If this doesn’t snare a Pulitzer, what will?
China seeks to promote a harmonious world
This “essay” reads like a journalism grad student’s homework, with all the jargony key words that make editors cringe: “sustainable development,” “strategic goals,” “paths of integration,” “tide of globalization” and so forth. An example of the clichee-ridden text:
The mission of China’s foreign diplomacy is to promote world peace and push forward collective development, while the aim of its diplomatic work is to proactively create a peaceful environment that will last for a long time so that the country’s modernization drive can go on advancing and join hands with other countries in building up a harmonious world with lasting peace and prosperity for all.
At the end, we’re told, “The author is a professor and deputy director of the Centre for International Strategic Studies of the Central Party School.” Only they never tell us who the author is. Which, for his sake, is probably a good thing.
And to my usual handful of commenters who insist that pointing out something dumb like this makes one a “China hater,” I want to assure you of something: If I ever see anything this embarrassing in the American press, I’ll blog it faster than you can say Hu Jintao. (It’s unlikely that’ll happen anytime soon, since any US editor who approved this sort of drivel would be out of a job fast.)
1
By Shiller
I think the author is one of my thousands of high school students who tell me exactly the same things. I’m starting to believe them now……..Why would they lie?
February 20, 2006 @ 10:51 pm | Comment
2
By Bernie
The name was at the top of the page: Gong Li….. Presumably not the actress, but my word that was sensationally boring….there is some OK stuff in China Daily at times actually, it gets a bad rap, but when you read nonsese like that and utter rubbish like that “Internet censorship in line with world norms” front page lead you realise the paper is on a hiding to nothing….sad times when a country needs Rupert Murdoch
February 20, 2006 @ 10:53 pm | Comment
3
By richard
Bernie, I just looked all over the page for Gong Li’s name and it’s not there – at least not in the Xinhua article I linked. You mentioned China Daily, so i checked and you’re right, the article is there also, this time with the guy’s name.
Yeah, reading it is as painful as watching CCTV-9.
February 20, 2006 @ 11:04 pm | Comment
4
By Keir
How can we ever have a harmonious world as long as there are still totalitarian regimes that prevent access to knowledge, freedom, information and understanding?
February 20, 2006 @ 11:42 pm | Comment
5
By Bernie
The fact that this article is being carried across the Chinese state news network suggests it is an important one: we’ve had plenty of “harmonious society” stuff over the past few months, now get ready for a “harmonious world” binge….I bet you there will be more mention of it in the esteemed China Daily tomorrow, this sounds important. And damn damn tedious.
February 20, 2006 @ 11:53 pm | Comment
6
By richard
Interesting question. But wasn’t Germany from 1933 to 1942 a model of harmony and prosperity? Of course, the harmony was achieved by the most ambitious and most successful ethnic cleansing campaign of all time, and was sustained by terror, but there’s no denying that being a German citizen during that period was to be privileged – provided you kept your mouth shut, ignored the horrors occurring on the sidelines and didn’t ask any questions. So many fascinating parallels.
February 20, 2006 @ 11:54 pm | Comment
7
By Corleone
For a better reading of “peaceful rising” and harmony stuff, check Zhen Bi Jian’s article at Foreigh Affairs.
February 21, 2006 @ 2:40 am | Comment
8
By Sojourner
“… the country’s modernization drive can go on advancing and join hands with other countries in building up a harmonious world with lasting peace and prosperity for all.”
So, everyone, join hands and sing ….
It’s a world of laughter
– A world of tears
It’s a world of hopes
– And a world of fears
There’s so much that we share
– That it’s time we’re aware
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small, small world
There is just one moon
– And one golden sun
And a smile means
– Friendship to every one
Though the mountains divide
– And the oceans are wide
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small world after all
It’s a small, small world
February 21, 2006 @ 5:01 am | Comment
9
By Raj
My expectations of Chinadaily are so low now that I’m hardly surprised when I see claptrap like that.
February 21, 2006 @ 12:11 pm | Comment
10
By Phil
Had I written that at journalism grad school, I’d have been asked to stay behind for a quiet talk about my future…
February 21, 2006 @ 1:48 pm | Comment
11
By China_hand
I agree that most “political” articles on the Chinese media are very dry and robotic in their language (simply the result of the bureaucratic style of the Progapanda Dept), and no one, not even Chinese readers, take those articles seriously.
But they are no more idiotic than Bush’s speeches on how everyone in the world is suffering under the “yoke of oppression” and the United States has a moral duty to liberate everyone.
February 21, 2006 @ 2:22 pm | Comment
12
By Raj
Hand
No one ever said Bush’s speeches were ever any better. And they come from a politician. A newspaper, especially the “Window to China”, has the option to choose what to publish – and printing stuff like that is an indication that Chinadaily is quite happy to be one of the CCP’s loyal puppies.
