On June 20, the China Daily, an English-language Chinese propaganda newspaper aimed at the world outside China, announced that it was launching the “Edgar Snow Newsroom” in what it says is “an effort to give full play to the role of its senior foreign experts and international friends,” as it tries to find a modern version of the late US journalist to help whitewash the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The announcement followed a statement by Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), who in March said that “China hopes to welcome more Snows of the new era.”
Perry Link, an expert on China’s economy, was reported as pouring cold water on the idea, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese leadership are not looking for a new Edgar Snow, but some “useful idiots.”
With crises in the Xinjiang region, Hong Kong and among China’s financial technology giants, and the West resisting its expansionism internationally, the CCP did not look at ease as it celebrated its centennial.
Wordplay of sarcastic remarks aimed at Xi circulating in China hit the nail on the head: If the disease that is admiration of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) cannot be cured, it will be difficult to get rid of Xi and his “bad habits”; it is the “Mao disease” that has nurtured Xi’s “bad habits.”
Xi’s think tank defers to him as it tries to sidestep the real problem by employing whitewashing and busies itself with exporting propaganda, promoting the Chinese system and highlighting its innocent victims.
In doing so, they want to create an Edgar Snow clone, as Snow was used by the CCP to promote the party’s “virtuous” policies, show how close it was to the country’s farmers, and expose the corruption of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In 1936, Snow infiltrated the CCP’s base in Yanan, Shaanxi Province, and stayed there for five months. He had long conversations with Mao, Zhu De (朱德) and other senior cadres.
The following year, Snow’s book Red Star Over China was published. It influenced the US’ view of the CCP.
In 1970, Mao used Snow to convey Beijing’s message that it wished to mend fences with the US, which led to then-US president Richard Nixon’s icebreaking trip to China.
Snow went to China at the age of 22, a romantic who knew nothing about the country, a “useful idiot” who reported everything that was told to him.
In the mysterious and revolutionary Yanan soviet, Snow was easily brainwashed and there was no way the KMT, which he had already decided was corrupt, could convince him otherwise. When his book was published, he became famous overnight.
Xi wants to imitate Mao, but the conditions are different: The outside world sees right through the CCP’s problems, and the isolation and secrecy of Snow’s day are long gone.
When Snow visited China, leftist communism was the “historical trend.” Now, communism has run out of steam, and the CCP is swimming against the tide by suppressing liberal democracy. It will not be easy for Xi to find his useful idiots.
The CCP, which once criticized Confucius, abused his “sacred” name by engaging in an infiltration campaign that established Confucius Institutes around the world, only to be forced to shutter them when the world saw through its ruse. Now the party is looking for a new Edgar Snow; it will have to look for money-hungry useful idiots.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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