With US own horrible human rights in focus, US repeats fake ‘genocide’ claim against China 以美國自己可怕的人權為焦點，美國重複對中國的虛假“種族滅絕”指控 by Liu Xin Jul 13 2021

“It is a joke… lie of the century!” The latest US move listing China as one of six countries in the world that are “witnessing” or are at risk of “atrocities and genocide” was ridiculed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “開個玩笑……世紀謊言！” 美最新將中國列為世界上“目擊者”或面臨“暴行和種族滅絕”風險的六個國家之一，被中國外交部發言人調侃, 賊喊捉賊!

Experts said that the report is more like a “guidebook” for US politicians to initiate anti-China bills and to coordinate allies for the campaign to further smear China, especially when their own infamous human rights records are being further scrutinized at the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Observers also warned the report may signal US’ inciting more malicious actions against China over Xinjiang issue.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday released an annual report on genocide and atrocities prevention, which claimed to “provide direct detailed accounts of atrocities” taking place in six countries. Listed were Myanmar, Ethiopia, China, Syria, Iraq and South Sudan. It accuses China of “committing genocide and crimes against humanity” against Uygurs and other minorities in its Xinjiang region.

The annual report is mandated by bipartisan legislation known as the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, and was approved in 2018. This is the first time the annual report listed countries directly with detailed information. The 2020 report, released by the State of Department on August 7, 2020 also mentioned China’s Xinjiang for the “human rights crisis.”

The US has upgraded its accusations against China over Xinjiang topics to meet its current strategic purposes. The new content and countries listed in this year’s report of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act would help US lawmakers who are seeking hints for new bills and proposals to the president, Zhu Ying, a professor on international laws from Southwest University of Political Science and Law told the Global Times.

“The report is a guide-book for further anti-China actions. The new content in this report are like political lobbying materials offered to political elites to suggest draft bills, and with the politicians’ talking about these topics in the media or to the public, the increased attention will create momentum. Moreover, more bills related to China’s Xinjiang may be brought forward by US politicians, offering a legal basis for administrative departments to impose sanctions,” Zhu said.

The US annual report also listed sanctions imposed by the US over Xinjiang issue and Blinken told media on Monday they will use all the tools at their disposal to “generate coordinated international pressure and response.”

In response to the US move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a routine press conference on Tuesday, “I want to tell you a joke. The US wrote in a report that its government will defend and protect the human rights of all people of the world.”

Zhao said the US’ move is “ridiculous and with its own notorious human rights record, instead of correcting its own problems, some people in the US always want to point fingers on others and a report made under this logic is “waste paper.”

“I want to tell you another joke. The US has smeared China for ‘committing genocide’ and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. This is the biggest lie of the century,” Zhao said, noting that when talking about genocide, it suits the US perfectly.

“Hyping the issue, launching propaganda wars, upgrading accusations and kidnap international opinion… we saw the US play these tricks when it beat the war drum before invading Iraq. Its move has no legal basis in international law and violates international orders,” Zhu said.

Zhu noted that genocide and committing atrocities are serious crimes and there are complete and mature procedures as well as international orders centered on the UN to verify and determine based on evidence whether one country has committed these crimes. No country has the right to make the judgment of “genocide,” nor can it use domestic laws to impose unilateral sanctions on others.

Narrative war on human rights

The annual report came against the backdrop of the ongoing 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council where battles on Xinjiang-related topics and developing countries’ efforts to oppose politicizing human rights by the US and Western countries have been intensified.

Wang Jiang, a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Regions of China, Zhejiang Normal University, described the annual report as the latest US move to coordinate its allies for actions at the UN human rights body as well as to keep the momentum of the anti-China campaign.

The US and Western countries who are hyping Xinjiang issues are facing the embarrassing situation of having no solid evidence and this is why US released the report to link the words “genocide” and “atrocities” to China at any time on any occasion, Wang said.

Illustration: Chen Xia/GT
Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

In contrast to the joint statement made by a small group of countries, including Canada, the US, the UK and Australia, which groundlessly accused China over Xinjiang related topics, a total of 67 countries expressed their support for China’s stance at the ongoing UNHRC.

