Despite investing billions of US dollars in “soft power” projects to improve its image abroad, China complains it is still getting a lot of bad press and is pointing the finger at foreign journalists.
Authorities routinely accuse China’s 900 foreign reporters — a record number, accredited to more than 400 media organizations — of covering China in a negative way. The journalists, meanwhile, complain of regular hindrance to their work.
The issue came to the fore at a forum last week in Beijing, where media representatives from China — which operates a vast censorship system over the press — and France gathered to try and iron out their differing views.
Photo: EPA
“It is not that China is against critical reporting,” said Wang Chen (王晨), minister in charge of the press office at the State Council, China’s Cabinet.
“What we don’t accept are double standards based on a Cold War mentality,” he told French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann, who had just highlighted the importance of journalists being allowed to report stories on the ground.
Foreign reporters in China are often blocked from going to breaking news spots, despite official regulations that allow them to travel freely and to interview anyone who gives their consent.
Earlier this month, for instance, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) — an illegal organization in the eyes of Chinese authorities — complained about working conditions for reporters in Tibetan-inhabited areas.
Journalists trying to get to areas hit by deadly unrest in Sichuan Province were repeatedly turned back by police, and authorities in those regions cut Web and telephone communications, making reporting on the issue near impossible.
On Thursday, the FCCC also issued a warning to journalists wanting to cover a revolt against local officials by villagers in eastern China after a Dutch reporter was beaten up by thugs who appeared to be plainclothes police.
Chinese authorities often complain to Western media of their “negative” coverage, pointing to too many stories on dissidents, protests, social unrest, pollution and not enough on China’s economic and cultural achievements.
These concerns surfaced at the forum, organized by the China Institute — a non-profit French organization created in 2009 that says it aims to foster better understanding of China — and by official Chinese partners.
“For the French media, China has become an autocratic country with strong economic growth,” Cui Hongjian (崔洪建) of the China Institute of International Studies said.
“We must provide more positive information to the public,” said Wang Fang (王芳), deputy head of the international section of the People’s Daily newspaper, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.
Erik Izraelewicz, director of French newspaper Le Monde, said that a journalist “should not have to judge whether news is negative or positive, just whether there is any news.”
“Our mission is to inform,” he said.
The Chinese government is making efforts to push the nation’s various ministries, administrations and local authorities to be more open and better respond to the needs of the foreign press.
“We have a project to train officials to talk to the media,” Cui said.
Authorities in some sensitive areas of China, such as the Xinjiang region, which is regularly hit by ethnic unrest, have let foreign journalists in under strict surveillence — in stark contrast to Tibetan-inhabited areas.
These improvements come as China tries to better its image abroad — particularly since 2008, when riots in Tibet and a crackdown on dissent in the run-up to the Olympic Games badly dented what could have been a public relations victory.
Beijing is spending billions of dollars to extend the reach of its state media — such as the Xinhua news agency, CCTV television or the People’s Daily — and of its Confucius Institutes, designed to promote Chinese language and culture.
And while China’s 9,884 newspapers, 1,600 television channels and 2,000 radio stations operate under strict surveillance, some of the more liberal press and the hugely popular social media platforms push the limits of censorship day by day.
Large numbers of smart, young people graduate from journalism school in China every year and many speak fluent English.
“There are 900 journalism schools in China that train between 50,000 and 60,000 young journalists every year,” Zhou Qingan (周慶安) of Tsinghua University said.
However, foreign media organizations are not allowed to recruit them to work as reporters — a regulation that forum participants said should change, as they could help promote better understanding of their nation.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia