The wrong side of history
Bad news for President Obama. The one country which may decide America's future prosperity was largely asleep when he took the oath of office. The framers of the US Constitution didn't have a peak time Chinese TV audience in mind when they drew up the presidential inauguration time (12 noon Washington DC time is 1am China time).
That means that most people in China only got their first look at Mr Obama's inaugural address when they woke up on Wednesday morning. That's where it gets interesting. We've found that some Chinese state media outlets have left out some important passages of the president's address.
Even those who stayed up late at night would have noticed something odd. Have a look at the moment that Chinese state TV cut back to the presenter when Mr Obama referred to communism.
This is one of the passages that hasn't made it into the Chinese translations of the address: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history"
This passage is strikingly similar to something said by one of Mr Obama's predecessors: "When it comes to human rights and religious freedom, China remains on the wrong side of history" (President Bill Clinton, June 1998).
"The wrong side of history" - apparently not a phrase the Chinese authorities like to hear.
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"The wrong side of history"? probably Obama realises that previous US government is at the wrong side of history: credit crunch caused by greedy priviledgers (bankers), iraq and Afhanstan wars, ...
This is time for America to correct their wrong side and to be at the same side of Chinese government: develop the economy for the people!
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The links are broken.
Otherwise - what would you expect from the Chinese Govt?
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It's pretty hard for China to explain away that they'd be so quick to censor something that doesn't agree with them. On the other hand, can this not be viewed two ways, the other being that Chinese media are seeking to sidestep any possible confrontation? They're hushing up the fact that Obama might have problems with communism rather than highlighting it. Worth considering at least.
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Too bad, I though only Fox news does this. I wonder whether everybody still remembers how the Fox news covered the conflict in Georgia last year. In a live interview, when the South Osetia women, after her daughter told their horrible experience, said: “I know you don’t want to hear this, but Georgia started the offense. Thank you Russia for preventing…” The woman was muted, and the anchorman showed great experience and ease when this interview was changed into a commercial. I believe millions of neo-cons enjoyed it very much. You can still probably find this on youtube somewhere.
One lesson for the Chinese, put more commercial breaks on regular programs/programmes so that people get used to it.
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No doubt the Chinese defenders will bring up those couple of photos which the BBC mixed up in the Tibetan riots.
I feel sorry for a nation deprived of viewing defining moments in world history by a regime absolutely paranoid of their own collapse. Shame on them.
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So what?
The Western media is doing the same. All the kinds of media around the globe is working in the same way to manipulate general public, directly or indirectly. No matter is state owned or so called independent, they are all servants to maximise the strategic interests of their nations.
I couldn't find the full version of the Chinese presidents' speeches during the annual Chinese parliament sessions either, especially the parts that denouncing the dark side of capitalism. Is that censorship? I don't know, you tell me.
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Why am I not surprised?
Guys! Stand up for yourself!
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Instead of deflecting the issue and talking off-topic, why doesn't a Chinese poster submit something balanced and appropriate which addressses why your government censored parts of this speech? Maybe it's too painful.
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The strategy used by most pro-communist post-ers on internet forum is mostly by criticizing how bad the western world is. I agree there are evil things which are universal, (like human rights infringements) but criticizing another country which apparently does much better on these things doesnt justify China's acts are correct. Its just like when u commit a crime, u attempt to justify urself by saying that everyone commits sins. Or a felon saying others have done misdemeanors so he should be acquited from his crime.
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rodmace2000: its because most people arent interested in Chinese presidents' speeches in the west. In fact CCTV live broadcasts their speeches these days but the thing is most ppl, even chinese citizens, dont watch them because they are always the same and u can anticipate what the leaders are gonna say anyway. Quite on the contrary, a lot of chinese (especially the educated ones) are very interested in american politics that is why yesterday's speech broadcasted live on CCTV. (if u dont agree with this, then go and argue with China's Ministry of Propaganda for the live broadcasting idea)
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rodmace2000: if u r an average citizen in the US/Europe and are interested in chinese leaders' speeches condeming the west (like by MOFA speakpersons), u can easily access them from local sources. But the vice versa isnt true for average Chinese.
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To sum up the pro-Chinese response on this thread:
1. Western media sometimes cuts bits out too.
2. It doesn't matter that Western media outlets are not state controlled because they work in the national interest anyway (because...?)
3. Western governments wage wars on pretexts and support oppressors. Which for some reason is relevant to this discussion. I'll let you know what when I figure it out.
There is no attempt to defend the actions of xinhua because, quite simply, they are undefendable and very obviously pathetic. At least we can all agree on that.
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manpet: Along ur line of logic, we can also say that Chinese leaders are still on the wrong side for driving China into the capitalist world and is also impacted heavily this time by the crunch. Back in Mao's time, this would never happen. Just like North Korea is totally immune from the global recession this time.
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You know what, a few years ago I would have been annoyed, but recently I have delved into all sources of information and now sensitised to this type of edited - a shame I know.
This is totally unnecessary. But again they leave the English version so that the educated can read and assimilate it. It's a bit patronising that the government thinks that the uneducated don't have a brain.
In any case, anyone can get a hold of the whole speech in Chinese. It's not rocket science.
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Oh, and for the wrong side of history... look at the invasions and warmongering in the past few decades. Where does the US come?
My 2 cents.
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Not all Chinese media censored Obama's address. I saw the full speech from Pheonix TV.
The CCTV and Xinhua agency cannot represent all the TVs and newspapers in China. Just like the BBC being biased doesn't mean all western medias are.
"When it comes to human rights and religious freedom, China remains on the wrong side of history"
It is true. But if you cannot see China is progressing to the right side, you are on the wrong side.
China must not turn into a demacracy over night. You know what that will lead to.
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The "wrong side of history" comment by Obama was directed at the previous US regime of George W Bush. James Reynold has jumped the gun and implied it was directed at the Chinese.
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ashblond: I thought i could help answering ur questions:
1) Media in a free society always take their sides, there are right-winged, left-winged and centre media. What constitutes a free society is the CHOICE given to every citizen as to what to watch. The choice of course is up the audience. If u wanna hear good things abt China, CCTV isnt banned in the US or GB and u have all the liberty to check their website or the Xinhua newsagent. They usually only report on the good things about China. However the degree of credibility is for ur discretion.
2) I believe (if u listened to his speech carefully and understood it) Obama referred to the silencing of dissent on the wrong side of history and not China specifically. China being a country with a great history/traditional has nothing to do with he said.... However if China's leaders deemed this sensitive still and censored it, their act acknowledged that they THINK Obama referred to China and in a way indirectly admits that China has done all thats said and is on the WRONG side of history. (silencing the dissent puts u on the wrong side of history, no matter where u go)
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Well if you think about it, I don't think China will ever be on the wrong side of history.
It's all about eliminating that imaginary line between black and white. It's all about selling that shared vision through inspiration rather than forcing the issue under the barrel of a gun.
I'm sure Mr Obama is familiar with all that.
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It's no news that CCP in its entire history is always trying to fool Chinese people via news censoring. They argue that people don't know what's right and wrong if given full media freedom. Only corrupted CCP officials can correctly judge the news for them as guardians before bringing them to public eyes.
Main western media generally do not censor news. This is called media freedom. Instead, most of them seemlessly manipulate as much as they can the volumn and timing of the news, most importantly the ways how the news will be characterized (version of good guys vs bad guys), to achieve thier objectives. This freedom is in fact nearly useless.
So "useless freedom" is laughing at "no freedom". This is exactly what an old Chinese saying called "50 steps laugh at 100 steps".
Yes, Chinese CCP is at the wrong side of the history. Chinese ppl will judge that and improve that. Has America been at the right side of the history then in the last 8 years? So part of Obama's speech (written by a PC speech writer as always) in some sense is also "50 steps laugh at 100 steps".
In fact , there is no right or wrong side of the history, only "right" or "wrong" side of an ideology or a movement. That's how history is made.
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zickyyy: The question is Chinese laws prohibit the reception of satellite TV at homes. Therefore phoenixTV is not accessible to 99% of Chinese mainlanders. (on an everyday basis, that is excluding they occasion stay in 5-star hotels) Only the priviliged ones (like gov't officials or those with good connections to the gov;t) can have phoenixTV connected into their homes. I know this because my family is well-connected to the party and thats how we got ours in my parents' house. Similarly I think James did say that the speech is available in English to the Chinese so China apparently doesnt forbid its educated class (those who can read English) to access this information. What the gov't is doing is preventing most of its ppl from knowng the speech content in full. (given most ppl cant read fluent english)
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It's a shame that information gets censored. But for those condemning China solely for this, you have to remember that this happens all over the world. Fox news is a striking example in a supposed democracy.
And it's hard to judge who's on the right side and wrong side whilst still in this period. China still has a long way to go, but so does Obama in order to make America respectable again.
Simply concentrating on Britains slow erosion of civil liberties should be enough for us rather than worrying about China's management of its own country.
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mikelore: As a person with chinese background, i can assure you that traditionally Chinese care a LOT about being on the right side of history. Every emperor in the past had to justify that they followed the mandate of heaven and are doing according to the course of history. Chinese idioms and traditional art creations (history fictions like the Romance of Three Kindoms) have always tried their best to argue and that those on the wrong side of history, despite their nature/intention, are always met with their ultimate demise. (check out Zhuge Liang, "smartest" guy in China's history) That is exactly why communist Chinese leader, from Mao to Hu, all are highly sensitive abt what ppl say abt the side of history. They want to do things in the way they wanted but they always have to make sure things are done according to course of history.
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hizento: As i said, whom Obama was referring to are left for people to interpret. But it certainly did freak out some people who censored the media to prevent average citizen from accessing this passage.
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I wouldn't have expected anything less from state media, they always seem to assume the ignorance of the masses. Didn't they censor the bit about countries blaming their problems on the West - "know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you can destroy?" What surprises me more however is how some responses largely ignore this and defend it by accusing western and other media of bias all the time. Such media would never censor a speech like this, and would never be forced to. It's true in "free" societies that some media not under government control will take sides - but it would never censor infromation.
To Hizento - he wasn't reffering to Bush, although he wasn't directly attacking China, though they obviously felt the need to stop broadcasting the speech there anyway. He was reffering to various regimes around the world that have no room for dissent. I'm sure a Chinese version is avaliable with the correct words somewhere on the internet. As Obama says: The people will judge.
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Russel Brand was sacked because 40000 Daily Mail readers complained. Whats the difference? - BBC and CCTV are similarly timid and mealy mouthed organisations. BBC fear the Daily Mail, CCTV fear the communist party.
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I see in the 43 comments above, the same person commented 11 times. I haven't seen anybody so excited as this one before.
By the way, if you are not on my side, you are definitely on the wrong side. Get it?
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to 44: looks like i m the one to whom u r referring. Well in psychology its called superiority effect. Its not excitement that u saw but its excitement that u were looking for.
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It seems like an admission by ommission. If CCP censors things like this, then maybe it is in trouble.
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I don't think the omission of some words is something to get too worked up about. It happens. I don't think it is unreasonable for a country's national broadcaster not to broadcast things that it finds are offensive.
What national broadcaster doesn't behave in such a way from time to time?
Censorship? Freedom? In my recent experience, the people who shout the loudest slogans such as those are more interested in causing trouble than in genuine debate. And usually have no real interest in the people they claim to be wanting to "free". For them, it's a hobby. That's all.
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tclim38: r u implying that the values the Obama mentioned (clean politics, honesty and freedom of speech) are not universal? I believe he said u are on the wrong side of history only if u violate these virtues.
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7 letters for the CCP: ROTFLOL
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Clinton authorised an 'accidental' bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998, and Bush sent spy planes into Chinese airspace one of which collided with a Chinese figher plane in 2001. Both incidents resulted in loss of Chinese lives.
What will Obama do to countries (China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela......) which he thinks are 'on the wrong side of history'?
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Of course CCTV would cut his words. Why not?
Obama is ideologically brain washed as any Western politician, and of course would say that. Why's anybody surprised?
Communism was good for China in that it saved the country from the Western bullies, and is still good for China as time has demonstrated over the past three decades. A good comparison can be made with India and many others that have adopted Western political systems over the past half century. The stark reality is that none, I do mean NONE, have succeded in bringing improvement of living standard to their people to the extent or scale China has done. And this is highlighted by the recently published UN commissioned reports which commend China's efforts in lifting poverty and setting examples to other low-income countries.
But all these are missing from the speeches of any Western politicians, Obama being one of them.
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If China were to be criticised for its censorship, what about the USA that banned those Arab broadcasters from airing into the USA?
Double standard in action
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I disgrace the efforts to cover up the truth (no matter by chinese or non-chinese media). Sadly human beings have their weakness....
I have seen the full coverage of Obama's speech via BBC (my god, i don't think american will care that much about british's prime minister's change as british did to american president, joking) ...Obama's speech pointing to other countries was very irratating. He is not a saver but needs to be saved. God bless him.....and the American and the earth.
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A lot of the times, the Chinese government supresses some information to make her own people accept and surport the official standing toward a certein country. I think a lot of Chineses people will become anti-America or anti-West if all the information is perceived. I think China is on the right side of history, America is not. Hope the new president would turn America onto the right side.
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Right or wrong, there is logic to this.
