By He Qinglian on January 3, 2012
In late December 2011, the People’s Daily picked as usual the top ten news stories of the year. Unfortunately in that list I found that the social pain nerves of the most superior mouthpiece have ceased to function altogether. That newspaper would soon become rouge powder that Beijing uses to make itself look good.
Among these news stories, only the hi-speed train crash incident and growth in nationwide food production for eight successive years were related to the people’s livelihood. All the rest were events with which the party and the government entertained themselves. What’s more, the wordings “State Council investigated…and meted out punishment” were specially added to the train crash report, the People’s Daily seemed to have forgotten it was the parties affiliated with the CPC and the government that caused this in the first place.
Since
other media in China apparently have yet to choose the top ten new
stories of the year, there are only top ten military news stories, or
top ten science and technology reports. No cross reference materials
are available except the year’s top ten topics in “foreign media
on China”, which the Translators
chose by vote counts.
And these ten
topics are: 1) Wenzhou train crash and the power of China’s Weibo;
2) self-immolation of a number of Tibetans; 3) Dongshigu adventure,
visiting Chen Guangcheng; 4) Ai Weiwei’s detention, release, and
borrowing money; 5) China’s economy on the brink of collapse?; 6) South
China Sea disputes; 7) Independent candidates stood for local
people’s delegate elections; 8) Pollution; 9) Recurring mass
unrest; 10) Impacts the Middle East Jasmine Revolutions had on China.
Among
these topics, only the reports on the train crash appeared also in
the top ten news stories chosen by the People’s Daily, none of the rest
was identical. And even on this issue, the foreign media
looked at it from an angle totally different from the People’s
Daily, which praised the government. The foreign media saw that
Chinese netizens participated through Weibo, forcing the government
to investigate the parties responsible for the crash.
The
top ten news stories on the Translators’
“Foreign
Media on China” presented the whole picture of China in 2011.
First,
monopoly and corruptions of State-owned enterprises that affect the
country and the people (the train crash); second, citizens’ rights
and human rights—recurring mass unrest, independent candidates
standing for local people’s assemblies elections, visiting Chen
Guangcheng and Ai Weiwei’s being forced to borrow to settle the tax
evasion charge that the government framed him; third,
people’s livelihood: pollution that seriously affected the health of
the Chinese people, and top officials who arranged for themselves the
privilege of purified air, discussions on whether China’s economy was on the
brink of collapse, which included issues like the rupture of capital
chain of the underground money lenders of Wenzhou, shares of Chinese
companies listing in the U.S. stock market were being dumped
collectively because of financial fraud charges, and the outlook of China’s
real property market; fourth, issues of ethnic minorities: a
succession self-immolation of Tibetan monks, causing grave concerns
in international community; fifth, South China Sea disputes: though
the topic was not a big one, it involved a re-shuffle of global
geopolitics, it involved China's being isolated its bordering
countries, it also involved the United States' return to the Pacific
and so on. In particular, the United States' return to the Pacific
signified that China's diplomatic strategies of peripheral diplomacy
and “dollar-cum-great external propaganda” had become a complete
failure despite years of hard work. Locally in China, the media
outlets either reported these lightly or blamed them on the United
States. Few in the country knew what the truth is; and,
sixth, under the influence of the Arab Spring, a Jasmine revolution
that originated from twitter spurred up in China. That virtual
revolution had at one point got on the nerves of the Chinese
government, which ordered arrests on a massive scale, effectively
altering the lives of some of the detainees.
It should be said that it was the ten
news stories selected by the Translators that genuinely
reflected how China was in 2011. Judging from the top ten news
stories chosen by the People's Daily, the newspaper was
totally oblivious of the interests and demands of various classes and
the rights propositions of the public, it showed off self-deceivingly
in articles which were tantamount to empty official-speak the five-year
plan, the forging of a culture and “accomplishments” that made
things look better. Bearing almost no relevance to the people's
interests, the way the People's Daily selected its top ten stories
was in fact not only obscuring the reality, but also making history
incomplete: since yesterday's news is today's history.
Renowned
American Journalist Joseph Pulitzer had allegedly said that: “if a
country is a sailing boat in the sea, then the journalist is the
observer on the bow, he should monitor everything in the endless sea,
pay attention to the unpredictable things and shallow reefs, and give
warning in a timely manner.” The Chinese people have long been
indifferent toward official newspapers that have completely severed
their social pain
nerves. When I was in the country (before 2001), subscription of the
People's Daily was already a political task assigned by the Central
Propaganda Department which must be fulfilled. Nowadays, anyone who
is seen reading that newspaper in public venue would be laughed
at—which was what Kato Yoshikazu, a Japanese young man, said to
have experienced in a recent interview. Chinese netizens are also
mocking the Central Television stations and QiuShi, a Party
Central committee's publication, both serve as mouthpieces. The
widely circulated comment that compared “the difference between
computers and Televisions” was included in famous saying on the
internet, used to create animation and ridiculed incisively and
vividly. That comment went: as soon as you switch on a computer,
you'd feel the darkness of society: corrupt officials, evil forces
running rampant, widespread poverty, as though a [revolution] would
soon break out; yet once you turn on a telly, you'd feel it's a harmonious
society: everyone's happy, people are all singing and dancing, it's
all peaceful, there's long-term stability, and nothing would
happen in a hundred years. Computers are like real life snapshots,
and tellies are like wedding photos. In China, we can't afford to use
cooking oil, the walkway; going to school, seeing a doctor, or buying a
flat are all above our means; we don't even have enough to get
ourselves a grave! It's too costly to eat vegetables, to repay debts,
to sue, to upset the officials, to rear a child, and to love. We
couldn't bear our conscience or to help a stumbled elderly person.
How amazing it is that we are still alive. Please forward if you agree. If
you don't, go watch Xinwen Lianbo (News Simulcast)
I think, in future when people can
write freely about China’s history of journalism, media outlets
such as the People’s Daily would definitely be included to show the
future generations this: how government-controlled mouthpieces talked
black into white, paying no attention to the people's grievances and
curried favor with those in power.
