Giant lies about China

[FIA_cn]

Giant lies about China

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/images/0.gif
By Yuri Pines http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/images/0.gif

The orchestrated wave of calls to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing that began in the United States and moved on to Europe has recently reached Israel as well. Everyone is angry at China: the right, because it is ruled by the Communist Party; the left, because of the success of capitalist reforms there; and "the Western world" (and its disciple Israel), because China is so different, yellow and threatening. That is how it is in the West: Sometimes they hate Japan, other times they hate China (always the stronger of the two), and they cannot accept the success of countries where most of the inhabitants have never heard of the Ten Commandments and the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem.

It all combines to stir up an anti-Chinese wave: justified complaints (such as against the oppression of Tibet) alongside pure fictions (the extraction of organs from followers of the Falun Gong sect), as well as innumerable half-truths, half-understandings and unexamined cliches. All of the evil that happens in China - corruption, forgeries or environmental pollution - is certainly the fault of the "regime" and the "Communist government." (Only in the enlightened West are we able to distinguish between criminals and the country as a whole.)

Every cliche is acceptable, without even a minimal need to check the facts. (These include the tens of thousands who are executed every year, according to a recent article by Uri Misgav in Haaretz, or the "100 million" Falun Gong disciples in other publications. Both of these numbers are sheer fantasy). In any case, those "yellow people" do not have a well-oiled public relations machine, so we can say anything we want about them without risking libel suits. The critics have no understanding of the complexity of Chinese society, which is undergoing tremendous changes - more rapid and more extensive than anything humanity has ever known. The environmental pollution in China may be shocking, but remember that the developed, industrialized countries moved their polluting factories to Chinese soil. And how much does a Chinese citizen pollute compared with a European or an American?

It is possible to bemoan the low wages in China, but it is also appropriate to note their rapid rise in recent years and the improvements in workers' rights, including those of "temporary workers" in the cities, that are taking place before our eyes. It is possible to thunder against China's large economic gaps, but it is also necessary to consider the regime's huge effort to improve the lives of villagers and the billions it has invested in recent years in village infrastructure and in eliminating taxes on farmers.

It is possible to believe the reports of counterfeit and defective goods imported from China (such the Mattel toys recalled in August), but it is also worth noting the dramatic increase in the number of Chinese patents and inventions and the increasing protection of copyrights. China clearly has a very long way to go before it becomes a prosperous society, but no other country can match its success in dramatically improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people in recent decades. A bit of learning about China would not hurt anyone who wants to write about it.

Sometimes it is a matter of ignorance, pure and simple; sometimes of cynical racism. When Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg call upon China not to aid (even indirectly) the genocide in Darfur, one may ask: And what about your own country, the great United States of America, whose weapons proliferate like a plague in the Middle East, which has destroyed Baghdad, and whose machine guns have trickled easily into the hands of Shi'ite and Sunni militias? Do the U.S. and its citizens have the right to preach morality to others?

Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion. It cannot be helped that the Chinese are too different, and therefore always guilty.

The writer is a lecturer on Chinese history and politics in the East Asian Studies Department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896908.html

[usa_patriot]

You are nothing more than a communist propaganda mouthpiece

[ElHombre]

US calls to boycott the Olympics? First I've heard about it. :lol:

[SBL]

US calls to boycott the Olympics? First I've heard about it. :lol:


X2. That's news to me.

[Partial_Panel]

I personaly don't know anyone who sees China as "Yellow and Threatening", either.

That in itself is a cliche' that died a slow death years ago.

[Calanen]

Maybe it's just China's propensity to shoot opponents of its dictatorial regime in the back of the head without a fair trial, or to torture people in Falun Gong, or to massacre democracy protestors with tanks, or having corrupt communist officials enslave local populaces in say, brick factories, that is having a negative effect on China's image. Just saying......

Still - I don't see the US or anyone else important boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

[hydropod]

Maybe it's just China's propensity to shoot opponents of its dictatorial regime in the back of the head without a fair trial, or to torture people in Falun Gong, or to massacre democracy protestors with tanks, or having corrupt communist officials enslave local populaces in say, brick factories, that is having a negative effect on China's image. Just saying......

Still - I don't see the US or anyone else important boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

Arugment to point 1: That is why I guess all the prominent and recent democracy advocates and opponents to the regime are residing in US and Europe, the shot in the back of the head also seems to teleport them oveseas. I am pretty sure there havent been one case of execution related to such advocates since the late 70's. They all usually receive a fixed term sentence first, then they get "probation for medical treatments" and gets flied to US and Europe where they would obviously claim assylum.