Obama must appeal across party lines in order to fix the US, both from a diplomatic perspective and an economic perspective. Note the heavy undertones of non-partisanship in his speech, his lauding of both Bush and McCain, his message of needing to work together.
That said, it does not surprise me that Obama placed some GOP rhetoric into his speech as well. Some good old flag-waving, we will defeat you stuff. It helps to get the conservatives on board RE: his progressive policies.
After Chinese dis-illusionment with the US and the Bush administration in recent years, it is important for the CCP and the Chinese people to give Obama a chance, and truly, at least in the beginning, to believe in good faith that the Obama will steer the US away from international actions of unilateralism, away from the Bush-esque attitude of my way or the highway.
Given that background, there is logic to keep Obama's mandatory GOP rhetoric away from the impressionable and literal Chinese public. I think Americans are savvy enough to know that Obama is going to be far more diplomatic in managing US foreign affairs from here on in. Chinese in China may not have such savvy, and giving them words to hear which are mere olive branches to the GOP does not do anyone, or diplomacy in general, any good -- it would merely once again inflame passions.
James -- You read too much into every little thing, expanding them out to be massive signals of Chinese oppression. Speeches are just that, speeches. I understand it is against your m.o., but let's try to not blow things out of proportion.
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My previous comment about the British media was removed by BBC. I am aware of the House Rule and always try not to break it but still...
There is always media censorship in China and many other countries. It really depends on how stable and developed a country is. E.g. after 911, any comments which encourage terrorism will be removed by BBC and then the police will follow.
In fact, Chinese censorship is getting less tight. In most Chinese websites, the only word deleted in the speech is 'and communism'. Perhaps the Chinese government does not want the US to be seen as the Chinese enemy?
Today's Chinese leaders always try not to criticise other countries and their idealogy. However, leaders of other countries like the US, France and Germany always critise communism, palestinian fighters, Zimbabwe government, and the Russian government.
For many Chinese people, Obama's speech about communism is an indirect criticism of China.
Facism and communism are 2 different concepts. Facism indirectly resulted in Nazi and WWII. On the other hand, communism is developed from anti-colonialism, fighting racism and anti-capitalism.
By putting facism and communism, it's a direct criticism of China and its ideology.
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Hello James,
I am not such a communist fun, but your suggestions are not really reasonable.
1. It is not Obama,s position to decide who is on the right side and who is not. He is not Got himself, not yet at least. What he said is understandable and acceptable however, because it was his special day and he did it only in America , which means if his ungrounded words might offend anyone, there is always a chance that those people can ignore his words . Because obviously,
2. To stand facism and communism together is a very arrogant and stupid address to make. The former is deemed to be brutal and a failure; the latter is even more advanced in concept and ideology than capitalism itself; although capitalism is taking a lead for now. BTW, I do not believe China is a communism country neither.
3. To let Obama,s speech heard by 25% of the world population FOR FREE is a VERY generous thing for the Chinese TV to do , but let the insulting word heard is stupid and obsolutely not an option. In this case, ask him to shut up! If not, at least we can shut up by ourselves. Not to mention CCTV has just ignored some offensive words out of politeness.
4. Please remember James, you are in China, you are watching a Chinese TV. We are not paying the tax for you to insult us. You want to do that? please go to BBC, write a blog or anything, that is what you are paid to do, right?
BTW, China,s democracy and human right records are still in development; there are many problems. But pls at least argue that like you are from a more democrated country, which you claimed, ok?
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to 56: Double standard? If u wanna watch Arab TV in the US and are in doubt, just call your local satellite service provider and they have loads of channels available for you to choose from.
to 57: Obama didnt refer to any specific countries in his speech did he? He didnt even mention any nation's name besides that of the United States. Some countries' leaders got irritated thats for sure because they know those are the things they have been and are doing to their ppl, namely deceit, corruption and silencing of dissent. Like 48 said, its simply admission by omission.
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I agree with Bobsy26. If CCTV were to play the speech unadulterated there would be plenty of Chinese zealots ready to strain Beijing's relationship with the new administration. I think Chinese authorities are more worried about retaliation than social unrest caused by a few words.
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55: None? Are you sure? Just to name a few: South Korea, East Germany, Poland etc. Please tell us how the living standard in these formerly authoritarian countries are worse than that in China.
Communism is good for China? Actually even the chinese gov't doesnt endorse that idea today. (their goal is socialism with chinese characteristics, not communism any more). However u r right in a way though, out of the remaining communist party-ruled states (Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, DPRK and China), China is the best of them.
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It seems like the case for a lot of Chinese that a person must be anti-China (and is evil and should be redeemed) if he/she criticises the ruling communist party, even indirectly. So the basic idea is when the party does something, good or evil, its taboo to criticise not only the party but also the thing it did. Thats why many "china-supporters" (actually communist party supporters to be precise) here appeared to be just as agitated as Hu and Wen when Obama condemned evil regimes silencing and cheating the average ppl in his speech, although he didnt mention any names. (its like put urself in the spot u belong to when not asked to)
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wzqings1: ur tax went to James? then u must be british. Well if u are a british national of chinese descent, u should note that James never criticises chinese. He merely points out problems of the ruling communist party. Communist Party and China are two totally INDEPENDENT concepts. Please tell us that u agree with this. I m chinese by origin too but i certainly dont take any of the so-called China criticisms as personal insults, they are merely directed to the chinese government, which is not elected by me and certainly does represent me anyway. As long as i dont hear racist remarks i dont think anything is a direct insult to the chinese as an ethnic group. And of course u said u are not a communist supporter so your sayings appeared to be self-contradictory to me.
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To 63:
My post was about some Arab TVs, not EVERY Arab TVs. I'm sure you realise certain Arab channels are banned in the US.
Well, how many communist countries are there in the World and which is the most successful one? If I said " credit crunch", would I need to mention the US to include it or even put it on the top of the list? Logic, logic.
It's not just 'some countries leaders' that got irritated. People visiting this blog are hardly 'leaders' but many of them have got irritated.
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On the other side, I wonder why Chinese government let broadcast Obama’s speech anyways. It has nothing to do with the Chinese. What a loser for CCP!
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Regardless how China stands, as long as it is a dissident to western hegemonies, China is always on wrong side.
Why should China care, BTW?
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Obama is the president of the US, not the president of the world. There's no such a thing.
What he needs to focus on is how to turn the US economy around in the other direction. That will help the US and benefit the whole world. The rest are just politician's political rhetoric, worthy of no commenting. OK, palladiomc?
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Let me talk a little bit about my personal feelings about this censorship.
I felt insulted that our government is allowing this to happen in today’s world. It hurt my heart deeply. As somebody put it previously, this action is not defendable. It is a shame that we still have this type of action in China. I thought my country already goes beyond those things. This is an act of coward, and an act out of fear. Since Obama’s speech is historical, I suspect, that that particular censorship official, by his/her action, has already put China on the “other side of the history” in history books. What would President Hu and Primer Wen do if they were at the position of the censorship officer.
