As for negativity about the west, this is very prevelant on Chinese television. I’m sure you have seen the television series about the people who emigrate to America, it was made in the nineties but still plays on Chinese television, the whole thing is a total mis-representation of life in the west - it even shows them saying that all Americans have to serve in the army, something which hasn’t been true since the seventies. Likewise historical dramas always portray westerners as insulting or attacking Chinese - and the westerners are always played by Russians who can barely speak English. I remember one show about the Boxer Rebellion showed a ‘German’ general standing up and making a speech (in Russian-accented English - how ridiculous!) about how they wanted to colonise China but couldn’t because (paraphrasing from memory) “We have measured them and they are just as strong as we are!”. What total balderdash and nonsense, a clear attempt to distort and re-write history of a kind even worse than what Disney does. I am not trying to defend what was done in the past, but when Chinese screen-writers put false words in the mouths of ‘western’ characters they are doing their country and its relations with other countries a dis-service. It is fortunate that so few westerners can understand Chinese, otherwise more people would take offence.

As for the Dalai Lama - can’t you see how it is the Chinese government itself that gives him credibility? The more they denonouce him and call him ‘a wolf in monk’s robes’ and other such comically brain-dead phrases, the more people in the west are likely to support him. To westerners, Tibetan independence is not a ‘不可告人的目的’ but something which has existed in the past (as you yourself recognise when you say that the Dalai was responsible for his mis-governance of the past) and something which might exist in the future.

To blame government is ok, but it should be based on the truth. The most of the attack against our government toward Tibetan were totally wrong. That’s the real point. That’s why Chineses were so angry about it. It’s not because the media could not accuse the government.
The accusation like culture genocide; masscre 1million Tibetan people; no religion freedom etc are not true at all.And the so called “crackdown” we didn’t see any evidence.

Why does this happen? Because the media gives 100% of trust to Dalai and 0% trust to Chinese government. But in fact, we Chinese obviously know Dalai has lied to the world a lot. He said that he ruled a “peaceful theocracy” and we knew it’s a cruel“serfdom system”. And he said other lies which don’t want to enumerate here. Chinese government tried to voice out but seems no one from Western believed it.

Again believe or not, with more openess of Chinese government, you will see the truth finally.

Those who have been to Tibet told the different stories.Please take a look of this Westerner who has been to Ganzi ,close to Tibet.
http://www.anti-cnn.com/forum/en/thread-1058-1-1.html

To blame government is ok, but it should be based on the truth. The most of the attack against our government toward Tibetan were totally wrong. That’s the real point. That’s why Chineses were so angry about it. It’s not because the media could not accuse the government.
Like culture genocide; masscre 1million Tibetan people; no religion freedom etc.
Those who have been to Tibet told the different stories.
And the so called “crackdown” we didn’t see any evidence.

Why does this happen? Because the media gives 100% of trust to Dalai and 0% trust to China government. But in fact, we Chinese obviously know Dalai has lied to the world a lot. He said that he ruled a “peaceful theocracy” and we knew it’s “theocracy”. And he said other lies which don’t want to enumerate here. Chinese government tried to voice out but seems no one from Western believed it.

Again believe or not, with more open of Chinese government, you will see the truth finally.

Please take a look of this Westerner who has been to Ganzi ,close to Tibet.
http://www.anti-cnn.com/forum/en/thread-1058-1-1.html

I don’t know what kind of text book you used and when it is composed. I think either some kind of misunderstanding was there or the book is the very old one. Our government has stopped to blame other countries since mid of 1980s although some politic books are still composed as old style. From media, US and UK weren’t called as Empire Ameriaca and Empire Britian. More positive introuduction about those 2 countries were gradually increased on the media. Since then, I didn’t see any hostile articles about Western countries.
So you got conclusion from one of textbook is not proper I think.

