August 7, 2020.
Drawing on an essay by Seki Hei published in WiLL, this article examines Chinese Characteristics by Arthur H. Smith, an American missionary who spent decades observing Chinese society from the late nineteenth century onward.
Seki links Smith’s observations to what he describes as the Chinese authorities’ concealment of information, shifting of responsibility, and international propaganda during the COVID-19 crisis.

The following is taken from a special supplement to the September issue of WiLL.
The text introduced here was originally published in the June 2020 issue of WiLL and written by Seki Hei.
Seki examines the Chinese authorities’ response to the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus from the standpoint that a crisis reveals the underlying character of a political system and society.
His point of reference is Chinese Characteristics, written by Arthur H. Smith, an American missionary who lived in China for many years beginning in the nineteenth century.
Smith’s work was published in Shanghai by the North-China Herald in 1890 and subsequently became a widely read work on Chinese society.
The following passage presents Seki’s argument that there is a continuity between the patterns Smith described and the conduct he observed in China in 2020.

【Quotation】
China Is the World’s Largest Racist State
Arthur H. Smith Explains —
[Seki Hei] Then and Now… There Is No Word for “Liar” in China

China is attempting to shift responsibility for the “Wuhan virus.”
Actions that would ordinarily be regarded as shameless have, according to the author, long been considered quite ordinary in China.
Drawing on the work of the American missionary Arthur H. Smith, who analyzed Chinese society in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Seki introduces what he regards as characteristics that have persisted from the past into the present.
(Published in the June 2020 issue of WiLL)

The Principles of Behavior Have Not Changed
A Crisis Reveals True Character

The “Wuhan virus” spread rapidly throughout China and then across the world, producing large numbers of infections and deaths and throwing countries everywhere into panic.
As I watched events unfold, the attitude of China, where the outbreak first became known, appeared to me profoundly “Chinese.”
Information was concealed, worsening the situation and spreading damage and confusion to others, and then responsibility was calmly shifted away from China and onto others.
China went further, presenting itself as the savior that had confronted the new virus at great sacrifice and therefore deserved the gratitude of the world.
It promoted, both domestically and internationally, an image of President Xi Jinping as a great leader who had defeated the novel coronavirus and saved the world.
Xinhua even published a commentary on March 4 arguing that the world should thank China.
Such conduct by China was being viewed with anger around the world.
People often say that true character appears in an emergency, and I believe that this attitude reveals what I regard as the essential character of China.
Behind it, I see the influence of Confucianism and the Sinocentric worldview that shaped China for nearly two millennia.
In my view, these patterns of thought and behavior have changed very little.
This becomes clear, I believe, when reading Chinese Characteristics by the American missionary Arthur H. Smith.
Smith was born in Connecticut in 1845.
After graduating from Beloit College and studying at Andover Theological Seminary, he was sent to China in 1872 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Living in China for many years, Smith observed and analyzed Chinese society, patterns of behavior, and ways of thinking from the perspective of an outsider.
One result of those observations was Chinese Characteristics.
Reading this historical work, Seki argues, shows what he sees as a remarkable continuity between patterns of behavior in Smith’s time and those of the present.
Among the chapter themes and characteristics discussed by Smith are:
insensibility,
a lack of public spirit,
a lack of sympathy,
mutual distrust,
and a lack of sincerity or trustworthiness.
What do you make of them?
Seki further interprets Smith as describing patterns of deception, falsehood, and shifting responsibility.
His conclusion is uncompromising (laughs).