Why some Western media wage 'asymmetric warfare' on China
+ - 17:42, April 16, 2008
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6393940.html
People's Daily Online Wednesday released an interview between Song
Luzheng (hereinafter will be Song) and his French boss Bastien, trying
to figure out why some Western media entities have long-held a biased,
even hostile attitude towards China; and why a few of them showed
blatant discrimination towards China and went out of their way to
slander China, as seen and heard following the Lhasa Riot and on the
global tour of the Beijing Olympic torch relay.
Song: What remains confusing to us Chinese, including the overseas
Chinese, is why the French government, as well as the people, are so
actively –overzealously – and desperately involved in attacks and
clampdowns on China. Some French media carried articles and editorials
with evident anti-China sentiment which can be detected by just
glancing at the titles: "Olympic flame suffered a disastrous defeat in
Paris," and "A slap to China." To my knowledge, the Chinese-French
relation****p remains sound and without any substantial conflict or
confrontation. China has never done anything to offend French
interests; and in particular, the two sides recently concluded a deal
with a bulky order worth over 20 billion euros. Why would France opt
to risk losing such a big and promising market like China?
Bastien: (pondering for a while) For human rights.
Song: Human rights? But why has the French government continuously
offered aid and even sent protective troops to those African countries
whose human rights records are even worse?
Bastien: You are quite right, but…
Song: Let's get down to Tibet. As a part of China's territory, Tibet
takes the lead in the country for tax exemptions; and is also exempt
from family planning restrictions. The per capita GDP in Tibet exceeds
10,000 yuan. Compared with parts of China's mainland, Tibet enjoys the
most preferential treatment as far as human rights are concerned. Why
won't the French authorities ****ft their attention to other matters
equally as im****tant as human rights; and why do they, instead, always
pin their focus on Tibet?
Bastien: It is still different because of the Dalai Lama.
Song: When you mention the Dalai Lama, I wonder how much you know
about Tibet.
Bastien: I don't know very much about it.
Song: Then how much knowledge do you have about the Lama Buddhism?
Bastien: I'm sorry, I don't know very much about it.
Song: It is unbelievable that your government can easily pick a side
to join that is opposed to China, when it remains ignorant of the
Dalai Lama and Tibet. The Dalai clique is a bloc mixing religion and
politics. Mixing religion with politics is forbidden in Western
Europe, including France; and it is considered illegal.
Bastien: I'm not quite sure about this, as nobody has told me about
this.
Song : But the Dalai Lama has kept very close ties with the Aum
****nrikyo ( Supreme Truth) cult.
Bastien: That's impossible.
Song: But it's a fact. The Dalai formed a tutor-pupil relation****p
with the Aum cult guru, Shoko Asahara; and even worse, he accepted a
100,000-dollar offer from the Aum cult. In return, he granted the cult
a certificate which gave the cult a religious status in Japan. It was
because of the Dalai Lama who persistently sup****ted and trumpeted
Shoko Asahara that the Aum cult could acquire "tax exemption"
privileges and ac***ulated funds to bankroll his cruel evil doing
against the Japanese people.
Bastien: (suspiciously) Did it really happen that way?
Song: You can find it on the Internet, and you can also find a group
of photos with the both of them.
Bastien (reticent)…
Song: Then do you know what the Tibetan social structure was like
before 1959, when the so-called "uprising" was foiled by the central
government?
Bastien: Democratic society, of course.
Song: (astonished) What? Democratic society! Come on, that was
serfdom! It is incredible how you French could call it democracy.
Bastien: What?
Song: Do you know why the Chinese were irate and outraged this time?
It is simply because your media fabricated news and made slanted
re****ting.
Bastien: (excited) Certainly impossible.
Song: The Chinese people both at home and abroad are still protesting
this. RTF even fabricated a story saying the Chinese Embassy
apologized to the French media.
Bastien: But was that true?
Song: It was crafted news. China's Foreign Ministry has straightened
it out at the weekly press conference, stating that no such apology
ever happened.
Bastien: Oh! I didn't know that.
Song: When the armed rebellion erupted in Tibet in 1959, the two
brothers of the Dalai Lama were both working for the US's CIA, as the
U.S then tried to cultivate Tibetan rebellious groups and airdropped
them into Tibet to launch and organize the riots.
Bastien: Are you sure about this?
Song: Yes, this is history.
Bastien: As far as I know, the Dalai Lama has all along been seeking
greater autonomy, not independence.
Song: But I wonder if you really know about the true nature of this
"autonomy." What is behind the "autonomy" he preaches are his unspoken
political ambitions: first, he attempts to smash the existing social
system in Tibet, and rebuild a Tibetan society by mixing religion and
politics. Second, he attempts to force the central government to pull
troops out of Tibet. And third, he attempts to establish the "greater
Tibet" which covers Tibet Autonomous Region and neighboring provinces
which have never belonged to Tibet; and making up a quarter of China's
territory. He even attempts to carry out "ethnic cleansing" by driving
the Han Chinese out of Tibet. Do you really believe Tibetans would
enjoy more human rights under the leader****p of such a political Lama?
Bastien: Why has the Chinese side never explained this to other
people?
Song: We have. The Chinese government, embassy and the overseas
scholars keep informing others of the truth. Unfortunately, you are
selectively blind to the facts and turn a deaf ear to the calls for
justice.
Song: There is still one thing I personally can't understand: why did
the French government sent such a hostile message to China this time?
You must have done this for a reason, right? For instance, France
strongly opposed to the U.S invasion of Iraq because of oil. More than
a decade ago, the French government finished a deal with Taiwan on
arms sales, which aroused great indignation from the Chinese and
poisoned relations between the two countries. But we all knew, even
then, it was driven by profit. But this time, for what? Who will want
to deal with such an unreliable and unpredictable friend in future?
Bastien: (silent) I really didn't know about this before.
As we continued talking, I suddenly realized that Bastien is a French
person with limited information and knowledge about Tibet and the
Dalai Lama and fed by the media's selective or even manipulative
re****ts. I can not help but think of a military term – asymmetric
warfare – which originally refers to war between two or more players
or groups whose relative military power differs significantly. But
today, "asymmetric warfare" can describe a conflict in which the
resources of two opposing sides differ; and during the struggle, each
side interacts and attempt to exploit each other's characteristic
weaknesses. Some biased foreign media is launching pseudo- asymmetric
warfare on China.
By People's Daily Online
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