Why Beijing will never shake its thuggish image

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Picture: AFP

The Russian President/dictator, Vladimir Putin, has an ego problem these days which cannot be solved by riding horses while shirtless or making bellicose rants.

He is the third wheel, watching on while the main game is being played out by China and the United States. He will not be remembered as a man in the mould of Peter the Great, which is, of course, how he sees himself.

When the USSR broke apart after Ronald Reagan had forced it to spend way more on weaponry, and more importantly weaponry to be used in space, Mikhail Gorbachev ran up the white flag. There was greatness in this man, who was not prepared to sacrifice the living standards of the Russian people in a forlorn bid to achieve parity and beyond with the US.

When Reagan produced the so-called “Star Wars” technology, Gorbachev saw how far behind the US his country was and how much it would cost to get back into the game. He correctly summed it up as an impossible dream. Putin would never acknowledge anything near that state of affairs.

The Cold War between the West and Russia is a pretty tepid affair these days. If you ask the average bloke on the street the almost unanimous response will be that China is by far the most feared nation, and there is good reason for that. The way China has reacted to criticism over its response to COVID-19 has reinforced the view that when the gloss comes off and the naked truth is revealed, China is still an angry, paranoid dictatorship in the classic style of the corrupt Marxist state.

No government welcomes criticism but in the case of China there is a desperate need to shake off the thuggish image. To do so, China would have to take the kind of bold steps its communist regime could never even approach. Loosening its vice-like grip on its minorities would be a good start, but at this point the Chinese seem intent on clamping down harder. There are times when those who wish to be on good terms with China tear their hair out in frustration.

It has always been the case that we knew the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese would end up as a drama. Millions of people, accustomed to living their lives under historic British freedoms and the certainty of British law, were suddenly thrust into the hands of those who had no such traditions and little interest in demonstrating sensitivity to those who had. My favourite city outside Australia is now regularly racked by huge shows of civil disobedience. China has no idea how to handle people who have different expectations to the average Chinese citizen.

How China handles Hong Kong’s entry into its undemocratic system will be a real test for China’s leaders. The Central Committee will have to work co-operatively and constructively with people hostile to their system and their role in maintaining and enforcing it.

The world will be watching!