My Say
A China Invitation
Journalists Should Avoid Being Shanghaied
The Forum Secretariat has been asked to select 14 Pacific Island journalists to be the Chinese Government’s guests in China next November. The purpose of the trip is obvious. For it own reasons China is diligent in its efforts to make friends in the Pacific Islands and to establish an influential presence in the region.
One standard tactic is to influence journalists to view China favorably as a friendly source of aid, development expertise, investment and a market for what is a depressingly limited range of Pacific Island product. In this, China is no different from the Australians and New Zealanders, who obviously have a close interest in what happens in the region, or the Japanese, the European Union and, to the chagrin of Beijing, Taiwan.
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Most of the region’s journalists are to a degree targets for brain washing by foreign governments that for one reason or another wish to cultivate a positive image in the region. It would be a naïve, gullible journalist who didn’t realize that and, having done so, failed to make balancing adjustments in writing about the countries they visit as official guests.
Australians and New Zealanders, and other countries where democracy reigns, are prepared to stand up for examination warts and all. Can that be said of China? Past experience shows that the 14 guests will trail around according to a rigid program; the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, a silk worm factory or two and a happy workers’ co-operative. The trip will be tailored to give them a minimum of freedom in their quest to discover what China is really like. The China that China wants to be observed is the unblemished paradise depicted in the hours of propaganda from the government network, CCTV. In Fiji, the local television service, wanting to keep profits up by holding local program costs down, unblushingly fills a considerable portion of its daily service with CCTV fare.
True, China is changing, fractionally for the better in some places, but research will show China is still the world’s most secretive, undemocratic, corrupt and oppressive dictatorship. Now, if President Bush was really serious about regime change, shouldn’t he begin there?
Two-thirds of China’s nearly 1.2 billion people live in rural areas and China’s cities can’t absorb the millions of unemployed already present in them.
China’s regime ruthlessly suppresses dissent. It is progressively erasing freedom in Hong Kong. In Tibet and the Muslim-dominated east regions it persecutes, jails and executes rebels against its rule.
Visitors to Beijing, Shanghai and other show cities can’t help be impressed by the show of sophistication, glitter, growth and wealth flaunted for their inspection.
Behind this façade China’s leaders grope with a despairingly awesome array of economic, political and social issues. The magnitude of these is so great that China’s communist empire could well unravel and shatter, just as Russia’s did. When they reach Beijing in November to be taken firmly by the hand, the visitors will be well equipped if they recall a few useful facts such as these.
Robert Keith-Reid is publisher of Islands Business. He can be reached at: Rkeith-reid@ibi.com.fj
