A woman holds a placard during a rally in Toronto, Canada, on July 1, 2021.Photo:Xinhua

July 1st, 2021, marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). On that day, many Chinese people were happily celebrating the birthday of the Party that has made China independent and prosperous.

A scholar called Bill Hayton in an article published on the same day claimed that the CPC should "raise a glass to the colonialists who got them to where they are today." He argued that "without the treaty ports, the international connections, the intellectual milieu and the organizational networks that developed as a result of imperial interference, there would have been no political space in which the CCP could emerge."

Hayton used to be a former correspondent for the BBC in Vietnam. Later, he became involved in topics about China and joined Chatham House based in London. He is also somewhat well-known in the Chinese history circle. This is because he has written two books that try to "deconstruct" and "distort" Chinese history from a Western perspective and approach. One of the books claims that the concept of China was invented only in the 19th century, and thus claims that neither the South China Sea nor Xinjiang belonged to China. The other one claimed that the Qing Dynasty had no navy and could not reach the South China Sea, implicating that the South China Sea was not owned by China.

Many of his critics pointed out that he was piecing together his own conclusions by selectively presenting information and taking history out of context.

His provocation over the centennial celebrations of the CPC is also a way of distorting and deconstructing history. He declared that the CPC should be grateful to Western colonialists and imperialists -- yes, not sarcastically, but really asking us to thank the Western powers for colonizing and carving up China.

He reasoned that it was the Western colonists and imperialists who pried open the doors of the Qing Dynasty, brought advanced ideas to the Chinese people, enlightened us, and enabled us to embark on the road of revolution. And because the colonists carved us up, and established concessions, and forced China to open ports, the revolutionaries could study abroad and make revolution freely in the concessions.

What kind of logic is that? It's like a tyrant who, after being overthrown by the people, says that if he hadn't built the kingdom, these people wouldn't have had the chance to make a revolution and overthrow him, so the people should be grateful to the tyrant.

But the Chinese don't have to refute him. All we need to do is tell the indigenous people protesting on Canada Day about his absurd logic.

While the CPC was celebrating its 100th anniversary, on the same day, a group of angry indigenous people in Canada took to the streets, accusing Western colonists of taking their land and homes, and of mistreating and cruelly torturing them.

According to Hayton's logic, the indigenous people in Canada who were taken from their homes and lands by Western colonists, forced to go to missionary boarding schools, and subjected to various abuses and cultural cleansing should also be grateful to the Western colonists: It was the arrival of the Western colonists that enlightened them and made them know what was racism, what was colonialism and what was genocide, so that these indigenous people are marching for these reasons and putting out these slogans. Right, Bill Hayton?

We should also give Bill Hayton's logic to black people in the US and UK, and tell them that according to the logic of this white man, black people should thank the white slave owners who sold them from Africa to North America and Europe as slaves, because if it wasn't for them, those black people must still be poor and starving in those "third world" countries, how could it be possible to have today's development and welfare in Europe and the US, and be able to take to the streets?

In this era, there are not many people who dare to glorify colonialism and imperialism so shamelessly. His name "Bill Hayton" and his "Hayton logic" should be spread to all the nations and countries that have been hurt by colonialism and imperialism for everyone to see. 

The author is a reporter of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn