They come at it from different angles but Chinese deputy ambassador Wang Xining and Peta Credlin, former prime ministerial staffer of Tony Abbott and current Sky News After Dark presenter, are agreed on one thing: the Australian media have gone to the dogs.
Reap what you sow
The Lowy Institute issued an embarrassing survey at the start of the month: 37 per cent of Australian residents of Chinese descent said they had been treated differently or less favourably over the past year; 31 per cent said they had been called offensive names; 18 per cent they had been physically threatened or attacked because of their Chinese appearance.
Guardian Australia also reported that a community group called Asian Australian Alliance found that 499 people had self-reported a racist incident – with the vast majority being women – since it started tracking anti-Chinese and anti-Asian incidents last April, as the Covid-19 pandemic set in.
The annual Scanlon Report into social cohesion and attitudes to migrants and multiculturalism found “heightened negative sentiment towards Chinese nationals over 2020. While 84 per cent of respondents in November 2020 said multiculturalism generally was good for Australia, 44 per cent said they had “very negative” or “somewhat negative” feelings towards Chinese Australians – a nearly three-fold increase from 13% in 2013.
The Guardian’s reporter Naaman Zhou found the Chinese-Australian community blaming allegations about the source and spread of the coronavirus, fanned by former US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, but also a political and media atmosphere that encourages a “creeping distrust” of Australians of Chinese heritage. Lowy’s representatives said much the same thing: China’s perceived role in spreading COVID-19 and Australian-Chinese diplomatic tensions.
The findings have not generated much self-examination in the Australian media.
Senator Eric Abetz and his demand of three Chinese-Australians that they “unconditionally condemn the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship” got raised in the only editorial we could find about the Lowy Report, in The Sydney Morning Herald. “A McCarthyite witch-hunt treating Chinese Australians as a fifth column in our midst is an injustice to them and it also offers a propaganda gift to the Chinese government,” it intoned.
As for blaming China or Chinese people for Covid, the SMH stressed some little-known remarks by Scott Morrison praising the responsible behaviour of people returning from China, rather than his “weapons-inspector” demand for a Covid investigation. The Australian and its tabloid stable-mate the Daily Telegraph did not run editorials on the subject.
The spate of ‘Gotcha’ coverage linking Chinese-Australians to the CCP’s United Front Work Department, involving not only the Nine-Fairfax and News Corp newspapers but also the ABC and other TV networks surely deserves some of the blame.
Osmond Chiu, of the Per Capita research group, was one of the three subjected to the Abetz test last October. He told the Guardian that discussion of China as a foreign threat used to be mostly confined to foreign policy wonks. “Whereas, as a result of two things, firstly China’s actions in Hong Kong, as well as Covid, it has now seeped into the mainstream,” he said. In media, politics and on the street, “people who were traditionally not that interested in China, are now talking about it as a threat.”
The suspicion was partly due to the “shadowy” ways in which the CCP operated, but it had resulted in an “inversion” of the burden of proof. “If you are of Chinese heritage, or have any potential links to China, however tenuous they might be, you have to prove you do not have links,” he said. “And even expressing that you don’t support [the CCP] is not enough. You almost need to show an evangelical zeal. There are plenty of examples where someone has been accused of having links … All you need to do is be in a photo with someone. Be in an organisation with someone.”
TV confessions
But for SBS, foreign news coverage outside the US and Britain would be sporadic and sometimes non-existent on Australian broadcast television. On slender budgets and a bit of advertising, it puts together good bulletins with its locally-based reporters voicing over and explaining footage from international channels.
Its language broadcasting for recent migrant communities comes in for periodic accusations of bias, either that certain staff are secretly working for a foreign government or alternatively, members of exiled dissident groups.
One slot-filler much appreciated by nostalgic migrants or language students are the news feeds from foreign broadcasters early in the day. The SBS has now suddenly suspended its re-broadcast of feeds from two Chinese state broadcasters, China Central Television (CCTV) and China Global Television Network (CGTN).
The cases raised go beyond the well-known one of British journalist and private investigator Peter Humphrey arrested along with his wife for allegedly trading the personal information of Chinese citizens.
The UK media watchdog Ofcom last month revoked the broadcast licence of CGTN as its ostensible owner did not control its editorial output and was ultimately controlled by the CCP. Last year, Ofcom ruled that CGTN had been “unjust” to air footage in 2013 of Peter Humphrey “appearing to confess to a criminal offence”.
According to SBS, Safeguard Defenders said in a letter that CCTV had broadcast the forced confessions of some 56 people between 2013 and 2020. “These broadcasts involved the extraction, packaging and airing of forced and false confessions of prisoners held under conditions of duress and torture,” the letter said. “These offences involved the airing of ‘confessions’ extracted from suspects long before any indictment, trial or conviction, and in many instances while the victim was detained incommunicado, with no access to legal counsel, at secret locations. A significant number of these ‘confessions’ are broadcast not only in China but internationally via CCTV-4 and CGTN.
SBS has told the media that to the best of its knowledge, it had not aired the forced confessions and the complaint letter did not allege that it had, but given the seriousness and complexity of the complaint, it was suspending the CGTN and CCTV bulletins while it was assessed.
Morrison the freedom fighter
When the CCP revealed the extent of its crackdown on Hong Kong’s political autonomy last year – now all but extinguished with subversion charges filed this month against 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists, and the rubber stamp by the National People’s Congress on a new loyalty vetting system for their replacements – Scott Morrison and his government saw a silver lining.
Immigration channels were opened for entrepreneurial Hong Kong types to bring their businesses, knowledge and capital to Australia. Some may indeed be arriving, if they don’t head to more familiar territory in Taiwan or Singapore, or take up Boris Johnson’s offer of residency in Britain.
But the intake is beginning to include some who will bring trouble that Morrison presumably didn’t have in mind. One who landed in Darwin this week was former Hong Kong legislative council member Ted Hui, noted for various protest stunts against Beijing and on the run from national security and money-laundering charges framed against him.
He intends to settle here with his family. “It is time to move on to a different battleground,” Hui told Eryk Bagshaw, offshore China correspondent of the SMH. “I am very grateful for the Australian government’s assistance. Diplomatically, I believe it is also a signal to Beijing that the Australian government will be more engaged with freedom fighters internationally.”
