The International News Media Should not Let Itself to be Misled by the Chinese Government

By Ciping HUANG

A few hours after the Sichuan earthquake in China, like most people, my attention was focused on the tragedy and lost of human lives. In particular, I have six old college classmates working in the nuclear facilities in MianYang, the city with highest death casualty, and a new friend who has relatives that were buried in BeiChuan, the city suffered most in percentage. Luckily, as of today, I have learned that all the classmates were not hurt and 3 out of 4 relatives of my friend will survive.

In a function today while I was chatting with physics professors, the natural topic was about China's earthquake. When I commented on the deaths of innocent children of collapsed school buildings, an American atomic physics professor commented: "Our news media surely are concerned about all the pandas." As the conversation continued I talked about MianYang being an important city for the Chinese military industry, including both nuclear development (coded as Industrial Department 2 for Nuclear Industry) and space science (coded as Industrial Department 7 of equivalent to NASA). The professor was shocked that the news media did not give coverage on the issue.

This issue should not have been ignored, especially since currently two major threats are facing the quake survivors in that region.

One is the possible flooding caused by the collapse of the weakened dams of the nearly 500 reservoirs in the region. People like me have personally witnessed the suffering from a previous incident in 1975 when the largest dam disaster in the world happened. The collective collapses of several dozens of dams flooded more than 10,000 square kilometers and killed more than 26,000 people and made many more homeless. Till this day, I still remember vividly the doorsteps of my home flooded with these beggars with harrowed eyes and sobbing voice telling their stories to win some sympathy for food.

The other danger that has not been told officially but is already spreading is the potential of nuclear disaster from the stock piled nuclear weapons in the mountains and nuclear facilities nearby. As a matter of fact, when the Chinese government abruptly refused international humanitarian assistance to the region during the most crucial time of the first 3 days to save these fragile lives, there was already the rumor of areas being sealed with heavy security and people with military and bio defense gear walking in and out. The military industrial nature of MianYang should have been known by the international intelligence agencies such as CIA, so it is amazing that the international news media did not report this aspect, an aspect that surely counted in the decision making of the Chinese government.

Many welcome the fact that the news media was able to report on China's earthquake this time in comparison to just 2 months ago when Chinese government totally cut off communication and media access to demonstrations in Tibet. However, considering the outcome of the international outcries and pressure from that recent event, giving a failure grade for its Olympic torch rally P.R., it was wiser for the Chinese government to improve its strategy to allow limited and misleading reports. Why misleading? On international TV channels, you could see much footage of the army rescue that was directly copied from Chinese government's TV channel CCTV. Why limited? I have not seen any in-depth report noticing the profound meaning of the military industry in that region over the pandas.

I have always thought the free news media in the West was the most forefront warrior of democracy and freedom, as exhibited by the Watergate report. Yet, over the years especially recently I have grown concerned by the trend of news reports, which I wish to be more serious and in depth, rather than superficial and tabloid type. I have also see the power of money control and influence over the news media in recent years, a conclusion which is not difficult to reach when one compares the attitude and reporting by the news media and scholars between the former USSR and current China. In my opinion, reporting and decoding the hostile and destructive forces is just another way to contribute to transparency and peace.

I have noticed that the Chinese embassy officially asked the US State Department for detailed satellite photos of the region. Yet, the US State Department agreed to it today. One has to wonder why the Chinese spy and intelligence agencies, including their facility in MianYang, would not produce their own? Then what is the real purpose behind this request? Would the Chinese government ever admit to its people that their super satellite technology could not beat American's? The answer is no. It seems obvious that they wish to know what the US knows about the installations. If you recall that just a few days ago, Chinese president Hu Jintao took the opportunity of President Bush's phone call about the earthquake to be his opportunity to solve Chinese government's difficulty internationally, you could safely conclude that once again, the Chinese government puts its own interest above the lives and welfare of the Chinese people.

So here are some suggestions of mine to news media what they could investigate and report on in depth:

1. Why did most school buildings collapse but not most of the government buildings in this earthquake? How Chinese government's one-child policy deepens the tragedy in this disaster?

2. Why in many schools did the officials survive, but not the children? We could not forget the big fire in XinJiang's school auditorium just 13 years ago. When the fires started, the school called the students to wait to let the officials move out first, which resulted in more than three hundreds of children's deaths, but not the officials.

