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20th anniversary of Tiananmen and the biased western media
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Tiananmen AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
The Los Angeles Times ran an article today about the anniversary of the Tiananmen incident in China 20 years ago, and the general apathy Chinese youth today feel toward the incident. The current government in China has an approval rating of about 82 percent (compared with 23 percent in the United States). Apparently, many young Chinese people are content with the current government, and feel no need to dwell on mistakes made in the past.
The writer conveys a sense of disappointment at the apathy over such a horrific event, and goes on to describe the rampant nationalism of today's Chinese youth. The article seems to take a critical, maybe even self-righteous stance by reminding readers of the Tiananmen event while juxtaposing this with what the writer believes is a misguided complacency of today's Chinese people. (Or is it just me over-analyzing? To see for yourself, see the full story here).
At any rate, I am highly suspicious when Tiananmen appears in the news. Although it was a terrible event, Western media coverage of it in 1989 was less than honest, and probably continues to be skewed.
For instance, several Western journalists would dine with student hunger strike demonstrators before reporting on the hunger strike. In effect, many Western journalists were not merely reporting the news; they were creating it. "[S]everal advised the students how to behave. None stayed on to deal with the consequences the students had to face." (From Can Asians Think? By Kishore Mahbubani).
We have learned in school and through the news about how horrible this atrocity was. But if that was the case - why was there a need to manipulate the truth?
The Western media has a habit of taking anti-Asian stances. For a long time, Singapore was constantly blasted for its practices of caning and prohibition of gum. But what about our own practices of maintaining dangerous prisons, where we throw many non-violent drug offenders? I have visited a state prison, and can tell you that I'd absolutely rather be caned in public than spend six months in an American prison.
In addition, much of the American public is unaware that despite all our condescension toward seemingly barbaric Singaporean practices, they are one of the economically freest countries in the world - much freer than the United States.
With China, our media manipulated facts and overplayed Tiananmen in 1989 when the Chinese people were angry and protesting, under the guise of support for democracy and free speech. The Chinese people are content with their government now (indeed, much more content than Americans are with theirs) but the media still has a bone to pick. It's a lose-lose situation for China.
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