I just don’t understand, why the official who decided to cut the signal wanted to keep Chinese people from knowing that there is this new American president who has problems with China’s political system. If the current system is good and working, whether Obama likes it or not does not matter a single bit.
The last time when this type of censorship occurred, it hurt me deeply as well. That was when the Chinese primer Wen’s speech in Harvard was interrupted by this “Student for Tibetan” American girl. The live transmission of the speech on CCTV was stopped. And from the TV I watched, the premier stood there speechless and embarrassed.
What would I do, if I were Wen at that time? I would invite that girl up to the podium and talk to her and let her express her ideas and see at least how much she knew about Tibet (for example, whether she can locate it on a world map as the first step). Let the whole world including all Chinese people back in China see that there are a lot people out there who have a different view from us Chinese and who want to break Tibet away from China, rightfully or wrongly. Poor Mr. Wen, he is after all a geologist.
I guess this is why a lot oversea Chinese are more patriotic than their peers in China. And this is probably why the Chinese government did not bother blocking the English version of the speech.
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Re: 38 palladiomc
According to Wiki:
It covers over 42 million households with more than 150 million viewers from the Mainland China.
I don't know where you got your "99%" from but you don't have to have what you called "well-connection" to the party or stay in a hotel to watch Pheonix TV. Although the coverage is quite limited in countryside.
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To:
20. At 11:35am on 21 Jan 2009, palladiomc
Criticizing the Western World is not much of a strategy as it is a natural way to reflect your own points back to yourself. Its like if I call you ugly and I put a mirror in front of you to show your own flaws.
It is not to justify anything as much as it is to point out reality that you lack. The fact that pro-china posters can find just as many flaws and similar flaws between China and the "West" (EU/US) is the reality. Merely casting that as a "strategy" is just ignorant and self-censorship.
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You are showing your bias again James.
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history"
This could certainly be directed at anyone, most notably, Bush who sits right behind him. CCTV merely brushed aside to give Sino-US relationship a better reboot.
Would you rather have CCTV make it into a sound bite to rally the anti-US sentiment? That can be explosive in China. That would be equivalent to playing Bin Laden tapes and Ahmadinejad speeches to rally people to invade Iraq and possible Iran. BBC, FOX, CNN are prone to do that. But doing that WOULD be on the wrong side of history.
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Here is something Obama would be wise to consider before engaging in Sino-US talks:
China is a work in progress and a developing nation. The achievements she has made and stride for will be on the right side of history. There is still alot of history to be written for China AND Obama.
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I guess many of comments comes from younger chinese who are totally brain washed or either they know nothing. remember, when they accused CNN for distroting news, look now whats happened to them and now they are not ready to accept the reality. thats the pathetic. economically developing but mentally backward bunch of thugs who clinch to their powers using their citizen to shield their ignorant by misleading the common citizen.
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i ve got a couple of questions for James:
You mentioned that the you 'found that some Chinese state media outlets have left out some important passages of the president's address.' Would you mind quantifying which outlets CCTV, Xinhua, china daily etc. which one?
Also, is it just 'state media'? what about the privately owned media networks like most local channels or sina, youku, tudou etc? did they censor?
I ve also got a couple of questions for the posters of the forum:
Why do you assume that no one in china has access to the full speech? Since James mentioned that 'some state media outlets' , this to me does not represent the chinese media as a whole (although it is mainly on the same frequency). is it because of incomplete (if not misleading) reporting by the BBC or James? or is it because of your personal perception (prejudice if you will) that no one in china gets access to non propaganda forms of information? maybe you ve checked all the chinese media outlets yourselves, if you have, please enlighten me.
Now i ve got a question to Obama (i know i m being rather cocky, who am i to question the worlds most powerful man):
Who is Obama to judge what is right and wrong? Is he morally superior to every other politician in the world? if you think so, who are you to judge whether someone is morally superior?
I was brought to think that when it comes to politics or history (or anything relating to morals, cultures or beliefs) no one is right, and no one is wrong, everyone is allowed to have their own views, and they must be respected for their views, and all views are equal, just as kids cannot be picked on just because they like a different fruit or game to everyone else. That was what was taught to me as freedom of thought. Obviously this doesn't exist anymore, if everyone is going around promoting how their own belief system is so much superior and anyone who doesn't believe it is 'wrong'.
this brings us back to the point of censorship, if alot of people is china is satisfied with the way china is going, with the economic or political situation, and they are deemed as 'brainwashed'. Isn't the opposite true as well? Wouldn't also be 'brainwashing' that makes alot of Europeans, Americans, Japanese etc who think china is the definition of evil, and the people must be rescued from a terrible and cruel system?
palladiomc mentioned that in a free sociaty people have the choice to choose which media source they use, but when was the last time anyone on this forum ever read Zimbabwe's state news? or North Korea's official editorial? or Xinhua/CCTV? or even Sina, sohu etc? Surely if you want to judge something you would want a balanced view of things? or do you just like being judgemental and feeling superior? Infact, if you are going to judge something, surely you would want every single peice of information you can get (just as a judge at court would want to hear every single peice of evidence before deciding a sentence) so when was the last time anyone (pro or against communism, china, dicatorships etc) read UN reports, government reports (from a variety of both neutral and involved parties or countries)? If not within the recent months, then surely you don't have all the information to form a balanced judgement. Just as (hopefully) a judge wouldn't setence someone to death if he didn't look into every corner and crevice. So stop being so judgemental (both pro or against china).
No one wakes up in the morning and decides to be evil or do the 'wrong' things (not even the most muderous human being). Everyone wants to be kind and please people, its just that you may not agree with their methods. It doesn't make them wrong or inferior (atleast thats what i think, feel free to disagree, i m sure countless will).
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rodmace2000:
"No matter is state owned or so called independent, they are all servants to maximise the strategic interests of their nations. "
-Well the BBC is a fair approximation. It is independent from UK government, owned by the people who pay for it via a TV licence fee. It's not perfect but does a fair job of remaining independent.
"I couldn't find the full version of the Chinese presidents' speeches during the annual Chinese parliament sessions either, especially the parts that denouncing the dark side of capitalism. Is that censorship? I don't know, you tell me."
-It probably is censorship, even if it's not active censorship it's probably a lack of openness. Here in the UK parliamentary discussion are available for the world to see on the internet.
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#33. At 12:10pm on 21 Jan 2009, hizento wrote:
'The "wrong side of history" comment by Obama was directed at the previous US regime of George W Bush. James Reynold has jumped the gun and implied it was directed at the Chinese.'
Funny. Then tell me why they decided to censor this. It's only now that I know the Chinese media actually want to defend the Bush administration so badly?
