Have you ever noticed a common clause added to the end of every report about the impact of economic slowdown on China?
Something like "increasing the risk of widespread unrest in China" in most western media and consequently 红毛 Ang-Moh's discussion forums.
I have been to China's countryside (Anhui, Yunnan, etc.) several times lately. There is a big gap between the city rich and the rural poor, yes. But life in Chinese countryside went on as usual. Unskilled labours who lost their factory jobs moved back to their rural homes but that doesn't seem to bother them much as long as their farmland is still there.
That is also true in Thailand now. People who lost their jobs just move back to plow their land. Laid off workers took to the street but there have been no bloody violence related to the massive lay-offs and most protests ended in a very short period of time after negotiation between the owners and the employees.
Farmland works as another form of "social security" in developing economies.
I think the West either lack genuine understanding about East Asia or have displayed their real desire to see the Orient, which has the potential to compete for resources in the future, falling apart.
It kinda makes them feel good to hear the less developed countries suffering.
I mean, it's hardly been a century that they were here the only ones wearing fancy clothes, employing our ancestors and enlightening the indigenous savages.
Originally posted by Stevenson101:It kinda makes them feel good to hear the less developed countries suffering.
I mean, it's hardly been a century that they were here the only ones wearing fancy clothes, employing our ancestors and enlightening the indigenous savages.
who is the savage? when the oriental is booming, the westerner is still barbaric, don't be down about yourself
Originally posted by rokkie:
who is the savage? when the oriental is booming, the westerner is still barbaric, don't be down about yourself
Heh trying to be sarcastic. I'm just saying what i think they're probably thinking.
But yes, i agree the recordwise i think the oriental was actually doing better overall than the West.
if you happen to study history, the Roman inherit from Greek, Britain inherit from Roman, US inherit from britain,
And when the Greek is ruling, iran and iraq still united as Babylon, there are many civilisation, greater or equally great as west.
this is from an angmoh newspaper.. so you probably will say it doesn't count
Originally posted by the Bear:this is from an angmoh newspaper.. so you probably will say it doesn't count
Yeah, I was exactly talking about this news.
Similar protests happen in Thailand too. You are probably not aware of them because Thailand is too small a target. But China is a big, sweet one. The articles are mostly written in a way that it is happening at every single corner of the country and as if the people are turning against the government.
And Times Online is the same newspaper, which quoted only part of a speech given by Thai Foreign Minister that the demonstration, which he also joined, was fun. In fact, it purposely left out the whole context. The story was twisted. So far there has been no apology from the writer.
ease, there is no unrest in china, people still do what they should do.Making money, working. the guangdong part, is affected relatively bigger, they mainly depend on export, the export is shrinking, many factory shut down, the worker laid off, then we go back to farm land, let's why china by all means reserve a sufficient scale of farm land, to accomodate the jobless worker, when economy turns down.
Originally posted by the Bear:this is from an angmoh newspaper.. so you probably will say it doesn't count
Won't say wouldn't care lah.
But it's no longer fashionable to tell outright lies, the trend is to take the portion of the truth they want to present and spam it so often that it becomes the whole and only truth that matters. Our media has often been accused of doing so no?
If our press and media can do this, there no reasons for me to doubt it would be done by the Western media, the Iraq war and the recent Israel/Palestinian conflict has already been more than adequate in demostrating this.
The Western world has already been shamed by the recent financial crisis, their vaulted ideals of Democracy and Free market Capitalism has shown its flaws. Thus they are eager to show their people the "mess" that is in the inferior, no freedom and authoritian societies.
Western media outlets better report fairly and don't spread biased propaganda like they did on Tibet and Georgian war.
All sorts of lies and false propaganda from western media.
Vladimir Putin: You know, your question doesn't surprise me. What really surprises me is how powerful the propaganda machine of the so-called "West" is. This is just amazing. This is unbelievable. This is totally incredible. And yet, it's happening.
Perharps the underlying problems was the inaction of the Chinese Govt fail to transfer its large foreign income into the public and private sectors......And the disguise of these reports simply reflect not the issue of social unrest but the failure of the system of income redistribution within China that trigger pocket of unrest within China.
The Western media do not report what is known to public. It provide voice for minority so that it balance out the individual with the large institution. And their voice be heard.
If you can only swim at the superficial level so be it.
Cos the west got people like John Mearsheimer that promote suscpicion towards China, that it is a rising hegemon with intent of challenging the US.
they are trying to divert attention away from their own problems.
its nothing new.
Originally posted by Shotgun:Cos the west got people like John Mearsheimer that promote suscpicion towards China, that it is a rising hegemon with intent of challenging the US.
I never quite understand this mentality. I mean to my knowledge, the US has never been invaded by other countries since the burning of Washington in 1814, even then it was in retaliation for the invasion of Canada. Unless you want to count Pancho Villa even though it was more of a raid than an actual war.
Yet somehow, they're so paranoid about the loss of dominance that it seems to defy all reasoning.
Originally posted by Arapahoe:
The Western media do not report what is known to public. It provide voice for minority so that it balance out the individual with the large institution. And their voice be heard.
