Beijing Newspeak

I am on night shift this week. This can involve editing 25 stories in the space of six hours. The stories that arrive late in the evening are mostly ministry statements, accident reports and various “urgings” by vice premiers. Naturally, I can be a thoroughly inhospitable human being for seven consecutive days. Some nights I maraud the corridors debating the difference between “slavery” and “forced labour” in connection with the brick kiln (slavery) scandal. On others, I sympathise with my colleagues who have to knuckle down, cast talent aside and translate meaningless policy announcements into English. Sometimes, I just stop moaning and feeling sorry for myself, switch to auto-pilot and change the grammar as quickly as possible. Because when it boils down to it, that’s all I’m technically required to do. The rest is optional.

In this mood, I am rankled fairly easily by events or actions that make the whole process even more hapless. One reporter from the economics desk has started to ask me on a regular basis if it is worth translating certain Chinese stories from the domestic news desk into English. I am grateful for the consultation as it saves everyone a lot of time. I only wish I could get more excited about some of the topics but unfortunately 80.9 percent of them are rejected out of hand.

Bombarded by bumf as we are, even a snippet of information that sounds anything like news is a cause for a celebratory piece of dried pork. “What about this one - 80.9 percent of all products made in China for domestic consumption meet quality standards,” asks the journalist. Er … yep that tickles something. As long as your lead is 19.1 percent of all products made in China for domestic consumption do not meet quality standards.

No problem. The reporter writes a good story, I add in some background - something like “the latest embarrassment etc” -designed purely so the senior editor has something to remove and it is ready for release. Unfortunately, the released version went like this:

BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) — China’s quality watchdog said on Tuesday that a sample survey shows 80.9 percent of products made in China for domestic consumption were up to quality and safety standards in the first half of 2007.

    The survey covered 7,200 different products from 6,362 enterprises, with an emphasis on food, everyday commodities and farming machinery and fertilizers, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said at a news conference on Tuesday.

    The administration found that 93.1 percent of products made by large enterprises are up to standards — the figure was 84.2 percent for medium-sized enterprises and 72.9 percent for small enterprises.

    The survey revealed that 19.1 percent of products made in China for domestic consumption are substandard in the first half of 2007,moving down from 21.6 percent from a year ago.

    Tinned and preserved fruit and dried fish registered the lowest quality scores with key problems being excessive amounts of microorganisms or additives, the administration said.

    The quality watchdog cracked 23,000 cases of fake and low-quality food from December 2006 to May 2007 and a total of 180food manufacturers were shut down for making substandard food or using inedible materials for food production.

    Meanwhile, “99 percent of food exported to the United States was up to safety standards over the past two years, which is a very high percentage,” said Li Yuanping, a senior official in charge of imported and exported food safety in the GAQSIQ, in June.

After a year and a half at Xinhua, I still find this kind of thing difficult to swallow. It’s like saying “shhhhhhhh … just change it around nice and quickly, no one will notice, it’ll be fine, hee hee.” Unfortunately for this mode of thinking, the foreign media isn’t full of stupid people. The real story was picked up - why wouldn’t it be given the current uproar over anything with a “Made in China” label on it?! - here, here, here etc. The New York Times lead:

SHANGHAI, July 4 — China said on Wednesday that nearly a fifth of the food and consumer products that it checked in a nationwide survey this year were found to be substandard or tainted, underscoring the risk faced by its own consumers even as the country’s exports come under greater scrutiny overseas.

The argument is a tired one: Xinhua serves the Party. Everyone knows the foreign media will report the story correctly but it should not come from the government throat itself. And product safety is improving. Last year, the percentage of substandard goods was closer to 22 percent.

However, the China Daily report which focused specifically on food safety was even more blinkered. The headline was “Food quality up to standard” and it extolled the improvement in the safety of fruit juice, of which one in five cartons is apparently substandard. It even went as far to say:

Figures showed 92 percent of dried food and nuts were also up to required standards. Inspectors did not find any excessive use of food additives, a problem once common in dried food.

Brazen to say the least when Xinhua says:

Tinned and preserved fruit and dried fish registered the lowest quality scores with key problems being excessive amounts of microorganisms or additives, the administration said.

The final paragraph of the Xinhua article is the real kick in the teeth for the Chinese people, which of course include the editors who prefer to play the food safety issue down. The reporter was glad to see it had been kept in the article as a reminder that 99 percent of food exported to the United States was up to standard while Chinese people have to make do with less lofty figures.