MCLC: Yang Rui trashes al Jazeera journalist (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: jjalvaro <jjalvaro at student.cityu.edu.hk>
Subject: Yang Rui trashes al Jazeera journalist (1)
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Police have to do their job of rounding up people involved in illegal
activities. This includes those foreigners who are in China on false
premises such as working on tourist visas, tax evasion and whatever else.
This is understandable and in accordance with the behavior of any nation
ruled by law. Illegal activities can be effectively covered by the laws in
place to deal with them, or so the logic goes. The issue of foreigners
behaving badly, however, seems separate from the racist discourse of Yang
Rui. My question is ­ Why the ramped-up racist commentary? Why the
personal vehemence when the laws can take care of those things. There is
an unnecessary element of racial stereotyping in Yang¹s attitude which is
not mitigated by saying 95-98% of foreigners are honest. Wow.

When Vincent Li (a mainland Chinese immigrant to Canada) without
provocation, beheaded and cannibalized a fellow passenger on a Greyhound
Bus on July 30 2008, it was not racial. There were no demands for
retribution against Chinese, or media generalizations about Chinese --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tim_McLean. In fact, Li was found
criminally insane and therefore not even held responsible for this
shocking crime -- 
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Vincent-Li-found-not-criminal
ly-responsible--40781652.html . If we want to talk about illegal
activities based on race, here is an interesting report
--http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/ChineseOrgCrime.pdf
    Yang has made the error common to all nationalist xenophobes: he has
mistaken arrogance for dignity. With the likes of Yang Rui on the loose,
those employed to enhance China¹s image abroad have an uphill battle
indeed.

Joe Alvaro
Hong Kong