If you can only swim at the superficial level so be it.
Good point! However, I am not sure that is the case. We Thais, despite overwhelmingly under western influence, have begun to be very skeptical of such traditional notion since the coup of Sep 19.
I am sure all of you usually watch CNN and BBC or read The Economist to follow the recent political crisis in Thailand. The people, who called themselves PAD, dubbed the Yellow Shirt People, took to the street protesting against the attempt by the Pro-Thaksin Proxy Government to amend anti-corruption clauses in the Thai Constitutions. The Pro-Thaksin people's ultimate goal of amending the law was to abolish the court's power to punish corrupt politicians, including the exiled Thaksin. These western media still held an old belief that Thaksin was an elected PM, handed out money to the poor and was later toppled by a coup but (purposely) ignored the fact that he has an appalling record of human right abuses.
- Some 1,000 of innocent Thais have died in extrajudicial killings in his War On Drug Campaign 5 years ago.
- A businessman was gun down in northern Thailand 6 years ago after he demonstrated that Thaksin dodged tax payment worth billions of Baht in the past.
- One Muslim lawyer mysteriously disappeared after he attempted to uncover who commanded the mass killing of some 200 Thai Muslims in southern Thailand. His body has not been found until now.
Have you ever heard of these things in western media?
I am not done yet....
Last year, while Thailand was under the rule of Pro-Thaksin government, a large number of Yellow Shirt Protesters were hit, injured, amputated and killed with several bomb attacks.

And I don't want to show the following picture of a man with his both feet cut off and bleeding so bad because it may be obscene to you. The other man was bleeding after a rocket grenade was fired into the protest site.
http://pad.vfly.net/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/bomb_november_20.9mwsoep1kc8w00g0ow0s8w4k8.5e0bh3gigosg800ccgc4sk4kg.th.jpeg
*****You may find this video clip too offending.
http://video.sanook.com/%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%98%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3_%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%94_%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%86!!!!-386769-player.html
Have you ever heard of or watched these things in western media?
Instead, western media called them "Royalist Thugs", "Elite", "Anti-Democratic", etc or only reported "they occupied the Airports."
And these have been totally absent from their reports. These ones show Pro-Thaksin (The Red Shirt People).
A 60-year old radio host in Chiangmai was gunned down in front of hundreds of people for he was against the Pro-Thaksin government. Normally, western media either did not report at all or showed only peaceful scenes of these people.
http://stream.ch7.com/News/Thai/2_29369_02_01_26112008194008.wmv
Have you ever heard of or watched these things in western media?
***Are western media the voice of minority?***
Well that certainly is interesting news we don't hear everyday.
Thanks for sharing.
I had been a big fan of western media and believed that they represent the voice of minority, democracy, freedom, and our Asian counterparts are inferior.
But no longer.....
I used to believe in popular theory of China's collapse because I had only been exposed to western media. Once I had the opportunity to travel, roam and spend an amount of time staying in the peasants' shacks in some of China's poorest areas, they are eye-opening experiences for me and my view towards the West began to change.
Originally posted by tai gok nang:I had been a big fan of western media and believed that they represent the voice of minority, democracy, freedom, and our Asian counterparts are inferior.
But no longer.....
I used to believe in popular theory of China's collapse because I had only been exposed to western media. Once I had the opportunity to travel, roam and spend an amount of time staying in the peasants' shacks in some of China's poorest areas, they are eye-opening experiences for me and my view towards the West began to change.
I'm surprised though, i thought Thaksin's policies were quite nationalistic and anti West so i expected the Western media to be quite eager to point out the ills of the Thaksin government.
I had been a big fan of western media and believed that they represent the voice of minority, democracy, freedom, and our Asian counterparts are inferior.
That was naive of you to go and believe in western propaganda.
I regard most western media outlets as filth.
Some naive and gulliable people would be fooled by what they read in western mainstream propaganda media.
Originally posted by Arapahoe:Perharps the underlying problems was the inaction of the Chinese Govt fail to transfer its large foreign income into the public and private sectors......And the disguise of these reports simply reflect not the issue of social unrest but the failure of the system of income redistribution within China that trigger pocket of unrest within China.
The Western media do not report what is known to public. It provide voice for minority so that it balance out the individual with the large institution. And their voice be heard.
If you can only swim at the superficial level so be it.
the angmo can't wait to see China having unrest everywhere, they are hoping that eventually China would break up into small countries, like the old USSR. Old story liao.
Are wealth in the USA well distributed? if all Chinese can borrow from the US banks and don't have to pay, and wait for the government to pay billions to bail the banks out, there would not be any problem. What the Chinese government have done over the last 20 years to create and distribute wealth is well recognised. A chaotic China is no go Asia and even the world.
The western media reports issues that serve their purpose, minority or majority, no difference from the Apples Daily.
There are much more to be done in China, but China is so big and populous and it will take time for things to be done.
if you think too deep into everything, you may think you would drawn when the big boys pi.
