China’s reaction to demands for election reform in Hong Kong will have a huge impact on its newly found international status as a great power, according to Cornell University professor of government Andrew Mertha, a specialist in Chinese politics, political institutions and its exercise of power. Unlike the past, multiple international audiences are watching its every move.

Mertha says:

“China has spent the better part of the past 50 years educating its citizens about how China’s former greatness was snatched away by the imperialist powers of the West and Japan in the 19th century, and that the Chinese Communist Party’s mission is to re-establish China’s former greatness.

“Today, Beijing has largely reclaimed the position of a great power, and its leaders are now finding just how complex the challenges – and the responsibilities – that come with the title actually are.

“Whether he likes it or not, Xi Jinping has multiple audiences that are watching his every move – he no longer has the luxury of caring only about how his actions play domestically in China, as reactions to Beijing’s ham-fisted handling of Hong Kong demonstrates. China’s newly re-established great power status is now Beijing’s, and Beijing’s alone, to lose.”

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