Cup of Cha
This is China

Most of my friends in the States, and indeed, most of the mainstream media outside of China, is under the false impression that news only trickles into the the Mainland. Historically this has been true, and there are still remnants around, but if you can read or understand English, as many young Chinese can, things are amazingly open.

Often foreigners confuse the ludicrously transparent reporting in the Chinese media and China’s Great Firewall with lack of access to information. It is certainly true that the reporting on certain events in the Chinese media is laughably predictable. Take, for example, the headlines about China’s recent huge blizzard in the southern part of the country. The headlines focused on Hu Jintao’s man-of-the-people shtick and showed pictures of happy children grabbing bottles of water. And there was mention of the economic impact, but that’s a natural disaster, right, it’s not a leadership problem, right? Right? The point is that the coverage was predictably positive overall.

However, for internet or language-savvy Chinese, it’s pretty darn easy to get news from other sources. The BBC is the only major news agency that is always blocked, a huge departure from when I arrived seven years ago and often could not get to the NY Times homepage. Meanwhile, CNN was a black hole for years. China still blocks sites, but with regard to Western media, it is the exception rather than the rule. Sure things on blogspot are blocked, but most blogs are not.

Yet this reality is not always the impression a Western audience gets, even from the most thoughtful journalists. I was listening to Tom Ashbrook’s On Point show for NPR yesterday. He was talking about India and China’s emerging influence and at one point mentioned that when his friend returned to Mainland China, his access to news went from a gush to a trickle. The assertion just didn’t ring true, especially for someone who presumably spoke English at a near-native level, as it sounded like his friend did. (I’ve posted the entire On Point segment at the end of this post as it’s quite interesting. Incidentally, they will be broadcasting from China for a full week in April, so keep your ears open for that.)

China’s media only covers what it, or the Party wants, and foreign (and local) journalists in China are routinely harassed, particularly in the 保守(traditional and conservative) provinces. Yet if you’re living here your options for gathering news are nearly unlimited. Even if you do not speak English, bulletin boards like Tianya routinely have people posting and translating foreign media reports.

No one would argue that the Chinese media is allowed to do its job properly, and only a portion of those journalists even show a real interest in doing so. However, in 2008 China there are plenty of ways to get whatever information you need. This is not an endorsement of the government’s policy, just an evaluation of the true conditions. Of course, old perceptions die hard.

Here’s the On Point segment on China and India:

Download Click on icon to play.

Tags: censorship, media, on point
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