Hui and other fleeing activists should be accommodated, but let’s not kid ourselves that it will be cost-free. The Chinese embassy has already called his welcome an act of interference.
The costs of the political chill mount up. This month, two Chinese investors sold their 5.1 per cent stake in gas-producer Santos. The National People’s Congress passed a law explicitly banning cross-border gambling promotion, which will hit Australian casinos relying on junkets of Chinese high-rollers.
Student visa applications from China fell 46 per cent in the second half of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. This may just be the effect of travel restrictions (applications from India fell 48 per cent as well) but signs are emerging of active discouragement of study in Australia by some Chinese authorities.
Former foreign secretary Peter Varghese, now chancellor of the University of Queensland, told the SMH’s Lisa Visentin it was “quite likely” local authorities had spoken to some recruitment agents about not encouraging students to study at Australian universities. “These seem to be locally initiated messages that have gone out to some agents rather than a centralised message from China’s Ministry of Education,” Varghese said. “That is not unusual in China.”
Legion of merit
Who can forget one of the last grand gestures of Donald Trump’s presidency – the awarding of the Legion of Merit, normally a military decoration, to our own Scott Morrison, along with India’s Narendra Modi and Japan’s Shinzo Abe?
Morrison for one is probably hoping that we do. But later tonight, two of Trump’s warriors will be on screen in the first leaders’ hook-up of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Trump has been replaced by Joe Biden and Abe by Yoshihide Suga, but Morrison and Modi remain in their corners of the Quad.
The participants are all agreed it’s a significant move, but can more easily say what the Quad won’t be (a Nato-type military alliance). Discussions surrounding sea-lanes, Covid and climate change will come up, as well as the importance of Southeast Asia. Not to mention the Myanmar coup, still facing mass opposition after six weeks.
Jakarta, Jakarta
Meanwhile, the best print coverage here of Myanmar and Southeast Asia continues to come from Amanda Hodge of The Australian. She noted that Asean’s four democracies – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines – led by Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi have called for a reversal of the coup, an end to the violence and release of all detained political leaders.
Somewhat stronger than the consensus statement of the entire Asean group, calling for all parties in Myanmar to “exercise utmost restraint as well as flexibility … and to seek a peaceful solution.”
Hodge also reported last weekend’s unusual capture of the opposition Democratic Party, founded by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, by current president Joko Widodo’s chief of staff, former army general Moeldoko.
Together with other former opponents taken into the government camp, this gives President Widodo support of 84 per cent of the legislature, a rare achievement in post-Suharto Indonesia where the once-supreme presidency has had its powers counter-balanced in the parliament. Hodge did not take this scenario further, unlike Jakarta veteran correspondent John McBeth, who writes in the Asia Times website that Widodo could now, if it all held together, amend the constitution to let him run for a third term. You need to be there to capture the full wildness of Jakarta politics.
Great minds
They come at it from different angles but Chinese deputy ambassador Wang Xining and Peta Credlin, former prime ministerial staffer of Tony Abbott and current Sky News After Dark presenter, are agreed on one thing: the Australian media have gone to the dogs.
Credlin joined the throng of conservatives this week hailing the 25th anniversary of John Howard’s election win in 1996, opening “a time of significant achievement: tax reform with the GST; welfare reform with work for the dole; border security; a government that lived within its means; above all else, senior politicians who seemed to stand for things apart from their own ambition.”
“Even with an heir-apparent in Peter Costello waiting in the wings, despite an occasional skirmish, the ruthless internal campaigns to undermine elected leaders that define the recent decade were non-existent,” Credlin went on:
“It was a time when MPs who wanted to speak did so on the record; none of the weak ‘Liberal sources’ rubbish that masquerades as journalism. The Canberra press gallery, which likes to write about the decline of our polity, shares the blame. Back in the Howard years, the media class were alive to policy detail and debates about reform; they focused on the competing political ideologies that drove the agenda rather than the lazy route of gossip. Today, those gallery giants have been replaced by minnows who can’t read a budget paper, let alone comprehend serious policy. And we’re the poorer for it.”
For his part, Wang said much of the bad sentiment here towards China was the media’s fault, telling a Chinese new year gathering: “If these people are immersed by those negative portraits of China by the major media outlets and brainwashed by the vulgarised and simplified political slogans, how would they understand China and agree with your assessment and impression of China?”
Guardian of the Flame
According to Ellen Whinnett in the Murdoch Sunday tabloids, Tony Abbott is “mooted” to take over the chair of the Australian War Memorial council when the term of Kerry Stokes expires at the end of July. Whinnett is the one who got the leak about the Morrison government’s defunding of the China Matters institute last year.
Stokes took over the role from former Liberal defence minister and leader Brendan Nelson and continued with his ambitious $500 million expansion of the memorial to accommodate sundry large bits of war machinery – a deeply controversial measure widely condemned as a desecration of the AWM’s sombre origins as a memorial to the war dead and turning it into a “theme park” of war.
Abbott has been a member of the AWM council since 2019 and has shown no sign of dissent to the plans. According to Whinnett, the position of Stokes has become “complicated” as he is paying the legal expenses of Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith, who is under investigation for an alleged war crime in Afghanistan and suing Nine Entertainment for its reporting on the allegations. Roberts-Smith is a manager in Queensland for Seven Network, controlled by Stokes.
Hamish McDonald has been a correspondent in Jakarta, Tokyo, New Delhi and Beijing, and was Regional Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and Foreign Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He has won two Walkley Awards for reporting from Asia and was made an Inaugural Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Comments
61 responses to “Media in the Asian Century”
It is a bit hypothetical to hope that if CCP goes, then China will change for the better…China adopted communism from Russia and CCP was the hybrid between Chinese society beliefs and the political system to take them forward. Nationalist party did not work and lost the country after Sun Yat Sen. Chinese social structure is built around Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Communism uses the same values and responsibility in a similar way. Most historians would admit that China achieved massive outcomes on women’s equality, education and ending poverty. Evolving political systems will need to fit the social structure, regardless where ever in the world. Good, bad or ugly. Failure to recognize is the mad Crusades all over again. The best chance the West had to take over China was during the Taiping rebellion 1850 – 1864. Rebel leader Hong Xiuquan believed he was the son of God and Jesus was his big brother, and went to war on the Chinese government.. the western forces backed the Qing government and missed a golden opportunity to get a massive foothold in China during the Opium Wars. In our modern and highly interconnected world, it is amazing to observe the raging leadership rave over their pinnacle of social and moral structure. I ponder if someone up and coming may want to be the next brother of Jesus and have another go, perhaps in the West this time.