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"The wrong side of history"? The accusation from US and Bill Clinton? Give me a break! What laugh!
Obama might be a big thing for Americans, British and Indonisian, but he means nothing for majority of Chinese.
Chinese are not really interested in politics those days. My mum turns channel straight away if TV shows any US or western news and movies. They are just not interested in. They worked hard for the country, they have their own believes. Whether Chinese news altered Obama's speech or not, I think none would watch Obama for more than one minute, but James Reynolds and some foreigners perhaps.
What's the big deal?
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At 3:43pm on 21 Jan 2009, haachang wrote:
"A lot of the times, the Chinese government supresses some information to make her own people accept and surport the official standing toward a certein country. I think a lot of Chineses people will become anti-America or anti-West if all the information is perceived. I think China is on the right side of history, America is not. Hope the new president would turn America onto the right side."
Surely you don't think Chinese people can actually tolerate different views ?
So Obama saying something against Communism (which I don't see any trace of in modern China) and Corruption (Yea you know he really meant Chinese corruption, who else can he talk about?) really gets some Chinese people hating America, that is basically what you are saying.
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A communist-ruled country which is planning to spread communism to the rest of the world - I think that's probably one of the reasons why China is hated by the west.
Even the President of United States would naturally equate communism with facism in front of the whole world, I can just imagine how deeply this ideological thinking has been etched into the bones of ordinary westerners.
We were educated to hate capitalism once in history, how come we can change but you guys can't?
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55. At 2:57pm on 21 Jan 2009, BeijingLondon wrote:
"Communism was good for China in that it saved the country from the Western bullies, and is still good for China as time has demonstrated over the past three decades."
What China has been doing the past 3 decades is to embrace Capitalism. It is Capitalism that brought prosperity to China. Just that the party calls themselves Communists doesnt mean what they do is Communist.
The CCP knows deep down that Communism doesn't really work.
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#61
"Not to mention CCTV has just ignored some offensive words out of politeness."
I would be very interested to hear how you find “those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." offensive.
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#38, palladiomc:
"phoenixTV is not accessible to 99% of Chinese mainlanders"
Are you joking? At least I and all my friends in China has got phoenixTV at home, and none of us has "good connections to the gov;t"! we don't need to install any satelite reception device, just plug in the cable, as simple as that. I can even get ESPN, HBO, BBC world news channel at home, I admit that not every family can receive these though, it's a package deal offered by real estate companies when you buy a property from them, many communities have this kind of service, 99% is a ridiculour number.
BTW, in a 4 star hotel, you can even get CNN, FOX - live.
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hello :D
i am a chinese from Hong Kong, but a native HKer. I dont reli like chinese communism party because i've been seeing tons of corruption scandals, deceits and stupid political propaganda around the so-called motherland. Obama is right, or any verdicts from western leaders concerning china's human rights are at least not that wrong. But at the same time, i feel bad to hear non chinese criticising china affairs, what makes it worse is to know that chinese government censors those critics, an act usually resulting in more fierce critics from the west.
Frankly, I guess its fair for president Hu jintao to say:" to those who cling to powers by declaring wars in middle east, giving mighty supports to israeli military invasions and causing regional disturbances are on the wrong side of history", but everyone knows that Hu won't say that, simply because china is not a member in the game called "Democracy", which is played by the states and western world, as a result, china doesn't have the right or privilege to say something justice and heroic. A lot of mainland chinese and me are not feeling good about western critics, but the fact that is chinese government is not a democratic one and a lot of chinese are suffering in china. Western countries are not utopia, there are a lot of social problems there as well, but the problems in china are 10 times worse. Now, I am getting used to the fact that chinese government is not in the game, so i need to accept those real and grounded critics from the west, though they sound cynical and a little bit imperialism.
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#8
I really can't understand the enthusiam of non-Amercians showed in this event. How on earth the American President giving a speech is the "defining moments in WORLD history"? just because he is black?
I couldn't care less about who would be the president of America. In fact, I used to read and study these speeches just as a way of learning English when I was a student, just like many other Chinese students do, because they are all brilliantly written.
The fact that the USA is now the most powerful country in the world isn't because it has gotten excellent Presidents all the way. As everyone knows, the President actually has very limited power (which I admire).
Will Obama do well? The brain trust (which is largely the same as Bush's) behind him will decide.
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I admit that even if I am absolutely not a fan of communism nor ideology, I still felt a bit insulted and irritated to hear communism appeared in such context in his speech. I think people in China would feel the same way if they hear it, especially when it's mentioned along with Fascism. Please remember, Chinese people were the victims of Fascism too, they just happened to choose a different route after the war.
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He was referring to Mr. Bush and Mr. Chad stealing the office with the help of the high court. Just like Robert in Zimbabwee.
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History is a collection of events recorded by man. The rise of communism in Russia, the Japanese invasion of Asia, the German genocide of Jews, and the starvation of millions of Chinese under Mao's failed policies are all part of world history.
The only instances that are on the "wrong side" of history are falsified stories designed to whitewash real events the fabricators don't want other people to know.
To label Communism and Fascism themselves as on the wrong side of history is not only a misnomer, but also highly ideological - something that Obama himself has vowed to stay away from.
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palladiomc ur problem is that you always focus on the negative. China like every other country on this planet has it's problems... one thing u are forgetting/or ignoring is that china's population is 1.3 billion, a bigger population equals to more problems.
I think the chinese govt is going a awsome job moving china forward :D
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Re my comment #99,
What Obama said was "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history".
Based on that, he didn't mention specifically Communism or Fascism, but rather people who corrupt and deceive. Then, yes, they and their propaganda are on the wrong side of history.
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james reynolds ,you are only one telling the truth in china. really impressive.i like you
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The entire videoclip, which has not been edited and which includes the sentence that James quoted here was placed prominently on sina.com, one of the foremost Chinese news website. I watched it twice yesterday.
One has to realize that CCTV is not the only media in China.
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Just wanted to add that the Chinese transalation of that particular sentence was also included in the Chinese version of script that was posted on sina.com.
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@ 58 Haachen
Can not agree more. I copy your comment and post it again. That is what I wanted to say.
"A lot of the times, the Chinese government supresses some information to make her own people accept and surport the official standing toward a certein country. I think a lot of Chineses people will become anti-America or anti-West if all the information is perceived. I think China is on the right side of history, America is not. Hope the new president would turn America onto the right side of history."
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I completely understand what CCTV did, and actually the interpreter should simply ignore his hypocrite nonsense, if his words are deemed to be inappropriate and threatening to our country. You should not expect Chinese national media to be a propagation base for other nation or doctrine. The self-righteous US does the same, never showing what they do not want their people to see on national media, unless it is to be ridiculed.
