‘Freedom of press’ rhetoric shall come to a halt by Zhong Sheng Jul 12 2021

Too afraid to hear what Chinese media will say? Labeling Chinese media outlets as foreign missions shows the hypocrisy of US freedom of press.

The US Department of State published a statement on Apple Daily on July 10 local time, expressing “strong concerns” about this publication that was shut down last month for instigating the “black terror” in Hong Kong.

Published in the name of the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), the statement was signed by 21 countries, making up less than half the organization’s total members. It is like a desperate cry of a few Western countries wishing to offer their last but worthless support for the anti-China forces.

Anyone with a conscience can see that the statement is misleading and totally abandons morality and ethics, running against justice under the disguise of so-called freedom of the press.

Karl Marx once said that self-discipline of human spirit is the basis of morality. Obviously, freedom of the press is not a freedom that can escape moral restraint and it should not undermine human civilization.

Apple Daily was a newspaper known for its “inciting, obscene and bloody” news. Such a publication of yellow journalism would have been abandoned and denounced even in the US, where yellow journalism originated.

Yellow journalism trampled on morality in the US in the 1880s and early 20th century. Articles and pictures attacking celebrities and calling for wars were everywhere in the newspapers, chasing after profit in a crazy and greedy competition.

In 1901, former US president William McKinley was assassinated nine months after the New York Journal publicly instigated it. US society believed that the newspaper was responsible, and its circulation subsequently dropped until it eventually closed.

History is a mirror. It’s inevitable that Apple Daily, following a path of the American yellow journalism and making a living by selling lies, finally hit a dead end. A Hong Kong media organization recently listed 100 crimes committed by Apple Daily, including funding fraud, bribery, slandering celebrities, and fanning up violence. In the past 26 years since the newspaper was established, it has been declared guilty numerous times, and has put itself into the “hall of shame” of history. Shutting down the newspaper was not an order from the government, but a choice of the market that expresses the views of most Hong Kong citizens.

Any freedom or right in a civilized society shall not be practiced arbitrarily. On the contrary, it shall be stipulated and protected by laws that embody the public will. John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher who influenced liberal parties in a number of Western countries with his essay On Liberty, admitted that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

Over 100 years ago, a former associate justice of the US Supreme Court said that the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. There is a clear legal boundary between freedom of the press and instigating crimes. The member countries of the MFC should ask themselves whether their laws allow news media to undermine national security, damage social order, divulge state secrets and instigate religious and ethnic confrontation.

Many countries have clear legal provisions on freedom of the press. For instance, the Press Law of 1881 in France was designed to punish media organizations for incitement, slander and disturbance of public order. Similarly, the anti-China rioters who fanned up “achieving justice by violating the law” in Hong Kong two years ago were not abiding by the rule of law, either.

Since the national security law for Hong Kong was enacted, the chaos in the city has ended and stability has returned, which is more conducive to normal news reporting. To have a better understanding of Hong Kong, the world must grasp the special administrative region’s transition from order to prosperity. Over the past year, multiple media organizations from the US and UK have raised the number of foreign staff stationed in Hong Kong. How would MFC countries that signed the so-called statement explain such an arrangement?

Some people from a few Western countries made a fuss about Apple Daily, but what they have done is just a farce staged under the name of freedom of the press. Such rhetoric shall come to a halt, as lies will eventually be torn apart by facts, which is an inexorable law.

The author is a commentator with People’s Daily. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Shameless for US to question Taliban on China’s Xinjiang policy by Yu Ning Jul 12 2021

The Taliban’s recent remarks regarding China have garnered extensive attention. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, when asked about “the mass incarceration of fellow Muslims in Xinjiang and other human-rights abuses there,” a senior Taliban official in Doha said they “care about the oppression of Muslims,” but they won’t interfere in China’s internal affairs. The report also quoted Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, who said any decision would have to be made based on the realities on the ground at that time, in response to a question about “whether a Taliban-dominated government of Afghanistan would join Western nations in condemning human-rights abuses in Xinjiang at the United Nations.”

