"Home Coming": Decoding China's 'security' narratives to the world

BEIJING: Home Coming, a 2022 Chinese drama film is the story of two Chinese diplomats who will do anything to safely bring back Chinese citizens from a war-torn North African country back to China.

The theme of this most-watched film in China this week echoes the main theme of Chinese President Xi Jinping's agenda at the twice-a-decade Communist Party meeting in Beijing-- that the world is a dangerous place and China needs to protect itself, reported Washington Post. The plot of the film is based on real events however it deeply reverberates Xi's obsession with what he sees as mounting "security risks" that could "undermine the safety of China and the rule of the party."

Moreover, Xi's Chinese-style modernization just tramples upon multiparty democracy, direct leadership elections or legal guarantees of individual freedoms. The security rhetoric was also fever pitch during the 20th National Party Congress.

In his Congress remarks, Chinese President Xi stressed on the Chinese Communist Party's aspirations to attain global leadership. He said that this would only be possible if there is "absolute security" as much as economic growth, reported Washington Post.

In a Congress report released this week, the word "security" appears 91 times, up from 55 mentions in 2017 and 36 in 2012. In the report, there is an entire section on Xi's "comprehensive national security concept" for the first time. The concept envisages "active detection and management of threats in all areas of policymaking." The "global security initiative" he announced in April was also included in the report.

China's "security presence" continue to expand, especially via projects like the Belt and Road initiatives and more recently reflected in an agreement with the Solomon Islands. However, human rights groups say that there is a fear of repression which will reach far beyond China's borders.

Xi's global security initiative is likely to become a test for the country's willingness to compromise with the existing global security order, reported the media outlet. "This is Beijing going from a negative agenda -- 'we don't like the current order, which is Western-dominated and imposed on us' -- to China actually launching something like an alternative vision," said Helena Legarda, lead analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. (ANI)

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