## 2014/ China and it's Image
When you come back from China and Beijing specifically, you see the country differently. Even when you go through where there were tragic events, 25 years ago on Tianan’men. We let everyone go for his comment. But let’s take a step back …
We were at the end of the old era of Deng Xiao Ping, the man who opened China to the new world, the one who sowed the seeds of the new leading country . Because it is now accepted that it will be … China rebuilt and opened to the world and the desire was legitimate for freedoms, especially as many Chinese had returned from the U.S. after university, also reporting a desire to live differently. But running a country the size of a continent with a population representing a quarter of the world’s population is not comparable to lead a “normal” country. Given our small window, revolt of Tianan’men was a revolt for freedom. But it also might endanger the unity of the country? There was a risk of this event to escalate with the presence of looters? ( only see the grids in the lower floors of buildings, nowadays) ..maybe both
## The anguish of power
The history of China is turbulent and is made of revolts, revolutions, wars of kingdoms and invasion. Sometimes divided, it has rediscovered its unity and the word is at the center of current concern, as it was 25 years ago. That’s why China wants to recover what it considers as lost territories (Paracels, Taiwan, Senkaku …). That is why China strives to meet the expectations expressed the strongest in its grand plans, as now the environment and public health. But what is also important to China and its regime is to preserve the unity as well as its image. This is also why the power tries to integrate by the force Uighur minorities and tibetan while protecting external eyes. The massacre of Tianan’men remains a deep wound for the Chinese. When discussing with Chinese, he often asked “How do you see our country?” The image ratio is essential as in all great powers. China is developing its tourism essentially turned inward, its culture, forgotten for too long and works on branding.
If we play to the comparisons game, it must be remembered other traumas as those which haunt France. You can include collaboration, colonialism, executions of mutineers during the 1st World War or the civil war in Algeria, for example the infamous February 8, 1962. That day, the French police killed protesters and it is difficult to know how many people were victims on the outskirts of the metro station Charonne. It took well over 25 years for the French state to express regret. But compare events in different national scales remains is as complicated and dangerous as well as wanting to apply methods of government at different countries.
## Different schools of thought.
The French and Western press see the Chinese regime as an unyielding monolith and accepting no freedom. This caricature is however undermined by the most attentive observers of the country (Emilie Frenkiel, for example), without to be lauditive with the violence and repression, real, of the regime. As with any regime or any country, there are different schools of thought with power struggles. Behind these schools of thought, there are discussions on the economic level, in universities, in the media and through social networks. If they are different from our standard, it nevertheless are closely watched in the image of what the NSA can do and maybe one day our own intelligence services, if we believe french specialists as Jean-Pierre Manach. The fear of unity, the preservation of a “reasonable growth” are factors to understand the economic and political development of the country. Chinese society, like any society, is different from ours and rapidly is scary. This fear, as before for Japan, the United Sta
tes, created fantasies, exacerbated criticism or fascination. Between these two feelings, fear / attraction, we must be careful not to fall into the passion to take a step back and get to know and understand the mysterious China.
So is the challenge of the next decade for China: To continue development, ensure its survival and unity without creating fear and mystery. It must therefore give the best picture possible and for that, could not remember a dark chapter in its history. The desire for revenge is still present and currently weighs in Chinese foreign policy. The country has so much to do, much more than that of Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe, so the country considers everything should be done to ensure its safeguarding … . But does the West must remain a critical enemy or, on the contrary, to try to bring mutual understanding? It is also the challenge of our leaders no longer to see China as a simple “market” or “plant” but on an equal footing. This change of branding can then change things from within, gently, smoothly as is sometimes …. China.
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