Talk to owners there are we ers is the government not taking the necessary action to really address some of the structural issues we listen i still think that travel is the safest mode of travel and to spend that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on the phone to 0. Credit ministration officials should they get blamed for that. On. Every college of science thinking. It. Could be if the theory or belief that. Virus originated. Hello im richard is britain youre watching a special edition of the listening post coded 90 as the worlds 2 most powerful countries the usa and china staring each other down so far its been a war of words and soundbites a blame game over the origins of the pandemic and each sides response to it conducted mostly through the news. The chinese and American Media industries are ideological opposites one operates under the watch of communist party censors the other under a capitalist free market dominated by a handful of mega conglomerates but news outlets in both countries have found their own ways to bolster the talking points of their respective governments later in this program well hear from a chinese news anchor on the role of journalism in this soft power conflict but 1st the listening posts. On how the pandemic has been covered on each side of the sino American News to. Tell you. That were going to make. A chinese doctor who had been scolded in his own country for sounding an Early Warning about coronavirus has done. In the media ecosystems of the United States and china a ward of competing called it 1980 s. Is underway stories of the pandemic have taken on radically different meanings few more saw than the case of dr lee when young. Lets start with the facts on december 30th 2019 when young a doctor who hunts Central Hospital mourned a group of his colleagues on be checked the messaging up about an outbreak of a strange pneumonia like lidice screenshots of these messages soon leaked out of the chat group onto the open internet and on january 3rd local Police Called him in for questioning they got him to sign a confession admitting to making quote false comments. And when lee died one month later from the very vidas he had been warning of. Had a problem on its hands. Hours in the harm throughout that period. And then. To live through that and see how people responded proscar it was through the extraordinary there was tremendous or auction of emotion and feeling and sympathy. In your display attracted the attention of domestic commercial us media all the authority there realize that not only the police made a huge mistake reprimanding here and also there is the danger that he will be out with them become a martyr. Chinas state media did not shy away from the martyr label the needed their own shifting the narrative from criticism of beijing to unities for dr lee that sickly either then come in there trying to trade or sad to hear. The us media tell it he was the heroic whistleblower who defied an authoritarian communist government and his story fit tightly into an emerging wider narrative of a chinese covered up of action had been taken when he and others started shouting along the way or the outbreak might have been understood sooner. Its attempting clearly the truth however is more complicated several days before even leon had alerted his colleagues another woo 100 doctors. Was sounding the alarm via official state approved channels. Who warnings went up the chain she was not reprimanded and on december 31st 4 days before dr g. Signed his confession china alerted the World Health Organization to a dangerous unknown vitus within 24 hours of that the United States government was also informed me to you argue that in reporting on chinas handling of the cone of itis u. S. News outlets have taken a selective approach on beach facts and which stories matter can you talk about that in the context of the cases of these 2 doctors. These 2 stories side by side story 2 things happening in china. And whats stunning is that the western media ignores doctors errors in their own believes because its a reprimand and reprimand. The virus grow a pandemic because chinese official silenced Health Authorities in that country who tried to warn the public about the reverend model of not delete the place on the 3rd of january the World Health Organization was in on the 31st of december 2007 very curious pressure when somebody is reprimanded be awarded all the international body. Journalists do have good reason to be suspicious of the chinese authorities in 2003 china initially covered. Up the sars epidemic so there was a track record there uncovered 19 a number of american outlets have reported on feelings at Different Levels of the chinese bureaucracy. As the widest spread a consensus emerged voices from American News studios and opinion pages seeing that the communist at targeted in system was a root cause of this pandemic. Reporters closer to the story though there was more to it chris youve worked as a journalist in china for more than 2 decades you put in chinas covert 900 points for the New York Times what do you make of this notion of a systematic cover up orchestrated by beijing. Well its one of. Which you look at the evidence is actually much more complex process the way the evidence suggests. There were problems of communication within the Chinese Government i think its probably true that Health Officials in beijing were trying to figure out just how contagious this was so no words i dont think from the very beginning the central leadership in beijing follows what was happening. Has. Been the Chinese Government did panic when this unfamiliar virus was 1st discovered they didnt have a solid plan however they soon realized how dangerous it was and quickly change strategy seoul just 20 days after decoding the virus the government decisively put upon a city with a population of more than 10000000 people on the lockdown im not sure any western government could have acted with such resolute force of either being what would your one be. In the initial stages of the outbreak early january there was a brief burst of critical journalism in china. But as beijing went into crisis mode that windows closed on february the 4th chinas Central Propaganda Department did something few governments could put off. Guard. This sent hundreds of reporters into han to cover the governments response chinese political system the media very much kind of mediating between the population and the government in the sense that the media should be the mouthpiece of the government propagating policy to the public so we dont jump to. The assumption is that in a marxist leninist state the media should educate themselves constantly by going to the public to understand what are the issues of the common population so that the media can also reflect to those who are in power change the head and often jazz