Below pictures are taken in Paris of the Olympic Torch Relay. The girl, Jin Jing, was sitting in a wheelchair when protesters tried to grab her torch. These pictures are being widely circulated in Chinese websites. Why do you thing Chinese are so angry towards anti-Beijing-Olympics protesters?
Once again, the New York Times shows its ignorance about China and Chinese. Yes, the paper successfully predicted the full retirement of a former president, but apparently when things dive deep into an identity issue, the Times does not know what it is talking about.
In an editorial published today, titled The Torch and Freedom, the paper “kindly” offered help to China:
Stop arresting dissidents. Stop spreading lies about the Dalai Lama, and start talking to him about greater religious and cultural freedoms for Tibet. Stop being an enabler to Sudan in its genocide in Darfur. In other words, start delivering on the pledge you made to the International Olympic Committee to respect human rights — which, by the way, include the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly.
The editorial went on trying to explain why the Times is being resented by many Chinese:
Just so, the Communist authorities in China have been fanning nationalist resentments among their citizens with claims that protests against their repressive policies are staged by hostile foreign forces bent on ruining China’s grand Olympic party. The popular anger then makes it easier for the regime to arrest dissidents, stifle the news media and blame a “Dalai Lama clique” abroad for the troubles in Tibet.
This fits exactly into what I described as “arrogant westerners” in my last blog post. These westerners simply believe they know what Chinese are thinking, and hope they could get support from Chinese. When they don’t, they blame Chinese government for “fanning nationalism”.
It is especially interesting reading “stop spreading lies about the Dalai Lama”. The paper seems sure about its knowledge about Dalai. Unfortunately however, I doubt any serious academic work, even books and papers published in western world, was read by the Times’ editors. If they did read any, they would find Dalai is almost as much to blame as Chinese government in the current dilemma. Still, the only reason I can think of as why the Times blame Chinese government wholly for the Tibet problem is simply the paper’s preference. The Times just doesn’t believe what communists said.
I am Chinese but I am not communist. I read the Times and other American and European papers regularly and I would like to write about my opinion here. I’m interested to see if I would also be labeled as “brain-washed” Chinese just because I wrote something different. Below are my responses to the Times’ “help”:
Other than showing its arrogance and ignorance, this editorial of the Times is nothing constructive but misleading its readers, fanning resentments from Chinese or widening gap between westerners and Chinese. The Times itself should try something suggested to Chinese about the Tibet issue — Understand a different culture!
Some arrogant westerners always feel pathetic for Chinese - Poor Chinese, you are so brain-washed by your government that you have no idea what is happening out there. There is Darfur, there is human rights violation, and most recently, there is Tibet! How can you still support the “Genocide Olympics”? You must have been misguided by your “state-controlled media”. What? There is spontaneous anti-western media campaign? Then the state-controlled media must have stirred “nationalism” so successfully!
Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true. For Chinese, or should I say basically for all Chinese around me (including myself) to be precise, we are truly supporting Beijing Olympics deep in our heart (not in Orwellian way as someone may respond quickly), we don’t care Darfur that much, and we believe Tibet WAS, IS and SHOULD ALWAYS BE a part of China. To the contrary of some westerners would have predicted, if China were a democracy, the government would still have done exactly the same thing as what it is doing right now about Tibet, simply because any government in China can not afford the consequences of losing Tibet. You can take the late Qing Dynasty as an example.
The problem is not about democracy, the problem is about Chinese identity. Some western media accuse Chinese government deliberately fueling “nationalism” by constantly emphasizing the invasion of western countries and Japan in late 19th century and early 20th century, but that’s not the whole story. This kind of “nationalism” is widely viewed as patriotism in China. It roots in China’s long Confucius culture. This sentiment spurred after the First Opium War, in which China was defeated by Britain. (At the time, Tibet was ruled by the Qing Dynasty.) Since then, territory integrity had become one key pillar for ideas of China’s reformers and revolutionists. That’s why the Hundred Days’ Reform happened right after China’s defeat by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, because of which Taiwan was taken by Japan from China; that’s why one of Sun Yet-sen’s famous Three Principles of the People includes nationalism. It is not bluffing when Chinese government announced “People’s War” towards pro-Tibet-independence clique. The government indeed has the support of most Chinese.
I feel ashamed for the western media, especially the American ones, and I am so disappointed myself as I always believe in independent media. Western media disappoint me most as they trust Dalai without any proof while they defy Chinese government’s interpretation for no good reason as well. It seems they choose whom to believe just by their preference. When they quote Dalai, they quote whatever he said, but when they quote Chinese government or Han Chinese, they wrote specifically “the story couldn’t be independently corroborated”. Come on! Since Chinese government has kicked out all foreign media (presumedly independent by many western media) as western media reported, how can they “independently corroborate” what Dalai said? ! Why not emphasize this point when they quote Dalai? The only explanation I can think of is western media simply interpret “communists” as bad. That’s all! And they declare this is independent and professional journalism! Some western columnists even judge Chinese in a way as if they are superior than Chinese. How ironic! Isn’t it exactly what westerners accuse Chinese government is doing towards Tibetan?
Yes, I complain about a lot of things in China. Actually I just complained about Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG) as well as Bank of China, the Olympics official sponsor, in my last blog post. But I am still enthusiastic about the games myself and I still consider Tibet an indispensable part of China. Once again it is nothing else but about Chinese identity. Live with that!
I complain a lot of things about Beijing, but public transportation, well I should put it this way - the direction the public transportation is moving to, is not one of them.
A new subway line, Line Five, launched in Beijing yesterday, with the mayor’s address and media’s applauds. I am not surprised to learn from different papers that the line “represents the most advanced subway technology in China” and “is 100% made in China”. Less than one year ahead of the Olympics, you could hardly find anything in Beijing that is not the best.
What I want to talk about is actually not the subway line itself, but a new price system took effect yesterday also. The ticket price for all subway lines, no matter how many times you transfer (as long as you do not go to the airport), is set at RMB 2 (USD 0.26). The ticket price for buses has been cut to RMB 0.4 (if you use public transportation card) last year. I guess Beijing now has the cheapest public transportation system in China, perhaps even among the world major cities. (Do they pay for subways/buses in Pyongyang?)
On the other hand, the transportation of Beijing is deteriorating. China has a booming auto industry nowadays, and has the second largest auto market only after US. So it is not a surprise to learn some Chinese call their capital “Shou3du3 (首堵）“, means the worst traffic, instead of “Shou3du1(首都)” the capital. Cutting the ticket price is suppose to encourage more people using public transportation instead of driving their own cars (for the great Olympics of course).
The only question I have right now is how long the price will last. There is no doubt the public transportation system is losing money for this, and Beijing government is subsidizing it. But is the Government doing so only for the Olympics? Subway systems are well-known for losing money. Hong Kong’s subway system is perhaps by far the most successful one, as it earns something. Guess who will run Beijing’s next subway line (Line Four)? MTR Corporation (Hong Kong’s subway system operator)! Will Beijing invite MTR Corp. only to make its subsidies more efficiently? Let’s wait and see what happens when Line Four launches.
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