China has to better protect culture for security

The world has made remarkable advances in high-tech, such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, as well as the life sciences. We travel into space, we build driverless cars, we carry a thousand libraries in our pockets, and our chickens are gene-manipulated so they won't fall sick.

The world is less aware, though, about the strides we have taken in the realm of humanities.

To simplify things, let us refer to the realm of humanities — cultures, languages and the arts — as the "fifth dimension". Culture is separate from four-dimensional material civilization.

Many things we previously thought as objective and real have now turned, figuratively speaking, fictile, relative and debatable. The humanities dictate history, laws, values, languages, communication and all relations. The phenomenon of social construction in the West is known to all. Combined with its advanced machines and computers, the West can now erase a faith or religion, make a country gay, turn a woman into a man and vice-versa, lie through its teeth when reporting a big event, and, most importantly, separate human beings from the world. I am talking about cyberspace, parallel universes, role-playing games, mass media and fiction.

Everything is a construct, and often what matters most is who came first. When the Europeans discovered the Americas, they could do whatever they wanted with the land and the Indigenous peoples: "You are the sheriff, he is the professor, I am the priest."

When the United States attacked Japan in 1945, Japanese samurai warriors complained that the Americans were illiterates, and were not qualified to practice swordplay, or use bows and arrows. Every "foreign devil" could hold a rifle and kill all the samurais of Japan from a safe distance.

Today, the Americans construct everything in Japan from distance: markets, media, entertainment, politics, education — you name it, they do it.

The West has built great portals to the "fifth dimension". The plan is to regulate and create identities, histories, ideologies and make-beliefs for us from a distance. It is like watching a group of Western hackers on the computer screen committing a crime.

When our Chinese engineers inspect their partner infrastructure projects abroad, especially in Belt and Road countries, they report back that Westerners have already logged in with their alternative realities, instigating the local people, invoking racist and anti-Chinese sentiments. They are disrupting relations, freezing bank accounts and spreading fake news. They close China's Confucius Institutes, ban Chinese degrees, and slander Chinese companies without any basis.

Another shocking fact, especially for older readers, is that technologies can make virtual images, voices, videos, books and persons look and sound real. What are the facts? Truth is laughed at. Celebrities are manufactured. To make what you think is valuable and real, you need patents, property rights and other protective measures. Think of a five-dimensional legal system.

To overcome these barriers, China needs to do certain things. Culture is vital to national security too. That's why China has to better protect Chinese culture. Therefore, the future of Chinese culture now largely depends on how that culture is constructed, regulated and expanded.

The author is a German writer and cultural critic. The opinions expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of China Daily.

If you have a specific expertise, or would like to share your thought about our stories, then send us your writings at opinion@chinadaily.com.cn or comment@chinadaily.com.cn.