3. Why the military could not move in to the disaster area earlier and the real reason to refuse international assistance teams at the most crucial 72 hours.

4. Knowing they were on the earthquake fracture lines, were the students and citizens taught the basic surviving skills? Being close to the nuclear facility, were the residents nearby taught the basic protection in face of nuclear contamination? (The answer is: no.)

5. The true reason why the military parachutes were not dispatched in the first 3 days, despite the fact that the Chinese government boasted more than 10,000 all weather parachutes even in 1999.

6. Why a few days before the earth quake, the government's announcement had to ask people not to pass "earthquake rumors" when they observed unusual events that signed earthquakes such as massive migration of toads in hundreds thousands near the epicenter days earlier and a pond of 10,000 cubic meters all disappearing in a few hours (the official announcement was deleted from the website after earthquake happened)?

Finally, let me tell people why I wrote this article. Thirty years ago, I was lucky to go to college without going through high school. I was lucky enough to be the classmate of the brightest and smart prodigy children of China at the time, and I choose nuclear physics because it was the most competitive, a career that my role model Madam Currie had. However, after I got a job working in the Institute of Atomic Energy, an integral part of designing atomic bombs and nuclear weaponry, I not only discovered the horror of nuclear weapons, but also learnt the fact that the Chinese government was passing the nuclear technology to countries like Pakistan. I had to question the possible consequences of an irresponsible government that disregards human rights and human lives could do with these nuclear weapons. From that point on, my pride and determination to search the truth of nature turned into my conscience and responsibility for the human race and the rest of the earth.

(This article only represents the opinions of the author.)

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Politics of healing in cross-strait ties

By WU JIAXIANG, WEIHAI, China

Published: May 13, 2008

Ma Ying-jeou’s honeymoon with the Chinese government may be over already, some critics say, even before he takes up his post as Taiwan’s leader on May 20. His popularity with the conservative deep-blue camp has also waned, owing to his appointment of Lai Shin-yuan to the Mainland Affairs Council. The controversial new chairwoman was a senior security advisor and a core player within the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a pro-independence political party under the leadership of former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui.

This analysis may not be correct, however.

In fact, Ma is not a groom in wedding attire. He is more of a doctor in a white coat. He is holding not a ring for a bride, but a stethoscope for a patient. What he wants is not a honeymoon but a period of convalescence from wounds caused by the struggles within the island, between the blue and green camps, and across the Taiwan Strait, between Taiwan and mainland China.

During the eight-year rule under the Democratic Progressive Party of the green camp, the manmade conflict between ethnic groups -- islanders versus mainlanders -- has been strengthened both on the island and across the strait. The Chinese people on both sides were badly hurt in this conflict.

Therefore, it is expected that the bluer Ma’s new Cabinet members are, the better the prospects for cross-strait relations. On the other hand, the more than 5 million voters in Taiwan who didn’t go for Ma do not need salt in their wounds, but a needle to sew them up. After a careful search in his doctor’s bag, Ma came up with the right needle -- Lai Shin-yuan, who is still seen as a pan-green supporter despite agreeing to support Ma’s policy on the 1992 Consensus -- an agreement signed that year by representatives from the mainland and Taiwan in which they agreed that there is only one China, with two interpretations of what “one China” means.

Lai originally emerged from the blue Kuomintang camp and served as a member of the International Affairs Committee of the Taipei city government from 1999-2000, when Ma was the city’s mayor. Before that she obtained her doctorate in Britain, worked as a journalist from 1978-1980 at the China Times under the Kuomintang’s control, and was employed by several international institutions, where she cultivated her knowledge of international affairs.

At that time it wasn’t Ma Ying-Jeou but Lee Teng-Hui who was the strongest magnet for the Kuomintang.

Lee wasn’t satisfied with acting as a step-son to former President Chiang Ching-kuo. He wanted to become the spiritual leader, or godfather, of Taiwan’s independence and democracy. Thus he started to turn politically green, split the Kuomintang from inside, and eventually supported the DPP of the green camp to take political power in 2000.

Lai was pulled by his magnetic attraction into the government under the DPP’s leadership since 2000, and took up a post as senior advisor to the “National Security Council,” mainly dealing with economic affairs. Later she left the Kuomintang, joined Lee’s new party and won a legislative seat in 2004.

