The New York Times, an AMERICAN media that has always smeared China's addiction, has been subjected to unprecedented "backlash" because of a recent report.
The latest development of this wave is quite surprising: an American scientist chose to stand up and use his rigorous academic spirit to conduct a "microscope" analysis of the New York Times report, unveiling the political smear of the old American media layer by layer.
The initial cause of the incident must have been concerned: on January 13, just as the epidemic in Xi'an, China, was gradually easing and coming to an end, the New York Times published an article written by reporter Yuan Li on the front page.
In this article, the author uses her astonishing arrogance and prejudice to deliberately amplify the twists and turns and difficulties in Xi'an's difficult fight against the epidemic, interpreting the efforts of a city to work together to eliminate the virus as "chaos and crisis", and even comparing the public health and medical personnel behind the scenes to Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Nazi Holocaust, who the author believes is typical of the millions of dedicated anti-epidemic implementers in China.
After the article was issued, it quickly triggered a "big rollover" on social media, and countless Chinese and foreign netizens poured into the comment area of the New York Times and its author Yuan Li to publish and forward the article, expressing anger and criticism.
At the same time that the report triggered a wave of criticism from many overseas netizens with a sense of justice, the American scientist mentioned above appeared.
John Walsh, an expert in physiology and cellular neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine in the United States, pointed out in a recent article published in the Asia Times that the reason why the New York Times compared Chinese health workers to Adolf Eichmann was behind the newspaper's "distorted narrative" of insanity caused by China's success in fighting the epidemic.
Screenshot of the report
In the article, John Walsh first pointed out how absurd it is to associate a data-proven successful anti-epidemic operation with the Nazis: in Xi'an, a city of 13 million people, the campaign against the epidemic ended with zero COVID-19 deaths, and the total number of cases was limited to about 2,000. The Nazi Holocaust orchestrated by Eichmann killed millions of Jews.
The millions of medical workers pointed out by Yuan Li's article have tirelessly undertaken the heavy work of carrying out large-scale testing, tracking, isolation and vaccination, sealing and isolating living security since the initial outbreak of the epidemic, and it is precisely because of their work that China has finally controlled the total number of confirmed cases to about 100,000.
In fact, as far as some of the facts mentioned in Yuan Li's article are concerned, Peter Hesler (He Wei), who lived and coached in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was also described in an article published in the Weekly New Yorker in 2020, but his description seems to lead to a completely different conclusion, a conclusion that is completely different from Yuan Li.
Hessler mentioned in the article that a local official said that about 90% of the people agreed with the lockdown measures, some people would find it inconvenient and wanted to go out and play mahjong, but most would follow the rules.
He also explained for the spirit of Chinese's cooperation: "In my opinion, this is not an exaggeration. This absolute compliance is one of the most striking features of the embargo measures, in addition to the dedication of officials at the grass-roots level. WHO also notes that Chinese people's strong commitment to collective action has made it possible to contain the outbreak. ”
Interestingly, why can the same factual material present two very different tones in the writing of different narrators?
In John Walsh's view, behind this, how Yuan Li of the New York Times uses materials and how to graft arguments is worth studying.
Walsh believes that the headline of the online edition of the New York Times article, "The Millions of Screws Behind China's Iron Fist Virus Clearance Policy," first set the tone and goal for the report. The author's next argument, which compares it to Eichmann, begins this way: "The government is helped by a large group of community workers who enthusiastically implement the (dynamic zeroing) policy... The tragedy in Xi'an prompted some Chinese to question 'how can those who enforce the quarantine rule do this?' ”
So, what happened to Xi'an? The author mentions three things at the beginning of the article: first, a man with chest pain who was delayed for several hours when admitted to the hospital and later died of a heart attack; second, a pregnant woman who was delayed in her admission due to an expired COVID-19 test result, she lost her fetus; and third, a young man who violated the containment rules and got into an argument with the security guards.
Of course, in Walsh's view, the first two events were tragic and unacceptable mistakes. The third incident is difficult to judge. But he also pointed out that in a city of tens of millions of people, there must be some mistakes in the face of the threat of a deadly outbreak caused by the Delta mutation.
Building on these three stories, Yuan Li continued: "The philosopher Hannah Arendt believes that Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust, was an ordinary man whose motivation came from sparing no effort for his personal future. ”
"It is surprising to Chinese intellectuals that so many officials and civilians — often driven by professional aspirations or loyalty — are willing to be policy drivers," she wrote. ”
Seeing this, the author's amazing "Spring and Autumn Brushwork" obviously made Walsh have to sigh.
"Who are these unnamed 'intellectuals'?" Walsh asked.
Subsequently, he made it clear that there is no doubt that there are many Chinese intellectuals at home and abroad who are proud of the way China has responded to the epidemic.
At this point, Walsh has fully figured out the doorway and tricks of the New York Times: "This article sets the tone with headlines and a series of carefully selected anecdotes. It is important that emotions are as alarming as possible. Write the most perverse exceptions as if they were ordinary things. Finally, on this basis, suppose that these anecdotes are representative, and then draw far-fetched conclusions. ”
However, Walsh also noticed another "bright spot", that is, after the report was issued, many netizens pointed out in the comments that Yuan Li's argument was groundless and even absurd. This at least shows that "Americans are not as gullible as The Editors of the New York Times think."
It is true that whether in the Social Media relevant comment area of the New York Times or the author Yuan Li herself, netizens have pointed out that the New York Times and the author Yuan Li deliberately ideologized China's anti-epidemic measures, while keeping silent about the failures of the United States to fight the epidemic, which is obviously "double standard". Careful foreign netizens posted the population of Xi'an and New York and the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths since early December 2021, and bluntly said: Some people can't see the truth, they just pretend to stand on the moral high ground.
Nearly a million people are dead in the United States, and there are still some people who pretend to stand on the moral high ground.
Xi'an has a population of 13 million, Shaanxi has a population of 40 million, New York has a population of 9 million, since December 9, 2021, Shaanxi has less than 3,000 cases of infection and 0 deaths, while the three states where New York is located, with 2424844 cases of infection and 5476 deaths... This is what the author sees as a "troublesome blockade" and a "catastrophic nightmare."
This report is very shocking. The consequences of not taking a blockade of Xi'an would have been much more severe. Stop trying to make a wallet out of pig ears. The use of blockade measures to protect people has nothing to do with the "holocaust", and this claim is a serious provocation.
The United States has killed 800,000 people because of the new crown alone, and it is clear that the zero-zero policy saved Chinese's illness, not let them die.
"This is gratifying because the daily demonization of China by the American mass media — which the New York Times, which spares no effort , is a prelude to conflict and war." Walsh said.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Lu Xiaochuan Caption Source: Zi Xi Photo Editor: Su Wei
Source: Author: Informational Messages