The roots of China’s relations with the outside world lie in the ancient and modern history of the Celestial Empire

The biblical Tower of Babel could not be completed to the heavens because the Lord acted simply and wisely – he separated its creators, forcing them to speak different languages. But China went in the opposite direction. Back in the third century BC, the legendary ruler of ancient China Qinshihuang not only united all the disparate kingdoms, but also forced everyone to be called “black-headed”  and not by belonging to a particular principality or ethnic group.

Many things were standardized, including the width of the chariot axles, which led to the construction of roads suitable for travel throughout the empire. But the main thing was the establishment of uniformity in writing. A single, understandable for all the disparate ethnic groups and nationalities hieroglyphics united the Chinese nation for thousands of years. For all violations there was only one punishment – decapitation. During the reign of Qin Shihuang, gigantic construction projects were underway. A huge network of roads and canals, the Great Wall of China, a new capital, the emperor’s tomb with an army of terracotta warriors, which he built during his lifetime. In fact, a system was built where the state is the main thing, before which everyone is equal and the law is the basis of everything. To the point that even if the law is excessively harsh and someone tries to soften it out of humanity, he must be punished. And such a system works in China to this day.

There has never been a hereditary aristocracy in China. The bureaucratic elite were formed as a result of the state examination system. Today, the Unified State Exam system in the country is extremely serious, the purity and fairness of which is ensured by the state, which allocates significant technical and human resources for this.

At the everyday level, talent selection is carried out everywhere and daily. I had to observe competitions for children of all ages, held in almost all shopping malls. At the same time, parents and relatives support their offspring in every possible way and enthusiastically welcome their successes. This care extends to adult children as well. For example, in the central park of Shanghai there is such a tradition: parents stand there and publicly look for a bride or groom for their children. And their ads indicate their education and Unified State Exam data.

Today when the number of children in families is not limited by the state, young people are in no hurry to have offspring. Once I asked a 27-year-old Chinese man with whom I worked at a company why he does not get married. After much back-and-forth, he admitted that he had not yet fulfilled one of the “three conditions” – he did not have an apartment. In a situation where the country has a huge surplus of males, the main condition for the bride’s consent is that the groom has an apartment, a car and a stable income.

If you ask a Chinese person about his nationality, you will receive a polite answer that he is a “zhongzhen”, that is, a citizen of China. Very rarely does anyone emphasize their belonging to a particular nationality. For centuries, everyone dissolved in the Chinese cauldron: the Jurchens, the Mongols, the Persians and the Manchus. Now the Uyghurs and the inhabitants of Tibet are going through the process of turning into Hans. Over all these centuries, the country has not fallen apart, but has grown. Even the turbulent decades of the first half of the last century, when different parts of the country were ruled by militaristic generals, did not cause the collapse. It is impossible to say for sure what is the basis of such unity are writing, philosophy, the triune religion or something else. Since ancient times, China has been on the path of reforms, not revolutions. From Buddhism, the attitude to time came to Chinese culture. The Chinese are in no hurry. Eternity lies before them. The ability to wait is the basis for victory without entering into battle – this is the basis of ancient Chinese philosophy.

Following the ancient tradition, at the beginning of the 20th century after the Xinhai Revolution, a single language, Putonghua, began to form on the basis of the Mandarin dialect, the language of Beijing officials, a language understandable to all. Over the course of 100 years, using other, civilized methods, it turned into the language that allowed the construction of the modern Tower of Babel – a powerful Chinese economic power that broke through into space. The Celestial Empire, which considered itself the center of the universe, became the center of attraction. China went beyond the cocoon that it created thousands of years ago and lived comfortably in for many centuries. Historically, it so happened that the ancient empire, which was far ahead of its neighboring countries, decided to fence itself off from the outside world. Moreover, the geographical position of the state contributed to this. From the south and east, the territory of its possessions was washed by seas and oceans, which the Chinese, after several attempts to use for communication with the outside world, decided to use for their isolation. In the southwest, the impregnable wall of the Himalayas rose. A short contact with Indian culture at the beginning of our era ended with the rejection of alphabetic writing and the “scandal in the Heavenly Palace” caused by the Buddhist outrageous monkey-man Sun Wukong. Here the peculiarity of the Chinese was evident. Buddhist philosophy, preaching contemplation and tranquility, was transformed into Zen Buddhism, preaching rebellion and disorder.

To the west were endless deserts, through which the Great Silk Road was eventually laid, through which the rest of the world maintained contact with the mysterious East. Although silk was the main, it was far from the only commodity transported along this route. From China, caravans carried porcelain and metal utensils, lacquered goods and cosmetics, tea, rice, and spices. Horses, highly valued in China, military equipment, gold and silver, semi-precious stones and glassware, leather and wool, carpets and cotton fabrics, and exotic fruits were exported to the East. In the north, in the absence of natural barriers, China created an amazing engineering structure called the Great Wall of China. Strict historians and military strategists claim that this structure did not play the role that its creators intended – protection from nomads. But its significance is much deeper – it morally fenced off China from the outside world. It is probably for this reason that even today one of the most famous trademarks of Chinese goods is the “Great Wall of China”.

The Middle Kingdom as the Chinese call their country, has been a developed empire throughout history, surrounded on all sides by barbarian tribes. This gave the Chinese reason to consider they the highest nation in the world and to build their relations with foreigners on the principle of “superior – subordinate”. The rich cultural tradition of imperial China was the basis of such an amazing phenomenon, when conquerors in a short historical period accepted the Chinese worldview and assimilated. This was the case with the Mongols, this was the case with the Manchus, whose imperial dynasties ruled China for two centuries each. Historically, China is characterized by two tendencies that are inseparable from each other and are closely intertwined with the modern processes taking place in the country. First of all, this is Sinocentrism. No matter what troubles and misfortunes haunted the state, it always gathered itself together again into a single fist. Unlike patchwork India, this incidentally is experiencing significant difficulties due to the lack of a single, unifying language, the Ottoman Empire, which fell apart after the First World War and the voluntary collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Empire only changed names and forms of power, but always remained united. The color revolution in the form of student unrest on Tiananmen Square did not find a response in Chinese society and was easily suppressed in harsh Chinese style.

The second factor is the Chinese worldview. The decisive factor in the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s army was that the Chinese communists were more committed to the national idea than the pro-Western regime of the Republican army. The patriarchal peasantry followed Mao Zedong with its faith in the emperor, Confucian tradition and Taoist mysticism. Tradition permeates all spheres of Chinese life. But it also serves as the basis for the inviolability of Chinese history and life. Despite all the crimes and hardships of the “cultural revolution” period, the cult of Mao Zedong remains in the country.

In the southern regions of China the influence of Western trends is felt, in northeastern Manchuria they remember who founded Russian Harbin, and they are also favorably disposed to Japanese innovations. In Shanghai, eternally open to all winds with its historical Western and Russian settlements, they strive for all the innovations of the modern world. But the bulk of the population continues to profess Confucian values: worship of elders, imperial traditions that allowed Xi Jinping to make himself the lifelong ruler of the Celestial Empire, ancestor worship, and many others.

The Babel Tower of Chinese history rests on a powerful and unshakable foundation consisting of tens of thousands of bricks. And any attempt to pull out any of them threatens to cause the Babel Tower of modern China to crumble. It is for this reason that both the authorities and the Chinese themselves so vigilantly guard its inviolability.

Vladimir Tavridi, International Observer

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