Objectively, it was the West that was the aggressor towards China, and the rest of the world. Despite their Christian religion, they threw the holy book away to commit genocide in the Americas, and in Australia.
There were excesses done in the name of Marxism in China, but China has never been a colonial or imperial country externally. In ancient times, the emperor had theoretical absolute power, but apart from quelling rebellions internally, China is different in that it never had the desire to rule the world. It only wanted to keep the barbarians at bay!
Today’s China is in the business of doing business, not imperial aggression à la the West. I think because of their own violent history, Western governments are able to dupe their populace into believing that China is wanting to rule the world. Hence the propaganda to demonise China, and maybe to create the environment where a frontal assault on China becomes the last card that will be played by Washington.
Interesting piece by Bill Brown, an American academic working in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4brRWThi4Lg
According to him, nothing has changed in 180 years. Western forces are gathering; American ships, ships from Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Australia are planning to do ‘FONOPs’ in the China Seas. Pathetic ganging up against one country. Just as well China is able to repel the lot!!
Appears that perceptions swirling round PRC and/or CCP from Australian media, like govt. MPs being mostly ‘pale and male’ in hollowed out legacy media sector with, limited experience or knowledge of the outside world, are limited. Therefore they cannot, or are unable, to compare Australia critically with the outside world (as legacy media also helps insularise Australians, including media types).
By adopting imported and being well influenced by US radical right libertarian, white Christian nationalist policies and Fox alt right megaphoning of ‘talking points’, Australian politics, media, business and society were being co-opted by the Trump/GOP White House (UK quite willingly too).
This is being promoted as a supposed existential battle of western civilisation when in fact it is masking the relative decline of the US influence via-a-vis specific industrial sectors under threat, and related from the EU, Asian century and direct competitor for now, China.
Exactly. But the genie is out of the bottle. China actually does not have to compete militarily or otherwise- the fact is the entire world can see that there is an alternative way to banish poverty and bring prosperity. The basic formula is actually profoundly simple- build great infrastructure, and if you can minimise corruption too, you WILL quickly get your country moving!
There is no absolutely need for the IMF (the creator of many instances of food riots in the world) or the World Bank. This is what scares the bejesus out of the masters of the universe in Washington, which has hitherto been very successful in controlling the planet via the fake justification of democracy or human rights. Enforced by the military if need be.
You can banish poverty, have a good life, or you can invite the US military… post 911, the forever wars have caused up to 1 million dead, and about 50 million displaced. See: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2020/Displacement_Vine%20et%20al_Costs%20of%20War%202020%2009%2008.pdf Massive refugee problems in Europe (minimally in Australia) are also caused by this Western civilising mission.
It’s a no brainer that the decline of US imperialism, or in fact the entire West, is a good thing for the rest of humanity if it means they can escape poverty and sheer misery. Very much in line with our basic Australian sense of egalitarianism, I might add. Higher consumption by the non-West 6 billion people could/would ruin the planet, but that is another challenge for the world to resolve.
As someone who escaped the Jewish holocaust Frank Lowy and the Lowy Institute should know and do far better. But its now driven by the right and the same old dull conservatism.
I find it remarkable that when anyone ever criticises Israelis, Zionists, or Jews, the words “anti-Semitic” always shoot out at top speed, and the discussion is closed down in Australia immediately. Even Josh Frydenberg resorted to this as his first line of defence when it was suggested he may have dual nationality due to his Jewish mother. Easy-peasy, everyone hang their head in shame. But has it got anything to do anymore with Jewish Holocaust survivors of which people like me hold nothing but compassion and sympathy for, or is it just a great defence for anyone who claims to be of Jewish ancestry to escape any questioning of their actions?
It’s a pity the Chinese people whatever their origin in the Australian community, and in the world in general, aren’t given so much grace. Perhaps they need to shout ‘anti-Chinese’, or ‘Sinophobia’ more often, but I doubt it will have the same effect.
At the moment it appears we have a government and media that simultaneously and vigorously supporting Jewish people, Zionists, and Israelis, but they are also silent on white or Aryan supremacism, historically foremost in the mind of people like Adolf Hitler.
The weirdest hybrids are observable in the world today.
Aryans are number one it appears, and most supremacists in this country and beyond connect themselves with the myth that Aryans came from the Nordic regions. But there never was such a superior race and there never will be. There are no pure races either, everyone is a kind of mongrel, geneticists say those very words. The Anglo-Saxon term which many Australians use to call themselves is also another false term, for the British it suggests a kind of purity. Nothing could be further from the case.
All people are equal, but some are still far more equal than others.
NO COLD WAR
A New Cold War against China is against the interests of humanity
We note the increasingly aggressive statements and actions being taken by the US government in regard to China. These constitute a threat to world peace and are an obstacle to humanity successfully dealing with extremely serious common issues which confront it such as climate change, control of pandemics, racist discrimination and economic development.
We therefore believe that any New Cold War would run entirely counter to the interests of humanity. Instead we stand in favour of maximum global cooperation in order to tackle the enormous challenges we face as a species.
We therefore call upon the US to step back from this threat of a Cold War and also from other dangerous threats to world peace it is engaged in including: withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement; withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accords; and its increasing disengagement from UN bodies. The US should also stop pressuring other countries to adopt such dangerous positions.
We support China and the US basing their relations on mutual dialogue and centring on the common issues which unite humanity.
