MCLC: Chinese vs Western media on Xi's visit

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Chinese vs Western media on Xi’s visit
I remember the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing well. I didn't attend the conference, but helped out translating a speech by one of the French delegates. It was an enormously big deal in Beijing (this was only six years after the 1989 crackdown). Crackdowns (严打) were a common occurrence during the 1990s. Police on street corners would blare community radio announcements about bicycle theft early Saturday mornings. What I remember most was the feeling of tension in the city. The governments, city and state, seemed nervous some groups would organize marches or something like that. Thus the delegates were housed outside the city center.
"Western" media perception of the PRC is always a problem. Descriptions of the political scene in the PRC in American media are marked by an exaggerated representation of the political system. "Authoritarian" is an accurate description of the PRC political system that doesn't take into account the vast systems of media distribution, including print and electronic, and of course social media, that contributes to conceptions of the culture and nation we engage with in Chinese studies.
It's great that a foreign leader can take advantage of dispersed power structures in America to make official stops where he is regaled by CEO's and singing children before arriving at the capitol (would President Obama stop in Fujian for a visit before he heads up to Beijing?). As a lapsed Catholic, I found the Pope-mania interesting and amusing. President Xi's visit was understated, perhaps because of deliberate planning, or simply circumstance.
Power determines the relative position of nations and their leaders in the eyes of citizens and medias around the world. Xi's understated visit may be an indication of the ignorance of American media to the relative importance of the PRC in global politics. But it would be mistaken to forget that mass media in the U.S. is determined more by ratings and clicks than government guidance. Citizens will tune their own president out for a football game.
It might be easy to criticize American mass media for being superficial, or not knowing what is important, etc. But as a Westerner (and a lapsed Catholic), I feel that is the measure of the relative power of a political system that allows for public displays of mass popular support. Even if I do not happen to agree completely with the object of that support myself.
Sean Macdonald <smacdon2005 at gmail.com>
Source: Christian Science Monitor (9/26/15)
Chinese vs. Western media: Two views of Xi Jinping’s visit
As the Chinese press cheers the cooperative spirit adopted by President Xi Jinping, the West remains ambivalent on Xi and his proclaimed goals.
By Michelle Toh, Staff writer
While the Chinese media cheered the cooperative spirit adopted by President Xi Jinping on his first state visit to America, Western media remained skeptical about the leader’s pledges for reform, suggesting a cloud of secrecy still hovers over President Xi’s agenda.
The Sino-American relationship is “more dysfunctional than ever,” wrote Michael Auslin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, in a Fox News op-ed.
“All the right things were said,” Mr. Auslin wrote, “but leaving the biggest impression, was the unavoidable fact that US-China relations are locked into their current pattern of competition and distrust.”
He isn’t the only one to say so. Beneath the predictable exchange of pleasantries is a “confrontational approach” America has been “itching to take,” wrote the Financial Times ahead of Xi’s trip. The New York Times reports that several of China’s top officials are seen as “unapproachable,” even “icy.”
Even Xi's itinerary was telling, some said. The fact that the president would spend more time on his seven-day trip in Seattle, than in Washington, wrote the Financial Times, is “an indication of both the Chinese leader’s interest in repairing ties with corporate America and of the more tepid reception he is likely to receive in the capital.”
Chinese media took a decidedly more optimistic stance. “Mutual trust is still lacking to a certain extent due to a power relationship change,” reported state-run outlet Xinhua the day before the president’s visit. “But the gap between China and the US has narrowed.”
China’s state-run network CCTV described President Xi’s visit as having delivered “a trove of important results.” An article laying out the “outcomes” of his trip read much like the laundry list of achievements posted by the White House on Friday.
Reflecting on the Chinese leader’s speech at a welcome banquet held in his honor in Seattle, CCTV reported:
Xi Jinping did a fine job in addressing US concerns while advocating his views on fostering peaceful and symbiotic relations. He also touched upon important issues including cyber security, corruption, and affirmed that China's economy is in fine fettle.
Xi’s references to American culture, such as the popular television series "House of Cards,"  also “endeared the president to the American public,” CCTV said.
The Wall Street Journal commented that the leader’s use of personal anecdotes struck “a humble tone” and “showed rare flashes of humor.”
Xi was careful in this first address to emphasize the importance of communication between the two governments. “We must read each other's strategic intentions correctly,” he said.
But critics say the Chinese leader’s own intentions are still largely masked, and some question whether he plans on keeping his promises, particularly as they relate to economic reform.
Dean C. Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council remained skeptical about whether China would start leveling the playing field for foreign companies, according to The New York Times.
“If those reforms do move forward, then the opportunity for collective growth is high,” he said.
But, he added, that is a big “if.”
“We are at a time of real ambivalence in terms of our attitude towards China,” Jacques deLisle, director of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, told The South China Morning Post.
This shift can partly be explained by the recent stock market crisis, said Mr. deLisle. “There is concern that the only thing worse than China doing too well is China not doing well enough.”
by denton.2 at osu.edu on September 30, 2015
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