Wang noted that by leading the campaign to smear China, the US and the West are poisoning the environment of the UN Human Rights Council and blocking communications on human rights between developing countries and developed ones.

“China and developing countries have to robustly defend themselves,” Wang said, referring to China’s criticism of Canada, Australia and the US for their notorious human rights records, including genocide against indigenous people, murdering civilians in overseas military missions and domestic systemic discrimination against minorities.

Experts on human rights in China see China and developing countries’ criticism against Western countries more as the efforts made to break the US and the West’s monopoly over discourse on human rights.

“For a long time, the US and Western countries have not reflected on their mistakes in history, have imposed their own human rights conception on other countries, wishfully think others would repeat their mistakes, and did not take developing countries’ useful advice to enrich the human rights content. Now more developing countries are voicing their opposition and taking actions to change the current system on human rights,” Zhu said.

Even though it is historically correct that Japanese were immigrants from China. But it is not politically correct to tell the world. IOC chief Bach calls Japanese people ‘Chinese’ 儘管日本人是來自中國的移民在歷史上是正確的。 但是，告訴世界在政治上是不正確的。 國際奧委會主席巴赫稱日本人為“中國人”.

Washington Post: Olympic-size gaffe in Tokyo: IOC chief Bach calls Japanese people ‘Chinese’ By Simon Denyer July 13, 2021

IOC President Thomas Bach, left, is greeted by Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto during their meeting at the Tokyo 2020 headquarters on July 13, 2021 in Tokyo.

TOKYO — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach added to his already shaky public image in Japan on Tuesday by inadvertently referring to the Japanese people as “Chinese” at his first public appearance since arriving in Tokyo last week.

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games. This is even more remarkable under the difficult circumstances we all have to face,” Bach said at the headquarters of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, before making a slip of the tongue.

“Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people — Japanese people,” Bach said.

Although Bach caught his mistake quickly and interpreters didn’t translate the gaffe into Japanese, it was quickly picked up by Japanese news outlets and sparked a backlash on social media.

Many Japanese blame Bach for, in their eyes, forcing Japan to press ahead with the Olympics in the midst of a pandemic and despite the risks — although the Japanese government has always stood behind the decision to push on with the Games.

It is not the first time Bach’s comments have struck a dissonant chord in Japan. He also inflamed public opinion in March by saying the Olympics will require a “great sacrifice” and then in May for praising the “great resilience and spirit” of the Japanese people and their ability “to overcome adversity.”

Both those remarks were seen by some as insensitive since most Japanese people did not want the Games to take place this year and were not willingly making a sacrifice.

Bach spent his first three days in quarantine at a five-star hotel in central Tokyo. Like most people entering for the Olympics, his movements are supposedly limited for the first 14 days.

Yet he is scheduled to travel to the western city of Hiroshima on Friday, and is due to visit the Peace Memorial Park and lay flowers at a cenotaph dedicated to victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing.

Two civic groups have raised objections to his visit, arguing the trip is politically motivated, taking advantage of the city’s efforts to promote world peace and “dishonoring” survivors of the bombing, Kyodo News reported. Critics also argue it is also inappropriate for him to travel from Tokyo when the capital is under a state of emergency designed to curb infections.

An online petition launched last week calling for the cancellation of Bach’s Hiroshima visit had received over 30,000 signatures as of Tuesday evening.

The Olympics are due to open July 23 and close Aug. 8. Overseas spectators were banned in March, and last week organizers also decided to bar domestic spectators from all but a handful of venues far from Tokyo, after another rise in coronavirus infections.

In another embarrassing incident, police in Tokyo said a two American and two British men working as electricians for a power company contracted to the Olympics had been arrested on suspicion of using cocaine.

Aggreko Events Services Japan said all four had been suspended from their posts pending a thorough internal investigation.

“Aggreko sincerely apologizes for the concern this has caused the public, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the athletes and the many thousands of people dedicated to the safe and successful running of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” it said in a statement.

