Mile Zero

Jul 04, 2005

Axel Rose was right

Last week someone posted a flyer all around the main headquarters of the Bank. It read:

I managed to get a copy before we tore them all down, and I'm staring at the second page now. It's a long rant on how my old friends, the Epoch Times, and their Nine Commentaries have "shocked all Chinese people around the world."

Where to begin?

First of all, I was at the panel the Epoch Times held to celebrate the release of their Nine Commentaries. It was all in Mandarin and the translation was sketchy, but I gathered enough to conclude that these commentaries are not anything terribly "shocking." They ranged from the relatively obvious (the Communists are bad people who torture dissidents and engage in suppression of free speech) to the insane ("The Communist Party Opposes Nature"). I was perhaps a bit kind in the article that resulted from the panel, because they were calmer in person, and because my editor is a big fan. I wrote that the commentaries were controversial, which they are, and noted that they had sparked political discussion, because (at least in that room) they had.

Still, the Commentaries are not really "news," and unless I have drastically misread the situation they are not--as this press release claims--the trigger for massive withdrawals and boycotts eventually leading to the downfall of the Communist Party. Run a search on Google News for Chinese demonstrations, and you'll find plenty of articles about the recent Japanese textbook contraversy, but the only people writing about this Communist exodus are employed by the Epoch Times--and as I hope you've realized, they're not exactly acting sans agenda. The paper claims that over a million Chinese have left the party, but can we believe them? I'm not sure. Where are these Chinese located? Are they actually on the mainland, where the epochtimes.com website has been blocked and they would have to find a way around it? Or are they overseas and Taiwanese citizens? Have that many people actually signed, or is the Epoch Times just counting hits to its Nine Commentaries website? And how many of them are just jokes? The Internet is not exactly a secured area, after all. I am not one to claim that the American media is perfect or follows every story that it should, but riots and demonstrations against the last serious communist state? That would be news. The lack of any coverage is damning.

So why write about this flyer today? Well, in a strange kind of way, the Epoch Times fascinates me. I can't say they're a cult, because they have a point about China's atrocities. But their hyperbole is so strong, and their view of events is so clearly unhinged from my own perceptions, that they create a kind of cognitive dissonance, and I don't see that very often. See, when I talk to friends and acquaintences with connections overseas, none of them can verify the stories in the Epoch Times. Their exact reaction often depends on how far from the country they are--second-generation Americans with Chinese relatives are almost embarrassed by the anti-Communist movement (probably because they don't know anything about it, but they're assumed to be experts by random Americans due to prejudice). Those with closer ties to the Middle Kingdom are well aware of China's dictatorial tendencies--my ex-girlfriend told me stories about regular TV censorship and media suppression, but admitted that it wasn't considered a real issue. This matches pretty closely with my own experience in China, which indicated that the average person fully understands how corrupt and abusive their government is. They just don't really pay much attention to it. Those who want more information find ways around the Internet blockages or the print and television censorship, because the Chinese (like most of us, I suspect) are deeply pragmatic and creative when they need to be. The rest just go about their daily lives.

I think, when it all boils down, the fact that remains is that China has always been corrupt. The Epoch Times believes that this corruption is new, stating that people are "shocked to find out how much they have been brainwashed by the CCP." But for a group that wants to revive the "traditional" Chinese culture replaced by Communism, they seem to have missed the obvious themes present in almost all of ancient China's literature and history. For as far back as we can trace, scholars and dissidents in China found themselves under a strong, abusive central government--from Qin Shi Huang to Cheng Kai Shek. They published subversive poetry, spoke out when they could, and worked the system when they couldn't. Everyone in the country evolved an understanding of maneuvering through the graft as best they could, and that tradition that continues today. It is not a coincidence that China has modern issues with intellectual property rights and a complicated political dance with Taiwan.

I don't want to say that the Epoch Times should stop their work. The human rights abuses of the PRC are egregious, and the country still has a lot of work to do in development. I admire people greatly who take part in those struggles, and I support the ideal of open government in a democratic China. But at the same time, it is important to take a careful look at their arguments and their methods. The Chinese Communist Party itself started as a movement that was brutally suppressed and hounded by the then-ruling Nationalist Party, who had themselves captured power in a military coup. I think we need to be wary of revolutionaries who play fast and loose with the truth. We've seen what happens when they gain power.

meet the new boss
same as the old boss

19:53 x Thomas x /culture/asia/china/democracy x link x 1 comment

Future - Present - Past