Western Media Madness: Part 2
In part one of this article, https://jerry-grey2002.medium.com/western-media-madness-b0a79847ffbb I covered the fact that there isn’t anything nice being said about China without a caveat of potential harmful after-effects or a predicted rise in anti-government sentiment as a result of the action the government have taken to help the community. In this part we’ll look at the effects and the reasons. The most important thing to remember, it’s absolutely impossible for anywhere to be 100% bad. Therefore, it’s absolutely impossible for all the world’s media to find only bad articles to write — there must be a reason, and there are certainly consequences from this.
In June 2021, the United States enacted a law which allows for government spending to overcome the competitiveness of China[1]. This rather strange law included deep within the several thousand pages, an allowance of $1.5bn for media to report negatively about China. And it is partly as a result of this that we now see so many negative reports from a media scampering to find easy targets and even easier sources of revenue.
Because much of the world’s media is based, or owned in the USA, the funding and most of the rhetoric related to China (and Russia) comes from there and without a doubt, many of the world’s problems stem from there, this article will relate mostly to the United States even though almost all English language news holds the same bias.
There is no doubt that some of what follows is anecdotal and not academically researched, but it’s based on my recent travels through Guangdong, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces, it’s based on feedback from friends, family, acquaintances, hundreds of twitter followers and conversations in almost every restaurant, coffee shop, train carriage, and even my barber! Chinese people are about 99% in favour of the steps the government have taken, or are taking, to maintain zero-covid. So, let’s get the “social pressure out of the way” the CPC are in no danger of losing control, they are, in fact, in no danger of losing popularity, quite the opposite they are becoming more popular as every month goes by.
The fallacy of western minds that the Chinese citizen is a wonderful person who needs rescuing from an evil dictatorship they call the CCP is entirely wrong. First of all, it’s only words and they are hollow, they are opinions of people who are not in China, don’t speak with Chinese inside of China and are never, ever backed up with any viable or credible information to reinforce them. Quite the opposite, as we shall see when we read on, the media reports are not only unsupportive of average Chinese people, they are almost 100% vindictive towards them. The Communist Party of China, or the CPC as it’s correctly called is like wine when it’s been mixed with water, it can’t be separated from the people, nor can the people be separated from it. A fallacy based on misunderstanding of culture, a lack of empathy and, quite often based on lies told by actors with something to gain from those lies. The CPC is not perfect, it’s made up of over 90 million members, of course there are some bad members but they are not a sinister or malevolent, party at all, they are a party which strives to do the best for its people.
Weirdly, when a Chinese person supports their government in comments or in actions and even when a foreigner, such as myself supports China, we are seen as either brainwashed, complicit, coerced or financially motivated, there’s never a thought given to the fact that we might actually have a valid point. Comments such as: “Isn’t it strange that your opinion aligns exactly with the CPC” are very common, yet we don’t think it’s strange at all, our opinions align with the Party, because the Party’s actions merit our support, that’s not strange.
In part 1 we discussed the supply chain and domestic consumption issue. As this isn’t an MBA report, I’m not going to fill the page with graphs but there are a few facts that need to be taken into consideration by a critical reader. When I read that production is down, when I read that supply chains are collapsing and when I read that trade figures are suffering, I look at a couple of different factors. One is outside my door. The supermarkets are busy but well stocked, the department stores and the malls are busy, people are carrying shopping in bags and boxes and this tells me there seems to be no local issues with either supply or consumption. I went to one of our two local train stations the other day and found it full, a friend of mine flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou a few days ago and needed to wait three days to get a ticket. People are travelling, this is normal at this time of year and for sure, there will be a few less this year, but not to the point of a collapsing economy. Another place to look is the trade figures: it’s no secret that Guangdong, the province I live in, has had a good year, the GDP of the province rose 8% over 2021, international trade for the entire year was 12% up on the previous year and that was 6% up on the year before. Current trade figures to the USA, EU, UK, Australia and New Zealand are all at record highs — despite these figures, once again, the article I cite here is full of words such as” likely to, despite” (3 times) and “but[2]”. All this happened under the backdrop of a trade war with the US, difficulties with Australia and massive negative publicity about human rights allegations.
Something all the naysayers are forgetting, and news that most WMSM has pretty much failed to cover, is that China entered into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Agreement on the 1st January and, in doing so effectively entered a Free Trade Agreement with about 30% of the world’s population and over 30% of the world’s trade. Guangdong wasn’t an exception, it was the rule, I can’t find a single reference to any province or region in China which recorded a loss during 2021 — including Xinjiang with all the sanctions hitting it. Hardly a cause for concern in relation to trade either then.
