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【Video/Thomas J. W. Bowen II]
What is the focus of China today? One of the main topics in extranet news is, how does the media report on China? How to report on the Beijing Winter Olympics?
The Western media did not have a good coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and they have not spoken well about China for a long time.
The success of the Winter Olympics won the hearts of foreign athletes, who praised the Olympic Village for providing excellent facilities, delicious meals, comfortable housing, and excellent Chinese volunteers who greeted them with a cordial attitude and a loving smile.
Many American athletes had a great time and showed great respect for China, which they said was a wonderful feast.
American athlete Aaron Bronck poses with volunteers. Source: Xinhua News Agency
At the same time, the "dynamic zeroing" policy implemented by the Winter Olympic Games makes everyone must strictly comply with the epidemic prevention requirements, in order to prevent the spread of the virus and the health of personnel, all participants will enter a large closed loop to live, work and compete. I think for a short period of time, they will always maintain a positive impression of China.
In this regard, some people may think that perhaps Americans will change their views on China, but to be honest, many American and European journalists are "anti-China", and the enthusiasm of the Western media for mocking China's public image on the world stage is still undiminished. Journalists in Europe and the United States have not learned any lessons, and they still maintain a "dead brain" view, while also using the Cold War mentality to talk about things.
Neutral journalists with Western backgrounds who call themselves "Experts on China" never realized the astonishing fruits of China's reform and opening up economic boom and refused to see the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party play a key role in the country's progress and shared prosperity.
I've been following Western media reports of attacks on China lately, and I wanted to look at very "specific" articles, and I wanted to know exactly what they were writing.
Not surprisingly, these articles are very negative. When I google China, almost all the articles on the web are "negative news" about China.
When normal Chinese and expats, including me, read Western media coverage of China, their descriptions of China often run counter to the facts. For example, the New York Times articles on China give me the feeling of reading a novel, and maybe some of the articles are basically accurate, but most of the stories are set in nonsense. Apparently, many Western media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and NBC News, are covering "anti-China" stories to please their true masters, the U.S. government.
Let's talk about these articles, for example, the Diplomat published an article last week titled "SpyIng for the 2022 China Winter Olympics: What Should Athletes Expect?" For "anti-China" people, this article can be regarded as a front-page headline.
The 2022 China Winter Olympics Spy Program: What Should Athletes Expect? Source: Diplomacy Scholar
As I read this article, I also took some notes – I like to take notes, it seems that I am a person who loves research, and I found that this article is a "tune" that many "anti-China" people like, who think that China is engaged in large-scale espionage and that everything the government does has to do with espionage.
For example, the Chinese government is spying on you when you're on the phone, and if you're recording video like me, the Chinese government is watching all of this.
At the same time, they also believe that the Chinese government will get all your information and then use it against you, because the government wants you to be a "good citizen." Or, if you're an expat, the government wants you to be a good expat. So they have to spy on you, and basically that's the "tune."
Obviously, we will see some of the main points of the regular conversation of foreign media, the Beijing Winter Olympics will not only have athletes, but also coaches, team leaders, medical personnel and other sports team staff. Therefore, the Beijing Winter Olympics will have nearly two or three thousand people to participate. The Diplomat, on the other hand, says that everyone who attends the Winter Olympics will be monitored, tracked, and get the news you want to know.
Apparently, they also believe that American athletes should be more or less aware of some state secrets, the Diplomat said: "China's Ministry of Public Security has been installing electronic monitoring devices in hotels frequented by foreigners, which are likely to be deployed in the Olympic Village." ”
Then, Diplomats makes another point — they target the "health code" that China's 1.4 billion people are familiar with. Chinese must scan a "health code" every time they go to a restaurant, store, or office to prove that they are healthy. If you are infected with the new crown virus, the "health code" will turn red, and you can also update the vaccine record on the "health code".
