Recently, wading knee deep into the piles of Expat China Blog articles with typical anti-China titles, I came across this rather ridiculous one:
http://foarp.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-insanity-at-heart-of-chinese.html, regarding a “insane plan for conquering most of Asia published as an editorial in the Chinese Communist Party’s Hong Kong-based media outlet Wen Wei Po”.
It is worth noting the kind of typical behavior of shallow smear journalism and base intellectual dishonesty in many typical Expat Blogs.
This was the article linked on Wen Wei Po: http://info.wenweipo.com/index.php?action-viewnews-itemid-62404
First, it was not an “editorial”. It was a blog RE-post on the blog section of Wen Wei Po. There is nothing “editorial” about it. Right under the title, it was stated, “來源： 中新網 發佈者：李秋悅.” (Source： 中新網 poster：李秋悅). One can also see from the “info.wenweipo.com” address that it was not the actual Wen Wei Po Publication. The “info” section also contains, numerous posts on get rich quick schemes and sex tips (in case you still think that might the CCP’s official media position).
Here is the actual Wen Wei Po publication, for July 8, 2013. http://paper.wenweipo.com/2013/07/08/GJ1307080001.htm. (NOTE the “paper.wenweipo.com/” web address). I flipped through it, that “editorial” is not anywhere in the publication.
Second, if you click on “來源： 中新網“, you find out immediately that it was RE-posted from a BBS: http://bbs.chinanews.com/web/mil/65/2013/0705/68242_6.shtml, posted from this guy (http://bbs.chinanews.com/space-uid-500143.html), who has an unverified account “Perfee”. For all we know, it’s some Expat who wrote this and put it up on the BBS.
*And there were many Chinese blog comments on the BBS ridiculing the post, not surprisingly.
So, yeah, it was a silly post, written by some anonymous armchair general, in a BBS section called ” 网上谈兵“. (Big clue there).
And apparently, that got some Expats hot and bothered.
One wonder who was the sillier one. The one who went through all the trouble to write a silly piece like that, or the ones who went through all the trouble to find it, and turn it into a “nationalist” “editorial”.
Mister Unknown says
This seems to be a pretty common practice amongst not only wannabe “journalists” within the expat- blogger community, but also from real western journalists. They take piecemeal commentary from a few netizens and represent it as if it were the popular, majority opinion, especially if the discourse in question can be construed as anti-government complaints.
The most ridiculous of such attempts I’ve seen to date came shortly after the PLAN publically launched the J-15 carrier-based fighter from the Liaoning. A bunch of memes/music videos appeared online from enthusiasts who were clearly proud of the PLAN’s advance toward blue-water naval aviation. Yet I’ve seen commentary that actually suggests that these enthusiasts were mocking/belittling the achievement through those memes.
The bottom line is, China has more people online than the entire population of the EU, and the variety and sheer quantity of opinions, weibo messages, & blogs can make it so that you can gather enough volume of opinions to make it appear as if any fringe idea is “mainstream”. Whenever an article tries to justify an opinion it’s trying to push through quoting weibo messages, I automatically become skeptical. Hell, you can get on YouTube on anytime of day, and gather enough comments to suggest that America has already become a fascist police state.
pug_ster says
Not surprised, FOARP is always talking out of his ass anyways.
TheMakerzBiz says
Thanks for providing the background that was sorely missing from the original blog post, Black Phoenix. What shoddy work on the part of the original poster, probably a lame attempt to garner hits on the blog!
Haha @ Mister Unknown. There definitely is enough content on the internet to make any opinion seem “mainstream” — e.g., the USA as a police state, or all Chinese mock their government. It’s a shame when statistical techniques that measure a population and allow inferences to be made are not employed by “journalists”, who proceed to make bold claims.
ho hon says
@TheMakerzBiz
🙂 In this big data era, a new class of professionals emerge called “statisticians”. Why don’t we call them “digital magicians”.
N.M.Cheung says
One interesting thing when Western media refers to China is that China is expansionist and warlike when it is farthest thing from truth. The reality is West and the internal logic of Capitalism makes war much a natural extension. I don’t need to list endless wars of colonialism and manifest destiny of U.S. or the over 130 countries where U.S. has military presence and bases. Here I just want to examine the historical record of China.
Since Qin Dynasty China has been building walls to ward off invasion by the Huns from the North. There were periodic peasant uprisings when natural disasters and court corruptions cause wars to erupt, breakup of dynasties and reunifications. In 15th century Japanese pirates troubled the coastal areas, and of course the opium wars when Britain forced opium on China under the guise of free trade. Chinese philosophies, Confucius, Daoism, and Buddhism are all peaceful and internal in nature, even Sun Tze’s “Art of War” as stated by others here are defensive in nature.
Since the founding of People’s Republic of China, China has not been aggressive toward her neighbors. Korean War was a defensive move on her border, and within a few years of armistice China withdrawal all soldiers from Korea while U.S. still has sizeable number of troops there. China didn’t try to intervene in communist insurgencies in Southeast Asia despite supposed Marxist international solidarity. The border war with India in ’59 resulted India’s defeat, yet Chins after the victory withdraw back to the line of control previously. There was a brief border war with Soviet Union over an island, and they signed treaty later on finalize the border. There was a border war with Vietnam with the triggering event due to expelling of ethnic Chinese. China has unresolved border issue only with India and those South China sea islands and with Japan on Diayu Islands. The issue with India would be easy to solve if India can swallow her pride and give up those in Kashmir in exchange for gains in southern Tibet. India would gain more fertile areas and given up smaller icy area. South China islands can also be resolved by join explorations of energy resources. Diayu Islands were postponed for future peaceful resolve when Japan by forcing the issue by Ishakawa on trying to purchase them. China is a large country and would defer and frozen those historical issues when she has the historical facts in her favor.
TheMakerzBiz says
@ho hon
Ha, “digital magicians”. I like that!
Ray says
@N.M.Cheung
The border war between India and China happened in 1962.