So, if people are satisfied with the government, domestic consumption appears to be fine, international trade is at an all time high, what is it then that is causing this massive amount of negative publicity?
There really are many different factors but I’m going to put them into three categories: Projection; Fear of Failure and Racism.
Projection
Western media says there is an authoritarian state which interferes with your freedoms, doesn’t allow you to walk the streets, engage in social media or even write emails without monitoring what you do. It goes on to say there are examples of forced labour, genocide, military expansion and aggressive resource harvesting from under developed countries. And they are correct, there is such an authoritarian state, but it isn’t China.
Everything you do on Facebook, Twitter and even encrypted messaging such as Whatsapp[3] is being recorded, harvested, examined and stored. Don’t believe me, ask yourself why does Edward Snowden live in Exile or why is Julian Assange languishing in Prison facing the rest of his life behind US Federal bars. Why are the United States not party to the United Nations Human Rights Council, they pulled out in 2018 when they referred to it as a “cesspool of political bias”. Political bias that they should have been fighting against, but UNHRC was, in fact, fighting against the US’s own human rights contraventions. The same critical readers might ask themselves what about social media monitoring in China, and yes, it does exist, for the purposes of criminal investigations, same as everywhere else but one thing Western media won’t tell you is how strong the data of individual users is protected, or has been since September 2021[4]. It might also indicate why Twitter, Facebook, Google etc, which all provide completely free, no payment services to their users, happen to be among the world’s richest organisations. They are harvesting, collecting and selling your data, something it’s illegal to do in China and therefore, those social media and internet giants won’t operate under China’s “authoritarian” laws.
We could also ask why is it that Mike Pompeo, when he was Secretary of State threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions and visa restrictions if they attempt to investigate American war crimes. The answers would not be surprising, the US, it appears has a lot to hide. There is a history of genocide in both North and South America, as well as Australia. The USA, this genocide hasn’t been buried or ignored, it’s been glorified by Hollywood and its perpetrators have been honoured in the history books. The “only document worth fighting for” according to one Twitterer, is the Constitution. A document that states it’s not ok to use slaves (unless the legal system has incarcerated them and, then it’s quite ok). What the Constitution couldn’t possible have said because it is a document written and signed by slave owners over 200 years ago, is that the prison system is now largely privately owned and profitably managed, the prisoners incarcerated in it are being paid to be held in it by the state and used as unpaid slave labourers by the system earning income to add to the profitability. The same Constitution went on to allow the whites to carry firearms, form militias and defend themselves. Something which has led to the death of about 82 people a day in the last few years. Every day, at least 3 of whom everyday, on average, are killed by the police.
Military expansion, aggression and exploitation are something China is accused of regularly, by the same country which has over 750 military bases around the world, including several biolaboratories. The country with troops on the Belarusian, Polish and other borders, as well as inside the Artic circle, all borders of Russia while at the same time accusing Russia of expansionism and aggression, also has several Aircraft carriers, two of their own and two belonging to their allies, as well as about 70 other military ships and aircraft in the South China Sea whilst accusing China of aggression. The same country which refuses to ratify or join the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) because it will require them to admit they have expanded illegally into many different maritime regions. The country which has plundered resources from Africa, South and Central America is charging China with expansion, exploitation and debt servitude whilst they have placed dozens of countries into that exact position and left them in poverty. The same country that sanctions Venezuela, Iran, North Korea and supports others whilst children and their parents die of starvation and for lack of medical care accuses China, without evidence, of doing exactly what they themselves have done for over 100 years and are currently still doing.
This is projection elevated to an art form. People on Twitter often comment that, if the United States are saying one country is doing something evil, there’s a strong likelihood, that the US is in fact perpetrating the same crimes they accuse others of and it’s never hard to find evidence once you know where to look. Projection of their own atrocities is a clever way of deflecting those crimes to another country.
Fear of Failure
So many people around the world believe that China is an evil place, then they come to China and are surprised, people are friendly, outgoing, welcoming. Citizens are well-fed, well-housed and have middle income jobs, many drive cars or use the incredible metro systems in dozens of cities; China has the four longest metro systems in the world and has more metro or subway lines than any other country. There’s also the High-Speed Rail, of which China leads with more than the rest of the entire world combined and this supports the slower, green trains which run between regions and from city to city, taking a little longer but costing a little less. I can find references to 188 airports in China[5]. Whilst the USA has over 5,000 public airports and as many as 19,000 in total[6], I very much doubt though, that we can find another country in the world with which has such modern and beautiful airports as China.