Western media outlets interpreted these remarks as a signal that the Taliban is currying favor with Beijing. The Wall Street Journal report highlighted the Taliban’s “past support for Uygur militants in Xinjiang,” claiming the group now is eager to “assuage China’s concerns” and “secure Beijing’s acquiescence to their rule.”

Questioning the Taliban’s stance on China’s Xinjiang policy, does the US have any sense of shame? Just look at the human rights disaster the US created in Afghanistan. The most conservative estimates by local and international rights group suggest that close to 47,600 civilians were killed and more than double that number injured in Afghanistan during the 20 years of war.

The US is now walking away irresponsibly after poking a hornets’ nest, leaving a devastated country and a shocking humanitarian disaster behind. And the US has not figured out how to guarantee the safety of Afghan interpreters who worked for the American military. And what about the atrocities the Australian troops did to Afghan civilians? Shouldn’t the US apologize to the Muslims in Afghanistan first if it truly cares about Muslims’ human rights?

“Obviously, the Western media was attempting to stir up troubles between the Taliban and Beijing, but the Taliban won’t easily fall into the trap,” Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

It is hard for the West to make an issue of Xinjiang between the Taliban and Beijing. With the US troops pulling out of Afghanistan, the country has come to a critical point and the Taliban is hoping to gain more understanding from the international community including China. China upholds a policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. In recent years, China has made prominent efforts and played a constructive role in promoting peace in Afghanistan. It has tried to provide dialogue platforms between the Afghan government and the Taliban to discuss peace and reconciliation in the war-torn country.

Questioning the Taliban on the Xinjiang issue, the West did not really care about Xinjiang Uygurs’ human rights. It instead hoped to sow discord between Beijing and the Taliban. The so-called Xinjiang human rights issue is only a tool created by the US and its Western allies to smear and create trouble for China.

“American politicians hate Chinese and Muslims, but somehow, they care about Chinese Muslims” – this joke now has become known to all. Obviously, Washington wants to drag China’s Xinjiang into a quagmire that plagues Afghanistan to create trouble for China. Fortunately, this reality has been seen through by an increasing number of countries, especially Muslim countries.

BBC attack on expats backfires By NURY VITTACHI in Hong Kong 11 Jul 2021

Rich outlet tries to savage citizen journalists

IN A HILARIOUS BOTCH-UP, the BBC yesterday inserted numerous links to anti-China features into an article defending itself from claims that it was anti-China.

Here’s what happened.

BBC journalists wrote an article attacking China-based “citizen journalists”. The bloggers defended themselves by saying the BBC and other Western media had a clearly biased, negative attitude to the Asian developing nation.

The BBC’s editors yesterday printed the article (above) — but sprinkled it with links (see picture below) which powerfully proved the critics’ point that the BBC is biased against China.

In effect, the BBC said “we’re not anti-China — by the way, here’s a link to an article showing how China is a dystopian hellscape! And another one. And another one. And another one. And . . “.

It’s hard not to laugh.

It gets better. In fact, yesterday’s BBC article should go down in history as a textbook example of self-defeating journalism for at least four reasons.

First, you cannot argue against the allegation that you present a strongly one-sided view by including a list of article links that prove conclusively that you present a one-sided view.

Lee and Oli Barrett, residents of China, have become popular bloggers

SENSE OF IRONY

Second, the article attacks ordinary individual bloggers in China (like those in the picture above) by implying, with no hard evidence, that they receive government cash to do what they do, which is to show China in a positive light.

Yet we all know for a fact that the BBC journalists making the accusation receive government cash month after month to do what they do, which is to present China in a negative light.

(The BBC’s annual budget is GBP3.5 billion.)

Staff in the BBC newsroom appear to have had their senses of irony surgically removed.

Outrageous! A government sponsored media outlet in China offers money to stringers, the BBC said

THEY PAY STRINGERS

Third, the BBC report reveals, shock horror, that CGTN, a government-financed news outlet, now offers CASH PAYMENTS to STRINGERS!

OMG!

The BBC writers mysteriously forgot to mention that the BBC, also a government-financed news outlet, also offers cash payments to stringers (much larger sums). They’ve been doing this for decades.

I know this for a fact because I was a stringer for the BBC for years.