Bach has always maintained he has complete faith in Japan to deliver a “safe and secure” Games. He ended his speech on Tuesday with a Japanese phrase: “Gambari mashou,” which translates as “Let’s do our best.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/13/olympics-bach-gaffe-japanese-chinese/

Afghanistan: America bombs, China builds 阿富汗: 美國轟炸(破壞)中國建造 by Bradley Blankenship

Editor’s note: Bradley Blankenship is a Prague-based American journalist, political analyst and freelance reporter. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. President Joe Biden recently defended the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that “the United States did what we went to do,” which he says was delivering justice to the perpetrators of 9/11 and to “degrade the terrorist threat” that Afghanistan poses. According to Biden, the U.S. achieved those objectives – and, moreover, the U.S. “did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.”

Biden’s statement is merely a deflection from the fact that the U.S. actually had no clear plan in Afghanistan, though if anything suffered a humiliating defeat.

The lack of any clear plan is represented by the fact that objectives and priorities had constantly shifted through the war. For example, the fact that Osama bin Laden, the orchestrator of the 9/11 terrorist attack, was killed 10 years ago – and not even in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan. An account of the bin Laden operation by famous journalist Seymour Hersh actually shows unparalleled incompetence on the part of U.S. intelligence and special forces.

On top of this, while the U.S. had vowed to destroy the Taliban, which it had inadvertently helped usher into power beginning in the 1980s when it supported Islamic extremists fighting against the Soviet Union (including Osama bin Laden himself), the Taliban is anticipating a return to power.

It begs the question of what exactly the U.S. accomplished and the answer is, unsurprisingly, very little. As Biden admits, it certainly had nothing to do with nation-building, e.g., creating a stable political or economic situation in Afghanistan that could survive past the U.S. occupation.

This is certainly the rule and not the exception for America’s track record on foreign intervention because the U.S. and its myriad bureaucracies lack clear strategic aims, and if they do have them then often they contradict one another.

Perhaps then this is the most important implication of Biden’s speech: That any “foreign intervention” is “unwinnable” and reckless, as well as the fact that “nation-building” is impossible, because if the U.S. can’t do it then no one can. But is this actually true?

U.S. President Joe Biden leaves after an East Room event on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 8, 2021.

It’s quite an important point since China is now looking for ways to help fill the vacuum left by the United States. This week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as attending a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian regional security pact, and the SCO-Afghanistan contact group.

Some commentators are already spinning propaganda webs about what Chinese aid might look like, falsely saying any Chinese “intervention” is somehow qualitatively similar to whatever it was the U.S. was doing in Afghanistan for two decades.

For starters, no one is talking about Chinese troops occupying Afghanistan in the absence of American troops, which is the clear implication of some commentators. What they’re trying to do instead is perpetuate the myth of “Chinese imperialism,” which is the idea that China’s cooperation in developing nations is predatory, and then equate this to actual Western imperialism, which has been responsible for countless genocides and wars, on top of centuries of exploitation.

China’s intentions in Afghanistan are clear: Beijing wants to help Afghanistan rebuild, integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and join into a connected future in Eurasia – all with no political strings attached. That’s because this is already a win-win situation for both China, Afghanistan, the region and the entire world.

As the most important political and economic power in the region, China is logically positioned to help Afghanistan transition from U.S. occupation. At the same time, China understands through lived experience that economic investment that creates sustainable opportunities for people on the ground is important for peace and prosperity. A safe and prosperous Afghanistan that is not a playground for international terror networks would benefit everyone.

Already, the clarity (and simplicity) of such a plan stands far and away from America’s misdeeds in Afghanistan. Plus there’s also the obvious qualitative difference between Washington literally bombing a country for two decades and, on the other hand, Beijing helping Kabul join the most ambitious global infrastructure plan in history. To put it simply, China will not be the next empire to die in Afghanistan.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

Native Americans Deni Leonard in San Francisco: So many foreign policy mistakes by Presidents from both parties. We have a psychopathic leadership that seeks hegemony at all costs. The American Indian Indigenous Tribes have been Interned on Indian Reservations for 160 years with no fiscal, economic, public policy healthcare or educational solutions. We remained in poverty until our Sovereign Rights to Self Government resulted in developing the gaming business creating more capital in one year equal to almost 50 years of U.S. fiscal support.

There was no political power, however, now, a Multi-Ethnic Coalition can began to make Political Change in this decade. Together, reaching out to each other, we can make that change.

