Chinese people LOVE me! (9)

"Chinese people love me because..... I never question the 'One China' Policy."

Yeah, right! I try to keep off the subject, and the Chinese are usually very good at treating silence as acquiescence. However, if they bring the subject up with me, toes are usually going to get trodden on.

For those of you who are not China-watchers or China residents, the 'One China' Policy is the doctrine that Taiwan is not a separate country, it is just another province of the People's Republic of China. Except that it has its own government. Well, no, it doesn't have a 'government'; it has 'authorities', but no-one really pays much attention to them, do they?

This is - quite bafflingly to anyone who grew up in an educated and enlightened country - the central plank of almost all China's international diplomacy. It is regularly used as a symbol of submissiveness, almost indeed of 'subjugation' in the original Roman sense (being forced to acknowledge your subordinate status after a military defeat by walking under a low hurdle or gateway improvised from three spears, thus being obliged to bow your head as you do so), in China's neo-imperialist drive to acquire more 'friends' than anyone else in Africa and South-East Asia. "You want a trade deal, an aid package, military hardware, a new oil refinery built on the cheap?? OK, fine, no problem. But first, you've got to tell me how much you love my 'One China' Policy."

It is one of the most dangerous and delusional facets of this country's extreme nationalism, one that the leadership seems to have been emphasising more and more in recent years (seemingly an attempt to divert attention from domestic problems by focusing on an 'external' boogeyman).

It is ridiculous, self-defeating, unrealistic, petty. It makes China look like a pathetically backward country, with no real grasp of modern international relations nor of its own history. It makes China look like a playground bully. And I am not, in fact, such a huge China-sceptic. I like the country, like the people, wish the best for them at this difficult stage of their development; I even have a muted admiration for much of what the government is achieving. So, it really saddens me to see China behaving in a way that diminishes its status and respect in the world.

So, yes, if the OCP comes up amongst Chinese friends, I won't bite my tongue completely, but I will restrain myself.

However, if a foreigner (as seems to be happening more and more frequently these days, especially amongst younger expats [students of Chinese, who are doubtless being bombarded with lots of propaganda on this in their study materials]) says something like, "Oh, you know, I think they've got a point over Taiwan"......... you should pour beer on their heads.