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| Hating China |
| [Analysis] Anti-China articles in the Western press in the run-up to Beijing 2008 |
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Charles Michel Duke (cmduke)  |
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Published 2008-08-09 05:03 (KST) |
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The 29th Summer Olympiad have opened in the Chinese capital of Beijing. For seven years, since winning the right to host the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics, China has transformed the city in order to host this spectacular event -- brand new infrastructure, spectacular buildings and a rebirth of the capital itself.
It has been a journey that has reflected the course of China's development over the past decade, and it can be argued that hosting the Olympics is the crowning glory of China's revolution. Never before has a country turned itself around as quickly as China has done since the evolution allowed by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. Thirty years later, China stands on the cusp of superpower status.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| So to the main subject, I hate China. Or more accurately, the Western press hates China, and so I must hate China. Let me explain.
Over the past year, the vitriol against China has been stunning -- the almost gleeful coverage of the protests of the monks in Tibet, the criticisms over the Sichuan earthquake and, surprisingly, reports from long forgotten Xinjiang in the past week of the unrest in that province (see my earlier article for my own analysis, far ahead of the mainstream media). Arguments -- from the air quality (none of these concerns were voiced before Athens 2004) to the locking up of dissenters -- have been an almost daily occurrence over the past month across all the mainstream media outlets.
In fact, it is easy to get swayed into the belief that China is a land ruled by authoritarian bureaucrats who have at their command legions of armies ready to wipe out our way of life -- decent democracy with fantastic air quality!
The 2008 Beijing Olympics were always going to be a controversial choice. At the time they were awarded, China had not reached its current economic height and many "analysts" wondered if China could have pulled off such a construction miracle in the intervening seven years.
As a traveler to China in 2001, I had no doubt that China would easily be able to build the infrastructure for the Olympics. It was already my second visit to that country and I saw how fast the landscape had changed in two years. Not for a minute did I doubt the efficiency of China.
Also, there was the question of China's commitment to democracy and human rights. Over the intervening years, we have seen very little outward change from China in its approach to governance, but in the West we have seen massive changes. The steady erosion of our own liberties, the acceptance of torture for the interrogation of captives from Iraq and the unconcerned attitude to our government's own actions and intents have made us more similar in many respects to China.
The tools of oppression employed by the West are more subtle than those of the Middle Kingdom. The European or American authorities do not block access to whole Web sites and search engines are not pressured into modifying their own results. But after the suggestion by the British government to equip the police with ,a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unmanned-spy-planes-to-police-britain-886083.html">flying unmanned aircraft over our airspace for "safety purposes," we in the West are not that far from China's own hard-handed tactics.
Maybe comparing our liberal Western Democracy to China's repressive government is not appropriate. After all, a refugee from Sudan will lead the United States team in Beijing's opening parade. Could an athlete from Inner Mongolia or a refugee from the Korean border represent China?
The ideals of the US and of the West in general are higher, while in China, there is no surprise at seeing monks tear-gassed on the streets of Lhasa. But this piece is not so much looking at this, as it is at the sheer sense of vitriol directed at China by much of the Western media. After all, there are far worse governments than those that run the Middle Kingdom. Jordan, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of Congo are known for the maltreatment of their subjects, yet are never demonized in the press to the extent that China is.
So what is the motivation of all the negative publicity towards China? Is it our concern with Human Rights? Probably not, although that is a good cover.
Is it the jealousy of not being able to host an Olympiad as China will? Maybe, but then again, the Olympics have always had a political edge to them. So then, what is the mentality behind the legions of China Bashing reporters?
For me, I believe there is one reason why the mainstream press has tried to drown China in a sea of negativity. Quite simply, it is fear. Fear that after nearly 20 years of uninterrupted homogeny, the economic dominance of the Western world is coming to an end.
No matter what the doomsayers have said, China has come of age and is now entering the world stage, proud of its achievements (quite rightly so) and looking to a future where it is as important as the other big players of the world. Today's Olympics really does mark the start of a New World Order. A scary thought for many here in the West.
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©2008 OhmyNews
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