So, what is it that makes the US afraid? The world’s richest country has several problems, Crime, guns, health, debt, transportation and communication; these are all societal problems and can be dealt with by proper management, something which appears to be lacking. Another major problem is infrastructure. This was rapidly bought home to President Joe Biden just a few days ago when he went to visit Pittsburgh, a city that has seen a decline in GDP over the last two years[7] and a reduction in government spending at the same time as significant CPI increases[8]. A few hours before arriving, a bridge collapsed injuring several people, this was due to lack of maintenance, it seems funds due to be spent on the bridge in recent years, had been diverted to other budgets to help cope with “wokeism” and civil disobedience[9]. This bridge alone isn’t a major problem, except that it’s one of 46,154 bridges which is in urgent need of repair[10] with a requirement of $125 billion to bring the country up to standard. And it isn’t just bridges, US freeways are crumbling too, so much so that people prefer not to use them, which may be why a country of 330 million has 19,000 airports while having only 6000 hospitals. According to a National Transportation service, US roads are effectively 65 years old and have never been well-maintained, they suffer from over-use, congestion and “deferred reinvestment”[11], funds just keep being diverted to police, military and civil disobedience management rather than transportation.
It doesn’t stop at transportation, US hospitals are declining too, in 1975 there were 7,156 hospitals in the United States, now there are 6,146[12]. It’s easy to say that small hospitals closed while larger hospitals opened, but the fact is the number of beds available to patients needing them has declined to 2.83 per 1000 people[13] while, concurrently, the costs associated with these health services have increased[14]. China, on the other hand shows the complete opposite, the number of beds has steadily increased over recent years to 4.13[15] and shows no sign of easing back costs of social services are incorporated into salary packages and hospital fees are manageable or, in many cases free of charge.
University placements in China are not completely free, but there is no danger of going into a lifetime of debt by entering a university and about 33 million students do so every year, about 10 times the number of US students[16], despite the population being only 4 times more. Anecdotally, my wife as a mature student took part in a four-year Bachelor degree course a few years ago, the total cost was less than 60,000 RMB (less than $9,000) including accommodation within the campus. I did a two-year online Master degree with a British University at the same time and paid almost 4 times as much, a US university would have been 50% more.
Almost 1 million Americans have died either of, or with, Covid-19 in the last 2 years, over 30,000 citizens died last year of gun violence and more than 10,000 were killed by the police. Over 100,000 last year died of substance/drug abuse[17]. The overall murder rate in the USA is 7.4 per 100,000 people but in some cities rises as high as 35 per 100k[18] compared to China’s 0.53. Because of statistics such as these, the mortality rate in the USA has recently decreased to a lower point than that of China[19].
Given these kinds of statistics, it’s hardly surprising that China has not only caught up with the USA but will overhaul the global leader in so many lifestyle, economic, educational, technological and societal factors. In fact, there isn’t a positive metric in any classification where the Chinese lag behind America and, at the same time, there isn’t a negative aspect where America doesn’t eclipse China.
Too much US money has been, and continues to be, invested in keeping a huge military intact and operating throughout the world. Furthermore, incredible investments are needed in medical care for veterans and pensions for retired military personnel.
Homeless people, victims of crime, people in debt from attending university or from getting ill and the many millions who live from hand to mouth on minimum wages which have not increased in thirteen years, as well as the increasing number, now 11.4%, who live in poverty,[20] would be horrified to know that “red China” the “yellow peril” the “I’d rather be dead than red” and those “ungodly hordes”, all names that have been used in recent media attacks on China, are actually living much better lives and living more comfortably with better future prospects than those in the richest country in the world. Of course, the media would not want Americans to realise this — unfortunately, many of them are starting to.
There’s a terrible fear in United States Media that people will see how “second-class” China has improved and demand some of it for themselves. Despite the claim of freedom and democracy, there will be no polite requests through the democratic processes: in 2019 a record number of new guns were sold to American citizens, the best year in history for the gun manufacturers, that is until 2021 when 18.5 million new firearms were sold and that year became the best on record. In other words, there are about 35 million more new firearms in the hands of the American public than there were 2 years ago when there were already almost 400 million. There are really only two reasons to buy a gun, one is to hunt as a hobby, the other is fear. In the last 2 years, about 35 million American adults have NOT newly taken up hunting, they are afraid, afraid of what their neighbours, fellow citizens and their government might bring to them.