Signatories include Martin Jacques, John Pilger , Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize winner).
https://www.nocoldwar.org/statement
I’ll certainly sign up to that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The Americans have been in a knee jerk reaction concerning communism or even socialism for more than 100 years. The funny thing is that most of them don’t even now what it is, they have been so trained to think it must be evil. Yet their own system of so called democracy and predatory capitalism is falling apart as well as a lot of their infrastructure. The people are being left behind. Far too much spent on being the the world’s dominant military player.
It costs a lot to keep 800 military bases going and on top of that they are concerned they still don’t have enough weaponry.
There is a grassroots interest growing in socialism though, according to Richard Wolff who is a Marxist economist. Years ago no one showed any interest, but now he is asked to give talks everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjqboWUiJY
Thanks George. I do listen to Richard Wolff both on RT and Democracy At Work. He is one of my favourite commentators on RT. George Galloway is another one.
A world complicated by clever political PR and communications including conspiracy theories. Related is fact that under Netanyahu (seems to always have some legal issues hanging over him) Israel has become quite authoritarian, nationalist, corrupt and right wing using (divisive) political policies, PR, communications and interference; whatever it takes for the present govt. to maintain power.
Netanyahu was also central in introducing Hungary’s PM Orban to his friend, GOP political grifter and campaign advisor Finkelstein, to develop the anti-semitic, anti-immigrant and anti-EU Soros conspiracy…… The Times of Israel (18/1/19) has related article explaining ‘Jewish spin doctors accused of hatching anti-Soros drive, but evidence is weak. Swiss magazine claim that consultants close to Netanyahu helped Hungary’s Viktor Orban depict Jewish philanthropist as the anti-migrant bogeyman is full of holes’ not according to broader sources in Hungary which have clear evidence of Finkelstein or ‘Finky’ liaising frequently with the Hungarian govt.
Australia will pay dearly for its racist stupidity. The media here are repulsive, even the ABC is lying its teeth off and omitting reams of information.
But then we are so happy when China buffers our GDP by increased iron ore sales. Not a word of thanks, can’t go there. China also pulled us out of the 2008 GFC, but hey, what are ‘friends’ for? We know how loyalty is very ephemeral with the Liberals, just ask Malcolm Turnbull.
Morrison’s happy clappy world is only for white Australians of British ancestry and crass white American junk media values.
Already with Howard the country started being turned into a racist wonderland over refugees, and we are now back to the white Australia policy by stealth.
Everything that Whitlam ever achieved must be destroyed, there is no secret on this, it’s written in the IPA’s list of things that must be done. Whitlam put the final nail in the coffin of the White Australia Policy.
I reminds me of days when cars used to drive down Paramatta Road in Sydney and you’d see a driver roll his window down and shout from a distance at an unsuspecting pedestrian ” go home yer wog”, then in utter cowardice drive away at top speed in case there was any response. Of course that was for Italians and Greeks back then, but it was also transferred onto people of Asian backgrounds. How seamless it can be done. We seemed to be improving during the 70s and 80s but then Howard saw an opportunity with boat people and absorbing Pauline Hanson’s racist and xenophobic policies and attitudes.
When we see Morrison admit there is a white supremacist problem in this country, we might be going somewhere, but this opportunist of a prime minister is milking xenophobia and racism for all its is worth over China. The Shire boy started with Muslims and those from the Middle East, then came a great opportunity with China. He didn’t even invent it, he just absorbed it from Trump.
From our first prime minister Edmund Barton:
‘I do not think either that the doctrine of the equality of man was really ever intended to include racial equality. There is no racial equality. There is that basic inequality. These races are, in comparison with white races—I think no one wants convincing of this fact—unequal and inferior. The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman. There is a deep-set difference, and we see no prospect and no promise of its ever being effaced. Nothing in this world can put these two races upon an equality [sic]. Nothing we can do by cultivation, by refinement, or by anything else will make some races equal to others.’
Of course the English attitude to China changed significantly once they targeted the country with opium, debasing China became a way of making the British righteous in what they were doing. Britain has been in the past the most Sinophobic propaganda spreading country in history, and Australia seeking to be more British than British, just lapped it up.
Nothing has changed in Australia with leaders like Morrison except that they no longer have the guts to tell you straight to your face. They’d rather do it by stealth and use their compliant ms media services News Corp, Sky, Nine Entertainment, or cowered (ABC) media sources to do it for them. Appealing to his base for votes he is destroying Australia’s future.
Meanwhile, “China’s treatment of Australian exporters fires up Biden team…”. Apparently Blinken and Sullivan will press our case when they meet up with the Chinese in Alaska:
https://www.afr.com/world/asia/china-s-treatment-of-australian-exporters-fires-up-biden-team-20210311-p579ue
So no worries, Mr Deputy Sheriff. The Sheriff himself will stand up for you!
I think, absurd though that is, it gives our movers and shakers the warm glow of being protected! (And if you ask me, plainly pathetic!!)
Here you go again, George. Every one in Australia who expresses any concern about China is doing so for no reason but racism. You, Man Lee, Meeple -all off the same hymn sheet. It’s tired, lazy and stupid, and – worse – simply wrong. I don’t call all of you racist for your constant attacks on America but perhaps I should – perhaps you do so because you just hate whites. And Blacks. And Hispanics. I think you’d treat that line with the contempt it deserves. My concern about the CCP has nothing whatsoever to do with their ethnicity, it’s entirely about their behaviour. But it’s so much easier to dismiss me as racist, as many here have done because then you don’t have to think about anything I say. Lazy and contemptible. You find Australian media repulsive – anything to say about Chinese media? I thought not.
And why should we thank China for buying our iron ore. They don’t do it to help us – or do you think it’s a matter of international generosity. Yes, let’s go cap in hand to the great benevolent state: “thank you, Chairman Xi, oh thank you. Thank you for not buying our beef or barley or wine because you are always right.”
Calling out the extremely biased and prejudicial media is not being racist. What makes you think I hate whites, blacks or hispanics? I would walk 10 kilometres in solidarity with any important Aboriginal events. And I would be among the Black Lives Matter marches if I were in America.
I do have a big problem with the huge American propensity with using violence. Who could forget John McCain’s Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran refrain? And dragging Australia with it.
You can call me anything you like! But we need a fair go for everybody in this country. Including immigrants, and most importantly, our Aboriginal people. I can’t see that coming from the LNP!