Believe or not, you said that Anti-CNN is only a few conspiracy persons, I could say you are totally wrong. The method of 2005 was not supported by all of the Chinese people. The boycott towards Carrefour are still underdebate, there is no unanimous agreement. But the anti-cnn was supported by everyone in China and the protest happened in oversea were supported by everyone in China. I tell you the facts.

After this issue, Chinese will not care about western media like previous which we thought what they reported are the truth. Now we learned it was also hidden somethings like those of Chinese government did and even they would forge something. Therefore western medias lost our trust, we will not take care of them in the future and focus on our own issues.

And I would like to tell you I’ve found current Chinese government is very practical and reasonable. They face more problems and but they are trying their best to deal with. I like this kind of practical government. I wish more progress will be made in the near future. I’m confident of them. If you are still using the old method to look at the Chinese government, I suggest that you may adjust your attitude to some extent.

Question to you: Does Democracy always make right decision? Both British and US voted for Iraq war which proved to be totally wrong. We Chineses and most of the rest world have already known that was wrong before the war.

Why was violent Bush able to selected as president as 2 times?

You wrote in your last post that “I wish that the media will have more positive reports toward China so that we can concentrate on our own issues.” What postiive stories do you want the Western media to cover? Have you ever done a Google search for stories from the West about China? You should try it sometime. There are positive stories coming from the West everyday about your country and about your culture. Actually, what you really want are some more positive stories about your government, right? You want the Western media to say nice things about the Communist Party and its leadership in China. Actually, if you read stories from the Western media (this time I am specifically talking about CNN and the BBC) you will find that these media outlets rarely have anything positive to say about any government. Such is the nature of a media that is not gagged by their government. They are always going to criticize the administration that is in power. Your government it taking everything so personally. It is time for your government to stop worrying so much about what CNN is saying. As I wrote previously, CNN is really not so significant in the scope of things. They are not even the dominant cable news channel in America anymore.

Anyway, I do appreciate your comments and your atttempt at reasonable diaologue.

As for ‘爱国贼’,, this is a play on the words ‘卖国贼’, and is usually translated as ‘patriotic traitor’ - one of the criticism levelled in this book at the totally over-the-top way in which some people react to what they perceive as an insult - thinking specifically of anti-CNN’s reaction and the way in which photos with potentially misleading captions and the ill-advised comments of one commentator have been warped into an all-out assault on China.

I agree with Song Qiang (宋强) the writer of China Can Say No (中国可以说不) when he says:

“The Internet can misdirect people’s judgment of information. Praise on the Internet for 9-11 can cause misdirection as well. Essentially, those were people who had no power in real life, but on the Internet they could really shine. Online stuff cannot stand in for public opinion. It’s something exaggerated, and no matter how fierce it sounds, it cannot represent real life.”

The opinions on anti-CNN do not represent real life either - they represent the opinions of a few conspiracy theorists who can ’shine’ on the internet, but who in real life are powerless to do anything real for their country. The fact that Chinese state media has carried the reports on it has given some of the people on there big heads, but it doesn’t represent anything.

I live on the route that the torch relay took through London. When I saw a crowd of armband-wearing flag-waving protesters coming running down my street shouting their slogans - do you think my response was positive? Do you think the response of any westerner is positive? They looked just like the anti-Japanese rioters I saw in Nanjing in 2005 - the same level of fanaticism and group-think.

You could do much more for your country if you worked to improve it - do not pretend that answering what you perceive as bias in the western media is more important. I saw many things in the Chinese press I knew to be wrong - knew to be wrong because I had seen the opposite with my own eyes. When I worked as a teacher in a university to pay for my student fees I taught a class on UK culture, the text book we had been given for the class contained a section where it said that bestiality (i.e., sex with animals) and homosexuality were common in the west, that old people eat pet food because their children do not look after them, and that all of this is due to capitalism. All the same, I do not care what the Chinese media or Chinese text books have to say about my country, much more important to me is improving my own country - but I have learned a lesson about what the Chinese government’s true attitude towards the west is - and it is not friendly.

