Look at China through a clear lens

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged foreign journalists not to use “beauty cams” or apply “gray filters” to their cameras when reporting on China, while hosting a news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, on Sunday.

Admittedly, foreign media outlets, including those from developed countries, have played an important role in promoting mutual understanding between China and the world. But the independence and objectivity of some of the Western media outlets have recently been called into question by their false reporting on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Hong Kong and the novel coronavirus.

The bias in the reporting on China by some Western media outlets has become increasingly apparent as elements in Western countries, fearful of displacements in the global order because of China’s rise, seek to demolish the country’s trustworthiness as a values-sharing member of the international community. They present the image of China that they want to portray, not the reality.

That being said, they are not just muckrakers in pursuit of their own gains, but accomplices in the capital scheme to contain China’s rise. As with their said-with-certainty reporting on the weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraq, a fabricated justification for the blood-for-oil invasion of a sovereign country two decades ago, they are in thrall to the West’s power brokers.

Even those media outlets content to be bystanders unwittingly support the fabrications of their unscrupulous peers, as rather than discover the truth for themselves they are content to accept whatever matches their preconceived notions of the country.

Wang said China welcomed more foreign journalists like Edgar Snow, who while not a communist himself stayed objective and stood by justice and conscience when reporting on China, demonstrating the country’s confidence that as long as foreign reporters adhere to their professional ethics, they can produce truthful stories that will withstand the scrutiny of history.

The development achievement made by China since reform and opening-up was initiated in the late 1970s, and the great contributions it has made to the welfare of the world in the process, have bankrupted the forecasts of generations of China doomsayers claiming the collapse of the country was nigh. Only those prepared to see and impart the reality of China have been able to convey a truthful message and have contributed to mutual understanding. It is their reports that stand on the right side of history.