China’s Ideas About Media
It looks like the US is going to press China via the WTO on media restrictions. Apparently the government has been using restrictions on foreign media as a way to get Xinhua a competitive advantage. This mimics moves over the years in the auto sector among others (many of which were phased out under WTO agreements). The irony, of course, is that Xinhua will never have a competitive advantage over other agencies (Bloomberg, AP, Reuters) because of the pressure the government puts on it. While they do break some stories, is there really anyone in the West who is rushing to find out critical, groundbreaking stories from the Communist Party’s mouthpiece? Here’s more from the AP article (wonder if they have a stake in promoting this story):
The United States has told China to get serious about relaxing the restraints, in a letter that could represent a final warning before the U.S. asks the WTO to intervene in the matter, the Associated Press learned Wednesday…
Washington stopped short of saying it would launch a new WTO dispute, said trade officials, who saw the U.S. letter dated January 25 but demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The USTR in Washington refused to confirm the letter or to outline its plans. The Chinese Commerce Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
The press restrictions announced in 2006 were seen as part of the effort to transform China’s Xinhua agency from the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda mouthpiece into a modern, profitable entity.
The Chinese government targeted the rapidly expanding domestic market for financial information by setting the rule that data be funneled through a Cabinet-level agency, which censors reports, and then through Xinhua for distribution to clients
Not surprisingly a quick scan of Xinhua’s website yielded no similar articles. It seems like the story about Xinhua proves the underlying problem of why Chinese media cannot compete. If only all arguments could be proven so neatly.
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tianya responds:
Posted: February 1st, 2008 at 9:28 am →
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/funinfo/1/1062839.shtml
中国的媒体？外国的媒体？五十步笑一百步。。。