Letters to the Editor
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Memories of what?
“The memories of Chinese humiliation at the hands of the West are still very much alive, and anyone who wishes to twist the Middle Kingdom's arms should bear that in mind.”
5000 years of Chinese history, opium trade, foreigners bullying China yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.
This is an old, tired cliché that is unfortunately still in use. A cliché used to gain cover for potentially un-popular policy changes. Only in this case, said changes will benefit Chinese upper-class people (ie. professional class, and political elites) who want to buy foreign status-goods, and hurt US consumers by making all imports more expensive.
Who is Wu Yi really addressing here? This BS is what the Chinese government puts out to rally Chinese people around “victim-hood” and I'm sick of it. The purpose is to get Chinese people to think of the many bad things evil foreigners did to them in the past, and by the way, lets overlook the harm we did to ourselves during The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution…”We are victims of foreign aggression and you are trying to victimize us again!”
These “memories” are alive because keeping them alive might keep some people from turning a critical eye toward the present situation.