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I've taken some heat here and sometimes on other forums it gets vicious because of my support of my adopted country China. I've always said my support is not blind support, but rather China gets a lot of negative press from the west, rarely does the press mention the huge improvements that China has gone through in the last 30-40 years. Such as considerably more freedom for their people, acknowledgments of their internal problems, such as pollution, their revamping of their criminal justice system, to how they respond after natural disasters. I'm not so naive to think China is anywhere close to being perfect, but it certainly is not the villain that many of us think she is.
For instance, about a year ago Reuters referred to their president as a Stone Faced Dictator in a lead in to a story about China. Very few in the west know that their president is elected by their legislative body and must answer to them. Nor do many people know that China has an election system in place. Nor do they know that non members of the communist party can hold high office. Or when a protest is reported, almost inevitably Tienanmen square is brought up, which happened almost 20 years ago and usually the protest are described as political when in most cases the protests are the result of illegal land grabs by corrupt officials.
The CIA book of world facts refers to their government as communist. But communism is an economic system that is the polar opposite of capitalism. How can China be communist when it is arguably the most capitalistic economic system in the world? China has not embraced communism since Mao died in 1976.
How about human rights abuses. It seems the press takes everything that any organization says bad about China without question and without questioning their motives all while ignoring our own human rights abuses.
My point is, when it comes to our press and government, it seems we believe them selectively. If we support a view, then we believe, if we don't, then we don't. In the ramp up to the war, the press and our government got wide support for telling the truth. Now they don't because it turned out to be full of half truths and lies. Yet we still believe what we read and are told about our enemies when, for as long as I can remember, the government and press has a bad habit of twisting the truth, to the press not investigating when common sense says they should. In another words, it seems, at times, both the press and the government are in bed together.
We are constantly barraged with negative things about our international enemies. How many of you can think of some positive things the press has said about the Venezuelan or the Iran government? Yet they receive widespread support from their people. The same with the Chinese people, yet one would think all three governments are on the brink of a revolution. Those governments must be doing something right to get such wide support. Yet we rarely, if ever hear anything about that.
I slowly realized that we do a terrible job reporting the news. That we editorialize our news and call it accurate, we bring up the past as if it is a sense of the present no matter how flimsy the connection, we make assumptions when assumptions should not be made and call it news, we are a mouthpiece of the government and the biggest and most egregious error we have made, we have lost our constitutionally protected obligation to the people of being the watchdog over our government.
That has nothing to do with why they are viewed so negatively. It has to do with general ignorance and a fear of them being an economic powerhouse (inevitable).
That has nothing to do with why they are viewed so negatively. It has to do with general ignorance and a fear of them being an economic powerhouse (inevitable).
well, that too but that's pretty obvious as to the fear or apprehensive part.
yes, a lot of it is or is skewed. the most important aspect is what china is doing and continues to do that will influence world opinion.
i don't know how convential minded the majority of chinese are. it would be a mistake for china or any country to model themselves completely after any country. it needs to learn from the mistakes of themselves and others as well as develop new ways to improve their country.
I will grant you the fact that considerable coverage of the PRC is tinted by Cold War lenses but Aaron you also remind me a lot of Soviet apologist before the onset of Glasnost. For example, you speak about the electoral process that is "in place"... well the Soviet Union had an electoral process that elected members to the Congress of People's Deputies. And like your PRC example, many of were not party members, but, the power of the state remained with the Central Committee of the CPSU. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that folks will read your post with a jaundiced eye regarding the government of the PRC, because the last time I checked the leadership of the CPC still holds the highest offices in the government of the PRC; Hu Jintao General Secretary of the CPC and President of the PRC; Wen Jiabao central committee member of the CPC and Premier of the PRC; Wu Bangguo, another member of the CPC central committee and Chairman of the National People's Congress. I could go on and on but I think you get the point.
Heat is an element within any 'rivalry'. It is to be expected and one shouldn't take it personally. China is a serious competitor and player on the world stage. The US knows it, China knows it.
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