At this point, I became seriously worried about the toddler-level lack of self-awareness in the BBC newsroom.

Jason Lightfoot is another independent blogger attacked for giving another side of the story

MOTIVATION MYSTERY

Fourth, the BBC writers say: “It’s unclear what drives the foreign vloggers – whether they believe in China’s messaging or are motivated by the lure of local fame and fortune instead.”

It’s only unclear what motivates them if you haven’t watched a single one of their videos. If you do, you can see they are ordinary people doing their best to provide desperately needed balance to the reports put out by dedicated Sinophobes like, well, BBC Newsroom staff, to pick a random example out of the air.

LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY

Actually, let’s talk about money, something BBC journalists HATE to discuss.

The BBC’s hatchet job presents no evidence whatsoever that the Barretts, Barrie Jones, or Jason Lightfoot are paid a single yuan for having the opinions they have, or for choosing to show the positive side of life in China.

In contrast, BBC journalists have very good salaries for showing the negative side of life in China. I hope the bloggers attacked by BBC journalists Kerrie Allen and Sophie Williams realize they have the moral right to ask them how much the BBC pays them.

OVERPAID JOURNALISTS

I’ve worked at the BBC on and off for decades and I can tell you that some BBC journalists get paid A LOT. When BBC newsroom head James Harding left in 2018, his salary was GBP340,000 a year. Election specialist Jeremy Vine gets more than GBP600,000 a year.

Of course most people in the newsrooms get less than that, but at least 40 BBC journalists are paid more than the British Prime Minister’s GBP150,000 salary, a Press Gazette study showed in 2017. Political editor Laura Kuenssberg gets GBP200,000 to GBP250,000 a year, for example.

Barrie Jones upsets Western journalists by refusing the parrot the US State Department narrative.

FACTUAL INACCURACIES

The ultimate irony is that the unpaid amateurs in China regularly do a better job of covering China than the salaried professionals.

The same BBC article gives a good example of how history changes when that all-important nuance goes missing.

The BBC reporters say “Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was jailed for four years after making a number of vlogs during Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak.”

That’s not what really happened. Zhang Zhan was an anti-lockdown campaigner jailed for repeatedly trying to disrupt anti-covid measures. She herself said that she was not a journalist. Her own videos show clearly that she was the Chinese equivalent of the US anti-vaxxer brigade, refusing to follow health guidelines and creating deliberate public confrontations with people trying to follow the rules.

But that’s a nuanced version of her case, which you can only get if you live in this country and talk to people here — rather than attack from the other side of the planet.

THE 50-CENT ARMY

The BBC reporters also dredge up the old chestnut about the “50-cent army”, apparently unaware that most Chinese government clickers have been retired, simply because they are no longer needed. They’ve been replaced by real voices who speak out without pay.

An SCMP report about the rise of young people in China defending their community by commenting on social media, making the civil service pro-China “wumao” unnecessary

The so-called “wumao” are no longer necessary now that young people who are sick and tired of their community being misrepresented (groups like the Diba and the fangirls) are providing a robust defence of the country, far more creatively and without the need for payment.

They even create quite stylish memes (see below).

Above is a Diba meme from Weibo

The BBC report also omits the fact that it’s actually US intelligence groups such as the SR (military intelligence) and the CIA which flood social media columns with politically charged fake comments, often easy to spot.

There’s something creepy in the article too.

The “expert” quoted at length in the BBC report is Robert Potter, described as a “cybersecurity researcher”. The BBC omits a key fact that commentator Daniel Dumbrill yesterday highlighted. The top two names on Potter’s organization’s funding list are the State Department of the United States and the United States Department of Defence.

Yes. Exactly.

Think Mike Pompeo, CIA, Anthony Blinken.

The US State Department

So, to sum it up, honest, ordinary people who spend their own time and money offering useful additional views of life in China, from within China, are accused of receiving government cash by distant people who actually ARE receiving government salaries working for a government news outlet and showcasing the views of people paid by the US government.

NEED FOR INTEGRITY

This is why we need UNBIASED journalists covering China and it doesn’t matter if you have qualifications or not — what matters is that you have enough moral integrity to tell the truth: which is that the community we call China is really not that different from the other major communities around the world.