And as a reply to one poster, the people in Guangdong province of south China have full access to Phonix satellaite TV, and other TV channel based in Hong Kong, such as TVB, ATV. And there are more than 100 million residents in Guangdong. I am not sure about other parts of China on this matter.
It is really unreasonable to suggest that westerners are less manipulated by the media than Chinese, when most chinese young people know English, and virtually no westerners know chinese and only hear one side of the story.
Of course, China need to do sth to balance this disadvantage, and protect itself from subversive attack from foreign powers, just as any nation would do.
And as a matter of fact, Chinese internet is more liberal and tolerant than BBC. ALL news of the major websites can be commented by netizens, no queue, no moderation before posting, and they can say whatever they want, OK, virtually. And if you know Chinese, go to Tianya Club, you will be suprised by the fierce and unruly freedom of expression.
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Since the CCP omitted part of Obama's
speech which did not name any countries,
they only reinforced the notion that
they fall into the category being defined.
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I was wondering if something like this would happen.
Though the Chinese government shouldn't be too distressed. Those words were just to toss a little bit of meat to Cold War conservatives, like all the Christian ceremonies were to placate the social conservatives - if Obama were a devout Christian, he wouldn't support embryonic stem cell research so ardently, especially when recent scientific breakthroughs* are making the termination of embryos seem more and more unnecessary.
And at least China's TV is showing the inauguration. I'd be surprised if fellow Communist countries North Korea and Cuba would do that, or Iran and Burma. I wonder whether Zimbabwe also censored the speech.
*Research from China's arch-enemy, Japan, no less. :-)'
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How sad, I thought even Iran can hear the whole speech.
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Why do we Chinese have to be as exited as those Americans when their president took the oath of office? To tell the truth, not so many Chinese would be care about who will be the US president and whether they can see his full inaugural address. Of course, most Chinese know Mr Obama will take office aroud that time. It's just a piece of a little eyecatching news. In China, our TV or other medias will cover the whole event when it is considerred of great significance, so it's not so stange if the address is not wholy shown.
Moreover, why do we have to be happy about others making us an evil? I think it's the time for the US to correct their own wrong doing, not just busy pointing their fingers to the others.
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I never thought of wathching Mr Obama's address, so do many of Chinese. We know there's a black man to take oath to be the US president. That's enough.
Acctually, Chinese medias' doing so is in favor of western world. If all is shown, Chinese will be hurt again and some of them will hate the west. For example, before I started reading BBC news, I have not too much feeling about western world ---- just a different and developed place out of China. However, now I felt the western world hate us and like so much to see anything bad of China and Chinese. That's why I'm here --- I have to speak something.
Besides, Chinese media, I think, is more impartial covering international events than some western media. We can often see a lot of nice & interesting things, places and people in our media but I almost see none in BBC.
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The wrong side of history? How can the US decide we are on the wrong side and they not? Every one on earth has seen what US has done. All good? My suggestion for the new president is to get his domestic issue solved first and then do something good to the Iraqis, Afghanistans .... not just keep blaming others.
Present Chinese don't care about Communism, Socialism or Capitalism but the real life while the western countries seem much more interested on so-called "-ism". Communism is just a far ideal far from reality and it's rarely mentioned in China now, however, it's really nice if it comes true one day.
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When it comes to the business partnership, nobody is on the wrong side of history, everybody is on the right side.
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Tony Blair once appeared on a CCTV show, Win In China, a show that preaches how to get rich and successful. Mr. Blair will be interested to know that his words in brackets quoted below were deleted from the Chinese translation delivery, as he was talking about his way to success and making the decision to become an [opposition party] leader.
Word allergy? Spin doctor Wu Mao to help!(lots here already)
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1/ please don't mention credit crunch or tibet, it has nothing to do with this and you know it.
2/ America/Europe has its faults, that does NOT make China's faults any more justified
3/ As a Chinese, I am deeply concerned about the growing censorship and intolerance.
In the 1900s to late 1990s, Chinese people asked more for democracy, had more freedom and cared more for equal rights. Now we ride on a wave of economic arrogance, further steroid boosted by the credit crunch in the west.
When will we bow our heads and look at our feet? Our foundation is as thin as ice, our history and ego is as thick as the crust of earth.
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It's really irritating and insulting for China & Chinese that the US new president considers Communism is as evil as Facism and is on the wrong side of history in his speech.
If our state media really show Obama's whole speech, it would arouse great anger just like France president's visiting Dalai and it must be time for Chinese government ready for direct confrontation with the US. So the censorship itself just shows Chinese government still wishes a good link with the US.
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To be honest, any many people indicated here: chinese does not really care much about american president inaguration. He is american president for american people.
Why british is so keen? Interesting!
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Many people are intereted in the topics of phoenixTV. Acctually China is not rich enough for every Chinese to watch phoenixTV or many other international TVs, but it's not because of censorship. Only if digital TV is available in the area, those various TV programes can be shown. At present, in many relatively rich areas, digital TV is already very common and it will soon be in the whole China.
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I think what Chinese media did was actually showing they would prefer a friendly link with the new American gover. If the speech was fully translated, it just may angry the mass of Chinese people, and require the government to take some action, that would put Chinese gove into an awkward position.
and really, who is judge who is at the wrong side of history. just look what western civlization did, it was such an aggressive civlization, no matter where they went , America, Australia, Africa, the original culture and people just suffered, even wiped out.
Only histroy can tell, and history is not speaking in the term of hundred years.
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I live in the US and I do not support communism. Why it is such a big deal to edit some of the foreign speeches by any sovereign country on this world? China has the God-given right to let their people not to hear some of the speeches that can potentially harm their national interests, Right? Just as the western media BBC is doing the same thing to protect Briton. Besides, I agree with some of the bloggers here, by blocking these potentially harmful speeches, the Chinese government wants to leave a good impression of Obama for the Chinese people. The majority people in China are patriotic, nationalistic and love their country; most of them just want a better life and couldn’t care less about politics in the western world, even though they may be just a bit of curious. Therefore IMHO, the debate here is rather frivolous and no meaning at all. BTW, most of US citizens are watching Obama like a hawk, he knows that too. He said earlier that people will judge his deeds and not his words. Unfortunately the first day on the job, he is playing the words game already. Like the Bible says, "a leopard will never change its spots", just like a politician will never cease playing the word game. The cruel reality is that when the stocks would have another 50% decline and the unemployment reaches 15%, no ideology double talks can save him. I found that it is rather amusing here that apparently the country that he referred to is the one that carries one trillion dollar debt and supports his free speech.
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To 65, palladiomc
It looks you didn't get the relationship right between socialism and communism. According to the text book, communism is the higest form of social systems, whilst socialism is a progressive stage between capitalism and communism. China has never claimed it's in a stage of communism since the birth of the CCP.
