Uneasy Anniversary

March has been a particularly busy month for Chinese diplomats around the world. From Sacramento to Dublin, Hong Kong to Paris, Chinese officials have been working diligently to blunt activists' efforts to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan revolt that resulted in the Dalai Lama's flight to India. (Article continued below...)

For the most part, the diplomats' efforts abroad have been effective: a California lawmaker's effort to declare March 10 Tibetan Awareness Day in the state was derailed after the Chinese Consulate expressed its strong opposition to the nonbinding and seemingly nonthreatening resolution. Closer to home, however, Chinese officials face a very different and potentially more difficult challenge: how to manage highly emotional and nationalistic anti-Western sentiments that may risk alienating China's most important trading partners.

Throughout the month, state-controlled media outlets such as the Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily have continued to lambaste the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan religious leader. In both publications, a strident anti-Western tone has resurfaced, reminiscent of the highly nationalistic tone that exploded after anti-Chinese riots erupted in Lhasa a year ago. And that has been echoed—and amplified—on the many online bulletin boards that form the backbone of the social media web in China.

One Web commentator on the Tiexue.net BBS ranted: "Western people, as we all know, are cheating rascals, jealous and cheap … They and China are enemies forever." The writer, apparently in reference to the recent naval confrontation in the South China Sea in which the U.S. accused five Chinese ships of harassing its submarine-hunting vessel USNS Impeccable, went on to say, "Some recent incidents show the necessity for a strong military. If we don't have the strongest military in the world, reforms are insignificant."

Such emotional outbursts present Beijing leaders with a dilemma. While nationalistic fervor has consolidated domestic support for the communist regime, it also threatens to spin out of control to target Western countries that are now China's major trading partners, particularly the U.S. In a globalized world, with the Chinese and American economies closely intertwined, a surge of anti-Western sentiment in China risks provoking an anti-Chinese reaction in the U.S.—especially now that the global economic crisis has triggered talk of trade protectionism and "monetary nationalism."