But when a country of 1.4 billion people needs to "spy" on so many people, it's quite difficult to do; The Diplomat's remarks are just another gross exaggeration of China, which is a routine operation of the Western media. In addition, fox news often criticizes China with these out-of-the-box news, and they do this line of work, and we can't do anything about it.
Praise China when you are in China, and take a bite back when you leave
I also saw an interesting article about a Swedish athlete, Nils van der Poel, a speed skater who won two gold medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics, congratulations! I'm glad to hear he won the gold medal.
During the Winter Olympics, he also broke the world record for men's speed skating in 10,000m, which looks good, doesn't it? But he was clearly not a "qualified" guest.
Van der Boer called it "extremely irresponsible" for China to be allowed to host the Olympics. Source: The Guardian
When Van der Boule first came to China, he said the Olympic Village was wonderful, Chinese people were always smiling and looking happy, saying they were the most amazing people he had ever met, and saying that China was the greatest country in the world.
Subsequently, van der Pol returned to Sweden, and the Guardian reporter decided to talk to van der Pol, bearing in mind that the Guardian reporter did not have anything good to say about China. So, the Guardian asked Van der Bohr, what do you think of China? Instead of praising China as he had before, van der Pol said it was "extremely irresponsible" to be allowed to host the Games.
Nils van der Pol, a man who has won two gold medals, when he was in China, he was praising China; when he left China, he instead bit back at China, which is really outrageous.
If it is very irresponsible to let China host the Olympic Games, van der Bohr's approach is also extremely irresponsible. If Van der Boulevard really believes that China is very "evil and terrible", then why come to the Winter Olympics? Why win medals at the Winter Olympics? Why do we praise China in a hypocritical way?
Frankly, I don't know why, I don't know mind reading, so I was puzzled and only the strange word remained in my head, but it was clear that Van de Boul did not have the courage to say what he really thought to Chinese.
Hype the topic of Xinjiang and demand increased defense spending
Al-Jazeera is an Arab news outlet that does a lot of coverage of Arab news. On the Xinjiang issue, this is al-Jazeera's big news. So, when you look at Al Jazeera's coverage of China and the Winter Olympics, it's basically all about Xinjiang.
Al Jazeera, of course, has to complain, for example, at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, China put a Uighur athlete as a torchbearer and lit a sacred flame at the Winter Olympics, while Al Jazeera headlines were "This is controversial" and "This is shameful."
If China really did "inhumanely" abuse Uighurs, why would it let a Uighur participate in the Winter Olympics? Why are Uighurs allowed to participate in the Olympics? Don't you think Uyghurs eat bad food and drink beer in so-called "re-education camps"? According to Western media reports, if you enter the so-called "re-education camp", it means that you must abandon the Muslim faith.
But the Uighur torchbearer is clearly athletically gifted, and she is also eligible for the next Olympics, which means she has good training and diet. I've seen pictures of her, she looks very healthy and doesn't look like she's been tortured in some "re-education camp", she looks like a real athlete.
Diniger Yilamujiang (left) and Zhao Jiawen left the torch in the middle of the "big snowflakes". Source: Xinhua News Agency
Subsequently, Al Jazeera also contacted the IOC, and it was clear that they wanted to "do things" for the IOC, and the result was that the IOC gave a very conventional answer. They say China has every right to invite anyone eligible to participate in the Olympics and to make anyone who is qualified to be a torchbearer. A torchbearer from Xinjiang, which is good for both him and China, it's a great thing to be able to see a Uighur lighting a torch for the Olympics.
To be honest, the United States doesn't care about Muslims living or dying, as can be seen in the decades-long war in the Middle East. Why is the U.S. suddenly paying attention to Chinese Muslims? The reason is simple: in order to increase huge spending on U.S. defense, many U.S. government officials, Washington think tanks, U.S. foreign policy thought leaders, and mainstream Western media want to wage war against China.
Defense weapons contractor Lockheed Martin, Thunder, General Dynamics and Boeing are all major sponsors of think tanks and media, and in order to seek huge benefits, they will not hesitate to stir up contradictions between China and the United States through "anti-China" remarks.