You wrongly stated "their goal is socialism with chinese characteristics, not communism any more". In fact the statement by the CCP is that China is at the early stage of socialism, and communisam is still the ultimate goal as written in its newly revised political constitution?
As to the examples you named:
South K does not qualify as a meaningful example simply due to its size and scale. As in the case of Singapore. You have to compare likes with likes.
East Germany? It merged with W.Germany and is no longer a country. How do you compare them? If it had turned to a Western system and reamined a country itself, I doubt it would be anywhere near where it is in terms of living standard.
Poland? Has Poland's living standard much improved since embracing the West?
Hah! the rest? That's all we've got left in the world!
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123 mikelia
I couldn't agree more. If everybody took a reasonable, realistic and enlightened stand as you, the world would be much different.
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I think that many outside China fail to understand that the present political system of China is actually preferred by the overwhelming majority of the people in China, not just a few party leaders and those who have notoriously benefited from it.
And this is why James has not been a popular, in the positive sense, journalist in China. The interesting thing is, he might have been very popular some 15-20 years back if he had said the same. Why the Chinese today are so anti-West is a question best left for the West to interpret, given that 20 years ago people hardly had access to information outside China and today they get whatever they want over the net.
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Its funny how some people here say Obama is in no position to judge China as "on the wrong side of history".
There is no one single "China" mentioned in his speech so to be able to make this logic work we have to hypothesize "China = those who cling to power by corruption and deceit", AND, to basically say that clinging to power by corruption and deceit is an okay thing to do.
Then we will be able to say that Obama's "the wrong side of history" comment is wrong.
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#123
Bit shocked to hear this coming from an American. Would you be happy for your government to censor your access to news and info? Would you be happy for the US govt to censor the internet, for instance?
"The majority people in China are patriotic, nationalistic and love their country; most of them just want a better life and couldn?t care less about politics in the western world, even though they may be just a bit of curious. "
-Well I hope this is not true. It has some truth to it though, and sadly that's one of the reasons why the CCP have stayed in power so long. Having said that, there are many courageous Chinese out there, more courageous than we in the West will ever have to be, who criticise the regime.
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#55 wrote:
"A good comparison can be made with India and many others that have adopted Western political systems over the past half century. The stark reality is that none, I do mean NONE, have succeded in bringing improvement of living standard to their people to the extent or scale China has done. And this is highlighted by the recently published UN commissioned reports which commend China's efforts in lifting poverty and setting examples to other low-income countries."
STOP comparing INDIA with your motherland
i'm pretty sure u know nothing abt INDIA at
present other than the economic situation.
INDIA is far more complex than CHINA.
SINGLE party system was a success in CHINA because there was less diversity in
population of CHINA(HAN chinese make up
90 per cent of the population)but there is
no such majority in INDIA.THERE are over
200 different languages in INDIA, the majority being HINDI with a little over 40
per cent talking it.IN religion hinduism has
90 percent of the population following it,
but each region has its own variations
making them appear as different religions.
WHEN there is so much diversity in the population care is to taken that while policy
making the entire population benefits from it and not the development of a particular
section of the population at the cost of
others .Representation of various ethnic
groups in the political system is best way of
doing it.Democracy suits the complexity
in INDIA.
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To all those chinese who feel that they are somehow being undermined or insulted by the edited part of Obama's speech, let me just repeat what he said:
"to those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history"
>There was never any mention of China.
>Ergo, China should have no reason to feel insult, right?
I don't know how you get so worked up, when you don't even realize what the issue is.
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KrSund70: US/Chinese relations actually improved quite a bit when Bush was president.
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Palladiomc wrote: "a felon saying others have done misdemeanors so he should be acquited from his crime. "
I would like to first appologize for China's hypersensitivity on this issue.
To follow up on Palladiomc's comment, it is true that "you have done so" should not be an excuse of committing the same crime twice. However, it is also extremely unconvincing for a passed felon to stand at moral highground pointing fingers and recriminating china.
Here are one example of this:
US/Canada/UK have all treated local natives badly and some of whom even droven the native americans to the edge of extinguishion. 200 years later, when the ethnic chinese are doing much benigner things on the tibetans, they all stand up firmly against such action since what they have done were wrong, and we chinese are not suppose to follow their footsteps. Does it sound convincing?
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I think the reason lies on that the government does not want the public to be misled.
We have a extremely huge population and even if a small part is misled, there might be big troubles.
There is a lot of big differences between China and Western Countries.
However, we are trying to understand what you did in a friendly way.
I think you are able to do the same.
It is not a matter of right or wrong, it is understanding.
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CCTV doesn't account for all the media in China...not at all. Try reading the blogs in Chinese.
To pick on CCTV as an example of Chinese gov't rule on media is distorted. That is like saying the BBC represents UK gov't rule on media or saying MSNBC or FOX is representative of the US gov't's view.
try english version of China news sites
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To 63 palladiomc
“Obama didn’t refer to any specific countries in his speech”. Of course he didn’t otherwise he would have been as stupid as a former US president in this particular matter.
“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history”. No politic party or country allows, by law, “those PEOPLE” cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent. He is so right like a God if he refer “those” to INDIVIDUALS not parties or countries. Then I would be happy to say that I was over reacted.
I like the concept of communism which promotes the establishment of a classless and stateless society. It illustrates a paradise but human beings will never reach it due to their sins. Can you blame God when Christian church does something bad?
Fascism is a right-wing nationalist ideology or movement with a totalitarian and hierarchical structure. I would like to see fascist together with colonist though in different timetable.
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#105:
"I think China is on the right side of history, America is not."
So 30 years of economic development and
7 years of double digit growth of gdp means u are on the right side of history,is it?
After Hitler came to power in mid 1930's
Germany witnessed a short period of rapid economic development before the start of WWII,so according to ur perception Nazi germany was on the right side of history...
In the early 20th century,japan had one of advanced economies in the world and it was the only superpower in ASIA.So would u agree that Japan was on the right side of history during WWII?
British empire was at its peak during the
Victorian period both economically and politically.It was the same period when the
'CENTURY OF HUMILIATION' had begun in
China largely due to British imperialism.
Would u agree that Britian was on the right
side during that period ?
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President Obama's has a brother (same father different mother) living in southern China. This brother has been living in southern China since 2002, has a Chinese wife, manages some BBQ restaurants, gives the occasional piano concerts and apparently quite content and happy living in China. President Obama should ask his own brother if the latter saw human rights violation in China or experienced it personally himself.
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It's funny. It's so funny.
OK, CCTV cut off some words which some Chinese may consider offensive. So what? At least they broadcast the speech from the head of an unfriendly country! When did you ever broadcast the speech by Iranian president? Oh, you must use the excuse: "we don't want to hear that!" But, why do you assume that we want to hear from some Obama? I didn't want to hear his arrogant speech at all! In this sense, CCTV is better than most west media who didn't have the courage to show their enemy's opinion.