That is because most of you are holding conspiracy theories as your basis of your critics. And that the West is out to Tarnish China image so as not to challenge western dominant. The kind of suspicion carries on after the colonial history. So Ah Pek pick some lowlife media to post on the net.
But none seemed to interested in understanding the roots of Western media…..
This is a more main stream news in the U.S. (can’t speak for European) and objectives insight so just read…….Read on and tell me where are the bias
NPR.org, December 8, 2008 · Amid all the coverage of the U.S.-China economic relationship and the global financial crisis, a fair amount of copy is taken up by conspiracy theories and misconceptions.
U.S. media reports sketch opposing images of China as "white knight," rushing to the world's rescue with its $2 trillion in reserves — which, actually, are already invested and not available for use in bailing anybody out — or a "black hand," using its huge holdings of U.S. government debt to choke us into submission. In China, tabloid reports have convinced many nationalistic readers that the financial crisis can only be a U.S.-orchestrated plot to derail China's economy and international ascent.
This economic myth-mongering unfortunately obscures important shifts occurring in the global economy in which the U.S. and China are playing leading roles.
One of the more compelling arguments on this issue comes from Beijing University finance professor Michael Pettis, who warns that we may be on the verge of a powerful backlash against globalization and free trade. He says that it's just another stage of a global monetary cycle that has repeated itself a half-dozen times in the past couple of centuries.
In each of these cycles, international trade and investment flows grow, rich countries' stock and real estate markets boom, and new technologies find widespread commercial applications. With financial markets awash in money, interest rates come down, and investors and lenders make increasingly risky loans and investments in search of higher yields. Chief among such investments are new technologies and emerging markets. The technical term for this flood of money is a liquidity expansion.
The other, darker side of this cycle is liquidity contraction, which is what can be seen now. Historically, the aftermath of such busts often includes social unrest, political populism and radicalism, trade protectionism and a general process of turning inward.
No wonder, then, that China's leaders are very worried about the possibility of an economic meltdown threatening their grip on political power. This is why they have temporarily shelved their long-term concern about moving China's industries up the value chain — and have instead begun propping up exporters by devaluing the yuan, deciding to increase tax export rebates, and in some places halting increases in the minimum wage. All of these measures promise to make the transition to more value-added industries a slower and more painful one.
So far, most of the bankruptcies and layoffs have been among the Pearl River Delta's Hong Kong and Taiwanese-invested factories, which export low-value-added products such as toys, shoes and textiles. These firms have slim profit margins and little in the way of proprietary technology or marketing know-how. Most of them sign contracts with foreign buyers to produce goods at fixed prices. When their labor and material costs go up, as they have with a vengeance over the past year, these firms have no way to pass on costs to consumers. Either the factories find ways to raise efficiency, cut production, or they fold.
In recent years, some of the labor-intensive factories have taken the Guangdong provincial government's advice and tried to move to inland provinces. While labor is cheaper and more plentiful than in Guangdong, exporters there say they face challenges in getting their finished products to the coast for shipping abroad. China's infrastructure is rapidly expanding inland, but it's still very much a work in progress.
China's goal of reducing its reliance on exports and its massive trade surplus with the U.S. is, of course, not just in the interest of the U.S. China's industrial labor force has gotten a very small share of the spoils of two decades of rapid economic growth, for which they take much of the credit. Their wages and standards of living have increased a lot slower than they ought to have.
China also needs to replace energy-wasting, heavily polluting factories with hi-tech and service businesses. And while U.S. households have to save more and spend less, Chinese families need to do the opposite. So every iPhone, patio furniture set and Barbie doll that China exports to America means one less of that product available for Chinese consumers to buy.
Originally posted by Arapahoe:That is because most of you are holding conspiracy theories as your basis of your critics. And that the West is out to Tarnish China image so as not to challenge western dominant. The kind of suspicion carries on after the colonial history. So Ah Pek pick some lowlife media to post on the net.
But none seemed to interested in understanding the roots of Western media…..
But consiracy theories are not necessarily an evil, are they? Often times, they turned out to be accurate.
Take U.S. invasion of Iraq as an example.
If you can recall the reporting tone of most "prominent" western media like CNN, BBC, and The Economist in those days, none of which were critical of the Bush administration's unusual lust for invading Iraq and his evidence of Saddam's WMD presented to the UN. Many critics tried to point out that this war was driven by "oil" but were hit back with allegation that it was a baseless conspiracy theory.
What really happened?
The allegation and dossiers that Iraq possessed WMDs and was capable to launch them on Europe within 45 minutes turned out to be scam. Moreover, as the dust settled, the conspiracy theory was no longer a theory. It's true. Alan Greenspan even said publicly about 2 years ago that the invasion of Iraq was motivated by "oil".
Have there been any apology coming out from those western media? NONE.
It is not suspicion that carries on after the colonial history. It is common sense because sometimes dots can be connected to tell the big picture of what is going on and what they probably have in mind.
Simple, the west fear the rise of china becoming the next superpower. Now America had no time enage with china as they are stuck up in middle east and own econamic recession.