Point2: FLG, I havent read a proper first hand source on torture of FLG practitioners, and if you are about to quote from say, epochtimes, the official FLG mouthpiece, then don't bother. I once received a newspaper from them in the streets of Melbourne when my feelings towards them were still neutral, and it was advocating that by practicing FLG, you are immue to burns from boiling water and etc. I threw away the newspaper and become spectical since then.

Point3: TAM incident was over 18 years ago. Obviously it made a huge impact to how westerners views the Chinese governement, and that crack down was wrong IMO. However, the steps taken consolidated the government, and led to the 10%+ economical growth each year since. A high price of human life and governement accountabilty were lost, but the stability brought forth laid the foundations for growth, and it was priceless. China today is not ready for democracy overnight, and certainly was not 18 years ago. BTW pehapes this is not the correct area to dicuss TAM, however I suggest you if possible, find a photo albem book printed by the Mirror newspaper in HK in 1990. In there are many photos you never see about TAM. The line of burnt out army trucks and APCs in travel column lining the streets of beijing was something never shown ever in western medias. Some one or some body was conducting actions against troops in the city before the fateful night, and that certainly had pissed off a great many GI Zhou before that date when the order to open fire with live ammo was given.

Point4: The ringleaders are all captured and are to be sentenced to death in all probabilities. The actions of currupt local officials always seems to taint the actions of the centrual government, which is rather unfortunate. Hence punishment these days are also harsh.

[daily666]

I'm wondering who the hell paid to write such crap for Haaretz and why is it so tendentious.

"Yellow and threatening"? Who's thinking this way? I guess mr. Yuri himself.

[a_very_ex_STAB]

China is the world's last large-scale colonial regime

[Eugene Onegin]

Thier still commies ,right?

[a_very_ex_STAB]

Thier still commies ,right?

In name only.

China is the ultimate capitalist's wet dream.
Totalitarian government, no independent trade unions, cheap labour, massive corruption and lax or non-existent environmental controls.

[theholeinthedonut]

This article just confirms my strong opinion that you should not trust a sinologue or an orientalist or whatever to get an unbiased analysis about their field of studies ...by studying it for too long they develop too strong a love to their subject!

[shocker1]

When Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg call upon China not to aid (even indirectly) the genocide in Darfur, one may ask: And what about your own country, the great United States of America, whose weapons proliferate like a plague in the Middle East, which has destroyed Baghdad, and whose machine guns have trickled easily into the hands of Shi'ite and Sunni militias? Do the U.S. and its citizens have the right to preach morality to others?What ignorance we have here. Not many insurgents sporting around M16's, M4's and AT4's. I just wonder how many Chinese AK's, RPG's and various other goodies are "trickling" into the hands of insurgents. Author must be mad about the Fatah weapons that Hamas got their hands on.. I wonder if they have checked who's weapons are being used in Darfur? Ignorance


Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion. It cannot be helped that the Chinese are too different, and therefore always guilty. Ah the big bad whitey, it is all clear now.

[Kilgor]

In name only.

China is the ultimate capitalist's wet dream.
Totalitarian government, no independent trade unions, cheap labour, massive corruption and lax or non-existent environmental controls.

China has the worst of communism and capitalism rolled into one.

[lightbluer]

China is the world's last large-scale colonial regime

What do you mean? USA is much worse than China.

[evanfitz]

Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion. It cannot be helped that the Chinese are too different, and therefore always guilty.



Has this guy ever been to the US? Its the most diverse country in the world

[Flamming_Python]

Hmm with all the hate against China, it stands to reason, what are you guys going to do about it?

Chinese economy collapses, and all the Western products that are made there go with it. How many items in your house have a "made in China" trademark right now, items that will become 100x more expensive if suddenly they were no longer made in China.

Nearly as ridiculous as those "Embargo against Israeli products" I hear about in Britain. Which will of course result in the immediate non-operation of the vast majority of Computer Systems in Britain.

[Moledet]

This thing is worse than the Kazakhstan government ad about their democracy that was published in the newspaper last week.

[Buckeye67]

My interest was piqued when I read the first sentence.

My interest was lost when I read the second sentence.

