There is another "bestseller" in China. It's called Demonization of China by the U.S.A. It is a collaboration by a number of writers describing what they feel are unfair representations of China by various entities of the US such as Hollywood, and academia. They try to point out how China is unfairly tarnished and broadbrushed in various US media to the point where China is made into some sort of demonic realm. China News Digest has distributed excerpts from this book in Chinese. They were distributed in three parts. Click here to read these excerpts in traditional Big-5 code or here for the excerpts in simplified gb code.The excerpts include discussions of China as presented in Hollywood movies, books and in Chinese Studies Academia. I can't and am not commenting directly on this book or its' contents, examples or arguments. I am agreed that there are unfair representations of China or Chinese people out there. The US media is as bad and incompetent as it can be good and impressive. Hollywood in general tends to unjustly portray just about any group at various times. And the same goes for books and academic studies. So I am sure China is not alone in being unfairly represented. But sometimes valid criticism may be seen by some as being a slur or demonization of China.
I think it's worth looking at what people in the US do criticize China for. I say China, but in general the criticisms are toward the government of the People's Republic of China. Unfortunately to some, this is the same as criticizing or demonizing all of China. What are these issues.
In a nutshell they are:
forced abortion repression of religious freedom repression of free speech and assembly political totalitarianism Each of these listed are direct policies of the Chinese Communist Party. The One child policy is the genesis of forced abortions. This policy has caused conservative political groups, such as the Family Research Council (FRC), to begin taking and active role in campaigning against Most favored nation status for the PRC. This group has mainly been an advocate of pro-life and pro-family causes. They chart how congressmen vote and make the votes known to the electorate in general so that voters will know where the candidates stand when it comes down to real life--their votes rather than their rehetoric. The FRC is now saying that the voting record on MFN for China and China-related issues will be included in their voting summaries.
Another issue that overlaps with the concern over forced abortion is religious persecution by the CCP government. The FRC has recently spoken about this issue in their Legislative Hotline that they make available at ther web site. See this link to read some of their recent hotlines about the PRC.
Today, religious persecution in mainland China is a subject some people might feel is an unfair demonization of China. They might recount how much worse it was 20 or more years ago. But for most people concerned about this in the USA, the issue is not how better things have become, but what is the status of free religion now? Last year around Easter some Catholics held an outdoor mass. Catholicism is illegal (mainly due to the fact that the Vatican has diplomatic relations with the Republic of China) so the priests who carried out these masses were arrested. This year before Easter priests who may have been thinking of having a mass were harrassed by the CCP authorities. Most likely to pre-empt any ideas of exercising their rights to freedom of religion. In other words, to scare them out of holding any mass. Read here to see reports of these police harrassement of the priests.
These things are important to Americans. It doesn't matter to them who is doing it whether it is a Russian or Chinese totalitarian regime. I used the FRC as an example here. They are a conservative religious group, but there are also non-religious liberal groups who hold similar opinions. For example Spin magazine in a recent issue printed this guest editorial. Spin magazine is a rock and roll magazine. It and its' contents and readership couldn't be further away from the Family Research Council, but in their indignation of the CCP's policies they are on the same wavelength.
A recent survey showed an overwhelming majority of Americans supported withdrawing the PRC's Most Favored Nation trading status, i.e. revoking normal trade relations between the US and China. The poll showed a 61 % to 29 % split. By a two to one ratio Americans support doing away with the PRC's MFN. This is a tremendous ratio and comes from the abovementioned problems that exist in mainland China due to the intransigent totalitarian nature of the Chinese Communist party government.
Call it demonization or call it simply valid and accurate evaluation, the policies of the mainland Chinese government cause most Americans to not think favorably of the Chinese government. Hopefully they won't make the mistake of equating the great Chinese people with the sad scared government that keeps power by brute force.
And I received a couple pieces of mail in response to this discussion of the Demonization of China. The writer's points are pertinent and I present them below in italics.
I agree your opinion, however, one thing that you did not mention is that what they said in the book is what the government likes to hear. It is a new way that the government wants the chineses poeple to believe. The real danger for such misleading book is that such book is not seeking for the truth, and not promoting a better undersanding between the Chinese and Americans. What behind this book is a dangirous political motivation to mislead and keep the chinese people in dark. It is not new for a communist gorvenment to do. Today, they even could buy some famous Americans to say what they want to say. However, the world is changing, whether or not the chinese people will buy it is another story. It is much difficult task for them to do rather than 20 years ago.I thank this person for his comments.I prefer not to use my name, because a single statement could be easily misunderstood. I am working on more detailed level of how we should promote understanding between the different cultures in this global village for the sake of human society. I do not like some selfish-motivated persons try to do the opposite: misleading people. The communist propaganda always has very clear goal to do their job to mislead people for their political purposes. (even though the purpose might change from time to time and we have seen how they draumatically change their definition of the comrade, the friend and the enemy, and even their ideology in the past). The propaganda has caused so many disasters around the world in the past many decades including the persecution of their own comrades and families as well. On the other hand, the American media is not really goal-oriented. In the past more than thirty years, the American media sometimes actually beautified the Chinese communist society a lot, and the Chinese gorvenment and these "intellectuals" never complained about this.
Just a story, not a joke: Some communists had persecuted many people for listening to the VOA before the cultural revolution. However, when they had political troubles themselves during the cultural revolution, they turned to be the loyal listeners of the VOA. I think that it is better that there is some demonization of China, therefore, people including the communists (remember that they are also human being and change their own views from time to time) would have chance to to see the whole image of China. How the communists view the outside world may actually help them to rethink their own country and system.
Your comments are encouraged
