

Chinese leaders control media, academics to shape the perception of China - dak1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fred-hiatt-chinese-leaders-control-media-academics-to-shape-the-perception-of-china/2013/11/17/1f26816e-4e06-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html?hpid=z3

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ttflee
> it also limits information and analysis for China’s decision makers

In China, the officials read Internal References(, which is not to be mistaken
for the Reference News, which is openly published by Xinhua News Agency, and
can be browsed at public bulletin for free as it usually publishes translated
and selected articles from foreign news agencies to support the propaganda,
IMHO). These 'Internal References' provides news from home and abroad for
certain officials with respective clearances and the subjects discussed may be
sensitive and critical. You can try to imagine a printed version of Bloomberg
Service provided by the System. So it may be too naive to get the conclusion
that decision makers have insufficient information.

1
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_News](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_News)

2
[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/参考资料_(出版物)](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/参考资料_\(出版物\))

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wahsd
That post is rather tone-deaf about the same circumstances in the USA. Yes,
China is a lot less refined and advanced about how it controls message and
impression, but it's behind in many aspects, one of which is propaganda and
state control. The USA is the reigning master of propaganda and image
fostering; it is, essentially, even an official technique of our foreign and
domestic policy.

I can't stand people who blatantly and ignorantly lack anything even remotely
like self-awareness.

~~~
pekk
As usual, any post about China is accompanied by a post saying "the US is even
worse". One would think that the only difference between China and the US is
that the US is even worse.

~~~
tokenizer
Again, context is everything. You're missing the point entirely. OP's point
was regarding the hypocrisy of one government, criticising another government,
for extremely similar policies/goals/implementation.

That said, I'm sure if we were in Russia, and an anti-US article was
published, you'd see a few persons argue that it's nothing special as well,
with "stop criticising my country" demagogues coming out of the wood work just
like you have.

~~~
mintplant
This isn't "one government, criticizing another government", this is the
Washington Post.

~~~
PakG1
Compare and contrast Bloomberg's stance on investigations regarding another
government: [http://nypost.com/2013/11/15/bloomberg-boots-china-leak-
scri...](http://nypost.com/2013/11/15/bloomberg-boots-china-leak-scribe-as-
staff-layoffs-loom/)

Jeff Bezos made a point when he said he wanted the Washington Post to survive
as an independent voice. Bloomberg is subject to its customers, which is
increasingly in China, which they have decided makes certain stories off-
limits.

Due to the generosity of Jeff Bezos[1], the Washington Post does not need to
worry about being beholden to its customers like that, at least not for the
short-term future. We'll see how it turns out in the long term over time. This
is not saying that if it were not for Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post would do
similar things, because it's not like they have a lot of readers in China
anyway. Just saying that thanks to Bezos, the Washington Post does not need to
be beholden to its customers for now.

[1] [http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jeff-bezos-on-post-
pu...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jeff-bezos-on-post-
purchase/2013/08/05/e5b293de-
fe0d-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost)

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tn13
Nothing surprising here either. Same thing happens in USA and everywhere else.
The media plays to the tunes of whoever pays the most. In case of China no one
else has actually bothered to pay the media to do the opposite. May be if
India was not in the hell hole of self inflicted poverty and servitude they
could have countered Chinese propoganda.

Even Google shows paid ads on the top of the search.

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squozzer
As an American who grew up during the Cold War, this article really isn't
news. We were always accusing the Commies of hyper-sensitivity to
international perception.

And yes, the US denies entry to "radical" figures.

Academics and political experts engage in self-censorship here also, lest
their dreams of tenure slip away or they find themselves uninvited to the DC
cocktail circuit.

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romanovcode
Implying U.S., Russia or any other powerful country doesn't control their
media?

