The U.S. is insulting the Chinese media. It is affecting both countries. My colleagues in Beijing believe, correctly, that Washington should have tried to increase communication, not to bring it to a halt.
Twist what is happening; reverse facts. That is what the Western media does when “dealing with” China, Russia, Iran or several “unfriendly” Latin American countries. It is an extremely old game, with roots in the colonial era.
If you have monopoly on disseminating information to all corners of the Planet, such cynical approach might actually work.
If only one person is allowed to talk, then what he says could become, inevitably, the truth.
Washington loves to snap at “undemocratic nations”. But the truth is, both the United States and the United Kingdom, in unison, have managed to create a thoroughly and truly undemocratic global system of governance, economic practices and “information” (in fact – disinformation).
Countries that defend their own people are painted as “regimes”, even dictatorships. Their media outlets which are using simply common logic are smeared as “propaganda” channels.
In summary, if you pay for “information” invented, manufactured and refined in the U.S. and Europe, by the Western press agencies and television networks, you will be just fine and get patted on the back. Especially if that information is helping to maintain global political and economic dictatorship of the West. S
o, if you pay for getting your people brainwashed and indoctrinated, you will be ranked high on the various “freedom of information” indexes.
But be warned: if you tell the truth, or if you expose Western lies, you will get smeared, insulted as a demagogue and an undemocratic liar. That is what is happening right now to China.
I am writing this commentary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a marvelous country now collapsing after having being lured into fascism by local right-wing media, which has been trained and financed by the Western mass-media outlets.
What is the background to dispute between the U.S. and China?
In early February 2020, The Wall Street Journal published an article “China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia”. It was an insulting piece, vulgar in many ways. Some saw it as racist.
It was taking advantage of pain Chinese people are experiencing due to the recent coronavirus epidemy, turning medical emergency into a political issue. It is something that could be easily defined as cheap journalism, and obvious propaganda. Stuff that is often written on order, in both North America and Europe.
Indignant, Beijing took action against the newspaper. Under circumstances, this was the most natural thing to do. But instead of apologizing, Washington intensified war against the Chinese press.
On March 2, 2020, The Guardian reported:
“The United States has slashed by nearly half the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work for their state-run media in the United States, vowing reciprocity as Beijing restricts foreign press…
A state department official said that five media outlets, which last month were reclassified by the United States as foreign missions, would be allowed to employ a maximum 100 Chinese nationals as of 13 March, down from around 160 now…
The organization most affected by the order will be the state news agency Xinhua, which will be allowed to keep 59 Chinese staff in the United States, according to a state department official.
The China Global Television Network will be permitted 30 nationals. The China Daily can have nine Chinese employees and China Radio International will be permitted two.”
What is really behind all this?
Russian, Chinese, Latin American and even Iranian media outlets are becoming extremely influential in the educated circles in the West. It is because many citizens in Europe and the United States do not trust their own media, anymore. They are turning for information to such media outlets as RT, China Daily, CGTN, PressTV, NEO and Telesur.
Washington promotes competition, ideological and commercial, but only when it suits its interests, meaning, when it is winning. When its ideology or products begin to stumble behind the competitors (China, Russia, for instance), it immediately imposes sanctions, or introduces censorship.
The same happens to the countries which could be defined as the U.S. allies, particularly the U.K., a state which has been helping with establishing the U.S. regime.
In a report “UK press acts as ‘appendage of the state’ when reporting on foreign policy, new analysis shows”, RT wrote:
“A new analysis of British media’s coverage of foreign policy has found that, by and large, the UK press acts as “an appendage of the state” and has been “misinforming the public” and “failing to report” completely on key issues.”
These ‘key issues’, of course, include China.
China is seen in the West as the most ‘dangerous’ adversary, particularly by such anti-Chinese and extreme right-wing ideologues/worriers as Peter Kent Navarro, the Assistant to the President Donald Trump and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, but also by many other individuals in and outside the Administration.
It is because China is extremely successful, not only socially and economically but also politically. And the more it is, the more terrified the outdated systems and the regimes of the West become. Their years are numbered.
China’s BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) is liberating dozens of nations worldwide from the neo-colonialist shackles of the West. Chinese (but also Russia, Iranian, Latin American and other non-Western media outlets) are informing global, including Western, audience, about the birth of the new world. They are replacing the sad, nihilist present, with optimistic future.
And the West is terrified. If it cannot break or defeat China, it tries to insult or at least silence it.
It is attempting to smear and provoke Beijing, and when it fails again and again to enflame the mighty but harmony-seeking dragon, it begins to act irrationally, spreading chaos and depriving people of the alternative views and sources of information.
Apply facts and it becomes clear: China is by no means some “real sick man of Asia”. By now it has almost defeated that new and dangerous type of coronavirus. It has managed to protect its people. Its economy did not collapse.
And despite the attacks from the West, the ideological system is strong and sound, people are living better lives, and Chinese cities and countryside are blooming, on the one hand.
On the other hand, the Western system is collapsing. People in France, Spain and elsewhere are rioting, in desperation. Misery is everywhere. In the U.S. and U.K., very few individuals have any trust left in their own media.
Western media has sold out. It is despised, ridiculed. It is paid to attack countries such as China, Russia or Venezuela.
Washington may deport several Chinese journalists. But it will not be able to silence the truth, anymore.
The world is watching. And it is laughing. The United States, a country that has been lecturing the entire earth about “free speech”, is now terrified of the alternative views. It is scared of being exposed as a giant on clay legs.
Several foreign reporters may be forced to leave Washington, soon. But thousands of new ones, all over the world, are refusing to be silenced. We are in solidarity with brave Chinese writers. We are proud of them. And we are determined to help exposing lies of the Empire!
Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Five of his latest books ae “China Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries, Saving Millions of Lives”, “China and Ecological Cavillation” with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter. His Patreon
A shorter version of this article was published by China Daily Global.
The 21st Century