CHINESE DISASTER, AMERICAN VICTIMS
-- Comments on the 5/12 Earthquake and the Sharon Stone Matter.
By Yola Lirotee, June-02-2008
If you want to see how the media can make someone's image quake like an earthquake by twisting his or her words, consider the Sharon Stone matter currently in the headlines.
On May 22, at the Cannes Film Festival, Chinese reporters asked Ms. Stone about the 5/12 earthquake in China which killed nearly 70,000 people, many of them children. Viewing the entire video record of Ms. Stone's response, it is clear that she was trying to use phrases to show sympathy. She told them how her thoughts changed from use unkind to treat the unkind ("yi-e-bao-e") to use kind to treat the unkind ("yi-shan-bao-e"). Ms. Stone phrased the change as "interesting" and told the reporters that she wanted to help the Chinese people in the quake zone.
However, the Chinese Communist Party ("CCP") propaganda machine twisted her words into "the earthquake is interesting" and translated her question "is it karma?" into a conclusive tone "it is karma." Then they published news reports to cook up an anti-Stone movement over major Chinese websites, while blocking her original message.
Facing the quake disaster and huge losses, the Chinese government should focus on rescuing lives and reconstruction. Why, then, has the government media spent so much time to divert attention from the disaster to attack an American celebrity? The answer is this: a Cover Up.
According to various sources (including those from the Chinese government news), before the 5/12 quake, China's Earthquake Administration (the CEA, a government branch) had information that a large earthquake was coming. They warned high level officials, but apparently not the public. When the earthquake occurred, most of the high level officials were already out of the quake zone, safe, leaving tens of thousands of casualties and huge losses behind.
In the aftermath, many Chinese have put many questions to their government, including:
- In order to have a good image for the Beijing Olympics, the CEA purposely hid the earthquake information from the public. Is that true?
- Most school buildings collapsed and many who died were children. Why?
The CEA responded that earthquakes cannot be accurately forecasted, thus they were not responsible for warning the public. (Before the 5/12 quake, the CEA had boasted that China's capacity in earthquake predictions was "world class".)
The Ministry of Education also gave several explanations, one of which was that there were too many children in the same school building at once, thus causing the collapse of the buildings.
Such outright lies have made the Chinese people, especially survivors in the quake zone, feel extreme hurt and angry about the government's role in handling the disaster.
Lessons of the 24-Dynasties (a classic series of Chinese history) state that if human rulers cannot rule, the mandate of heaven will. Yin (people) and Yang (rulers) must work together, otherwise, people's anger along with a large earthquake will end the dynasty.
Should doubts and questioning of the government continue, it is likely that senior officials in the CEA and Education Ministry will be out. A chain of possibilities might be this: their policies and decisions on various projects will lose credibility, including the Three Gorges dam, which is near the quake zone.
Thus, in order to protect their positions and power, the CCP propaganda machine have been trying to use extremist nationalism to shift people's anger to foreigners. So far, they have succeeded by taking celebrities such as Sharon Stone, American media such as CNN, and other international targets. People's Daily, the mouthpiece for the CCP and the Chinese government, is leading the attacks, demanding not only apologies, but huge donations.
When there is a big disaster in China or anywhere in the world, Americans often lead the way in donating millions of dollars and basic necessities. However, when America experienced the worst disaster in history on 9/11, what and how much did the CCP media and their followers donate to the American people?
A Chinese phrase goes: a picture is worth a thousands words. Below is a picture showing the donation made by People's Daily following the 9/11 tragedy: It uses the photo of the attack on the World Trade Center as the background. In the foreground, a slogan reads: "Put down the United States Hegemony, Protect World Peace!"
TIBET: THE CHINESE FAKES
by Lirotee, April 4, 2008.
By using allegations from anti-CNN, and continuously for several days, the Chinese government media have very heavily attacked CNN and other western news organizations, re news reporting on the current Tibet situation. CNN published a response:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/tibet.statement/
CNN Statement on Tibet Coverage.
It is too soft. Reasons:
[Allegation: CNN intentionally cropped an image in order to remove Tibetan protesters throwing stones at Chinese trucks.]
If CNN and other western media did not show the entire photo in question, how did the Chinese anti-CNN runners get it, the very same picture? Please have a look at what photo the Chinese runners have used to attack CNN and other western media [1], and compare it with the photo reported by CNN [2]. They are the same. Clearly, the Chinese runners and their backers are fakes.
[1] http://politics.people.com.cn/mediafile/200804/01/P200804012000422446069771.jpg
[2] http://inthefield.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/14/tibet-in-turmoil/
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/tibet.statement/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto (picture #2).
[Allegation: CNN referred to Tibet as a "country."]
There is nothing wrong referring to Tibet this way. Please see how the U.N. uses the term referring to Taiwan:
http://comtrade.un.org/db/help/FeaturesList.aspx
Comtrade Features - Data availability:
Availability of data depends on in what classification and when comtrade data are reported by countries.
By default, all public users get the "Normal View" restriction. This view lets access to all comtrade data except the data reported by Taiwan, Province of China due to political reasons. However, at the trading partner side, Taiwan is included in partner "Asia Other, not elsewhere specified" (Code 490).
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=2441&lang=1
Country Fact Sheets
These Country Fact Sheets contain the most relevant indicators about FDI in a country. Each sheet contains the most recent data on FDI flows and stocks, mergers and acquisitions, largest TNCs and regulatory changes.
Fact Sheets for 188 economies are available below:
Taiwan Province of China
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2000/02/data/index.htm
The World Economic Outlook (WEO) Database September 2000
Group A Countries
Taiwan Province of China
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page2.asp?chart_mode=A&country_id1=37&country_id2=-1&group_id1=0&group_id2=0&chart_y=C&weighted=Y
2007 The World Bank Group. updated August 2007
Taiwan, China
Comparison Group: All Countries (KAM 2007).
As UN organizations can use refer to Taiwan as a Province of China, of course, CNN or any media can use the same term referring to Tibet as another province region of China.
The United Nations is not The United Countries. The Chinese runners may be confused by country and nation in English, for the two terms are commonly translated as the same word in the Chinese language. CNN was not misleading, using the word , but the Chinese runners are using a false story to mislead themselves and others.
How the PRC Media Doctoring News Photo:
Continuously for several days, the PRC media has used the anti-CNN weapon to attack CNN as well as other western media. However, take a look at how the PRC media made fake news by doctoring photos, a story which was first reported by AsiaTimes (a Chinese newspaper) in 2004 and then by BBC-Chinese of UK[3]:
[3] Photo: http://www.asiatimes-chinese.com/images/08303.jpg
Report: http://www.asiatimes-chinese.com/2004/08/0830rep2.htm
Report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/low/newsid_3650000/newsid_3655700/3655744.stm
(The two reports are in Chinese language)
In the picture, the above photo was the original, reported by Looking-East, the one in the lower-left was reported by Xinhua News Agency, and the one in the lower-right was later used for an official expo and reported by Wenhuibao. One can easily see how heavily the same photo was forged into different pictures for news reports. And all three media organizations are PRC government-run!
As the BBC and AsiaTimes have analyzed, the power struggle was very hard during the top leadership change at the time. Thus, different factions tried to edit the same photo as propaganda to the Chinese people that would best serve their political ends.
Conclusion:
Regarding ethical conduct in journalism, it would be much better if the Chinese anti-CNN runners could have some freedom to mind their own PRC media rather than attacking CNN and other western media organizations.