Professor John Walsh in San Francisco: The US policy in the Middle East was definitely a failure for the US Imperial Elite. It kept them tied down there and delayed giving their full “attention” to China, now in the crosshairs. But it still remains stuck to that Middle East tarbaby.

BUT it was a great help to China -and Russia -since it distracted the Empire from focusing on China.

With all the damage done and more of its enemies left in ruins, the long US distraction was a great boon to Israel. And of course Israel calls the shots for a great deal of US foreign policy – certainly in the Middle East and North Africa.

This is one illustration of the damage that can be done to a nation’s interests, even evil ones as in the case of the US Empire, by foreign alliances which the Founders called “entangling alliances” and warned against.

The US faces the same problem with Taiwan which can move opinion in the US so that the US govt is pushed into dangerous positions. This will be remedied when Taiwan Province formally rejoins China.

NED/CIA next target is Cuba. Biden said job well done to the regime change protesters in the name of fake freedom democracy and human rights. 美國民主基金會/美中情局下一個目標是古巴. 美國拜登總統説做得好用假民主自由和民權來推動顏色革命. World Journal Newspaper San Francisco 美國加州舊金山世界日報 July 13 2021

Mandarin Video: [Taiwan Province experts come to speak] Afghanistan withdraws! See the truth about the American scumbag! Taiwan is afraid of being abandoned! Washington Post directly confronted the Biden administration! 18,000 Afghan people supported US military are being discarded, hanging out dry to live or die on their own.
Mandarin 普通話視頻Video: 【台灣省專家來開講】阿富汗撤軍! 看出美國渣男真相! 台灣恐被放棄! 華郵直接跟拜登政府對著幹! 1.8萬阿富汗民眾被用完即丟!@頭條開講 20210712
https://youtu.be/_W7k1u_mpng
來賓
桃園市議員 #黃敬平
國家暨國際事務專家 #賴岳謙
立法委員 #陳玉珍
台北市議員 #張斯綱
1.拜登真的棄台! 昔日友好不再! 華郵翻臉阿富汗撤軍並公開批評:大陸會認為美國不會為台灣站出來
2.拜登根本沒有想清楚撤軍的後果! 還在辯護撤軍決定! 更沒有為像是台灣或烏克蘭等盟友站出來的骨氣!
3.法新社 阿富汗塔利班周五宣稱 已經控制了全國領土的85% 398個縣已經有250個處於他們的控制之下
4.美軍將數千名阿富汗人玩殘即丟 遲遲不批簽證 1.8萬人曾為當地美軍工作 擔心自己遭塔里班報復
5.海地政府9日請求美國出兵海地維持秩序 遭拜登政府婉拒 紐時報導因為拜登現在只想縮減海外兵力規模!
6.沒現貨? 買不到? 即期品? BNT簽約永齡、台積電、慈濟買了買了! DPP臉綠了又被打紅了!
7.郭台銘PO文透漏這段時間我自知責任重大阻礙重重! 且並未有大陸的任何指導或干涉!
8.行政院想收割民間買疫苗的功勞! 一張圖露出政府的惡霸強勢! 還想堵住企業的嘴不讓他們說話!
9.還拿別人的疫苗想要討好洗腦12~18歲青年! 一劑都不留給企業! 企業員工只能苦等排隊!
10.陳時中:當時都沒有洽定最後價格! 無法預先了解各種價格的變化? 陳玉珍早就算給你看了還裝不知?
11.5.2%死亡率! 母數過小? 現在怪地方還是怪民眾? 到底是誰不普篩? 根本反向驗證有黑數!

What is the biggest lies people still believe? 人們仍然相信的最大謊言是什麼？US or Canada has rules of laws, freedom, democracy and human rights! 美國或加拿大有法治，有自由，有民主，有人權！

Video: The sorry State of Haiti 🇭🇹 today need to gives thanks to French Government and US Citibank. 遺憾的海地🇭🇹今天需要感謝法國政府和美國花旗銀行.
https://vimeo.com/574046998
https://youtu.be/peSrGMfhTxQ
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/527699011786762/?d=n

‘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