which is other countries as dangerous as night as well by burns as. Someone. On the battle. For it have especially focused on the us. Senior government officials. And really i believe that only. The deterioration in bilateral relations on the u. S. Side. Because we cant continue to allow china to rape our country and thats what theyre doing hostility towards china has been running theme of Donald Trumps presidency and as the by. Began to rip through the United States trump went on the offensive with an incendiary allegation that covered 1000 who did originate in the border will hunt. You see anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that the institute of parole was the origin of. Evidence to support that claim which numerous experts have dismissed the however lies not with the president but with the press in need genuity the Washington Times an ultra conservative fringe paper published this dubious article. The story was mostly ignored and 2 months later the times i did it editorial note saying that scientists saw no signs that the vitus had been manufactured in a lab and yet 3 weeks after that the lab went mainstream in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on april 14th columnist josh rogin reported on a diplomatic cable in which american officials in beijing expressed concerns about safety at the lab. Of appropriately trained technicians for example. Who talked up the leaks purity and from there it spread but there is a growing belief that the covert 19 virus originated in the. U. S. Intelligence officials tell c. N. N. On black the article by joshua in the Washington Post was a pretty traditional leak. Verified are. Able. To fish and visit that. Resulted in security. That. Always belong in the public space. What were talking about is. Into which that article landed you gotta understand the u. S. Government has it all in just. Under pressure or might is searching for a certain angle. When the respectable press starts to report a story thats actually a story reserved in mainstream then you have. The right. Number and has a history of infecting the world and they have a history of running substandard laboratories it is in danger of becoming a general consensus. The absence of evidence on the ruhani Lab Leak Theory has led some u. S. News outlets to push back against it including the Washington Post itself but the notion seems to have taken root. According to a point conducted in me for the economist magazine 49 percent of americans believe the vitus probably or definitely originated in a chinese new body. Then there is the fallout of this beauty in china itself. Will be a 1000. 00 make one. In china people have heard these upsurge accusations from the us and we think it is simply their way of shifting the blame for their disastrous handling of the epidemic onto us from the start this is being a one sided unjustified verbal onslaught stop we should stop this meaningless war of words immediately and tried to do politicize the global fight against coffee at 19 this state of constantly accusing one another 20. Chinese media clearly didnt get that memo state news outlets have echoed government officials by insinuating that the vitus originated not in china but in the United States they both are trying to avoid it you need to show. If i want you should we dont want but should you quit your career there seem to be also an interesting change of. Style in terms of double carrier is a language used by the state media to want to hire you we would all shop were going to generate would you couldnt we be sure if you are sumptuous to be sure its all your department or should or should totally unsuited to fight it in a way this is reaching a new level in terms of the assertiveness. In the kind of language being used to. Get accusations from the u. S. Chinas rise economically technologically in the Asia Pacific Region and beyond has presented the United States with a potential rival on the world stage for the 1st time since the fall of the soviet union a growing information divide is just one sign of a new cold war unfolding journalists have been caught in the crossfire chinese out hits in the United States have been made to register as agents of their government while american reporters in china have been expelled but perhaps most significant is the growing schism between ordinary chinese and americans. Surveyed taken in april found that 77 percent of americans believe in china for the pandemic and more than half think beaching should be reparations as the headlines get more strident in the country or the media commentary more aggressive and as politicians on both sides see increasingly useful enemies in one another the risk of a confrontation between 2 nuclear heavyweights grows. Its extremely dangerous to reason one mr drum. Do of them have been. Ramping up their rhetoric and i think its very dangerous on the one side secondly the United States is brought in enormous amount of military hardware into the region and this just in the hypersonic Cruise Missile which can strike anywhere in the planet in under an hour you know not somebody who says you know next run around. And United States gregory and being infrastructure war that its created could lead to a flashpoint that very much here that i do think there is a risk that this period of intense emotional distrust between the 2 countries can crystallize into something more enduring. And thats. Both societies both countries both governments in a sense both Media Communities will have to address. When they jane wants to take its message to the world it has a state funded in english Language Television news channel at its disposal c g t N Broadcasting in more than 100 countries reaching 13000000 homes in the u. S. Alone c. J. D. And stated aim is to bring the chinese perspective to global news but going global means that your journalism become subject to various local rules and regulations and early last year the American Government compelled c. G. To register as a Foreign Agent in the us were going to get the c. G. T. N. Side of the story now from the so you way he actors the networks flagship talk show dialogue so its based in beijing but he brings an interesting perspective to the coronavirus story he cut his teeth as a reporter working for will haunt t. V. In his current job hes been known to take the foreign media to task for their coverage of china. Sober up call that 19 respects no National Mourners no social mounds no political systems and no cultural values. Justice are extreme and aggressive these are the words used to describe chinas response. Now i have come to terms with the new norm. Desperate times. Measures. Desperate to. Politics. Now. Mr zorra we just watched a c g t n a video that you fronted in march on chinas response to cope with 19 in that video you said that we should not put politics ahead of Public Health what