One last thing: From a professional journalistic point of view, there’s another issue with the BBC article.

Very similar articles have already appeared in other British news outlets. Here is an example below from the Times of London.

Same victims, same news angle, similar headlines, similar allegations, similar quotes.

Copying? Or co-ordination? Journalists don’t normally regurgitate their rivals’ old stories in this way.

There’s something very wrong going on here.

This reporter’s father was one of the first investigative journalists in Asia. He had a saying: “Everything is about something else.”

https://www.fridayeveryday.com/news-n-politics-the-friday-collective/10110/BBC-attack-on-expats-backfires?fbclid=IwAR33qo8NXaYqBYMtIyCRemwtKkM_0N02vX0-9q_Z8aXBDRmWHeDg4zLezJM

Video: Meng Wanzhou Got New Evidence From HSBC, But Canada Said “So What ?@#$%^!” Rule of Law is for show only in Canada! 孟晚舟從匯豐拿到新證據，加拿大卻說“那又怎樣？@#$%^！” 加拿大法治只是用來作秀.
https://vimeo.com/573824391
https://youtu.be/zsEMCbQwkdM
Since I was a kid we heard so much about the uniqueness of Western’s Rules of Laws, Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights. After spending about 1/2 a century in US, my God those are just lies with 2 distinguish standards. What they promised to the world do not apply to themselves at all. 從我們還是個孩子的時候起，我們就听到了很多關於西方法律、自由、民主和人權規則的獨特性。 在美國度過了大約半個世紀之後，我的天哪，那些只是具有 2 個區別標準的謊言。 他們對世界的承諾根本不適用於他們.

HSBC found it encountered a severe crisis when the public learnt it collaborated with the US to frame Meng Wanzhou and Hua Wei. Chinese people worldwide boycott it, and its business clients are also worried about their safety because of its integrity issue. 當公眾得知匯豐與美國合作陷害孟晚舟和華為時，匯豐發現自己遇到了嚴重危機。 全世界的中國人都抵制它，它的商業客戶也因為它的誠信問題而擔心他們的安全.

Another prediction by racist and Chinese hater when his prediction wrong every single time last 20 years. But in the US Church of fake freedom democracy and human rights where they got brainwashed, lies works for a declining empire getting desperate. 種族主義者和中國仇恨者的另一個預測，他的預測在過去 20 年中每次都出錯。 但在他們被洗腦的假自由民主和人權的美國教會中，謊言對一個衰落的帝國產生了絕望的希望作用.

Gordon G Chang’s ostrich-like perception of China a tragedy for US by Mu Lu Jul 11 2021

Gordon G Chang, a so-called China hand who is infamous for his “collapse of China” theory, has recently made his latest “prediction.” He published on Thursday an article entitled “China will be the next empire to enter the Afghan ‘graveyard'” on The Hill, and then he analyzed in an interview with Fox News why China would “get mired into Afghanistan.”

However, his conclusions are based on the premise that “as the US has failed in something, China cannot successfully do it either.” Clearly, Chang is one of those people who do not want to see China doing good. He told Fox News, “I would love to see China get mired into Afghanistan. This is going to be fun to watch.”

This reflects the fundamental lack of a rational, balanced and objective view of China in the US’ policymaking community, and instead they have a deep, obtuse belief in the US superiority. Such a belief has led to their misjudgment of China.

Due to their deep desire to see China’s failure, their perception of China is stuck in China-bashing platitudes, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Chang has long been a laughingstock. His frequent turned-out-to-be-wrong judgments have triggered a backlash from objective forces in American society. His latest “prediction” was mocked and ridiculed by netizens. A netizen even suggested “Gordon, you should stop using the word ‘predict.'”

Although Chang’s so-called predictions have been repeatedly proven wrong, he can still get the chance to rant in the mainstream media, showing that his judgment still has a large audience in the US, catering to the vain and arrogant psychology of some Americans, especially the elites.