[szr]

Chinese economy collapses, and all the Western products that are made there go with it. How many items in your house have a "made in China" trademark right now, items that will become 100x more expensive if suddenly they were no longer made in China.We're not talking about hardcore knowledge-based production that would be difficult to move elsewhere, here. Lead-encrusted children's toys and antifreeze-enriched toothpaste can just as easily be cheaply produced in Honduras and across large swaths of the developing world.

[a_very_ex_STAB]

We're not talking about hardcore knowledge-based production that would be difficult to move elsewhere, here. Lead-encrusted children's toys and antifreeze-enriched toothpaste can just as easily be produced in Honduras.

Or India would take up the slack. They're not likely to let a good business opportunity pass them by.

[deagle]

what country doesn't have problems nowadays ?

i personally think China is trying to bolster its image, even if only recently in preparation for the games, but at least is a small positive. we can't hold them to our standards, and they shouldn't expect that of us. a big example is human rights. i beleive we are stronger b/c of it, though loopholes do exist that we give so much freedom, it is abused or wrongly enjoyed. some of those lies may not be entirely true, but not entirely false either .... i just have to remember that i'm not there, nor do i live there long enough to comment and criticize on any claim.

Anyway, alot of the backlash was from improper manufacturing, but all i have to say is where were the US company representatives who oversaw operations to ensure smoothness ? where was the company rep to inspect goods coming in who didn't do their jobs and put a danger to the American ppl ?? did they care enough to get the lowest cost, and was sitting in their offices tabulating and salivating over possible profits at the expense of the general American consumer ? they could've refused delivery/manufacturer instead of hoping their shortcuts were discovered and exposed.

i don't cut any slack to those higher-ups who just order the floor workers what to do w/o specifics, like just make 'em at the lowest cost ... look what it actually cost .... health and money.

[dangerclose]

Show the video of the cats in China being whacked on the head with a metal rod, skinned alive then thrown into a tub of water while they are still gasping for breath. It would take some heat off of Vick.

With the ammunition shortage in the U.S. we should just buy ammo from China.

1. It's made of lead

2. It's SUPPOSED to kill people.

[dangerclose]

Hmm with all the hate against China, it stands to reason, what are you guys going to do about it?

Chinese economy collapses, and all the Western products that are made there go with it. How many items in your house have a "made in China" trademark right now, items that will become 100x more expensive if suddenly they were no longer made in China.




Yeah but our pets would be safer and I could start licking barbie dolls again.

[Laworkerbee]

Thier still commies ,right?

more like hyper capitalist police state

[Laworkerbee]

Thier still commies ,right?

more like hyper capitalist police state



The orchestrated wave of calls to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing that began in the United States and moved on to Europe has recently reached Israel as well. Everyone is angry at China: the right, because it is ruled by the Communist Party; the left, because of the success of capitalist reforms there; and "the Western world" (and its disciple Israel), because China is so different, yellow and threatening. That is how it is in the West: Sometimes they hate Japan, other times they hate China (always the stronger of the two), and they cannot accept the success of countries where most of the inhabitants have never heard of the Ten Commandments and the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem.

huh, what, come again?

[PeoplesPoster]

Pretty good article, hits the nail on the head as they say. :)

[Merfeller]

"Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion."

We're all white, eh? A simple visit to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Seattle, etc. etc. would be a real awakening for this guy.

[MEGR]

Article is a crock. I don't endorse China hate, but this article is overflowing with BS.

Plus, I'm in the US, and I'm about as white as Bill Cosby (excluding the robot from the future in Southpark that tried to destroy Eric Cartman's Trapper Keeper).

[wasser]

US calls to boycott the Olympics? First I've heard about it. :lol:

I hadn't heard any such either, but a google search turns up lots of calls (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=bxM&q=boycott+olympics+2008&btnG=Search), so it's definitely out there. A California Representative, Maxine Waters, has recently called upon Bush to boycott Beijing (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/07/politics/politico/thecrypt/main3140647.shtml).


I personaly don't know anyone who sees China as "Yellow and Threatening", either.

That in itself is a cliche' that died a slow death years ago.

Yellow? Well, Chinese are definitely not white. :p Threatening? Well, depends upon who you ask. With their recent military modernization and buildup, I think there are a few who consider them a threat. Economically? Do I even have to ask if anyone thinks they pose an economic threat to other countries?
What ignorance we have here. Not many insurgents sporting around M16's, M4's and AT4's...