Racism
The barrage of media attacks is a small part of a much larger campaign of dehumanising and denigrating the population. It also helps create a “saviour” complex where Westerners believe aggression towards China is a good thing because “the government are so bad to their people”
Imagine, a country with 1.4 billion people on the other side of the world, every time you open social media, read a news report, switch on your TV you see something about how this country is evil, its government is authoritarian, oppressive, even genocidal, and then you see photographs such as the one published by the Washington Times. How do you feel about the people it represents?
Or, your news is telling you that the disease which is killing your friends, neighbours favourite celebrities or even your grandparents was created and the deaths were caused by this foreign country, where the people look and act differently to you. Then you go on to read that this country and its allies are profiting from the very diseases that’s destroying your society and they utilise 100-year-old cartoons designed to instill patriotism and hatred against others, how do you feel about the people this represents?
The answer seems simple, where there’s so much smoke, there absolutely must be a fire. Except there isn’t.
Goebbels was possibly one of the world’s most famous propagandists and his efforts to dehumanise the Jews in Europe led to an almost complete annihilation of the race in the region, it caused normal German people, “the man in the street”, to believe that there was an enemy within that was as great as any enemy outside and desensitised the vast majority of the German people to the point where they were either complicit in the destruction or were at the very least not committed enough to care to get involved. We’re seeing the same thing happening in 2021 by the propaganda arm of the United States, Western Mainstream Media, emotions are being manipulated as intellect is disregarded. Exactly as Goebbels advised.
Even worse, a collage of photographs found on Twitter, the original collator remains unknown, but I’d be very pleased to credit the person who put together the following photograph which demonstrates that Joseph Goebbels was right, his work to not only dehumanise and desensitise people it’s very much alive and thriving in a way that should scare any right-minded person. 6 million Jews were murdered as a result of propaganda such as this; the number of Chinese attacks or Asian racial hatred incidents have increased, according to the FBI[21] by 70% during 2019, a further 70% on top of the already increased number in 2020 and the figures aren’t yet available but, according to a BBC report[22] are as high as 1200% increases on previous years. And this is only in America. What is happening is that normal Americans in downtown streets, city developments and rural towns are being emotionally manipulated into believing that China, the country, is their enemy and Chinese (as well as other Asian) people are increasingly becoming victims.
We know exactly what will happen, history has already shown us. The racism of the uneducated and common American citizen will, as it was in Nazi Germany, be fed and they will voraciously swallow it. The ill-informed, badly advised and uncritical consumer of negative and biased news reports will claim to support their government in all its endeavours to “bring about a peaceful resolution”, as the US always claims it wants to do. All the time media, influenced by massive injections of cash from government policies to create negative impressions, and think tanks motivated by huge donations and grants from weapons manufacturers, to whom a peaceful resolution is the worst possible outcome, will be tugging at their emotions.
We are rapidly approaching a situation where the US public starts to feel that the Chinese have “got it coming to them” because, after all, they are the cause of all job losses, the unnecessary deaths, the rising crime, the health issues, the poverty, they’re taking all the free jobs and all the best places in universities are going to them — and all these fallacies will be believed — because we can read all about it in the paper — so it must be true!
As a very well-informed Twitter user confirmed, and there seems to be very little left to add:
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/08/politics/bipartisan-bill-vote-china-competitiveness/index.html
[2] https://time.com/6139334/china-record-trade-surplus-2021/
[3] https://www.rt.com/news/546338-whatsapp-us-agencies-spying/
[4] https://www.china-briefing.com/news/a-close-reading-of-chinas-data-security-law-in-effect-sept-1-2021/
[5] https://airport-authority.com/browse-cn
[6] https://www.bts.gov/content/number-us-airportsa
[7] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NGMP38300
[8] https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/summary/blssummary_pittsburgh.pdf
[9] https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/01/31/analysis-of-pittsburghs-bridge-collapse-instead-of-replacing-support-beams-they-used-cables-diverted-the-money-to-woke-sht/
[10] https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/bridges/
[11] https://tripnet.org/reports/interstate-system-national-news-release-06-22-2021/
[12] https://www.definitivehc.com/blog/how-many-hospitals-are-in-the-us
[13] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/hospital-beds
[14] https://www.statista.com/statistics/184688/us-national-health-expenditure-since-1960/
[15] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.BEDS.ZS?locations=CN
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_United_States
[17] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm
[18] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/murder-rate-by-state
[19] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-lifespan-idUSKCN1IV15L
[20] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html
[21] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/30/fbi-says-hate-crimes-against-asian-and-black-people-rise-in-the-us.html