We’ve seen this too often in this board: "This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules." OK, Obama broke the rules by offending someone who believed in communism (by the way, it’s their freedom to believe whatever they want to believe), his words were removed. No big deal!
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#142.
Your comparisons are a joke.
China didn't need to fight any wars or invade any nation during its rise.
Its largely due to the persistent efforts of its people. This alone puts China on the right side their history and the history of the world.
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To post 129 poorindian
Apologies if you found my comparison of China/India offensive. But I didn't mean to belittle India in any sense. Of course every country is different. I was merely referring to a single aspect of the complexity.
Regarsless of backgrounds and cultures, why are we yet to see an economically successful 3rd world country that owes its success to the borrowing of the so-called "Western Democracy"?
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142:
Your analogy is totally unfair and completely unacceptable. Following your theory, NONE of the countries on the earth throughout human history could be judged as "right" (apart from India, perhaps...).
Your comments are common in the sense of reflecting fears over a fast expanding China. But just as you wrote in one of your posts, it is too complex to simply label a country's achievement as right or wrong.
I think some of the China-supporters here did overreact upon the title of this article. I am not gonna say China is perfectly right. But it is undoubtably naive to say China is on the WRONG side of the history, as Mr Obama did in his inauguration speech that aimed to encourage those emotional audience and has no implications at all in practical terms.
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"But, why do you assume that we want to hear from some Obama? I didn't want to hear his arrogant speech at all! In this sense, CCTV is better than most west media who didn't have the courage to show their enemy's opinion."
You know, beijinger#145, your comments made me laughing out loud and thinking about a paradox that I was pondering for a very long time. The US, EU and China's economy are interdependent now, whether you'd like it or not. Most of the people would consider China as an adversary or competitor or even an enemy in the US and western world. But I found out that perhaps the same feeling is harbored from the other side also by your comment above.
The funny thing is that the US and western world keep buying the cheap Chinese goods which supported their economy while keeps berating the country that loaned money to them to support their life style. On the other hand, the upper class educated Chinese who know the western cultures and languages and made all these comments similar to yours are keeping going to the US, England and Europe for education and a better living.
Is there any good explanation? I think the answer is that when it is your own life, future and pocket book are at stake, no one cares about political system or ideology anymore? If so, guys, we are all hypocrites by definition and stop throwing mud at each other and perhaps the world would be a better place?
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#149 and #146,
u ppl still don't get my point ,do u ?
I actually meant that economic development
alone is not the criteria to judge whether a
country is in the right side or not.
ur country can achieve even a 20 percent growth in GDP (i'm not saying it can't) but is
it going to be of any use to migrant workers
and farmers in the west who surely don't have same access to the wealth generated from economic growth as he ppl in the pearl river delta.
A person in Nevada(or anyother state in USA
which has farmlands -rural to AMERICAN standards)generally has the sameaccess to education,health care and job opportiunities
as a person in NY.Now be unbiased and compare it with China's case.Surely,a person
in western China doesn't spend as much as
people in the eastern China,he/she doesn't
receive the same standard of education or
healthcare services as the people in the east and the monthly income is justafraction
of what ppl receive in the east and the freedom is not even comparable with the freedom enjoyed by ppl in HK.
To say it in simple terms,BARACK OBAMA
who happens to be a black american(african
americans still face discrimination in USA),
half muslim(the most feared religion in the
west after 9/11)became the US president,
but is it possible for a tibetan or uighur muslim to become the president of China?
if yes, when will it happen?
The average annual income of Chinese population is $ 900,but there are millions
who get only a penny or more to cross the
amount described as minimum by the poverty line.WILL these millions ever get
the same benefits as the ppl in shangai or
Beijing?These problems surely exist in USA
,but the magnitude of it is much lesser when
compared to China.
In this perception, USA is still on the'right side of history'.....
so, do u get it now?
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It has been China's policy not to intefere in the internal affairs of other countries ever since the founding of the PRC. That part of Obama's speech censored by CCTV broke that rule and hence deleted. It's not for one country to decide whether another country's internal affairs are 'on the wrong side of history'.
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The difference is this: The chinese people knows that what the CCTV says is propaganda. But the westerns sincerely believe that what they hear on the news is nothing but truth. Who are the fools?
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#152
it can be seen from the words that u r an American so I'm proud to let you find out that I am a Chinese.
you seem to worry about how quick can my country reach the position which you think that is the RIGHT SIDE OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
So I just wonder how quick can your country just bring in the Arabic programs so that you can see what are they thinking about.
I admits that we still need to go further as in the area of Human Rights.
But I don't think we lack it.
And Neither do I think YOU and YOUR country are in the right place to Give A Blame.
How much do you know about China? Have you ever been to China? Have you Chinese friends who will tell about the changes in China?
I was born in a small town in China and I see clearly how my life changes.
When I was a child what I can watch is just a black-white TV and the very few CCTV programs, but what I can do now is to get on to the Internet and enjoy Youtube CNN and BBC.
everything takes time to grow.
Imagine a country, with 1.3 billion people,
when the country was set up it had nothing left but those hungry and poor people,
it suffered from 10 years bad time and finally wake up to grow.
Within only 30 years that now we come up to become the 3rd in economy.
I know economy seems to be another topic. But if your people can't live a pleasant life, how can they get the human right? I think they will be unable even to buy a radio.
And I also know that several years ago your policemen even rushed into one university and shoot some of those students who were telling about their wishes. It's that Human Right?
after I got to Germany I try my best to learn Deutsch so excuse me of my poor English.
if anything offend you then I feel very soory. But I just want to say my opinion and I think, BBC will give me the Media Free right to leave my words here.
in the end I want to add that, even CCTV may sometime ignore something, I don't think any other TV program will broadcast everything.
And we Chinese are not head-washed and shouldn't be like that, as we can easily find out what is reported by the other media, and we also have some big Chinese bbs which cover nearly every topic and every news in the world.
I think if any body likes, he or she can surely find English and Chinese full version of what Mr Obama had talked that day.
Wish everybody a nice OX year!
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Where did the Associated Press (AP) take that photo with the painting of President Obama in the Background?
It looks like a copy cat of the famous portrait done in November 2008 by the Chinese Artisit, Zhao, Ze. See the link to his oil paintning and other artwork on www.redbubble.com at:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/zhou/art/2030211-2-barack-obama-change-for-america-for-the-world-for-all-of-us
Change for America - for the world - for All of Us.
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Democracy Wall, Beijing, 1989.
Capitalism is where "man exploits man", Communism is the reverse.
ThereAndBackAgain
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