Why the World Hates China
The recent protests in the west over the Olympics torch relay had caused a big uproar among citizens in China with the internet in China awash with agitated posts hitting back at the west. Today, I noticed something very interesting. I have a couple of friends who are working in China and I noticed that their msn nicks now spot a heart-shape and "China" (to mean Love China). I turned to my colleague who had studied in China before and asked her whether she noticed something unusual and it was then she was surprised to see that all her PRC friends have that same message splashed on their msn. While the world continues to hit at China, its citizens have mobilized themselves to show their patriotism and support for their country in the cyberworld.
I also read an article written by China's Ambassador to London below. It is an interesting article, written not in an indignant tone but instead filled with regret and a quiet righteousness of been maligned and wronged. This is quite a departure from the usual hard-hiting tone from China and I would say a good PR offensive. Let us look closer at it.
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Stop shouting, start listening
China's ambassador to London appeals for more patience from protesters and China herself
Fu Ying— The Sunday Telegraph
Stop shouting, start listening
China's ambassador to London appeals for more patience from protesters and China herself
Fu Ying— The Sunday Telegraph
In the morning of April 6, looking at the snowflakes falling outside the window, I could not help but wonder what the torch relay would be like.
.
About eight hours later, after the torch bearer finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at the O2 dome and 4,000 spectators cheered, obviously with a sense of relief.
.
This day will be remembered, as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first western country to greet the 2008 torch.
.
On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic gold medalist, Ms Qiao.
.
They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn't believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens.
.
Another asked: Where is the "gentlemenship"? I used all my knowledge to argue for London. But looking into their watery eyes, I knew I was not succeeding. I can't blame them.
.
They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers.
.
They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now.
.
Worse still, they had to endure repeated violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate that I sat at the rear of the bus and saw the smiling faces of the Londoners who came out in the tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather.
.
In the darkness of the London night, waving the chartered plane goodbye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on, and the journey will educate the more than a billion Chinese people about the world, and the world about China.
.
A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on the BBC: "I felt so many things all at once — sadness, anger and confusion." It must have dawned on many like him that a sincere heart alone was not enough to ensure China's smooth integration with the world.
.
The wall that stands in China's way to the world is thick. In China, with 200 million Internet users, what's hot at the moment on the Internet are not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair, helped by a blind athlete. She held the torch with both arms to her chest as violent "protesters" tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay.
.
Some critics are especially infuriated by some of the misreporting of China in recent weeks, such as crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a crackdown.
.
On the other side of the wall, the story is different. Standing in the middle, I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions.
.
I cannot help but ask: Why, when it comes to China, the generalised accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean; why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support.
.
Even my own participation in the torch relay had been the subject of continuous speculation. I remember a local friend said: "We all like to read media stories. Only when it comes to ourselves do we know they can't all be true."
.
Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years have seen the income of farmers and herdsmen increase by 83.3 per cent. In 2006, there were more than 1,000 schools, with 500,000 students.
.
In this Autonomous Region, where 92 per cent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people — which is more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people.
.
There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.
.
I personally experienced China's transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up. The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese, those born since the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous, better-educated and freer China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West.
.
My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word "why" dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonise China.
.
We all know demonisation feeds a counter-reaction. I do pray from the bottom of my heart that the younger generation of Chinese will not be totally disillusioned about the West, which remains an important partner in our ongoing reform.
.
Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. Coming to China to report bad stories may not be welcomed but would not be stopped, as China is committed to opening up.
.
China is far from perfect and it is trying to address the many problems that do exist. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of the long-gone past.
.
In my one year here in the United Kingdom, I have realised that there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-80s, and most of it is quite close to the real life of China, good or bad.
.
China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China.
.
The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.
.
About eight hours later, after the torch bearer finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at the O2 dome and 4,000 spectators cheered, obviously with a sense of relief.
.
This day will be remembered, as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first western country to greet the 2008 torch.
.
On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic gold medalist, Ms Qiao.
.
They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn't believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens.
.
Another asked: Where is the "gentlemenship"? I used all my knowledge to argue for London. But looking into their watery eyes, I knew I was not succeeding. I can't blame them.
.
They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers.
.
They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now.
.
Worse still, they had to endure repeated violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate that I sat at the rear of the bus and saw the smiling faces of the Londoners who came out in the tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather.
.
In the darkness of the London night, waving the chartered plane goodbye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on, and the journey will educate the more than a billion Chinese people about the world, and the world about China.
.
A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on the BBC: "I felt so many things all at once — sadness, anger and confusion." It must have dawned on many like him that a sincere heart alone was not enough to ensure China's smooth integration with the world.
.
The wall that stands in China's way to the world is thick. In China, with 200 million Internet users, what's hot at the moment on the Internet are not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair, helped by a blind athlete. She held the torch with both arms to her chest as violent "protesters" tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay.
.
Some critics are especially infuriated by some of the misreporting of China in recent weeks, such as crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a crackdown.
.
On the other side of the wall, the story is different. Standing in the middle, I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions.
.
I cannot help but ask: Why, when it comes to China, the generalised accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean; why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support.
.
Even my own participation in the torch relay had been the subject of continuous speculation. I remember a local friend said: "We all like to read media stories. Only when it comes to ourselves do we know they can't all be true."
.
Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years have seen the income of farmers and herdsmen increase by 83.3 per cent. In 2006, there were more than 1,000 schools, with 500,000 students.
.
In this Autonomous Region, where 92 per cent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people — which is more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people.
.
There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.
.
I personally experienced China's transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up. The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese, those born since the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous, better-educated and freer China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West.
.
