Armed with nationalism and the Internet, young Chinese abroad have launched a wave of attacks accusing Western media of bias in reporting on unrest in Tibet and defending Beijing's crackdown.
The outpouring of emotion is unprecedented in scale and force. China's rising international status and Beijing's success in portraying the violence as being motivated by Tibetan separatists has emboldened students and others to express views that are unpopular in their host countries, experts said.
From YouTube videos to Facebook to Web sites created to criticize news reporting, the message is emphatic: Western media are irresponsible and Tibet will never be independent.
"To all you bandwagon jumpers who know nothing about chinese history and to all you bashers, let me give you some solid FACTS why Tibet was, is and always will be a part of China," says the opening statement of a video on YouTube that the site says was viewed about 2 million times by Saturday.
The protests, led by monks, began peacefully on March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. They erupted in violence on March 14. The Chinese government says 22 people have died, while Tibetans abroad put the death toll at 140.
The unrest has cast a harsh light on China just as it prepares for the Beijing Olympics. Foreign governments have called for restraint and for independent monitors to ensure human rights are respected.
"Imagine everyday you open the news and it's all saying bad and biased words towards your motherland: crackdown, killing, burning," Liu Yang, a graduate student in biology at the University of Chicago, said in an e-mail.
"I don't understand, they struggle for press freedom and fairness, but why would they lose their conscience now?" she wrote. "Isn't the media independent, instead of being a mouthpiece?"
College professors and several students agreed the sentiment wasn't confined to just a few fervent patriots.
"Most of my friends here hold similar views," said Kevin He, a doctoral candidate who is president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at UCLA.
"I have been talking about this issue with people from other organizations across the North America. They pretty much share the same opinions," he said.
In China, the news has raised less fuss, due in part to media controls that keep most Chinese from seeing reports aside from the entirely state-controlled press.
The fact that Chinese students in the West are unsympathetic to Tibetans should be no surprise, said Barry Sautman, a social scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
"The fact that they're living and studying and maybe working in the US or any other part of the West doesn't make them feel they should adopt the prevailing viewpoint, because it doesn't necessarily correspond with what they know about China and the Chinese," he said.
One student involved with a pro-Beijing Facebook group said he has struggled to battle misconceptions about his native country.
"I do believe I should represent China whenever I can and defend my country ... but it is disheartening sometimes because many people simply do not listen," said Chris Yao, who administers a group called "Tibet WAS, IS, and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China," inspired by the YouTube video.
"Ever got angry from CNN news reports over the Tibet issue?" says a note on the page. "Well, let me tell you, you are not the only one!"
The students and Chinese media have offered a handful of examples of what they say is bias among Western journalists.
One Web site, www.anti-cnn.com, complained that several news outlets showed photos of police in Nepal scuffling with protesters and misidentified the security forces as Chinese.
It accused US-based CNN of improperly cropping a photo of Chinese military vehicles on its Web site to remove Tibetan rioters who were pelting the trucks with rocks.
CNN insisted it has reported impartially.
"CNN refutes all allegations by bloggers that it distorts its coverage of the events in Tibet to portray either side in a more favorable light," the network said in a statement.
The photo of military vehicles "was used wholly appropriately," the statement said. It said there should be no confusion because the image was captioned, "Tibetans throw stones at army vehicles on a street in the capital Lhasa."
Yao, 22, is a Chinese-born computer engineering student at Canada's Simon Fraser University. He has lived in the US and Canada since age 10, but says his loyalties lie with China.
He plans to return after his graduation.
"We are under no government influence and we are doing this strictly because we believe that, we, as people who have Chinese heritage in us, should try to correct the world when they have been wrongly informed about China," he said in an e-mail.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS