One thing we at Shlaowai have always been absolutely sure about is our mutual disdain for Western media coverage of China. As it runs far too deep, we won’t waste any time spelunking about in the twisted rabbit hole of reasons that may or may not adequately explain why newscasters far more ignorant (albeit with superior haircuts) than ourselves expend valuable hairspray and brain cells on fear-fucking the American public with neo-Red Fear. Put simply, terrible things are bound to happen when one stands upon a televised soap box hocking half-truths to a weaponized battalion of God-loving, Commy-hating Alabamans.
To see what happens when dumb people read dumb news about complicated global issues, look no further than anything ever penned by the Godmother of Globalization, Thomas Friedman. To this end I will cite my father, who for months after reading his book, reverted back to the pre-Columbian belief that the world was actually flat – which is just uber unfashionable. The niche, though, is obvious. This shock-and-awe, love-me-and-leave me, in-one-end-out-the-other, newsreel fodder excites the palate of over-caffeinated and under-exposed 9 to 5’ers. It imparts an uncompromising and uncontestable belief of knowing something of a subject about which they know little. It imparts a sense of authority. Or at least that’s how the loathsome, hateful demon in my spine wants me to see it.
Anyway, I digress. What the foul screed above wants to get at was the fact that there’s a sizeable disparity between What’s Going Down and What’s Being Reported – especially in terms of China’s growing role in shaping the course of the 21st century. It was inspired by a speech given by Gen. Douglas MacArthur I stumbled upon whilst satisfying my unquenchable thirst for American rhetoric. Having been McChrystalled from the Korean War and recalled to Washington, in front of Congress, MacArthur painted an unspeakably wise picture of The Score in Asia. It conjures images of China:
“Before one may objectively assess the situation now existing there, he must comprehend something of Asia’s past and the revolutionary changes which have marked her course up to the present. Long exploited by the so-called colonial powers, with little opportunity to achieve any degree of social justice, individual dignity, or a higher standard of life such as guided our own noble administration in the Philippines, the peoples of Asia found their opportunity in the war just past to throw off the shackles of colonialism and now see the dawn of new opportunity, a heretofore unfelt dignity, and the self-respect of political freedom.
Mustering half of the earth’s population, and 60 percent of its natural resources these peoples are rapidly consolidating a new force, both moral and material, with which to raise the living standard and erect adaptations of the design of modern progress to their own distinct cultural environments. Whether one adheres to the concept of colonization or not, this is the direction of Asian progress and it may not be stopped. It is a corollary to the shift of the world economic frontiers as the whole epicenter of world affairs rotates back toward the area whence it started…World ideologies play little part in Asian thinking and are little understood. What the peoples strive for is the opportunity for a little more food in their stomachs, a little better clothing on their backs, a little firmer roof over their heads, and the realization of the normal nationalist urge for political freedom”
To momentarily cast aside the Merforcian outer shell of disdain, disillusionment, and directionless hyperbole, I found MacArthur’s words deeply resonant for their ability to recognize and acknowledge humanistic acreage of the China Story so intentionally overlooked by those who speak on TV with ulterior motivation and agenda.
Having grown up within its borders for nearly 20 years of my life, I understand America’s proclivity for viewing the rise of The Other as a threat to Thine Self. Sometimes we get it right; other times we misjudge and spark chaos. Forgive us – such success and failure is an intrinsic and unavoidable side effect of a position of great power and, more importantly, responsibility.
But what MacArthur identified in the last three lines of the above excerpt was a cross section of the universal desire in the human genome for the possibility of betterment – be it based in material, money, or morality – untainted by ideology’s tendency to pollute, confuse, and distort. Too often, and for a multitude of dastardly reasoning, desire for betterment – more food in our stomachs, better clothing on our backs, a roof that doesn’t leak – is powdercoated with a poisonous and overpowering residue that disingenuously frames it as a threat.
These people work their asses off
I look around every day here in China, and this is what I see. Not a nation of flag-waving, crazed red nationalists, though I cannot deny that this dynamic also exists. I don’t see a communist horde with a ravenous appetite for American jobs, though I come from a background where the plight of the American unemployed – those denied the opportunity of betterment – is more than just a tool for political means. And I don’t see intent crafted for the sole purpose of harming interests of another, though I sometimes am overwhelmed by the saddening truth that this is what People With Power tend to do best.
I look around, and I see people working hard in the pursuit of the same fundamental end; wellbeing, and the chance to give to posterity more than what was given to them. And I think: it would be wildly shameful for this to be denied to anyone.
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Bravo…Very nice article taking a balance view on geopolitics. We need to go further and ask our selfs why do American media portray Chinese negatively all the time without any logic.
I have met many people from all over the world. People are not dumb, they show stuff on TV that makes you believe your neighbor is dumb and thinks in a perticular way, so you also should think like that. Chinese or American people are good, its the political elite for the desire to control that wants us to remain divided all the time.
Deep down core in our hearts be it may Chinese, Americans, Indians, Africans…we are all same, we think alike, we all want peace, love and good things around. As you said rightly, who has time to think bad about America or China, when they have personal things to look after.
People will never ever know the truth behind this drama of hating one country with another until they look into the conspiracy behind it all.
America is collapsing..its deliberate, the same people who built America are building China now, THAT IS KEY TO UNDERSTAND…these elites are globalists. Things are gonna get worse, who does not understand the game played in top level.
People need to research on freemasons, new world order and illuminati.
It is also interesting to note that the people who built America jeffersons, Adams et all were freemasons, Chairman Mao was a freemason, Karl marx, engel who wrote communist manisfesto were also freemason. Chiang Kai-shek was also a freemason. Every hero we could imagine are freemasons.
China does not have any history with freemasonry, yet all its leader were freemasons, its a fact, im not making stuff up or spreading disinfo..please search on google mao freemason and you will know about everything.
Very good article…hope once in a while we get political article which helps American, Indian, filipino, chinese..everyones getting united under love and respect.
Thanks
What ‘we’ have to do is not blame disengenuous coverage on America only. Everyone does it, and has done it for years. China does it much, much more than the USA. Their problem, though, is that their news sources just can’t find no credibility. CNN, FOX, NBC, all that jazz, they have more credibility than they know what to do with, in comparison to Chinese news.
I think anyone can write this sort of article. I just wrote it from an American standpoint….and because I’m a Freemason, and yes, we do have designs for the world, though our longterm interest is the moon…I mean, obviously…..
MKFD is a Freemason?? Get out of town! No wonder you are so socially conscious and actively working to spread your “seed”. Can you introduce me to Mr. Hilary Clinton?
giggle!!!!
You left out the part about MacArthur wanting to nuke China, an instrumental factor in his “McChrystallization.”
Oh puhhhlease, Howard Zinn. “Want” is a rather strong word. Let’s just say he “enthusiasically explored the possibility of….in conjunction with MZ-Dong”
Patton did the same thing with Russia, but the nuke hadn’t quite hit the market. He wanted to ram 5 billion tanks and heavy metal guitar players up Stalin’s ass right after the “end” of WWII, but was accidently “completely brutalized” by an errant automobile that many believe to have been Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first experimentation with covert political assasinations. Wonder what woulda happened if Patton, instead of getting McChrystalled in such an unfortunate way, would have done that. Adios gulags, adios tyrannical authoritarian repression, starvation, murder of millions of Russians/Eastern Europeans, hello leviathan and late 40′s-era unipolar world system.
By the same token, wonder what would have happened if nukes were dropped on the Yalu area. I’m pretty sure Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are single handedly responsible for far, far, far more deaths than petty nuclear weapons y technology, over the last 40 years. By now, they’d probably have a couple Walmarts….at least.
Tis a debate tailored for the titans of poli sci classes campus-wide!