It started as the Pollution Olympics, governments and sports bodies around the world saw an opportunity and took pot shots at the Beijing authorities about the pollution issues, some threatening boycotts and withdrawals for health reasons.
Then it became the Darfur Olympics, with Steven Spielberg and Mia Farrow failing to get any public notice of their protest against the Chinese government for their perceived complicity in the Sudanese government’s oppression in Darfur. The West in general is completely ignoring the genocide in Sudan, much less an indirect link to its arms supplier. Unfortunately, the failure of the association of the problems in Darfur to a bigger news issue has relegated the Darfur problem even further back into obscurity.
But how fast it became the Lhasa Olympics. Whether the riots were instigated by outside forces, or a spontaneous reaction of the population would take some time to come to light. But the fact of the matter is that at least 13 innocent civilians were burnted and stabbed to death by the rioters. I would like the people of the world to get off their high horse and claim that their own government would not put down the riot in a similar way given such a death toll. While I am not a big fan of the Chinese Communist Party, I find the hypocrisy of the Western media to be quite laughable. All this in a time when the human rights record of major Western powers are highly suspect.
Whatever credibility the rioters had died with those 13 innocent civilians. While the Western media is not trumpeting that aspect of the facts either because of an inherent bias or their yearning for more juicy news, Asian media, particularly Chinese state media regularly reminds their population of it.
The television images of protesters in Paris “attacking” the poor wheelchair-bound girl has been a PR windfall for the Communist government with its own people. Now, as far as the Chinese population is concerned, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Nicolai Sarkozy are not so much boycotting the Olympic games, as are being banned from attending. The picture only made less dramatic because the poor girl did not fall of her wheelchair. She has now gone home to China as a hero, a defender of Chinese pride and the Olympic spirit. Looking at the map of the rest of the torch relay, I believe that most of the remaining legs would be relatively smooth sailing. But who knows what conspirators will cook up.
This issue shows the existence of a deep rooted bias against China. It is not about issues anymore, it is cultural discrimination. Many in the West are no longer able to differentiate between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, and that plays into the hands of the party. Politicians and business people in the West now not only has to deal with intransigent Chinese leaders, but an angered Chinese population. This chain of events have allowed the Communist leadership to move to a position much closer to the people, they can now all sing the same tune, which makes future regime or policy changes even harder to force on them.
Bravo, boycott and protest all you want, the Chinese government, as well as the people are taking notes. They know who is naughty or nice. The heads of states that will attend the opening ceremony, and the legs of the torch relay that will go on smoothly, are going to be a clear defining line of alliances moving into the future decades. I have always loved this quote which I cannot remember whom by: The West never remembers and the East never forgets.
Come on, why would anyone believe any statement a Chinese politician makes about “innocent civilians” that were killed? Why should anyone ‘trumpet’ a statistic that is likely to be false? There are objective, good reasons to think that statements by the Chinese government are not credible. Chief among them is the lack of press freedom and the widespread monitoring and persecuting of journalists, including many who are detained without trial or who mysteriously ‘disappear’. There is absolutely no way of checking the facts behind these supposed killings because of the lack of press freedom in China. In the West, the press reports freely and critically on the abuses of their own governments, e.g. Guantanamo Bay. Journalists in the West examine their own politicians as thoroughly as they do those in China. Just witness the character smears that take place throughout a typical US presidential campaign, for example. Or the palpable glee with which the Western media descends on any sign of corruption, deception or ill behaviour in their own politicians. If China wants the rest of the world to take their press releases seriously, they have to first allow press freedom in China. Until then, there is no way any journalist with a sense of integrity will report Chinese press releases as the unvarnished truth.
Many commentators have observed that with regards to domestic issues, the media groups in America are increasingly becoming partisan. And post 9-11, their criticism of the American administration will not go beyond the point where they will be accused of being unpatriotic. While there are many great lessons that Western media is able to teach the world, it is by no means faultless.
In Singapore, we are very used to the fact that the appearance and the reality of freedom might not always see eye to eye. And very often, that cuts both ways. What may seem clean and above board, might not always be. On the other hand, many foreigners who have never been here view Singapore as a place where freedom is oppressed (usually citing the ban on chewing gum), but any law-abiding person who have spent time here will realise that they are able to live quite freely.
The Chinese authorities control of its state media and some of its actions with regards to the detention of political dissidents are deplorable but China is by no means like Burma, North Korean and Chechnya any more. There are just too many foreigners and discontented locals with mobile phone cameras and blogs. If those 13 deaths were fabricated by the Chinese state media, I am completely sure that the resourceful Western media would be having a field day with headlines like “Chinese Authorities Faked Deaths to Justify Brutality.”
With regards to all governments’ control of the media and freedom, I believe there are many varying shades of grey, with plenty of smoke and mirrors. I do not believe that any one group of people have the moral high ground to be able to dictate what is black and white on this matter. To do so is hypocritical and leads to resentment. There is ample history that shows this resentment fuels nationalism and is likely to last for generations. That does not benefit anyone at all.