China’s loutish media
The Chinese edition of the Global Times, the sister paper of China’s state-controlled People’s Daily, has given the media a bad name — acting as attack dog at its government’s bidding, throwing away any pretensions of neutrality and making the media there a collective lout. Being sly is also a major characteristic.
At issue is its editorial on Sept. 7, entitled “Korea won’t be safe with THAAD deployment.” THAAD is a U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery now in place in the South against the growing North Korean missile threat. China has opposed its deployment, citing absurd claims its radar is intrusive enough to spy on China’s interior when it has radar systems that are much more intrusive.
The paper said, “Korean conservatives have become stupid after eating too much kimchi.” It also said Korea would find itself to be a helpless victim in the U.S.-China confrontation, while giving unsolicited advice to Korean churchgoers and Buddhists to pray.
The paper parroted the government’s provocative and uncalled-for line and ignored the North’s threat that led to the deployment. These arguments warrant a reply, so we ask:
(1) Is eating too much pork and drinking too much tea making the Global Times editorial board dull enough to see only one side of a story? (2) Is the one-man dictatorship turning China into a monster that the international community will shun? (3) Should Taoists pray and Falun Gong march to Tiananmen Square?
The Global Times, as observers point out, is currying favor with its owner, the Communist Party, to get more subsidies, being an ugly duckling compared with the party’s flagship, the People’s Daily. If the Chinese mass media suck up to the state with the zeal of red guards protecting Mao Zedong, it can only help lead to unhappy episodes like the Cultural Revolution.
Finally, the paper tried to hoodwink readers when, in the face of protests from Seoul, it switched the headline to “2 questions Korea should answer” and reposted the contents with no changes. This shows that as well as being a state mouthpiece, the paper is deceitful.