Is China arrogant? Maybe, but that's beside the point

In recent years, China has also charmed Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with its offers of economic cooperation and aid. It was an American — Harvard don Joseph Nye — who coined the term “soft power,” but the Chinese have taken the concept to a whole new level.

More recently, however, China has taken a different path, with its public persona seeming to become more shrill, even arrogant.

At the climate change talks in Copenhagen late last year, Beijing sent junior officials to snub other heads of government (according to one report, one even wagged an accusatory finger at U.S. President Barack Obama).

In January, it sabotaged talks in New York over Iran's nuclear program. And closer to home, Beijing has had tussles with India, Myanmar and Vietnam over long-running territorial disputes.

“It's the traditional way of thinking, given that the Chinese consider themselves to be 'sons of heaven.' If you are in the periphery, you are essentially a rebellious barbarian who has to be neutralized or conquered,” said political science professor Simon Chang of the National Taiwan University.

Arguably, there is some ground for China to be smug. As many Western economies tanked during the recent global financial crisis, China's economy continued to steam ahead, underscoring the effectiveness of its unique economic model.

And arguably, being assertive — standing up for one's principles and values — is sometimes not too different from being arrogant.

Allen Whiting, a China scholar and former U.S. State Department official, argues that China has traditionally exhibited three types of nationalism: Affirmative nationalism fostering patriotism, which targets attitude; aggressive nationalism arousing anger, which mobilizes behavior; and, somewhere in the middle, assertive nationalism.

Based on a survey of Chinese behavior in the 1990s, Whiting wrote that China will continue to exhibit assertive nationalism, given its emphasis on its “century of shame and humiliation” and a general wariness of foreign influences.

Granted, there is a fine line between being assertive and arrogant. But there is a problem here, though: when China displays arrogance, the arrogance, more often than not, tends to stem from weakness, not strength. Or as Professor David Shambaugh, a China scholar at George Washington University, puts it, China's “defensive nationalism” is “assertive in form, but reactive in essence.”

“Defensive nationalism reflects basic insecurities about China's society and place in the world. Psychologists quickly recognise such bravado as overcompensation for an insecure ego, and note that it can cause rash behavior.”

There is some evidence of this. The Chinese, like other Asians, are sensitive about “face.” At times, this sensitivity is based on their own perceived weaknesses; and overcompensation for such perceived weaknesses can seem arrogant.

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