There are days when the state media in China just can’t help drunkenly staggering along that fine line between “self” and “self parody.”
Few events from the 19th century have such a grip on Chinese indignation as the Opium Wars of 1840-1842. In PRC historiography, the unequal treaties forced upon the Qing government at the end of the war mark both the start of the modern era and a “century of humiliation.” Patriotic education, media, and movies reinforce this emotionally charged linkage of drugs, violence, and forced submission in the collective consciousness
Most recently, British protests over the 2009 execution of Akmal Shaikh, a Briton convicted of smuggling drugs into China, sparked a strong backlash with few commentators failing to take up the flag of resistance against a modern opium war.
Last Friday, the People’s Daily Online edition (中文) brought opium into the digital age. CMP provides this translation:
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the British East India Company, through the monopolization of trade, the sale of opium and open plunder, accomplished great works for England in its development of an “empire on which the sun never sets.” Marx once said concerning the British East India Company that there was a 200-year history of the British government carrying out wars in the name of this company, until this reached the natural boundaries of India.
In the colonial era, the British East India Company used the monopolization of trade in the colonies to traffic opium and assist Britain in building its hegemony. In the Internet era, Google uses its monopoly of Internet information search to traffic American values and assist American in building its hegemony.
Where to start? For one thing, comparing “easy access to information and Internet porn” with “hard drugs which will kill you but only after you smoke away your family, job, and home,” is charmingly quaint hyperbole.
Obviously though, the piece is a rather clumsy attempt to reinforce the image of Google as a de facto arm of the US government. Never mind that Google doesn’t operate under royal charter, the key is for the author to say the words “opium” and “Google” as many times as possible and then have his essay posted to as many sites as the People’s Daily editors can manage.
Besides, if the CCP is worried about the deleterious effects of a drug called Google, just wait until we smuggle them some Charlie Sheen.
Reading the translation, I thought maybe a better summary should be “Google is the new East India Trading Company”, yes?
You know, you’re right. Perhaps it should have been “Google is to the BEIC, as the free flow of information is to opium.” Not sure though how that makes the op-ed piece sound any less shrill and hyperbolic.
I saw this piece on the CMP site and felt moved to comment – mainly because I’m curious to see, if that comment will survive the moderation it still awaits. It is so sad to see that a government instills an aggressive kind of nationalism in the public to hide its own atrocities. This is what I said:
It is true there are grave doubts whether a company as big as Google can live up to its ludicrous ‘do no evil’-standard. However, comparing it to the British East India Company is a surefire way to sow paranoia and discord in the world.
The East India Company operated under a double standard. Human rights were only for so-called white people (we are not white, of course. As James Joyce said, we are pinko-grey), while everyone else was thought to be less valuable. This has changed! Beginning with the abolition of slavery, more and more people were horrified by this double standard. Now there is a broad consensus, that every human being must have the same human rights. Countless constitutions the world over make it the law of the land that there must be no discrimination against race, gender or creed.
Moreover, the East India Company and the British state of the time were closely interwoven. The British government did not think twice to send the army to do the dirty business of the East India Company. Does this article argue, that now the roles are reversed and a company like Google is now doing the dirty business of the American government by spreading information?
There were many discussions in the west that twitter and facebook started the uprising against north african dictators. But others said, this was nonsense and that these social media were just tools of communication, no more than paper, printing presses, and phones etc. This is an old discussion. Some say the medium is the message, some say the message is the message. I say that the internet gives people all over the world the opportunity to be friends with citizens of other nations and to think new thoughts.
Google does not produce the news, it makes it accessible. Neither Twitter nor Facebook force individual users to comment this news. And the people in north Africa were sick of being killed, tortured and put in prison by their dictators.
Well said. Though by the time of the Opium Wars, the BEIC was no longer in existence. In fact, the end of the BEIC monopoly actually indirectly led to the war as suddenly the door was open for all kinds of traders to ply their wares on the South China Coast leading to a major spike in opium imports in the years before Lin Zexu put his foot down.
i actually do think there is something to the belief that google has some cia connections … do a google search of ‘google and the c.i.a.’ and you will see they are not all wacko blogs. something is going on.
Maybe. But do you really think it’s just the CIA the Chinese government is worried about, or is this a convenient excuse to further tighten the screws toward information access in the PRC? Which do you think is SCIO’s top priority?
Even opium wasn’t as bad as you seem to believe:
“…the physiological dangers of opium consumption were greatly exaggerated in the late nineteenth century and these exaggerations have shaped our assumptions about the drug ever since….”
R. K. Newman, “Opium Smoking in Late Imperial China: A Reconsideration”, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 765-794.
Yeah, I know this is a big debate about the extent to which opium addiction actually affected Qing society, but social problems aside, I think we can all get on board with the idea that smoking opium on a regular basis is personally bad for us, right?
yet another view on EIC, China and present days:
Thanks for the link!
I’ve never tried opium.