As anyone who has lived around East/Southeast Asia and accordingly interacted, whether voluntarily or not, with mainland Chinese can attest, they are hands-down the most ethnocentric, xenophobic people on the planet.
It’s baked into Sino-culture.
Even the Chinese Bolsheviks of yore couldn’t internationalize them.
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Accordingly, Chinese nationals learn in state school from an early age that their nation is the “Middle Kingdom” — the epicenter of civilization itself, the guiding light of the world, and the divinely ordained ruler of everything in it.
Via Chulalongkorn University (emphasis added):
The notion of China as the “Middle Kingdom” (Zhongguo 中國) comes from the fact that Chinese universality is inseparable from a certain idea of civilization, with a centre shining upon surrounding regions. The geographical embodiment of this radiating influence is what is commonly called the sinicized world, which includes the entire East Asian region surrounding China itself: Korea, Japan, Vietnam – all cultures which have been influenced by China to different extents and at different moments in history. Conversely, each time China itself was encroached upon or invaded by “outsiders”, it was always assumed that the latter would end up being transformed and adopting Chinese civilization. Imperial China thus depicted itself not only as the centre of the world but also as a sort of “civilization-world”, and it was not until the second half of the 19th century, under attack from Western powers, that it was constrained to consider itself as just one nation amongst others. It is the same universality of “China as a world” which, after having been jeopardized by colonial powers (including Japan) at the end of the 19th century, is today once again becoming a type of nostalgic self-representation and a unifying factor in the revival of the ancient notion of “All under Heaven” (tianxia).
The ”one-world” mythology — in which we are all either Chinese masters or subjects of our wise and superior Chinese masters — manifests in various ways in international relations, including most infamously in the “One China” policy in which it claims all territory currently outside of CCP control, like Taiwan and Hong Kong, et al., and even that which it has no historical claim to whatsoever, like the South China Sea and various parts of India it would like to annex.
With the recent explosion in growth of the Chinese economy, the colonial hubris has only grown more intense.
Via Observer Research Foundation (emphasis added):
Zhongguo, or the ‘Middle Kingdom’, as imperial China described itself, was supposed to be the ‘civilised’ centre of the world, surrounded by ‘barbarians’ and ‘savages’. This description served the purpose of pandering to the inflated sense of self-importance of Chinese rulers through the ages; it was also a demonstration of their blinding ignorance of civilisations and cultures to the south, east and west of their land. That ignorance has transmogrified into crass insensitivity coupled with callous disregard for an international order based on laws and rules. Economic growth and prosperity have not liberated China’s mind from the medieval worldview of the ‘Middle Kingdom’, nor has it tamed its lust for land or, more correctly, territory. From building islands in what it calls the South China Sea to seeking to colonise countries far and wide by luring them into a debt trap called BRI (in Pakistan’s case, renamed CPEC) and turning them into handmaidens of Beijing, the urge to smash and grab what belongs to others remains as strong as ever.
As such, the Chinese are very bitter that they are expected to conduct scientific literature of international import in English instead of their nonsense and aesthetically disturbing language that consists not of an alphabet but thousands of arcane characters.
Via South China Morning Post (emphasis added):
When a group of Chinese primary school pupils with a keen interest in astronomy were asked what language the research on China’s Chang’e-6 lunar soil samples should be written in, they stopped smiling.
The pupils of Fangcaodi International School, a state-run primary school in Beijing with an emphasis on science education, have closely followed China’s recent lunar endeavours.
In June, the Chang’e-6 mission returned home with the first ever samples from the far side of the moon. At the time, the scientific community debated what language the historic findings should be written in and where they should be published.
Posed with the same question, one of the young science pupils proposed an answer.
“It should be in English first so that scientists from all over the world can understand the latest results and work together to promote research,” he said.
“But there should be a Chinese version so that the whole population of China is aware of the latest findings.”
It was an idea that the other four pupils readily agreed with. But that is not what happened.
Unless there is some extenuating circumstance like a serious investigation into CCP malfeasance that would require it, literally no one outside of the Sinosphere is going to try to sift through a science paper in Mandarin and try to make sense of it — never going to happen, not in 2024 and not in 2124.
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Nevertheless, the anti-English, anti-foreign trend has reportedly picked up steam in recent years.
Via The Economist (emphasis added):
China ranks 91st among 116 countries and regions in terms of English proficiency. Just four years ago it ranked 38th out of 100. Over that time its rating has slipped from “moderate” to “low” proficiency. Some in China question the accuracy of the EF index. But others note that this apparent trend is happening when China is also growing more insular…
Legislators and school administrators have tried to limit the amount of time devoted to the study of English, and to reduce the weight given to it on China’s all-important university-entrance exams. In 2022 a lawmaker proposed de-emphasising the language in order to boost the teaching of traditional Chinese subjects.
Anyway, whatever. No skin off the West’s back.
Best of luck peddling your Belt and Road Initiative and selling your plastic crap to the world when you refuse to communicate in the de facto international business language, CCP.