The 20 years of the US war in Afghanistan – its longest – is an epitome of US decline, which American elites will never admit. The US has many problems, but Chang is reluctant to talk about them. China has done well in many areas, but Chang will not say a word about that, Li said.

“They believe in the superiority of American power and influence. This has always been the way the US sees the world. It also means that people like Gordon Chang have a hard time getting it right when they view China with an inherent paranoia,” Li noted.

However, as the Economist put it on Saturday, “America’s war in Afghanistan is ending in crushing defeat.” The British magazine reads, “Now America is calling an end to the whole sorry adventure, with almost nothing to show for it… now the withdrawal has finally arrived, it has lost its power to shock. To the extent that outsiders see it as a sign of American weakness, that weakness has been evident for a long time.”

Just as the US is pulling out of Afghanistan in disgrace, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told media that China is a “welcome friend” of Afghanistan, saying that the group welcomes Chinese investments in Afghan reconstruction and would guarantee the safety of investors and workers.

The US has fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, spent more than $2 trillion on the war, and lost thousands of its own soldiers. However, the Taliban sees it as an enemy while Kabul views it as a self-serving runaway. In comparison, China’s path has made it a friend of both Kabul and the Taliban.

This reflects a wide endorsement of China’s responsible diplomacy and the disgust with the selfish moves the US takes to meet its own interests. This bare fact has humiliated Chang as well as many of the US policy elites and made them feel the pain. But they refused to acknowledge this reality and stubbornly stuck to their ostrich-like perception of China.

Another NED/CIA supported anti-China organization engaged in color revolution subversive activities disbanded after Hong Kong passing Homeland Security Law last year. 去年香港通過《國土安全法》後，另一個美國民主基金會/中情局支持從事顏色革命顛覆活動的反華組織被解散。World Journal Newspaper San Francisco, July 11 2021

The foreigners in China’s disinformation drive By Kerry Allen & Sophie Williams BBC News aka BBS News.

Professor John V. Walsh in San Francisco: If the government-funded Western press says it is true, it is true. If the government-funded Chinese press says it is true, it is false. 如果西方帝國資助的西方媒體說這是真的，那就是真的。 如果中國政府資助的中國媒體說是真的，那就是假的.

Professor Kiji Noh in San Francisco: This is really unfair. The Barretts are young, sincere, salt-of-the-earth young Brits who grew up in the impoverished, precaritized North of UK.

They went to China, and had their minds blown. Their videos were very authentic takes on how impressed and amazed they were about China: the culture, food, technology, public facilities, cities, etc, and how China had changed their vision of the world–what was possible, and how it had affected them as people. There are videos where they narrate how free and happy they felt in China. They showed a deep, sincere, and honest appreciation for China.

They also started to debunk the stereotypes and lies about China, for example, visiting XJ; and comparing the countries.

For that, the BBC did an ugly hit job on them, tarring them as Chinese state proxies.

Prior to that in January, they were also attacked by the UK Times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWT_0PsMLa0

This is the propaganda game: anyone who tells their honest, positive experience of China is tarred as part of a Chinese influence operation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57780023

Video: How does New York Subway Station compared to those in China? Let’s take a look! 紐約地鐵站與中國地鐵站相比如何？ 讓我們來看看！
https://vimeo.com/573545521
https://youtu.be/CErd8vzMd2Y
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/526827591873904/?d=n

Video: In California, an AngloSaxon police officer arrested an African American boy because he was driving slow. In fact, it was not because he was driving slowly, but because he was a African American boy. Surprise! this boy is the son of the state police chief. 在加利福尼亞州，一名白人警察逮捕了一名黑人男孩，因為他開車慢。 其實並不是因為他開的慢，只是因為他是個黑人男孩。 令人驚訝的是：這個男孩是該州警察局長的兒子。
https://vimeo.com/573540997
https://youtu.be/1evutk3q7p8
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/526812328542097/?d=n

Video: Who Is The Top Threat Of Global Cybersecurity? US is Wolf Crying Wolf. 誰是全球網絡安全的最大威脅？ 美國是在賊喊捉賊.
https://vimeo.com/573531566
https://youtu.be/jz9HkVfg-24
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/526805818542748/?d=n