{"id":58191,"date":"2024-01-25T00:07:22","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T16:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/?p=58191"},"modified":"2024-01-25T12:22:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T04:22:28","slug":"furious-misreadings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/2024\/01\/25\/furious-misreadings\/","title":{"rendered":"Furious Misreadings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

State media have had a field day this month with the cover of the January 13 edition of The Economist<\/em>, \u201cChina\u2019s EV Onslaught,\u201d which depicted an in-bound meteor shower of China\u2019s latest electric cars, poised to strike the Earth. China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), state media, and their affiliates<\/a> on Twitter re-posted the image in quick succession as an example of the hypocrisy of how China is portrayed by Western media, comparing it to the magazine\u2019s cover from 2013, which painted China as poising the globe on Armageddon as \u201cThe World\u2019s Worst Polluter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is that no matter what China does \u2014 pollute or invest in green energy \u2014 Western media inevitably find a way to attack the country. \u201cThe self-contradicting reports reflect a consistent narrative,\u201d wrote<\/a> the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney\u2019s official account. \u201cChina is the bad guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not so fast.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Such posts entirely bypassed or omitted the content of the article<\/a>, which argued that although the West fears Chinese expansion into electric vehicles (now making them the world\u2019s largest car exporter<\/a>), it should in fact \u201cwelcome them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div>
China’s official Xinhua News Agency takes to X (Twitter) to criticize a recent cover of The Economist<\/em>, along with another much-hated cover from 2013. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The original tweet<\/a> pointing out the contrasting covers came two days before state media, and apparently from outside the state media machine \u2014 from Sun Sibei, a PhD candidate at Macau University. Sun has made previous<\/a> posts<\/a> contrasting Western media reports or positions from experts over time to suggest hypocrisy in their stance on China. Sun has also co-written a paper<\/a> on how Chinese diplomats use Twitter to push \u201cwell-structured narratives\u201d about the country abroad as a \u201cPR tool.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that although state media \u201ccopied\u201d his tweet, nonetheless<\/a> The Economist<\/em>\u2019s \u201csensible commentary is obscured by sensational cover art and headlines, which is what most people see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not the first time a sensational headline from international media has come across to the Chinese as biased, insulting, or racist. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leaving aside pointless arguments about whether this meteor shower was meant to look awesome, apocalyptic, or both, it\u2019s not the first time a sensational headline from international media has come across to the Chinese as biased, insulting, or racist. The Economist<\/em> came under fire<\/a> in June 2022 for a tweet from their official account that could be inferred to compare Chinese to pigs. A Wall Street Journal<\/em> op-ed title from 2020 calling China \u201cthe real sick man of Asia\u201d led to the first mass expulsion<\/a> of Western journalists from China since the Mao years, and a statement of \u201cregret\u201d<\/a> from the CEO of their parent company, Dow Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, whereas the above two examples became trending topics on the Chinese internet, this latest example has only been taken up by international accounts belonging to state media – the target audience is the West, not the supposedly insulted party. The tweets make no mention of what The Economist<\/em>\u2019s argument is, only the cover \u2014 resulting in the same oversimplification and hypocrisy Chinese state media accuses Western media of. This particular \u201cwell structured narrative\u201d is designed to form doubts as to whether a well-respected Western periodical truly \u201cunderstands China\u201d. In 2013, Xi Jinping urged<\/a> cadres to solve the problem of Western media \u201cbadmouthing\u201d China by painting it as a \u201cthreat,\u201d pointing out that \u201cmajor Western media controls world public opinion\u201d \u2014 correcting these myths in the international community will clear up \u201cmisunderstandings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, Western headline writers could walk more in step with the content of the articles on their platforms. But by judging a magazine by its cover, state media have only discredited a story that \u2014 had they quoted it instead \u2014 might have served the talking points of the Chinese government, arguing that Western countries, now gripped by fear of Chinese EV imports, should keep their markets open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How China\u2019s latest pique over the ills of \u201cWestern media,\u201d stemming from a cover illustration in The Economist magazine, entirely misses the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":58194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines-and-hashtags"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFurious Misreadings - China Media Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/2024\/01\/25\/furious-misreadings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Furious Misreadings - 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