It’s still going to be a few days yet before it feels acceptable to write about anything non-Tibet related. I was mulling over the possibility of tackling the reemergence of “thought liberation”, touched upon by the Economist, bellowed from the rooftops by Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang and planted in question format by a Xinhua journalist at Wen Jiabao’s parliamentary press conference this week. I’ll put it on ice for now, particularly as this idea of “emancipation of the mind” is hardly reflected in China’s propaganda strategies on Tibet: namely to “incite patriotism and hatred of the Dalai Lama clique” among the Chinese people, according to the Ministry of Publicity’s internal directive.
With Tibet hoovering up the column inches, Tuesday’s predictably farcical trial of human rights campaigner Hu Jia received limited coverage, understandable given most China correspondents were playing hide-and-seek with police in Tibetan areas of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai. No verdict was given at the end of a trial that lasted a few hours, the typically brief period of time allowed for a defendant on “inciting state subversion” charges. Strange really, seeing as the government could have regarded the issuance of a prison sentence as one of those good-days-to-bury-bad-news moments. Could that mean the government is waiting for the Tibet furore to die down before showing Hu Jia leniency in a spectacular, although painfully unsubtle, pre-Olympic PR stunt? Hu’s lawyer doesn’t seem to think so, according to the Reporters Without Borders press release:
One of his lawyers, Li Fangping, was pessimistic when he left the court at the end of the hearing, saying his client faced the possibility of a five-year prison sentence.
On a personal note, it has been a different week. I have done very unexpected interviews with four different BBC radio channels and NPR, discussing China’s propaganda tactics on the Tibet issue in my capacity, I presume, as a blogging ex-propagandist. In between these, I was working on an article on the short-term effectiveness of China’s propaganda on the domestic front which involved speaking to people much more qualified than myself to speak on national radio. I was going to post in detail about it but Will “Imagethief” Moss, clearly juggling recent fatherhood and analytical thought rather well, wrote a superb piece that covers all the points I wanted to come out my mouth during a three-minute radio slot and a whole lot more. (Shameless ode to new media coming up …) Print media rarely has such comprehensive, measured and intelligent commentary. Instead, national newspapers fire out opinion in brief, emotive editorials, adopting a simplistic black-and-white approach that does nothing to encourage creative thought on issues like Tibet. (Blimey, I thought I was going to bang on about ”emancipation of the mind” for a minute there).
During my research into China’s propaganda strategies, I contacted the China Media Project’s David Bandurski, who made an interesting observation on the type of images screened on CCTV of the riots in Lhasa. Obviously, they focused on Tibetans attacking Chinese, survivors talking about their friends being killed and both Chinese and Tibetans lying injured on hospital beds. Powerful stuff and highly effective as propaganda tools when context is absent. Yet, they stopped short of allowing the more graphic shots such as cars being torched or overturned. According to David: “This is because party leaders do not want Chinese with different kind of grievances, like stolen farmland, to get any ideas.”
I also spoke to a Chinese friend of a friend, a marketing manager who studied for a year and a half in the UK, about what she thought of the government news shaping. Her answer was something I have heard many times before and I always find it a depressing opinion.
“I know the government cuts all the negative information and we can not see the true story. But it has to do this. Most Chinese are poor and not well educated. They are not capable of independent thought or making their own judgements. They need to be guided by the government.”
We could almost get back to “thought liberation” here …
Xinhua journalists are also well aware of the ugly nature of government propaganda and have wide-ranging access to foreign media reports. But I’m sure the majority are fully committed to their current work on Tibet. Behind all those ludicrous commentaries vilifying the Dalai Lama, stories of Tibetan grannies receiving birthday cake from the government and tales of genuine tragedy in which innocent Han Chinese civilians have died, are journalists trying to do a good job. “Xinhua is doing some good work on Tibet,” a former colleague told me the other day. In some respects he is right. In terms of information gathering and following the Ministry of Publicity directives, they are being highly efficient. Some are working until 4am to pump out stories onto the wire, others have been sent to Lhasa to bolster the story-hunting operation. But Dui Wai Bu journalists face a disheartening reality. While their colleagues in the Chinese-language department for domestic consumption believe in what they are writing and strike a chord with their audience, the English-language writers believe in what they writing and only succeed in turning the stomachs of their audience. Such is the rift between the effectiveness of the propaganda on the international front and at home.
The ultimate aim of the news output is to incite anger and resentment. But I’m sure the blood of many Xinhua journalists would have been boiling well before the first Xinhua story was released about Tibet. And it wasn’t just because of the presence of a particular image on the database: the charred shell of Xinhua’s Lhasa bureau, its doors ripped off their hinges (there’s a pic somwhere on ESWN). After all, the Ministry of Publicity had done what it does best and bumbled around for a few days after the riots broke out, unsure of what strategy to follow. This allowed the western media to get a headstart and convince Dui Wai Bu journalists of its deep-rooted bias. One major motivation behind the department’s work (and I do have a small amount of sympathy for this) is a perceived duty to protect China’s international image in the face of what is deemed one-sided, critical reporting from the whole of ”the West”. The fact that some of India’s newspapers can be the most biting is always overlooked for some reason.