Not all weapons America is responsible for are what we think of as American weapons. The recent news of the weapons the US has lost track of included Ak-47's (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501299.html?hpid=topnews). Additionally, though your comment only refers to insurgents, given the author's pacifist stance I'm guessing the weapon proliferation he is talking about includes all the nations the US provided weapons for in the Middle East (Israel, Saudi, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq...).

[wasser]

Article is a crock. I don't endorse China hate, but this article is overflowing with BS.

Plus, I'm in the US, and I'm about as white as Bill Cosby (excluding the robot from the future in Southpark that tried to destroy Eric Cartman's Trapper Keeper).

overflowing with BS?


The orchestrated wave of calls to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing...

In my previous post you'll see, though I hadn't heard about it, it apparently is not BS.


It all combines to stir up an anti-Chinese wave: justified complaints (such as against the oppression of Tibet) alongside pure fictions (the extraction of organs from followers of the Falun Gong sect), as well as innumerable half-truths, half-understandings and unexamined cliches. All of the evil that happens in China - corruption, forgeries or environmental pollution - is certainly the fault of the "regime" and the "Communist government." (Only in the enlightened West are we able to distinguish between criminals and the country as a whole.)

I really can't comment on the voracity of any of the what he claims to be "pure fictions" here, but the oppression of Tibet is not BS. :p


Every cliche is acceptable, without even a minimal need to check the facts. (These include the tens of thousands who are executed every year, according to a recent article by Uri Misgav in Haaretz, or the "100 million" Falun Gong disciples in other publications. Both of these numbers are sheer fantasy). In any case, those "yellow people" do not have a well-oiled public relations machine, so we can say anything we want about them without risking libel suits.

Again, I'm not really qualified to comment on stuff here, but I have heard about the harvesting and such and haven't heard anything counter to it. Of course, that doesn't make it true so...I can't comment. ;)


The critics have no understanding of the complexity of Chinese society, which is undergoing tremendous changes - more rapid and more extensive than anything humanity has ever known. The environmental pollution in China may be shocking, but remember that the developed, industrialized countries moved their polluting factories to Chinese soil. And how much does a Chinese citizen pollute compared with a European or an American?

Here I can comment and he speaks loads of truth. I'm actually half Taiwanese and my wife is Chinese. In the mid-eighties she emigrated to the US with her family. They left behind the house she lived in all her life. It had no electricity, no running water, and a dirt floor. From the village to GuangZhuo, the Provencial capital of the Guangdong Province was a journey of days. When we visited her village last November, we got there in a few hours on a modern freeway. The small rustic and rural village was largely deserted with most people having moved to large cities or to the US. There is running water throughout the village, electricity and satellite TV. Rapid doesn't really describe the speed of change over there.

Oh, and that Chinese pollution, it is indeed shocking! :cough: There is something compelling about his argument that we are moving our polluting factories over there.


It is possible to bemoan the low wages in China, but it is also appropriate to note their rapid rise in recent years and the improvements in workers' rights, including those of "temporary workers" in the cities, that are taking place before our eyes. It is possible to thunder against China's large economic gaps, but it is also necessary to consider the regime's huge effort to improve the lives of villagers and the billions it has invested in recent years in village infrastructure and in eliminating taxes on farmers.

It is possible to believe the reports of counterfeit and defective goods imported from China (such the Mattel toys recalled in August), but it is also worth noting the dramatic increase in the number of Chinese patents and inventions and the increasing protection of copyrights. China clearly has a very long way to go before it becomes a prosperous society, but no other country can match its success in dramatically improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people in recent decades. A bit of learning about China would not hurt anyone who wants to write about it.

There is truth here too. My wife's family in China are fairly comfortable economically. The conditions aren't great by US standards, but they've come so far it's amazing. Should it not be for the one child policy and the dangerous potential of the gender imbalance it's causing, I would think they would be better off staying in China than coming to the US.


Sometimes it is a matter of ignorance, pure and simple; sometimes of cynical racism. When Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg call upon China not to aid (even indirectly) the genocide in Darfur, one may ask: And what about your own country, the great United States of America, whose weapons proliferate like a plague in the Middle East, which has destroyed Baghdad, and whose machine guns have trickled easily into the hands of Shi'ite and Sunni militias? Do the U.S. and its citizens have the right to preach morality to others?

Now, I can't really say it is a matter of ignorance or cynical racism, but it is clear America spread weapons throughout the Middle East and, though I can't personally trace the source of any weapon to an insurgent or terrorist, we do know, as mentioned in my previous post, the US has lost track of many weapons of the type used by them.



Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion. It cannot be helped that the Chinese are too different, and therefore always guilty.

I think this comment, similar to the "yellow and threatening" one is unfortunately easy to react to and not think. Could he possibly, really think that all Americans are white? Sure, but is it likely that is what his intent was? I'd think not. He's an educated man and it's likely he is aware there are those who are not white in the US. I think his words were carefully and sarcastically selected to "get yer goat". And though not all Americans may be white or Christian, I'd argue that that is how we are perceived in general - A white, Christian, English speaking people. Of those, this American is only one. :p However, that does not detract from the significance of his words.

[Gothjod]

Deja Vu' ? I know I saw this thread before on MP.net

[Zerazax]

Article is pretty full of BS. But I think most people who do visit China do come away with a different impression of what most people see in the West. When I visited there last year, there was definitely a huge cultural difference but at the same time it was quite the experience. It reminded me of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and what it would have felt like if I had lived in those times. When industrial boom and all the benefits (growing buying power, improved conditions) and pitfalls (pollution, corruption, poor working conditions) are rolled into one, it was quite amazing to see.

Anyways, a lot of people keep a close eye to China not just because it's a threat but because I think a lot of people look at it as an experiment never before seen in the world. As stated by others in this thread, China is hyper-capitalist in that there's little to no regulation (a great irony for a gov't that once was all about control on everything) and so many capitalists look to it as an example of the benefits of capitalism (not to mention that they are one of the few countries heading away from socialism, unlike some here in the west, including ourselves).

[mi35d]

Oooooo...those evil white christ followers! Bad, bad, bad.

[LRPV]

This thing is worse than the Kazakhstan government ad about their democracy that was published in the newspaper last week.

Who wrote it? Borat?p-)

[Durandal]

The orchestrated wave of calls to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing that began in the United States and moved on to Europe has recently reached Israel as well. Everyone is angry at China: the right, because it is ruled by the Communist Party; the left, because of the success of capitalist reforms there; and "the Western world" (and its disciple Israel), because China is so different, yellow and threatening. That is how it is in the West: Sometimes they hate Japan, other times they hate China (always the stronger of the two), and they cannot accept the success of countries where most of the inhabitants have never heard of the Ten Commandments and the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Huh?

That has to be one of the funniest things in the world.

Logically, that is why ALL those nations or political groups do so well with Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, The Philippines, Taiwan, and so on.

Oh, wait, using that logic (or lack there of) we'd be having problems with all these other nations.

Idiocy.

[Surf City]

Oooooo...those evil white christ followers! Bad, bad, bad.

I'm not white but I do play a white guy on t.v.;-) ......

I've got all different groups of friends and some of my best friends even happen to be evil white christ followers!

Seriously, the author needs to come back and visit the U.S. once in awhile. I see the diversity everyday at the university where I work. There's more Chinese at the school then any other group and the melanin deficient are probably third largest demographic on campus.

So if whitey america hates all things yellow (including yellow ol' me) then THE MAN (whitey) is doing a poor job of keeping us down.

[ThatHistoryDude]

Wow why is an article that has this glorious qoute in it



Oh yes, I forgot. Americans, after all, are white, and therefore they are entitled to speak in the name of democracy and Christian compassion. It cannot be helped that the Chinese are too different, and therefore always guilty.

Taken at all serious when if a white american wrote something about yellow chinese being sneaky and devious we would toss it out as rascist garbage?

Rascism is rascism no matter what ethnic background its from and its all crap.

[Durandal]

It is a lie that an average of 13 coal miners loser their lives in China every day.

It is a lie that China has had over 40 bridge collapses similar to the one in Minneapolis this year.

It is a lie that China, in order to host the Olympics, is going to FORCE people to not cook on their stoves at home and turn off industry for days during the competition.

It is a lie that there is an ever widening class division between those that toil and the ones that reap the profits.

Lies, all lies. :roll:

[TacoDelRio]

Gay.

That is all.

(How the hell did that guy pass the required academic courses to publish an article in the first place?!?!?!?!?!!??!)

[California Joe]

This sh*t sounds like a lame version of a bad Chinese Bugs Bunny cartoon, spoken while Bugs pours pure lead into a batch of baby bottle nipples for export to the US. This jackass has obviously never watched the TV show Kung Fu.