I didn’t say you were racist, Man Lee, and I don’t think you are. What I rejected was you (plural) calling me racist. Just look at this thread. The comparison with America was a reductio ad absurdam – if my only reason for criticising China is that I am a racist, then I can level the same charge against you (plural). But I also said such a charge should be dismissed with contempt. As should the charge against me – but instead you (plural) are piling up the accusations, which leads me to hold you (plural) in contempt.
But I don’t expect fair-mindedness on social media. It’s much more comforting for you to call me racist than to think there might be any legitimate criticism of China. Is there in fact any legitimate criticism of China, Man Lee?
” You, Man Lee, Meeple -all off the same hymn sheet. It’s tired, lazy and stupid, and – worse – simply wrong.”
And of course you are singing from who’s songbook? The one that vilifies China for whatever it does every day of the week and that of course is not “tired, lazy and stupid”.
Try another one Barney
Barney, the reason why you are a total waste of time is you have an underlying Anglo supermacy psychy. Basically, Anglos can do no wrong. Your logic is:
– Anything that reflects Anglos in a negative light must be Chinese propaganda regardless of merit
– Anything that makes Anglos glow must be true no matter how dodgy the source (besides Anglo sources NEVER lie! Non-Anglo sources ALWAYS lie!)
– Anglos are propsperous because they are morally superior, not the fact they conducted geneocide on 2 continents and completely took over from the natives through violence
– You too can be propsperous if you become an Anglo!
I never get another reply from yourself because apart from NED/ASPI/Zenz propaganda soundbites (Barney(tm) logic: it must be true since the media which I spent so much time of my life in repeat the same lies so many times!), you really have nothing, and of course you conveniently ignore everytying else that doesn’t conform to your “Anglo is best” bias.
You may not have KKK racial hatred but you sure do have a terrible case of racial superiority complex.
Let’s stick to facts shall we? (I can’t be bothered pointing you to these facts since you just have blinkers on any facts that is inconvenient, but did you even bother listening to Biden’s CNN interview? I’ll give you a hint, he let the cat out of the bag!)
In trying to understand Barney, I can’t help thinking of Lord Denning’s famous dictum, “Without religion there can be no morality, and without morality there can be no law.” If one belonged to the Church of England, for example, one could happily reconcile one’s morality with British foreign policy.
Barney claims we are lazy, yet I for one have spent years just out of pure interest forming my views around the US, Australia, and China, and many other countries in the region. That’s the main reason I find the media here so damn pathetic. Barney appears to be duped by it.
Barney never seems to shift his view, he only seems to understand the Western viewpoint, and comes always as a critic claiming the moral high ground.
Yet in all that he says he offers no solutions, not one. He doesn’t even bother to argue why Hong Kong should suddenly be a democracy, he has no argument. Or is it just white righteousness that makes him think the natives should all lie down and accept the West’s assumed superiorities?
Barney always leads those who respond to him into the cul-de-sac of his own reality. He uses sundry arguments from authority and indulges in personal attacks. I thought he was a troll when I first came across him. I realise he isnt a troll, but neither is he really interested in furthering the discussion, only in drawing you into the web of his own conclusions, and many of these I think are mired in the past.
As an example, I find his often repeated view that the mainstream media can be be relied on, is vigorously contradicted by the likes of Noam Chomsky, Matt Taibbi, Chris Hedges, and Seymour Hersh. These are people who have worked close to the coal face of modern journalism, but Barney seems to easily ignore their criticisms.
I agree. The last paragraph that you write is exactly what what he is missing out on. And its not like Chomsky and the others came up with the manufacturing consent evidence yesterday, he wrote his book on the matter in 1988. Since then there have been many examples of the media walking in quick step to push wars.
Barney also wants everyone else to change, and particularly China, especially for it to suddenly accept democracy. Yet he shows absolutely no flexibility in his views himself. He takes the moral high ground as if he is the only valid authority.
George, George. Please show me when I have ever suggested China adopt democracy? Really, you people in your attacks on me simply resort to lying. Why? You can disagree with me over the facts, but I suppose that it’s much more fun to smugly pile on in inventing weaknesses. The self-satisfaction of the pro-China propagandists is rather amusing – only you are in the know. How nice to be so intelligent and to see so clearly what so few Australians can, because they are all so stupid. it’s nice also that you have your own website to peddle your conspiracy theories, and pat each other on the back for your remarkable insights. .
Nor, by the way, in criticising China, have I particularly suggested it change. That won’t happen under the CCP. What I want is for the China propagandists to be honest about the situation in China. It’ll be a long wait.
Here’s one example, George. You say you dislike human suffering inflicted by powerful on the weak (a summary of your position, but I don’t think you’ll reject it), but somehow the Uighurs don’t count. They are not suffering, or if they are it is fair enough, they deserve it. Ditto Tibetans because China annexed the country in the late 50s. That makes everything fine, of course. Or the increasing persecution of Christians. Why don’t you apply the same standards to China that you rightly apply to the US?
You don’t even get the basic facts, you deny the racism here and don’t seem to care about these people:
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7164349/when-it-comes-to-china-anti-racism-is-not-up-for-debate/?cs=14329
“but somehow the Uighurs don’t count. They are not suffering, or if they are it is fair enough, they deserve it. Ditto Tibetans because China annexed the country in the late 50s.”
Here you go again with your MSM crap but I guess it can’t be false because the “intention” is good? How about some none Zenz sources?
I tell you what, Tibetans and Uyghurs have seen their lives improved immensely. Terrorism in Xinjiang have fallen to zero. If you want to talk about annexation, where does that leave Australia, NZ and North America? But if it’s Anlgo annexation then it’s okay of course!
Not only annexation but genocide carried out by poisoning billabongs or giving smallpox blankets to native Americans… . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_poisonings_of_Aboriginal_Australians
http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/252
And these days SOME of the descendants of their murderous forebears are preaching ‘human rights’ to new would-be victims of their new game of colour revolutions and regime change.
Just saw this video on YouTube
US Col. exposes truth on Uyghur Chinese in 2 min – MSM doesn’t want you to see this!