But Lee turned out to be more of a pendulum than a magnet, vacillating back and forth, in terms of his political position. Lee was pro-blue, shifted to pro-green in 1999 and later turned blue again. In 1999 Lee became the godfather of Taiwan independence; in early 2007 he stated that he was never in favor of Taiwan independence, and that he was even thinking of visiting the mainland.

When the magnet moved back to the Kuomintang, the needles it had attracted also made the move. Dr. Ma is talking this needle that Lee passed on and turned it blue.

The first thing Ma must do with this needle is to sew up the relations within the Kuomintang that Lee split; that will show Ma’s big heart in embracing previous enemies. Secondly, Ma wants to be able to embrace the officials and civil servants of the previous government so that the hearts of the green camp can be pacified to some extent, but without getting on China’s nerves. After all, Lee clearly separated himself from the Taiwan independence forces; will Lai not do the same thing?

It looks like Ma will be busy with this healing work in the coming years -- dealing with the wounds between ethnic groups and across the strait and saving Taiwan’s falling economy. Luckily, the cure for all these ills does exist, and has been approved by the mainland. Ma’s No. 2 man, Vincent Siew, agreed with President Hu Jintao in mid-April to face reality, create the future, put arguments aside and look for win-win positions, while Hu agreed with senior Kuomintang member Lien Chan in late April to build mutual trust, put arguments aside, seek common ground while reserving differences and jointly create a win-win situation.

This is the politics of healing. If cross-strait relations can recover from their wounds, those within the island will be healed easily.

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(Wu Jiaxiang is a senior researcher at the China Research Center for Public Policy of the China Society of Economic Reform. He is a renowned economic and political scholar and a former visiting scholar at Harvard University's Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research. His research areas include economics, domestic and international politics, business strategy, and Chinese traditional strategy and thought. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at http://blog.sina.com.cn/wujiaxiang and www.ncn.org . ©Copyright Wu Jiaxiang.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/05/12/politics_of_healing_in_cross-strait_ties/9233/

Wild patriotism and nationalism in China

By ZHANG MING, BEIJING, China

Published: May 02, 2008

"Patriotism" seems to be a magic word for the Chinese. As long as a Chinese person claims to be a patriot, he immediately assumes the moral high ground. Whatever he or she says or does in the name of patriotism is perfectly justified.

If a person is alone, he or she generally will not behave completely without scruples; but if a group of self-appointed patriots gets together, they become suddenly very brave and quick to criticize others for not loving the country enough. They even divide citizens into two groups: patriots and traitors. The self-described "patriots" feel free to direct nasty remarks and abuse at those they have labeled "traitors."

Under normal circumstances, acts of violence such as beating people or throwing things at them are considered evil. Such actions may incite violent counterattacks, and eventually the police could become involved. Thus, whoever chooses this aggressive approach should consider the possible consequences.

However, in the name of patriotism, people readily engage in such violent behavior without restraint. For example, according to news reports, young people in the city of Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan recently organized a protest in front of the supermarket Carrefour, where they attacked people who went there to shop. The French supermarket chain is now under attack in China after Internet articles claimed that its owners or stockholders had provided the Dalai Lama's group with aid in order to support Tibet's independence.

Those self-proclaimed young patriots were shouting, scolding and throwing water bottles at the shoppers, and no one came out to stop them. What's worse, some "patriots" were yelling crazy things, saying they would kill those "traitors," peel off their skin and pull out their tendons, and even rape their wives and daughters.

It is not clear why this odd form of patriotism actually makes some Chinese behave very much like hooligans. Under the banner of patriotism, it appears they can do all manner of disgusting things without shame. Patriotism has become the shield behind which evil and ugliness can hide.

Surprisingly, ordinary people are just going about their lives without raising any complaints or doubts about all this, and without hitting back. Facing the frightening ferocity of these young revolutionaries, most people prefer to give in to avoid conflict rather than argue strongly in the name of justice. Even if some people feel unjustly accused, they will merely look dejected rather than speaking out with confidence.

The term "nationalism" in China is interpreted as loyalty to the nation, or absolute obedience to the state. Individual will and personal freedom are subjected to the will of the race and of the country. The notion of a supreme state is a powerful and engaging idea, and it is no exaggeration to say that almost everyone worships the state throughout the whole of China.

