Western Media and Protest

(KH's entry dated April 8, 2008)



This is a complicated time for relations between the 'West' and the Chinese. Today it's the fracas about the Olympic torch. I started off feeling annoyed and indignant but am working to shift myself above that feeling because that state of mind always lacks clarity.

But first let me share a few observations from my perch here...

First, Tibet is not really on the radar screen for most people in the US. The issue has no attraction as political capital for anybody so its not really played up. You know, the area around the UN is a popular place for protests - you find them on most days, about Kosovo, Palestine, Burma, Guinea, Iran, Taiwan, Syria, Haiti, Falungong ... you-name-it but. There were protests 2 weeks ago for 3-4 days but apart from one day last week they've stopped (or gone to London?). The protesters are Tibetans and their Chinese sympathisers ... hardly any professional activists and attention seekers.

The media attention on Tibet also faded quickly in the US. In the beginning there was the knee-jerk jaundiced description of Chinese "police state" but the expected massacres/brutal crackdown did not materialise. So instead the tone has changed to be more balanced. Even on the first day of the riot, the NYTimes led with a picture of Chinese Riot Police crouching behind riot shields and Tibetans threw stones (the message is "restrain" by Chinese). NYT now describes the issue fairly sensibly as "ethnic clashes" and "riots and subsequent crackdown"...in addition to talking about lack of civil liberty and religious freedoms, it also talks of economic envy and xenophobia driving Tibetans to rampage, the police melting away at first before armed riot police returned the next day to clamp down. The reporter from the Economist who was the only Western journalist in Lhasa during the riots was fairly balanced in reporting only what he saw too.

I find the reaction is Europe is quite different. The British press is all screaming and moaning. And now they are treating the malee around the olympic torch with a very cynical glee. Ironically, the more leftist the publication the more they rant and rave. One good sign is the choice of pictures - do you notice that whatever the story on China, the caption photograph is always "militaristic"... soldiers marching about or raising the flag or even sitting about some place...I think that shows naievity and ignorance. Probably (being on smaller budget) the European press rely on free lance correspondants to clobber up the story..and some ignorant graphic artist in London sticks in the photograph. But seriously, China should take a leaf from how the Jewish lobby protects Isreal in the West ......political contributions, spin doctors, pollsters, press junkets there is a way of dealing with the Western media. Isreal knows that. Taiwan knows that. Just looking around, China's Olympic PR in NYC is very amaterish.

Back to the torch run.... I read this article in the FT the other day, that for people to talk about boycotting the Olympics as a the highest form of pressure against China ... which after all, is a big party when the world is invited to China will rightly be viewed as frivolous self-indulgence. (I don't like you so I will make you suffer by skipping your party..hmmm?). I do not know who to feel more embarassed for ... anti-Chinese activists? Western media? China? Western nations? the Olympics? Free speech? I feel the protests are counter-productive... because it has hijacked whatever the cause they represent into (at best) self-indulgent publicity stunts and at worst, hooliganism. For any idea/cause to succeed, it must occupy the moral high ground. For free speech to be honoured, there need to be tolerance and respect. But what we are seeing is embarassing for free speech, esp for people watching from China. But my real concern is precisely the Chinese audience.

Historically, China benefits and grows when it is open to the world but racism and xenophobia is never far from the surface. The CCP has to resist the temptation to turn this into a propaganda coup for its victim-complex, otherwise it will sow the seeds for disasterous confrontations later (both with the West or domestically). So everyone loses (except for the Chinese polical system in the short run) but especially those who work for change in China because they lose the moral high ground with the only people who can change China (the Chinese people). I suspect whatever momentum for political openness and reform in China is set back by 10 years. Right now, it is important for China not to over react.

I would go as far as to say not to take this as anything to do with China. OK, I will explain. Do you remember the anti-globalisation protesters in the late 90s?? WTO in Hong Kong 2005? Seattle? G8 summit in Genoa?? Do they really care about globalisation? Now these activists in London and Paris, I doubt they really care about human rights for Chinese or Tibetans. In reality its a reflection of the fears and insecurity felt by a segment of the population in West. Loss of economic power, loss of jobs, and more importantly lack of meaning and unsure of their place and purpose in the world. Now, most activists are people of integrity who believe passionately in their belief and without passion there will be no progress in the world.... But I believe the crux of the issue is understanding what is driving this passion? Is it hope, compassion, understanding? Or is it fear, insecurity or anger?? Is it 'for' something or more about 'anti' something?? I do feel that this sudden interest in being anti-China is the rolled-up result of collective unease and insecurity in the West - may be more so in cynical Europe than in the more self-reliant US. If they really care about human rights in China I really doubt activist in London or Paris or San Francisco got excited about the Cultural Revolution or mass famines in the 1950s...or against discrimination in India or the Ukraine. No. Only world powers get to have other people's grievances projected to it. It comes with the territory.

By being dignified and balanced in its response, China can wrestle back the moral high ground. China always remembers that the world consists of more than just the West. The rest of the world also has an opinion. What many people in the West fails to appreciate is how the government is generally accepted or even popular in China. If a foreigner tries to douse the olympic flame in China he will be set upon by ordinary people (and the police will have to rescue him?!). That is what I'd do, if any one protests I'd have squads of grannies and aunties on hand to admonish and jeer them in front of the TV cameras. Then finally, the police will come and politely persuade the grannies and aunties to disperse to prevent injury to the protester. Treat it as a farce and it will stay a farce. That takes the confidence of a super power :)