In 2018 Lawrence Wilkerson exposes the truth on US military intentions in central Asia as well as their use of Uyghur Chinese to “destabilize China”. This is eye-opening and explains why the Western mainstream media can’t stop pumping “Uyghur Genocide” disinfo.
Come on Malcolm. I don’t assert that the mainstream media can always be relied upon. I understand that there are multiple agendas in play, just as there are in the media on which you rely. What I actually say is that much of the criticism on this website is ideological and misguided. You shouldn’t extrapolate beyond that to suggest I think the mainstream media is flawless. I was part of the mainstream media for 45 years, still am to some extent, and I know I am not flawless, let alone anyone else. You apparently know that too.
Here’s one example. I looked at the linked that Man Lee generously provided a while back, and was unconvinced. For example one of the articles suggested that Western media was deceptive because they took so much from the main news agencies. He seemed to think this was a dirty secret which the media was hiding. That is not so. Most mainstream media cannot afford vast numbers of foreign correspondents, have always used a number of wire services, and always identify them when they do so. It’s not a conspiracy, as Man Lee, or the article, seems to think.
So Barney, avoiding my posts as usual. Your point is MSM does lie, but for good intentions and different motivations that’s not just political.
Okay so I guess that makes all the crap they write totally reliable and trustworthy?
There you go again George. It’s because I’m racist, or white supremacist. I’m afraid I have only contempt for Meeple, whom I consider simply a bigot, but I really thought better of you. I don’t expect you to agree with me on China, and that’s fine, and you can believe I’m duped by Western media if you wish, but none of that makes me a racist. You’re just hunting with the pack George. You are the one poster here I thought had more integrity.
And yes, to resort to the ad hominem racist is lazy. It’s also weak and pathetic.
Barney we’ve boringly been through all of this many times before. It takes up a lot of writing to repeat the same things over and over again. It just comes back to square one every time.
Is your version of integrity is people who must agree with you? How about some facts Barney instead of ad hominem attacks?
To me you are not much different to those Virgin believing jihadist suicide bombers. Driven by ideology and bigotry based on tribalistic tales of talking snakes and virgin births. Just pathetic. Again everyting you said has been fact free, just repeat the same MSM lies (good intentions though!).
Yes it is amazing how he comes here and just takes the moral high ground criticising everyone else but frequently doesn’t answer any questions. And its the same old same old that we have discussed ad nauseum with him many times before. I set him some questions on a comment further down the page but he avoided those.
The key problem with religion-based morality is that it judges people as wicked, not because of what they do, but because they don’t subscribe to a particular religion. It’s something Christian moralists share with Islamists.
Yep I’m thinking that is the basis of the problem with Barney too. Religion. Chinese are sinners.
Essentially he always brings up two things: Xinjiang and Tibet. As if he just learned about them yesterday. Tibet 1949? And Uyghurs wanting an independent state? 1920s and earlier. We’ve debated those issues over and over and over and over and over again but he still thinks that if journalists keep berating the Chinese and forcing them into their own corner that’s going to fix the problem.
Anyone who knows anything about the region knows that if you just keep pointing the finger and making accusations you’ll get nowhere with China. And it is so damn boring. While he says he is a critic of the main stream media and the US he certainly laps up what it says. Doesn’t seem to even notice the wall of misinformation.
George, perhaps I wasn’t clear. I don’t think you are lazy or stupid in general, and I understand that you have put a lot of effort into understanding China. I do read your comments carefully. I thought I was quite specific: what is lazy and stupid and trite and wrong is to blame my distrust of the China CCP on racism. That’s it, that’s the bit referred to. You and others say it, and when you do that particular thing, then you are being lazy and trite. You know from our discussions that I am not anti-Chinese. I recognise China as a great and noble civilisation. I know that Chinese are people like people everywhere and, to put it in theological terms, are image-bearers of God, and therefore of infinite value and dignity. Like other people. You know that I am horrified and appalled at racist attacks on Asians in Australia, for which there is simply no excuse. You are the one person here I expect to accept that about me.
As for the rest of the insults coming my way, that’s fine. Stick your foot in a scorpions’ nest, expect to be bitten. I understand that I’m irritating. As for obnoxious people like Meeple, I also understand that as soon as I say I resent being called racist it will become a broken record with him and will be repeated ad nauseam. But I want to keep on reading your comments, so I would be grateful if you would amend that one small detail, which I think you know to be true. Any other criticism, justified or not, fine.
Meanwhile, “China’s treatment of Australian exporters fires up Biden team…”. Apparently Blinken and Sullivan will press our case when they meet up with the Chinese in Alaska:
https://www.afr.com/world/asia/china-s-treatment-of-australian-exporters-fires-up-biden-team-20210311-p579ue
So no worries, Mr Deputy Sheriff. The Sheriff himself will stand up for you!
I think, absurd though that is, it gives our movers and shakers the warm glow of being protected! (And if you ask me, plainly pathetic!!)
A complete stitch up of an article. I think they just write down all the negative points they can dream up about China, then think of some rubbish to appeal to nationalism in Australia and bingo. It’s yellow journalism.
‘Hawkish Global Times” they say. Actually rarely so compared to the Australian media’s wall of belligerent and anti-Chinese commentary. The GT often just uses a good argument to point things out.
I’d enjoy being a fly on the wall in the meeting. I’m sure it won’t just be a pushover for the US or Australia. But in my view it is only an exercise of grabbing a chance at speaking to the folks back home. Biden has to look tough after Trump, and Morrison knows he’ll be cheered in the news here as well. The real situation will not be part of the press coverage.
Ironically the AFR produced this contrary article only a bit over a month ago:
https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/we-targeted-them-before-they-targeted-us-20210202-p56ynr
I just cancelled my subscription to SMH. Being an Australian Chinese who has been living here for over 30 years, I have never felt so uncomfortable among all these constant onslaught of anti-China bashing by our government and the media.
