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Response to Becker
I read an interesting China bashing article by Reporter Jasper Becker (China: imperfect memory to global impunity http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/china_impunity_3847.jsp) the other day that was a mixture of fact; fiction (his own vituperative opinion); broad generalized references that could, really, be anything; one egregious mistake showing, perhaps, a limited knowledge of China; and a most ridiculous belief that makes the entire article no more than what it is (China bashing) rather than what it purports to be (journalism). I have no idea how much Mr. Becker knows about China or if he’s lived there for an extended period of time or if he visits on and off, though his bio notes he is a Beijing-based journalist and writer. Being a reporter, if Mr. Becker has always ever been an outsider: once as a foreigner; and twice as a reporter, for he will always be seen as suspicious, so that whatever he’s told becomes questionable, running the gamut from lies through truth to what it is he wants to hear. I wonder if he can tell an undercover security person from an average Joe citizen. I wonder whether he would cite The Tiananmen Square Papers in an article about Deng’s cynical political move to consolidate power in June 1989. After all, he calls the CCP (China Communist Party) the CPC, a mistake no one who knows China would make. Now, Mr. Becker’s tenet that China has a poor human rights record is true--and it’s gotten worse since Hu Jintao rose to power, a known conservative to all but the US, apparently, so it was expected here in China that he would curtail freedoms. That many are fighting against this repression is a sign of his being unacceptable as a leader--at least on the home front. That Hu was a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution may or may not be of any consequence, for no one I know of has a sparkling pure and bubbling clean past; though the reason Mr. Becker gives for Mao's great delusion is a little wanting. If his reason were right, then virtually all of China was Mao’s enemy. What an amazing heroic feat: surviving the hatred of hundreds of billions by getting rid of a few million regular old Chinese people, landlords, farmers and a handful of intellectuals (the people he really hated and believed were plotting against his college dropout self). I think the writings of Chalmers Johnson are more solidly based and reliable than Mr. Becker’s. I have no love for Mao but to maintain that the government propaganda about him is reprehensible compared to the implied US historical reporting (government propaganda, especially if one considers there is a history textbook cartel that okays what goes in HS textbooks) holds as much water as a bucket with a hole in it. Let's see. . .George Washington was a Colonel during the Revolutionary War; George Washington was an atheist, so he never prayed during his great military mistake (Valley Forge), where he also lived in a comfy and warm brick house while his soldiers froze to death; George Washington never crossed the Delaware River as he is pictured; George Washington would never have managed militarily if not for his two disabled commanders. And, oh yes, the US Civil War was not fought over slavery, though surely slavery was not a cynical political move by a racist President in order to retain power, right? But the true telling point for Mr. Becker's China bashing is his contention that because China does not pay attention to the US's demands that it (China) better its human rights record it (China) is a horrible, horrible place worthy of every scathing word and urban myth known to mankind. Oh, really? The US has a sparkling record of paying attention to and upholding human rights? From, say, the time of the second President through slavery to Guantanamo, Haiti, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile--oh, just tntc. Yes? May I indulge in a little cliché here? This is the kettle calling the pot black. Unless, of course, Mr. Becker and the US government want China to meet or surpass the US's exemplary record, especially in the present. China should improve its human rights record on moral grounds or in order to shame the US. As the CCP leaders possess no moral virtues or inclination, China should resort to the latter course of action, a cynical political paradox that might get Ambrose Bierce to crack a smile, wherever he is. So, Mr. Becker, I'd suggest the next time you buy a car it should be a station wagon, not another band wagon. And the editors should read their articles with a little more of an analytical rather than a cataract-milky eye. Recommend this article...
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