was your intention in producing that piece well the intention was as you said to portray chinas response to a covert 19 and i had an opinion that this issue as being too much politicized and the politicization of a health issue a Global Health issue was not helpful for all human beings thats why i want to explain what i think of chinas experience why that china did the way it did and maybe the rest of the world should listen to what china has been doing from the perspective of the chinese coming from one. C. G. T. And as a state funded news network not unlike voice of america or r. T. From russia or indeed our network aljazeera which is owned by the government of qatar but your Mission Statement which says explicitly that your aim is to bring a chinese perspective to global news at aljazeera were not out to bring a qatari perspective to global news so tell me what should viewers take from that description. I dont believe chinese perspective is among the electric thing of course every journalistic institutions as is own philosophy we are johnnies media of course many of our journalists are from china and they have their own. Philosophical historical cultural backgrounds thats thats unavoidable we still do journalism roughly the same to tell the truth to the world of course probably sometimes it doesnt sound and look exactly the same but in the core journalism practiced by chinese journalists or british or american or. Are basically the same because c. G. T. N. Is an International News Network Since your launch in 2016 youve been running into problems with certain overseas regulators britain for instance off call the media watchdog there has criticized c. G. Coverage of the protest movement in hong kong saying it broke its rules of impartiality so what would you say to a regulator like about that decision. Well we have to a baby the regulations and laws in Different Countries if you want to be an International Broadcaster that is. Based baseline for every broadcaster a guess but i dont think of columns the solution is 100 percent fair and is a newcomer to the International Broadcasting business there is a learning curve obviously i think. Is that arning to operate their businesses in Different Countries and different legal environments c. T. M. Seems to be spending more time than ever these days countering western media narratives of human rights abuses in china for instance the mass incarceration of muslims in the province of singeing tell me specifically what was it about that reporting that you take issue with. I cannot say. Western media in a broad stroke but some of them did portray the problem or the hong kong problem. I think it into biased or. Too narrow a lens they see everything in china happening. Through their lens of their judgement which is that. Story is an incarceration of muslims the people here in china see what is happening. As efforts to contain terrorism from happening and bring it cannot make stability and prosperity to the people yes freedom were restricted and they were sent to training schools. They were not incarcerated in the legal sense. And things of being blown out of proportion by some western media it is being skewed and distorted in a way that the chinese didnt think it is a fair treatment of the issue but how is it skewing the coverage when the evidence that those reporters used to him from official Chinese Government documents mr joe that speak of and im quoting now cleansing peoples brains of religious thoughts how do you skew Something Like that thats why the problem is you think it is the cleansing of minds of millions of people where here we say it is basically education or messaging i think those muslims who are sent to the training schools are inclined to be extreme and they need to listen to the other side of the argument and what is that is what is happening in those Training Centers of course you can have arguments over all those kind of issues what i really think it is not fair is that western media believe they are morally superior they are systematically better than the chinese version so. The chinese maybe sometimes feel theyre a lecturing home all the time which is shouldnt be the approach we offer communicating you broke into this business in the mid 1990 s. Then went to see g t n in 2003 and as you well know that was a different time for chinese journalism the country was experimenting with a greater freedom of the press but those freedoms were then rolled back post 2008 after the beijing olympics were over and then president c. Jinping made it official didnt he when he said the chinese journalists their job was to reflect the interests of the communist party so tell me is the journalism that youre currently practicing what you would hope to be doing when you entered this field in the mid ninetys and then went to see. First of all im a pragmatist im always trying to do the best in the context so like any country or any culture it is evolving all the time i dont believe i should be judge mental on where we are but we should be adaptive and also learn to make the best out of the situation we are now in but i believe china like the rest of the world is moving ahead i will keep a close watch and do my best to tell the story as it is as i understand it 0 you way of c g t n thanks very much for speaking with us today thank you richard. This under cleared media war between china and the us is not really a fair fight because for every c. G. T. N. Theres a fox news a c. N. N. And m. S. N. B. C. For every chinese paper like the global times the u. S. Has a New York Times Washington Post a wall street journal the other thing to consider is for all of the flaws in contemporary american journalism it does have a reputation for independent reporting the chinas censor journalists lack what the covert 19 story needs is more on the science less of the binary blame game on both sides because when Nuclear Powers are at odds there are implications for us all youve been watching a special edition of our program on the sino American News divide well see you next time here at the listening post. Im allowed when often. Raised in a chinese buddhist often a. Face east a memento slight decision. A personal story of competing identities. The chad light on cultural tykes. Down in africa a witness documentary on aljazeera. Play an important role. I dont know how with the top stories here on aljazeera and 1st u. S. President donald trump has signed legislation to put sanctions on china of the National Security law it imposed on hong kong they also signed an executive order ending hong kongs preferential treatment in response beijing says it will impose sanctions on american individuals and entities or trump also praised the u. K. Ban on huawei the chinese tech giant will not be allowed to develop a new high speed mobile net
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