I went back to HK twice during the HK 2019 unrest and personally witnessed the violence and destructions in the city committed by the protesters. However, the next day when you read the news on the western media, you wondered if they were reporting the same event. Western media including ours are blatantly biased against China. They did not tell you how normal citizens in HK were being attacked by the protesters only because they voiced a different view. A man was fire-bombed and another killed by a brick thrown at him. Numerous public facilities and private properties were destroyed or damaged and the rioters/protesters were called freedom fighters. That was the time I began not to trust Western media including our media here.
the truth about HK, Side meeting of UN HR Council︱陳穎欣日常JoephyDaily
https://youtu.be/gONhaPqI7CA
ScoMo probably doesn’t even know he is now “a joke” in HK and China. They call Morrison 魔總 (Devil Prime Minster). If you can understand Chinese, you will find heaps of channels in YouTube talking about China bashing by our politicians. They are bewildered by the constant barrage of anti-China rhetoric in Australia and think that Australia is biting the hand that feeds you. Australia used to have quite a good image among Chinese in HK and China but no more. I don’t think the Chinese tourists or the students will be coming back in a hurry. I know some students have already changed their destination to other countries.
Our politicians also talk about bringing manufacturing back to Australia so as not to be dependent on Chinese goods. I don’t think that will hurt China that much as China’s export to Australia only represents 1.9% of its world wide sale.
Thanks for your reply aa cc, and great comment. We are so duped in this country and once again it is another ethnic group that pays. Its more than often been those of Chinese heritage too going way back to the gold rush days. Not one news source has ever explained the history behind how Britain took Hong Kong and also inflicted China with $US17 million in reparations for destroying the opium that was killing their culture.
We are still told the lie here that the British never do anything wrong, yet this is the biggest state based drug dealing story in history. With the US’s China containment it is probably also the biggest attempt to cut of a country’s right to trade in peace time history as well. Morrison in haste to become Trump’s poodle has dug himself into a corner on this and our useless media will support him on anything. Watching the evolution of Chinese opinion in their newspapers, it would appear they are less concerned about the US now and more focussed on our Australia’s absurd posturing. Morrison has no idea what he is doing.
Morrison and many Australians may think we can pick up on manufacturing but the fact is they, like Americans, can never produce low cost goods like China because our wages here are four or five times higher than what people receive in China. The evidence is in the history, we stopped manufacturing because we could not compete. Simple.
魔總 fits perfectly, I came to that conclusion myself even with what he does beyond the China issues.
Although I’m not religious, I’ve called him the anti-Christ before to make the same point. Even if you compare him to basic Christian views and teachings, which he claims to be a follower, he is clearly the opposite of everything they say.
Where did your other comment go?
George and aa cc, Unfortunately there is now censorship on this website. My posting re BRI was deleted 4 times. Definitely was not spam, as you agreed, George. Have you also noticed that there are a lot more Chinese Australians looking at these web pages here than you would expect given that there are not many of us compared to say the Anglo population?
I think we are now marginalised, and literally have no other English website to read reasonable reporting, and to air our views. It is sad that it has come to this. Sigh!!
Yes I am noticing full well. I cannot explain it, it is not like John Menadue to be doing this.
I posted twice and it just disappeared. Not sure why. May be too long or some of the words are censored?
Will break my comment into two parts to see how it goes.
Thanks George for your understanding of our ethnic Chinese feelings of unease in this time of turmoil. Looking back at the history of ethnic Chinese settlement in Australia, doesn’t matter which part of the world we came from, we have been model citizens and have contributed a lot to the country in many ways. Unfortunately, we are not a vocal group in the community. We like to mind our own business and do not want to make a fuss about anything. Because of that, we are perceived to be passive and apolitical. We really don’t have a voice in Australia politics. I fondly treasure the period of Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. There was more harmony in the society.
Talking about the opium war, I remember when I was preparing for history study for the High School graduate examination in HK, all students knew that we didn’t have to study the opium war as it would never be in the Exam paper. I grew up in HK and personally experienced life under colonial rule. For Britain to champion Freedom and Democracy in HK now is really a big joke and blatantly hypocritical.
Because I grew up in HK and had relatives living in China when China was such a poor country, I never liked the communist party. I used to think they were evil. Not until I first set foot in China after the turnover in 1997 and many subsequent visits since then, I have changed my mind about the CCP. I have witnessed enormous progress in the country and people’s living standard improved year after year. My relatives in China now are doing quite well with their small business thriving together with the improvement of local economy.
I’ve written to the editorial link to let them know, and ask some questions. I have now had several other people read your comment because I had a copy of it sent to me by Disqus as an update. Everyone said it was pretty mild and a fair comment given your background and experience which few people have here. I cannot see why it was removed. Anyway a belated thank you for the reply.
It don’t think it is the length because I write many comments much longer than yours and I have not had those rejected.
Great. It is still here. Below is the second part
High speed rail is the wonderful infra-structure building for China and its citizens. For the last 5 years, I mainly travelled in China by high speed train. The connection to different cities whether they are 1st tier, 2nd tier or 3rd tier, is excellent and convenient and the fares are relatively cheap for such long distance travel. Local economy along the railway lines started to prosper.
The term Democracy in Chinese writing is 民主, meaning a system of people centred polices. It is not the kind of electoral democracy as championed by the West. I think the Chinese government believes its system is a socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics which has rich cultural connotations. Chinese political system works for China and is not necessary work for other countries. I think the west is worried that with the rise of China and the evidence of good management during the pandemic, people in the world may see the advantage of an alternate political system which is regarded as a challenge to the Liberal Democracy. It is understandable that the West feels threaten. The problem is no matter how many times China emphasizes that they are not promoting their political system to the rest of the world, the west as led by the US cannot bear to see any potential challenge to their domination of the world.
I am glad that I somehow ventured into your website and found a more genuine and objective media outlet among our lopsided and biased media environment. Thank you very much.
Wang Xining’s assessment that most of the anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia is coming from the local media’s coverage seems spot on to me. And it is a testament to both the power and the irresponsibility of the media in this country.
And a propos Ted Hui’s comment that his being allowed to find residency in Australia is ‘also a signal to Beijing that the Australian government will be more engaged with freedom fighters internationally’, just shows how naive some of these Hong Kong protesters are. These days the phrase ‘freedom fighters’ is rarely used, having been mostly replaced by the phrase ‘urban terrorists’.