My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word "why" dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonise China.
.
We all know demonisation feeds a counter-reaction. I do pray from the bottom of my heart that the younger generation of Chinese will not be totally disillusioned about the West, which remains an important partner in our ongoing reform.
.
Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. Coming to China to report bad stories may not be welcomed but would not be stopped, as China is committed to opening up.
.
China is far from perfect and it is trying to address the many problems that do exist. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of the long-gone past.
.
In my one year here in the United Kingdom, I have realised that there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-80s, and most of it is quite close to the real life of China, good or bad.
.
China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China.
.
The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.
==================================================================
The author asks an interesting question which is why the people outside of China are so ready to believe in bad things about China even if there is no factual support. Now of course, we know that the Chinese oppression in Tibet is certainly not without any factual support but let's for the sake of discussion assume that there is no oppression and that instead the Chinese Communist Party have given equal treatment to the Tibetans; why would people so readily believe in the "evils" of the Chinese government? The reason is simple. The world; especially the west dislikes China, or at the least the Chinese government. And here are the reasons why.
China is the largest and most successful communist country. Nobody in the West or who subscribes to liberal democracy would like communism, so there is an ideological conflict. And of course in the minds of western denziens, communism means dictatorship and that means oppression and all the bad things that come with it.
China is a economically powerful. In the minds of the West, there is something decidedly perverse about a country that is run on a kind of dictatorship and yet managing to become an economic powerhouse. Worse the rise of the Chinese economy and the flood of China-made goods threatens the competitiveness and jobs in the western developed countries. Just compare China to India. Though India's current development lags behind that of China, India would in time to come become another economic giant. But one does not sense that kind of resentment against India compared to China and the reason is simply that India is a democratic country.
China has behaved arrogantly. China is arrogant in its conduct of international relations and diplomacy. China never compromises and really, they don't have to. The Chinese market size and potential is such that it cannot be ignored and the Chinese know it. Nobody likes an arrogant brat even if you are the most muscular brat around. Sure, America is arrogant too but America is a democratic country and that trapping at least gives the country some kind of moral pretensions which the Chinese don't have. So it is back to reason number one.
China control its media. This againt is another trait of a communist country. When you have a media that reports nothing but what the government says or only reports what is favourable to the government even under the pretension of maintaining societal harmony, it has no credibility with the international media, so anything reported by the Chinese media is automatically discounted. So if there are two versions of an incident that happened in China, one reported by Xinhua News and another by say CNN, the world outside would just dismiss the Xinhua version even if what CNN said is totally unsupported by any evidence. Again being communist makes China less credible and puts them on lower moral grounds. More credibility is lost when the Chinese government imposed media blackout whenever something embarrassing happens. When there is no information forthcoming, people are free to make up anything.
China is sympathetic to "evil" regimes. Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, the list can go on and on. You can bet your dollar that whenever there is an "errant" regime and the UN Security Council considers some punitive measure, China would be the first (well, there's Russia too) to throw the spanner. Sure, Russia does that too, but say what you may of Putin, even if the whole damned elections were rigged, you cannot dispute the fact that Putin won the elections. China, of course is communist and that makes the difference.
I can go on and on but all the reasons have a root cause and that is China is communist and that ensures their unpopularity with many people on this planet or at least the people whose voices are influential like journalists, politicians, celebrities, etc. I think this is something that the Chinese nationals themselves do not comprehend; partly because in their rush to get rich and to buy and buy and buy, they do not have the time to reflect and to think about their image; and partly too because without a free media in China, the Chinese nationals are continually being fed state propaganda and not have the chance to understand other perspectives and to see their image in the eyes of outsiders. Just look at the article by the ambassador. If Tibet is really so well taken care of and the Tibetans not marginalized, why would people be rioting on the streets? Is this simply just due to the incites of "splittist" faction? The Chinese should know and remember this ancient saying 官逼民反. People revolt because the government officials force them to.
I hope that despite all the anger at the anti-Chinese sentiments worldwide, the Chinese nationals would take some time to reflect why the world dislikes China so much. There are simplistic reasons like the jealousy and insecurity over China's rise, but that I hope that the Chinese nationals would be able to look beyond that and instead examine how their government and their people have conducted themselves and the image they have portrayed so far.
That said, I feel that I also wish to express my own position on this whole China Olympics saga. I think people have the right to express their displeasure at China through withdrawing from attending or participating in the Olympics or protesting at the sidelines of the torch relay, but violent actions like snatching the torch from torch bearers are distasteful, barbaric and counter-productive. For one, it causes the protesters to lose their moral high ground and show them to be a bunch of thugs. Furthermore, such violent actions radicalize Chinese reactions and would surely have long term repercussions. Because of this, I agree with PM Lee Hsien Loong's recent appeal to the west to restrain the protests. This is from a pragmatic consideration and I disagree with Yawningbread's criticism that this is simply Singapore government sucking up to China again. We can only hope that when the incident finally blows over, the Chinese would take this as a lesson to better engage the rest of the world rather than retreat into themselves as had happened in history.
1 Comments:
Check your copy of Lord of The Rings and modern derivatives like the David Eddings books, man.
West good, East bad!
And now that the Iron Curtain Berlin Wall Soviet Bloc is no more, when they look to the East, they see the Middle Kingdom rising up to challenge the hegemony of the West.
Hence the negative media portrayals, stereotyping and even no-integrity faked reporting fueling the need to believe everything in the East is evil, just like they used to do in the Cold War days to the USSR.
If the West really wants to Free Tibet, why don't they send a message by NOT operating their businesses in China to make cheap cheap good good plenty plenty consumer goods? Instead of attacking girls in wheelchairs.
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