Hard to understand your terms like “1984-style ‘hate hours’” , “爱国贼”. Would you please explain?
You mentioned that China has censorship, China has other problems. We agreeed. None of Chinese would not accepte these facts. But we are on the way of making progress. I have seen these improvement within these years. But you will not expect all of those problems able to be solved within days.
I don’t think Grace Wang should be condemned so fiercely. I thought her behavior to some extent was not correct at the point of view as a Chinese. But she has the right to express her view. The react to her is unneccessary. Whether does she have other purpose is not known by me, I will not say some words like “traitor” something. That’s unfair to her.That’s my view toward this issue. But since the population in China is so large that different voices are abundant, irrational patrioism does exist to some levels. But it’s not uncommon. In US, we could see the same irrational patrioism before Iraq War. If someone has different opinion against war, they are labeled as traitor too. And the french fries were renamed as Patrioat Fries. Do you think it’s childish too? I think, this kind of behavior is from human nature. So I don’t think you should blame Chinese simply about the irrational patrioism. Most of Chinese are still rational patrioism like other countries.

Bias reports we have seen is not just 1 picture’s mistaken. There are lots of and also lots of media were involved. Please take a look carefully on the anti-cnn webpage.

Actually Chinese are normally very quite about politic issues. Most of them are busy on their own business and less concern about the politic issues. Did you see any oversea Chineses protested before? But this time things are really changed. There were 50,000 chinese people on the street of San Francisco to protect the torch relay. There were 10,000 protestors in France. 20,000 protestors in Australia. 3,000 in Berlin. Don’t you think those figures show something to you?
I tell you the truth, in 911, Iraq War, the oversea Chineses people have differnt opinions and debated heavily on those issues. Most of oversea Chinese complaint about the Chinese government. But now all of them, raged by bias reports and violent protest happened in Paris and London, are united together, including from Taiwan and Hongkong, to walk on the street to do the demontration. That would be recorded into the history. It’s the event that really changed the history.
We did really want to focus on solving our internal problems if there is no bias reports happpening in western sociaty. We didn’t want to go to street to protest. It’s because it’s unbearable any more that we have to have our voice out to let western people knowing that the media didn’t tell the truth.
So I appreciate your suggestion. But I wish that the media will have more positive reports toward China so that we can concentrate on our own issues.

Thanks!

Best Regards,

Jaso

You people really are 爱国贼. If you really loved China as much as you claim you wouldn’t be embarassing your country by engaging in these childish disputes about whether a photo of a military ambulance with a caption which reads ‘there is heavy military prescence in Lhasa’ shows bias or not. Your so-called ‘patriotism’ is little more than the kind of thrill of engaging in group-think 1984-style ‘hate hours’ against those you feel have slighted your country - it does nothing to improve the situation of China even a little bit. If all the effort which has been expended on this had been expended on, say, tracking down corrupt officials, and reporting illegal businesses - things which have done much more harm to China than any Tibetan protester ever could - then China would have been a better place for it. How many of people who howl so loudly for retribution against supposed ‘traitors’ like Grace Wang have done anything positive for China? Have you Jason? Or Li? Or Falen?

Stop playing at trying to re-enact something you saw on television and do what real patriots do - serve your country by trying to improve it!

When we talked about Anti-CNN, it doesn’t mean only “CNN”. We mean all of western media. I just take an example for “CNN”. The same thing was happened in Paris, London and other cities. None of mainstream media broadcasted the oversea Chinese people’s feeling and their support in the TV and newspaper and websites. I have checked lots of websites like CNN, VOA, BBC, Spiegel, Deutsche Welle. The main theme is Tibetan protest. Mainstream media are regarded to cover most of populations, Fox, ABC are used the same way. In Germany,Australia,Canada and France,same. There are so many oversea Chinese who reported such kind of bias reports everywhere in Western countries. Do you think all of oversea Chinese have no independent think to judge what the bias reports mean. Remeber all oversea Chineses are enjoying the freedom of Western countries.