Just Say ‘No’ to U.S., Young Chinese Urge

“What China needs,” Song Qiang said ardently, “is its own Zhirinovsky.”

The boyish Song, 31, a journalist, teen romance novelist and sometime poet, was referring during an interview in a Beijing hotel to Russian ultranationalist leader Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky. He admitted that he knows little about Zhirinovksy’s controversial ideas--his anti-Semitism, even his anti-Asian spiels.

But in Song’s view, China has fallen too much under the spell of the West and particularly of America. He argues that Chinese women are infatuated with Western styles--and Western men; China’s diplomats are too accepting of American criticism of human rights; the CIA has too much influence; and Hollywood makes too many movies.

Therefore, China needs a home-grown ultranationalist to correct what Song described as “the imbalance in favor of America. . . .”

Most of the same ideas are contained in a best-seller, “China Can Say No,” written by Song and four friends, none of whom have traveled outside this country but all of whom share a passion for contemporary poetry and American cigarettes, and a growing disillusionment with the West.

The book, which sold out its first edition of 50,000 copies soon after it was published in June, is loosely modeled on a 1989 Japanese work, “The Japan That Can Say No,” written by nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara and former Sony Corp. Chairman Akio Morita.

The Chinese book appears to have caught a wave of anti-U.S. sentiment cresting in Beijing.

For Western diplomats, the book reflects a troubling trend. The same young crowd that the West has counted on to wrench China from its Communist gerontocracy has turned against it. “Suddenly it has become intellectually fashionable to be anti-American,” complained one U.S. scholar.

The complaints of the young Chinese include American preachiness on human rights and trade issues. Some of them voice admiration for Cuba and other countries that “stand up against America.”

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But all share the same starting point: the 1993 International Olympic Committee rejection of Beijing as the site for the year 2000 Summer Games, which went instead to Sydney, Australia.

The U.S. government took no official stand on the question, but opinion polls of China’s young show they blame America for the Chinese failure to win the Games.

For its part, China’s government--which fanned the flames of nationalism during recent military exercises in the Taiwan Strait--appears delighted with what it sees as a declining infatuation with the West.

“Chinese young people have learned that the moon does not shine brighter over the United States than it does over China,” commented Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai during a recent cocktail reception.

“China Can Say No” is basically a collection of essays attacking American cultural incursions and decrying China’s growing economic dependency on the West. One chapter is headed: “We Don’t Want MFN [most favored nation trading status], and We Are Not Going to Give You That Treatment Either.” Another is titled: “I Won’t Get on a Boeing 777.”

But on another level, the book has a confessional style similar to self-criticisms written by former true believers who have seen the flaw in their faith. In this case, America is the god that failed.

“From a young age,” Song wrote in one section, “I had heard the name of a great Western country called America. . . . Even while the whole country was angrily opposing the U.S., it was not hard for us to form, how should I say, a tacit affection. I believe an entire generation of Chinese children have had similar, genuine feelings.”