Chengxin Pan Profile picture
May 24 5 tweets 3 min read
In this article published 6 years ago, @OliverDTurner and I argue that the American discourses of 'virtue' and 'power', shared by most Americans, are productive of the subjectivity of neoconservatism, which, despite its widely abhorred manifestation in the Bush Doctrine, is thus
more normatively appealing and more enduring than commonly understood. In fact, it could be argued that there has been a quiet neocon-ization of the West over the past two decades, with many Western countries appropriating American 'virtue' and identifying with US power.
The fact that no one talks about neoconservatism anymore today is not because it's gone, but because it's gone capillary. The deep faith in US-led virtue and power is such that the neoconservative motto of 'moral clarity' and 'military strength' has replaced good old-fashioned
diplomacy as the go-to approach to international relations. The rhetoric of the 'Free & Open Indo-Pacific', the formation of the #Quad and #AUKUS, and the expansion of #NATO are all to some extent the products of this neocon-ization of Western identity and foreign policy.
Without an understanding of the productive power of neoconservatism as a discourse in the US and the West in general, we'd be unable to fully grasp the dynamics and intensity of ongoing US/Western policy towards China (and Taiwan). journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13…

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More from @ChengxinPan

May 25
This 'leaked' document features prominently in BBC reporting of the alleged 'shoot to kill' policy in Xinjiang. It has no doubt shocked millions of people already given the coordinated coverage in Western MSM. ImageImage
As many have already pointed out, however, the font of some words used in the document is not consistent with simplified Chinese.
Moreover, when I downloaded the 'leaked file' from xinjiangpolicefiles.org/key-documents/
the version has been changed: instead of having 11 main points, it now has 9 main points. Image
Read 9 tweets
Apr 30
The Ukraine war signals that after 20+ years of failed intervention wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, the US and its allies have now rediscovered the 'winning formula' of proxy wars after the 2018 US national defense strategy identified China+Russia, not terrorism, as main threats.
To fight such wars against their designated geopolitical threats, they deploy identity narratives such as 'values', 'freedom' vs 'repression', 'democracy' vs 'autocracy' to sow & exploit divisions between rivals and their neighbors which are primed to distrust & hate each other.
Distrust opens up room for building and/or expanding alliances & strategic groupings (Quad, AUKUS and NATO) among 'like-minded democracies' right to the borders of their geopolitical rivals. Such buildup and expansion in turn exacerbate distrust & increase the chance for war.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 23, 2021
One of the US's earliest concerns about China's human rights violations dates back to the Opium War; one of the earliest UK overseas humanitarian missions also had something to do with its opium trade monopoly. Like-minded democracies have come a long way. books.google.com.au/books?id=OzsxE…
In the lead up to the Opium War, one side was appealing to 'universal values', and the other was determined not to let such 'fine things' get in the way of a big bucket of money, legal or not, and was prepared to use fake news to justify a war for it. Guess which is which?
Speaking of power transition in international relations, this was part of the original process of power transition from China to the US, 19th-century style.
Read 5 tweets
Jun 23, 2021
Australia 'blindsided' & 'ambushed' by a 'China-led' UN committee where China has a 'stranglehold'... nice media word play sufficient to turn a case of climate emergency facing Australia into the latest episode of China threat emergency for the public. theaustralian.com.au/nation/chinale…
So it comes as no surprise when the latest Lowy poll shows 63% in Australia believe China is more of a security threat to Australia than of an economic partner, a 22-point increase since last year’s poll. You wonder why public opinion has changed so much. theguardian.com/australia-news…
Most would say this reflects changing reality in China itself. Perhaps, but has that reality indeed changed so dramatically? Maybe so, but then how do we know? How many people can directly see the reality as it actually is, without relying on the interpreting filter of the media?
Read 8 tweets
Jun 23, 2021
The West is and will remain the largest manufacturing powerhouse in the world when it comes to media & knowledge industry. It enjoys unparalleled comparative advantage: language, loyal customer base who has limited access to foreign-language products of non-Western origins,
complete and mature production & distribution ecosystem, well-established & trusted branding, endless supply of cheap or free raw materials. Also, there is no real pressure on product innovation or moving up the value chain; in fact, the more of the same products, the better.
Importantly, while other types of manufactured goods are only to be consumed, the products in media & knowledge industry in turn produce and shape their consumers and help make new human subjects who produce as well as consume; so there is no labour shortage in this industry.
Read 4 tweets
May 8, 2021
The Chinese 'paper' or 'document' referred to in this report may lead the reader to think this is a leaked document from Chinese military, but in fact it's a published book and here is its full text if ANYONE is interested to know about this 'secret'. gnews.org/wp-content/upl…
In effect, you don't have to be someone from the US State Department to get hold of this prized 'document'. Nor do you have to be a cyber expert to verify 'the ­authenticity of the paper.' Anyone can 'locate its genesis on the Chinese internet'. If you want a hard copy,
it's still available from the Chinese online bookstore Dangdang, though the price has somehow had a 10-fold increase (from 50RMB to more than 500RMB). search.dangdang.com/?key=%B7%C7%B5…
And many Chinese readers have posted their various comments on this book here: book.douban.com/subject/317162…
Read 9 tweets

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