China’s rise is existential threat to the existing establishment though. People might be questioning one’s own political system if China is to succeed. These days, all this China bashing is really nothing more than domestic propaganda. Unfortunately, it’s the Chinese diaspora that pays the price.
Chris Patten, the last governor in HK, in the best British tradition, planted the democracy ‘seed’ in the system which of course would expectedly turn into big bomb for Beijing in time, and that bomb went off in 2019. The CIA and MI6 never left until the passing of the National Security Legislation on 30th June last year.
The NED (the ‘civil’ division of the CIA) had also been in Hong Kong actively supporting and training various groups and organisations. Money was no object. Human Rights training for many youngsters were organised by organisations such as the Oslo Forum. Training included how to carry out civil disobedience, including over-powering the police force.
(You see the same fruits of the work of the NED in Burma: https://www.ned.org/region/asia/burma-2020/ . When you have convinced young idealistic people of the wonders of human rights and democracy, they are pretty much ready to face the tanks!)
Meanwhile a generation and a half have grown up in Hong Kong totally indoctrinated to hate their own motherland, and their own race. Ted Hui is one such person.
The UK and the US never intended to give Hong Kong back to China in 1997. They thought they would keep Hong Kong forever on a de facto basis. Hence their shock and indignation when China decided that it had had enough of the nonsense.
It’s also worth noting that while the US was visibly interfering in Hong Kong politics, the UK said nothing about this direct interference which was contradicting the terms of the treaty signed in 1997. Yet once Beijing intervened in May last, Boris was standing up in the House of Commons accusing Beijing of ‘undermining’ the treaty.
Malcolm, great observation. And Australia was mum on this interference too.
Here’s an interesting one:https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/08/hong-kong-western-media-yellowfacing-amnesty/
George, Another good story by Grayzone. Always good to have the truth- the only real anti-dote to MSM lies. Brian Kern was quick to scamper away- I think he left in anticipation of the Chinese-written security legislation that was passed by the HK Legislative Council on 30th June 2020. He could have been put behind bars for 10 years or more. (Interestingly, his wife worked for an NED (CIA) organisation).
According to this report, he was still in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020, marching with lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-Dick. The latter is now properly behind bars.
BTW, I read many months ago that Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal was harassed by the FBI. They are doing a dangerous job that very very few in the MSM are willing to do these days.
Nury Vittachi is pretty good too, he’s very good at exposing the fake news media going on around Hong Kong democracy etc. He wrote a book called “The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong” released Dec 16, 2020
aa cc put me onto him indirectly with one of his links.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DLXXG6Hj4
Yes, I saw that when it first came out, but had forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me.
On Jan 26 2021, District Court judge in HK issued warrant for Hui, after he failed to show up for a hearing in a case involving a man who was harassed at a 2019 protest
Separately, High Court judge throws out Hui’s appeal in a case in which he grabbed a civil servant’s phone, also citing his absence and lack of representation.
Ted Hui is facing not just one but at least three charges against him. He is not a freedom fighter but a fugitive. His behaviour in Legislative Council were appalling. He had also been arrested over the incidents in the legislature’s main chamber for disrupting meetings by splashing pungent liquids and other items in May and June last year.
He and his family’s HSBC accounts have been frozen by HK police for suspicion of laundered money with a crowdfunding campaign.
Thanks for this update. It boggles the mind.
Thanks, Hamish for another summary of the Australian media going bonkers with LNP-sponsored Sinophobia. Seems like there is a competition out there to see who can spew the most antipathy, fear and loathing. Freaking disgusting stuff!
Now SBS and the ABC have also seemingly joined the stampede to cast fear and suspicion and to demonise. Welcome back, Yellow Peril! Where have you been all these years?
Meanwhile granting a Hong Kong dissident a repatriation flight from the UK, where he was under no threat of arrest by the HK authorities, is yet another poke in the eye of the dragon. And then the QUAD… . We might as well prepare to send our boats up the Yangtze!
As for Myanmar, the Asean group are not stupid. Regime change Ukraine-style is not going to happen. They don’t want a Yugoslav or Iraqi or Libyan situation in their region.
Under no threat? Like all the Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates? I can’t do better than quote you: freaking disgusting stuff.
Tell me Barney how come the British never gave anyone from Hong Kong democracy? Why didn’t you complain then? Why don’t you complain about the British human right violations in today’s terms that made Hong Kong their colonialist territory? Any idea of the murderous history there? Tell me how Hong Kong was never part of China? Why do you back the murderous drug pushers who stole it off the Chinese because they had more fire power to suppress the Chinese, further forcing the opium trade on the people? Tell me why you think you have the right to force your democracy onto any other country? Why do you not respect Chinese sovereignty when you clearly would not like it if they forced any form of communism onto you? Desire for regime change like in Iraq, is that want you want? And if you think force is the way to go then why don’t you admit it and acknowledge the human tragedy it would cause. Otherwise it is the same old same old stuff you trot out from pro-US views and some sort of allegiance for the newspapers you once worked for that bear no resemblance to what they were.
What you never get is that if we continue to isolate and berate China, we will get nowhere. Shut the door on an entire nation of people and you think that will work? Shut down communication completely will fix things? It surprises me that you don’t understand that the worst way to practice mediation is shut out the one side of the story and pretend it doesn’t exist. Would you only listen to one person if it as a couple?
Thirty percent of Chinese people in this country, even if they have lived here as citizens for three generations have suffered racist abuse, 20% of those were physical abuse. That’s your wonderful media effort for a start. I suppose that is OK though they are only Chinese.
You accuse others of being lazy but you yourself take the lazy option every time by looking no further than your MS media for information.
On the Lowy Institute survey, the Chinese Australian community has responded with articles, on recently appear in P&I b6 Kingsley Liu (https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/chinese-australians-forever-to-be-condemned-as-fresh-off-the-boat/) and one in Quora:https://www.quora.com/q/theoverseaschinesespace/Spun-loaded-question-a-new-artform-in-stereotyping-2021-08b-Voice-of-the-chinese-Australians-The-Lowy-Institute-ha. The latter article highlight a new of of stereotyping by survey using loaded questions. .
Lowy, sadly, is pushing the Official Narrative. So much for ‘independence’.