforts in managing the spread of coronavirus.

This particular trend is abbreviated by Nurudin as the era of “Post Truth”—in which information that is fashioned in such manner consequently erects uncertainty and a vexatious environment to the masses. The information that is fabricated and given to the public regarding the existence and mitigating measures utilized, by in turn becomes the trigger to several problematics, such as fret towards the spread of the virus, excessive fear, the lack of trust towards the government, and to its peak, would be the inception of Sino phobic sentiments and racism directed towards the global Chinese ethnicity. Ironically, the construction towards uncertainty has previously occurred during the spread of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic as well as the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic.

The phenomenon of “Wuhan Jiayou” that occurs in Wuhan, that is the center of the Coronavirus spread is remarked by Nuruddin to be potentially vexing in facing the construction within the era of Post Truth, which also includes the complication in managing the dispersion of the coronavirus. The Chinese government should appeal to the Wuhan Jiayou spirit in order to deconstruct and foster the awareness of synergetic movements in tackling the spread of the virus. The impact imparted by the Wuhan Jiayou has the effect of deconstruction directed towards the Western media which inclines to postulate on racist based elucidation towards China. Ergo, by changing such narration to a new narration that postulates on the notion of human integrity and unity, exhibits an image that the Wuhan community of China requires a moral foundation and support in facing the corona epidemic.

Notwithstanding, if the first session contemplates over the complications that the Chinese government faces in tackling the Coronavirus, the second session postulates over the book review of “Red Flags: Why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy?” by Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro.  In order to decipher over the reality in which the Chinese government under Xi Jinping’s’ administration is in jeopardy, the book explores on four different key points that may threaten and destabilize the economic growth of China, in correlation to the symbolization and philosophy of the Chinese flag (Red Flags).

The first issue faced by the Chinese government would be the debt issues, in which contemporary Chinese economic growth is steered by debt which may dismantle Chinese economic stability. This also correlates to the second issue that is the Yuan and Renminbi currency that is still swayed by the Chinese government in the context of mobility and exchange rate. The third issue would be the Middle-Income trap, which is caused by the state control over several industrial sectors, hence causing difficulties for China to advance their next stage of development. The fourth issue would be the aging population phenomenon, hence rendering an unproductive working-age population. Four of these issues are regarded to negate Chinese economic development to the possibility of collapse. Furthermore, four of these issues may threaten the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party and it may erect distrust by the public towards the party, hence leaving it to a state of Jeopardy as emphasized by Magnus.      

Writer : Raditya Bomantara
Editor: Handono Ega P.