Freedom of the Propaganda

I recently watched a segment on Aljazeera English’s show The Listening Post [youtube video] that left me feeling that they didn’t really understand the country they were reporting on. They seemed to have an overall tone that this was a tenuous good start to opening of the Chinese media, ignoring the entire underlying thrust of the Chinese government policy: fear.

The fear I’m talking about is the government’s fear of the people, particularly in recent years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the even more recent farmer protests all over rural China, which pose a greater threat to national security [read Party security] than the Tibetan protests, which posed an international PR kerfuffle more than a real threat to the government’s iron grip on power in that region. In order to maintain absolute dominance over the people of this most populous nation, the Communist government has become a master of manipulating the emotions of the Chinese people.

Thus, they rule through propaganda, the enemy of which is rationality. You are not meant to think when it comes to all things China or Chinese, you are only meant to feel and only rabid love at that. “Love” is not actually defined by how much you truly care or want to help the nation progress, rather, how loudly you shout and how many flags you wave. At my school, after the earthquake, one dorm has had six flags flying in and outside of their window as if the quantity of flags equates the depth of true love. By that standard, I should take my wife’s pictures and plaster all our walls with them . . . oh wait, that would make me a psychotic stalker. Thanks to the propaganda machine, the definition of patriotism has been replaced with that of nationalism; blind devotion: my country, right or right (there is no wrong)!

Reporters and pundits continually compare this quake and the government’s response to that of the 1976 Tangshan counterpart; yet, I contend that the country and culture has so fundamentally altered since then, that the comparison is really a comparison of the two periods entirely as opposed to comparing China to its more recent past. That was a time of Mao and strong ideological leanings, whereas now is well into the capitalistic economic Opening and Reform policy. Why not compare it to the torch relay or the Tibetan incidents? What I see when looking at the earthquake coverage, is an exact continuation of the recent Party line: governance through the propaganda of nationalism. Of course they are going to show 24/7 coverage of people’s grief and the great leaders doing their all to help them. Everyone I know who is Chinese, has cried multiple times over the past two weeks. Stories of heroism and nationalism fly around like Hollywood gossip. If this country had a religion, Wen Jiabao would already be sainted. With all due respect to those who have suffered in this truly great tragedy, this has been a PR miracle from heaven, so why would they stop that?

I think I can afford to be a little callous, because — quite frankly — the majority of the people of China, couldn’t care less about what is going on in the outside world. Death, disease, natural disasters, wars: these go on week after week, but at this moment in this country, it’s as if every other tragedy is insignificant compared to their idolized earthquake. Yes idolized. It has gone beyond grief and agony and has become a symbol to inspire yet more nationalism, stoked primarily by the media. Anyone not showing the appropriate amount of grief and not donating the appropriate amount of aid is metaphorically tarred and feathered in the one-Chinese psyche.

Take Korea as an example. It doesn’t matter that China is the world’s leader in on-hand foreign capital, they are still looking for handouts from small nations such as Korea, who — according to those around me — is not giving enough. Understanding how much money the government has would be a rational approach, and remember, rationality is a sin in this nation of propagandistic passionate flag waving.

In short, this is not a new era of openness, and in fact, it’s not even a new era full stop. The propaganda machine is running full tilt as it always has. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say that their is no hidden agenda to stoke people’s nationalism, but perhaps the media and the people in China are so entrenched with self-love that it can’t even recognize what it really is. Primarily, the foreign media have bought into that falsehood of being more open, hook, line and sinker.

Tags: bias, China, Communist Party, earthquake, Mao Zedong, media, nationalism, propaganda, Wen Jiabao