I had an interesting conversation with one former colleague, who said he didn’t need the agency’s propaganda ouput to make him feel irate.
“We are angry not because of the news stories but because we can see the facts. It’s not just pictures from Xinhua. When I see photos from foreign news agencies, I also feel hatred towards the people who are carrying out the violence.
“Before the riots I was neutral towards the Dalai Lama, despite the government’s criticisms. I heard he was a calm, spiritual leader. But now I realise he is two-faced. He orchestrated the riots in Lhasa and all around the world. Premier Wen (Jiabao) said he had ample evidence to prove this. It is obvious. Why else did Tibetans all around the world start demonstrating?”
On a crude level, the Ministry of Publicity has done a good job.
Jing | 22-Mar-08 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
You do realize that the demonstrations were coordinated if not by the Dalai Lama then at least by agitators within the exile community. The timing and nature of the demonstrations, particularly the instigation by monks all point to a concerted and orchestrated strategem rather than spontaneous uprisings. Even the propaganda released by the exiles is coordinated for effect. Youtube videos show protesters scaling the walls of Chinese embassies, removing the Chinese flag and raising a Tibetan one as a symbolic act. That this particular act of defiance was chosen repeated simultaneously in protests in Paris, London, Zurich, and within China itself in front of video cameras indicates a web of communication within the protests that belies the claim that they are spontaneous.
Extremely Concerned | 22-Mar-08 at 4:39 pm | Permalink
Good post. The race card is being played in overdrive. Under the headline “Lhasa 14/3 incident truth made public”, Beijing Youth Daily’s front page today carries that now iconic picture of the Chinese flag being burned by protesters, along with two reports, the main one about, among other things, how Daily-backed criminals torched a building burning to death a group of terrified young women. They died tightly holding each other’s hands. Doesn’t get more emotive than that. The other report talks about how Daily-backed protesters around the world violated international law to attack Chinese embassies. Shameful.
Gordon Brown just has to stand on those steps outside 10 Downing Street with the DL and say: China, read our lips: the DL does not support Tibetan independence. Start talking.
(Personally I don’t think there should be any preconditions for talks)
cat | 23-Mar-08 at 12:24 am | Permalink
Your site was down for hours - ESWN was down too, but not for so long - glad to see you’re both back up again.
Chris O'Brien | 23-Mar-08 at 6:18 pm | Permalink
Thanks, Cat - actually my website host decided not to inform me it was doing some upgrade thingy. All is finished now. Was concerned for a minute though ..
chriswaugh_bj | 24-Mar-08 at 9:07 am | Permalink
“I know the government cuts all the negative information and we can not see the true story. But it has to do this. Most Chinese are poor and not well educated. They are not capable of independent thought or making their own judgements. They need to be guided by the government.”
Comments like this really get to me. In my experience, the Chinese people most capable of independent thought are the poorly educated peasantry, while those most likely to toe the Party line are the educated urban elite.
DaLiar Lama | 24-Mar-08 at 10:20 am | Permalink
Extremely disappointed.
For someone who’s been to the belly of the beast, you know so little about what’s in the head of the beast.
After all those years working in Xinhua, I wonder if you even speak Chinese.
Doubter2008 | 24-Mar-08 at 4:03 pm | Permalink
Seriously, a lot of times I really wonder if any non-chinese ever knows what the core makeups of the Chinese mind and soul are. It’s becoming more and more evident that the West (civilization) is dying a slow death as they’re choking on their self-generated anti-china & anti- “communist” biles.
Get over it, the Communist party is hoax and facade to sucker your Westerners, or as they say, we’re helping you to dig your own graves. As you Westerners know well, Communism is a Western idelogy, and is totally foreign to Asia until the last century. Communism is nothing but a tool for us China to reclaim our glory under the Almighty (Heaven, that is).
I feel like I’m betraying all my Chinese brothers and sisters in tellling you the truth that you’ll never ever get on your own.
Son of Lei Feng | 24-Mar-08 at 9:36 pm | Permalink
‘This animal doesn’t exist’, the man said the first time he ever saw a giraffe.
Sweet dreams Doubter. Your strong words here are at least 40 years too late.
Some Chinese already have opened their eyes. Within the next 5, 10 or 15 years you have to open you’re eyes too, and you’ll see something you’ll don’t believe today.