Not so long ago, China grouped its people into only four categories, apart from the military. These were state cadres, state laborers, state farmers and "fourth elements." The last group included landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries and "bad elements," or public enemies of the state. Among these, the cadres were the most arrogant, followed by the laborers and the farmers, who had no salary. At that time, laborers could easily lord it over those in the class below them by boasting about their salaries.

The power and influence of the state have not changed color in China, even though the times have changed. For example, the members of the national football team are called "state feet," the anchors of China Central TV are considered "state mouths," decent quality cultural relics or figures are referred to as "state treasures," and arts and crafts of so-so quality can still be called "state gifts" if given to foreign guests by officials. And the most desirable occupations for university graduates are state civil servants and employees at state-run enterprises.

In many Chinese hearts, "country" is spelled with a capital letter, while "citizen" is lower case. The citizen isn't essential and can become so small as to practically disappear. However, those who hold the state in highest esteem are in fact those citizens of the lowest status. When those people's interests are undermined by the strong power of the state, they will still praise the nation, as if it somehow gives them greater status.

The poor public does not realize that their tragic misfortune lies in the belief that the nation is supreme and the individual is worthless. In modern countries, even the most humble citizen can claim sovereignty and be an owner of the state, rather than its slave.

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(Zhang Ming is a professor and supervisor of doctoral students at the School of International Relations of the People's University of China in Beijing. He has a PhD in politics, and is the former dean of the Politics Department at People's University. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org and zhangming.vip.bokee.com ©Copyright Zhang Ming.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Society_Culture/2008/05/02/wild_patriotism_and_nationalism_in_china/5245/

No such thing as 'anti-China forces'

By WU ZUOLAI, BEIJING, China

Published: April 04, 2008

Within China, many drumbeaters are stirring up anger against so-called "anti-China forces," referring to groups that are against the Chinese people, hold historical hostility toward the race, or have a conflict of interest with China or its people. If these voices are correct and such forces do exist, they will oppose the Chinese whenever they have a chance -- whether it's the Chinese people or the Chinese nation. They will always be anti-China, just as mice are always anti-cat.

Does this perception match the reality, however?

Actually, those judged "anti-China" because of their critical or even hostile attitudes -- including foreign political figures, media and some other groups -- are not against the Chinese people but against Beijing, a synonym for China's government.

Therefore, one should more precisely define these forces as critical of Beijing, or anti-Beijing. There are people who, in their innermost nature, have an aversion to Beijing's policies and systems. They may be overtly hostile, but it is not toward the Chinese leaders or the Chinese people. It is related to problems and troubles caused by the political system, which have harmed the Chinese people and are also factors contributing to instability in the world.

In the eyes of some angry Chinese youth, the conflict between China and the world can only be attributed to conflicts of interest. Does this imply that feelings of love and hate between people are merely a matter of shared or conflicting interests?

In fact, we are living in an era where values are a central issue; the core values of a nation determine its core competitiveness, its level of development and the degree of respect it holds in the world. Interests are just temporary and utilitarian while values are eternal and universal.

In addition, international criticism of Beijing results at least partly from Beijing's deficiencies in certain areas of performance. Likewise, the United States also faces international criticism for the same reason.

I would advise that Beijing improve its ability to listen to different opinions -- to correct any errors, to be more lighthearted if there are none, and to cultivate a spirit of forgiveness as well as an ability to correct its own mistakes in the face of criticism.

Because civil society is not strong in China, and the mainstream media are all controlled by the authorities, the government is not exposed to a variety of opinions. As a result, the authorities are not used to dealing with disagreements arising within local communities.

Now they are facing a range of opinion from the international community. Some view China's troubles with indifference and some suggest ineffective solutions. This is all inevitable. What the Chinese should do is simply listen to different voices, and set right what needs to be changed. After all, other people are only speaking about you, but no one regulates your words and deeds, nor does anyone resort to force.

In brief, there is no such thing as anti-Chinese forces in international society; there is only some criticism of the systems or problems of Beijing.

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(Wu Zuolai is a scholar at the Chinese Art Research Institute in Beijing and an active commentator on current affairs. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org and wublogger.blog.sohu.com. ©Copyright Wu Zuolai.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/04/04/no_such_thing_as_anti-china_forces/1096/