It seems that the "anti-China" remarks of the Western media do not seem to be reasonable, and many European and American journalists know nothing about China, they just regard China as an enemy, and nothing can make them change their stereotypes. But there are two old sayings that "the truth will always come out and will always prevail," and China should not lose hope. Sooner or later, the world will discover the long-standing lies of the Western media on the China issue, and they will suffer painful consequences for it.
I read a lot of outrageous articles, including one in Foreign Policy that said some people claimed to be foreign policy experts in Washington, but they were clearly not China experts. In fact, they only care about whether defense spending can make U.S. defense contractors more profitable.
For example, I read an article in Foreign Policy titled "Washington Must Prepare for War with Russia and China." The word "must" sounds like the inevitable outbreak of war, is it a war in China? Or the War of Russia?
Washington Must Prepare for War with Russia and China Source: Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy these people are like this, they just think that China wants to invade other countries everywhere, so the United States must spend thousands of dollars on defense costs, and guess what, the High Cost of National Defense in the United States is frightening. In 2021 alone, the U.S. spent $778 billion on defense.
It turns out that Russia and China together only spent about $310 billion. "In addition, the United States could even double its defense spending (currently 2.8 percent of GDP)," but still be below the Cold War average (close to 7 percent of GDP)," foreign policy said. ”
I hope that this author will hurry back to the Cold War period and stay there and not come back, he obviously did not realize the impact of the Cold War on the world, and I have to say that most people in the United States did not realize it.
The U.S. government has pledged $500 million to "anti-China" news
All Americans support the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which respects the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of public assembly, and freedom of the media. However, the concept of free speech in the United States began to "taste" because the free media seemed to have ceased to exist.
Washington has begun to support censorship, mainly to interfere more in the commercial affairs of private media, and subsidize mainstream Western media (MSM), in return, the United States hopes that journalists will support "anti-China" reporting. I believe that as journalists, they should blaze new trails in independent thinking, expose corruption, and lift the "fig leaf" of the United States, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
However, this notion no longer exists, and instead the U.S. government intends to use journalists as pawns in its foreign policy agenda, and the "puppet masters" on Capitol Hill no longer hide their dark intentions.
With strong support from Democrats and Republicans, Congress passed legislation called the U.S. Competition Act, which supports the U.S. government's efforts to restore domestic manufacturing, strengthen national supply chains, and impose stricter laws on Chinese companies doing business in the United States, while also raising tariffs on Chinese imports, according to the American Prospect.
The U.S. Congress has tried to legislate to restore domestic manufacturing. Source: American Outlook
The U.S. Competition Act, which is expected to win a Senate vote and subsequently signed into formal law by U.S. President Joe Biden, is said to be the U.S. "industrial policy plan, and it also provides $500 million in funding for the U.S. Global Media Agency (USAGM).
USAGM is a U.S.-based media services and training center that opens workshops, coursework, and teaches foreign journalists how to write negative news about China around "anti-China" reporting. Subsequently, these negative reports will be disseminated in the US media circles, using the Google News search engine for online dissemination, and MSM will be responsible for writing follow-up articles on "anti-China" reports.
Curiously, the bill's authors insist that USAGM exists to combat "disinformation" in China, but they also never explain why the Chinese government spreads "disinformation." According to reports, for every "anti-China" article published in the media, USAGM provides $1,000 to journalists, you know, which is a big amount of money for journalists in Africa and Latin America.
It's wonderful that the U.S. government could have spent that money on poverty or weapons, and now they're going to spend it on journalists and let those journalists write bad things about China.
That's my main argument today, that "anti-China" journalism will last forever, first, the U.S. government has invested a lot of money in it; many people think the Cold War still exists, and defense contractors fund a lot of media, as well as think tanks in Washington, D.C., Brussels, and London. At the same time, the well-fated defense contractors who hold a grudge against China will continue to "smear" China by talking nonsense in the media. That's the way it is, and it won't change for quite some time, so let it go.
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