You are nothing but at slave to be sold for a few RMB together with your beloved “brothers” and “sisters”. You’ll see the Chinese people are mostly interesting because their workforce is so cheap. A Danish worker earn 30 – 40 times more than a Chinese per month, he’s workplace is protected in a way you never know, he have 6 week paid vacation per year and he have the right to be member of a free trade union helping him to get better paid and to protect him in cases against his employer. In my eyes you are misused again and again. Stupid as you are you believe what the slave-owner, your government tells you. You do, what they want you to do.
What government does to the Tibetans today is what they’ll do to you, if you not follow their rules. They make you feel small, they keep you scared and they make you hyper identifying with their aggressions.
Poor little Chinese…! Always have to obey!
pp535 | 25-Mar-08 at 4:36 am | Permalink
Hi Son of Leifeng,
True, the Chinese government is not the model government in this world. But according to Committee 100, an independent non-profit organization’s survey, the CG got 80% favorite rating from Chinese people while the us government got 40% from Americans. As a Senator from CA said years ago, in the past fifteen years it was the CG who had done most to its people, which has been proven by facts accessible to verify anyone with no biased mind. Please don’t forget that the sweat shop and slavery labor are not invented by the CG or Chinese people. It is an evil resulted from CAPITALISM that was practiced all over the world and it had reached to its peaks centuries ago in the West first as part of civilization. It would be a pitfall not only to China if the government blindly follows the suite…
hellen huang | 25-Mar-08 at 4:44 am | Permalink
As to whether poor little Chinese alwasy have to obey, just look at how they fought back the western media’s distortion and slanding in their report on Tibet riot right now….
pp535 | 25-Mar-08 at 7:19 am | Permalink
poor Chinese coolies erh? are you sure you are not the one who also benifted from slave labor by buying cheap goods made by those coolies (by the way those slaves mostly working for the western owners and investors)… remember, we have to toil because you western imperialists and colonialists cheated our equal opportunity for trade and self-determination centuries ago using gun-boat policy and for some time we have to swallow that unjust consequence, you brute!
Doubter2008 | 25-Mar-08 at 9:49 am | Permalink
Despite all the rhetorics and valid arguments on both sides, what’s happening between the West and East now is nothing but a continuation of the wars between these two civilization. One must remember that the battles between the East and West was never fought on an equal playing field. Now with the emergence of China leading the Asian nations, we finally, for the first time, in history, can witness the East-West confrontation on a more even battlefield. China’s rise and emergence does not represent the rise of China, but Asia as a whole. And surely the West will do what it can to keep China and Asia down. Forget all the talks about democracy or human rights, what is really happening is the battle for civilizational supremecy.
The rise of China and Asia is a direct threat to Western civilzation, as I’ve expected as much that the West will do anything to fight this threat.
Jim | 25-Mar-08 at 11:57 am | Permalink
I’d like to echo chriswaugh’s comment above. Some time spent working in remote rural communities taught me what a crock the notion young urbanites have of rural ignorance is. Of course there’s morons everywhere in this world and information is hard to come by, but I heard far more insightful and independent thoughts - on history, future directions and the current state of China - expressed by mountain farmers than many of the compromised metropolitan middle classes and elites seem able to manage.
Somewhat ironic also that the most fervent nationalists are the most “Westernised” - modern participants in the global consumer economy. “Backward” rural people retain far more that is essentially Chinese yet spend far less time wringing their hands about the image of the nation-state.
Tim | 25-Mar-08 at 4:51 pm | Permalink
Jing, you have utterly not convinced me. First off, my understanding is that the week of March 10 is symbolically very important to Tibetan exiles as it is the anniversary of the DL’s flight from Tibet. Most of the events were already scheduled before it became apparent that the unrest would make news. So no one suggests that the events were spontaneous. Secondly, exile agitators and unhappy Tibetans within China have mobiles and use computers. It doesn’t take much for them to communicate, especially when their actions begin to get media attention. The same thing happened last year in Xiamen, and no sees a dark hand behind that protest.
As far as scaling an embassy wall and replacinig the Chinese flag with a Tibetan one, exiles have been doing this in India for years. It makes the news. They are not stupid. Others learn from it.
I personally think it’s easier to blame a sinister black hand for all this than to grasp that a bunch of ragtags succeeded in grabbing some media attention and perhaps embarrassing China.
Daai Tou Laam Diary | 26-Mar-08 at 4:37 pm | Permalink
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise…
Not sure why, but James Fallows of The Atlantic is surprised.
I keep being re-surprised… .. at how tin-eared and antique the Chinese propaganda apparatus is, compared with the way most other things seem and feel in the country.
Today’s illustratio…
Mutant Palm » Blog Archive » The Wolf Trap | 04-Apr-08 at 10:09 pm | Permalink
[...] sheep when so many Han Chinese are saying themselves that the Han are still weak, weak-minded, and not capable of independent thought in response to criticism and media coverage of the Lhasa events. Clearly Jiang Rong has the pulse [...]