http://www.beijingnewspeak.com Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:34:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If there is anyone still bothering to look at this site then thank you and apologies for needlessly nibbling away at the life of your keyboard over the last month. A combination of factors is to blame for the silence. First of all, the election of Boris Johnson as mayor of London genuinely shocked me. The ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/06/02/beijing-nospeak-for-a-little-while-longer/ ... for all those budding propagandists out there. Click here to apply for a spot on the hallowed polishing turf of Xinhua News Agency and here for some (limp) reasons why it might tickle your fancy. I'm travelling outside Beijing for a week so this blog will be silent for a similar ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/04/27/another-window-of-opportunity/ The latest episode of Chinese news management, which began shortly after the Olympic torch relay protests in Paris, has made for fascinating viewing. Now it is nearing its conclusion, I reckon the time is ripe for un petit recap. Back on April 6, on the icy streets of London, the Olympic torch relay mayhem commenced as anticipated. Xinhua, ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/04/21/latest-propagandic-episode-from-start-to-just-about-finish/ How did anyone get a proper boycott campaign going ten years ago? A full on leaflet assault has never really captured revolutionary imaginations. A piece of paper thrust in the hand is treated with the kind of suspicion normally reserved for a gaunt 50-year-old man lurking behind a park bush in a trenchcoat and a pair ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/04/17/little-british-boycotts/ TFS sufferers are advised not to continue. The Xinhua commentary is propaganda at its most stimulating. A wild, unruly beast of a thing, it has the power to make you cringe, chortle and cry out in disbelieving indignation all in the time it takes to read two sentences. About a year ago, there was a concerted effort by Xinhua's ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/31/commentary-stop-fiddling-withjust-stop-please-stop/ I'm not planning to develop the habit of reproducing entire articles and passing them off as blog posts. And I'm not exactly sure why I'm pasting the following comment piece from the Independent in full, apart from the fact I'm fairly busy. You can read about the author Mark Steel here and a bit about his ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/27/a-comedians-take-on-tibet/ Yesterday, Xinhua released this story which highlighted a number of foreign media sources condemning the riots in Lhasa and accusing the Western media of showing the bias of a crown green bowl. A precis: Pakistan Television said Pakistan opposed any attempts to violate "China's sovereignty and territorial integrity", Indonesian Chinese-language newspaper Guo Ji ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/24/a-spot-of-light-relief-courtesy-of-the-dalai-mail/ 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 ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/22/more-musings-on-tibet-propaganda-drive/ The foreign ministry official whose signature granted the Economist a week-long reporting trip to Tibet beginning March 12 must be nibbling his nails.  It was an incredibly generous act given the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's escape into exile fell just two days earlier and those chummy reporting regulations introduced last year for the ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/16/a-week-in-tibet-journalistic-scoops-cats-paws-and-bbc-blunders/ Apologies for the long absence to anyone who is still bothering to check this page. (And to the person who arrived at this site while searching ask.com for "criticism of Xinhua", fear not for this blog is not defunct and I'm sure I'll be able to assist your research further at some point.) I have been busy ... http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/03/12/liberation-mystery-in-henan-and-irony-loving-foreign-ministers/