Not unlike Fox perhaps……
February 21, 2006 @ 2:57 pm | Comment
13
By davesgonechina
The mission of China’s foreign diplomacy is to promote world peace and push forward collective development,
Great, but the thing that China has never explained is … how? I don’t see China gettin’ down with Jeffrey Sachs or Bono.
If I ever see anything this embarrassing in the American press, I’ll blog it faster than you can say Hu Jintao.
American public diplomacy has the same kind of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo and I bet Al Hurrah sounds like this a little bit. Imagethief skewered Karen Hughes internal memo and its the same meaningless BS:
http://news.imagethief.com/blogs/china/archive/2006/01/18/5664.aspx
February 21, 2006 @ 3:52 pm | Comment
14
By richard
Dave, I have more than once taken on Hughes and her “talking points.”
February 21, 2006 @ 4:54 pm | Comment
15
By richard
And you know something, China Hand. I have often blogged about Bush’s idiotic verbal diarreah. An equal opportunity critic.
February 21, 2006 @ 5:00 pm | Comment
16
By davesgonechina
Never said you didn’t Richard. It just reminded me of good ol’ Imagethief, that’s all.
And China Hand, at least Bush lets us know how he intends to bring about world peace. Asked the following question:
How will you bring about a new era of world peace?
Bush will say something like:
By smokin’ out the bad guys and buildin’ democracies
OK, that translates into actions. Now Hu Jintao, looking at this article will say:
By putting the entire world to sleep with meaningless rhetoric, and generally not bothering anybody
Right…. that’s not a plan of action dude. China gave aid in the tsunami… after it looked like it might get shown up by other countries in its own region. China has been developing international aid mechanisms, but hasn’t stated the ambitions behind building them. For a country with a love for 5 year plans, I haven’t seen anything detailing China’s 5 or 10 year plan for having a rapidly deployed aid system, what principles guide their UN decisions (what is China’s rationale for vetoing resolutions on Sudan, anyway?), etc. etc.
So far, the only tools China seems to be advocating for creating world unity is bad speeches.
February 21, 2006 @ 8:50 pm | Comment
17
By davesgonechina
Oh, and don’t tell me “But look at Bush!”, China Hand. We all agree: he sucks. So why isn’t China showing the world a better way?
HOW, exactly, do you get countries to “commit themselves to forging unbreakable unity”, as Hu Jintao said? Cuz these foreign countries, yknow, they don’t just snap to it when you say “everyone be peaceful now!” They can be real frustrating that way.
February 21, 2006 @ 8:53 pm | Comment
18
By China_hand
davesgonechina, that is simply a reflection of the “tame” foreign policy of China. China needs a peaceful and secure environment to develop its economy, and the best way to do that is to smile a lot and remain neutral and make as few enemies as possible. Bush yells “we are gonna smoke you out” because he’s backed by the economic and military machine of the United States.
When Deng Xiaoping was at his deathbed, he offered Chinese leaders advice on how to run China. And one of the things he said is “Don’t try to be a leader in the world stage”. He recognizes that China is not strong enough to stick his head, yet.
Read about the strategy of “Tao Guang Yang Hui”
February 21, 2006 @ 8:59 pm | Comment
19
By China_hand
correction: “He recognizes that China is not strong enough to stick his head, yet.” should be
He recognizes that China is not strong enough to stick his head out, yet.
February 21, 2006 @ 9:00 pm | Comment
20
By TW
This reads like everything that comes out of 10 Downing Street…. is New Labour/New Communism trying to tell us something? If they are, they had better try learning English first.
But seriously…. this is just the faux-marketing speak that all politicians adopt these days when they are trying to reassure us meaninglessly. Just goes to show how far-reaching the effects globalisation has been.
February 21, 2006 @ 9:25 pm | Comment
21
By TW
“China gave aid in the tsunami… after it looked like it might get shown up by other countries in its own region”
That’s a little harsh, considering how disgusting the whole world turned after the sunami. Reading the newspaper was like reading a kind of league-table of how compassionate people were being (particularly reading about celebrity donations).
Whatever happened to not letting your left hand know…
February 21, 2006 @ 9:28 pm | Comment
22
By richard
It’s true, politicians talk that way. But this is written by a professor, supposedly. Shouldn’t we expect better than jargon and cliches?
February 21, 2006 @ 9:36 pm | Comment
23
By Shanghai Slim
No author’s name? Even is there was one, would it matter?
I would assume a meaningless article like this was simply a cut-n-paste job, like so many “academic essays” and newpaper features in Chinese media. Even if it has an author’s name, that often just tells you who did the (control-c) (control-v).
Hell, an article like this one can be written by a computer. using strings of text from search engines. About the same amount of thought went into it, either way.
February 21, 2006 @ 11:12 pm | Comment
24
By China's Other Hand
China applies too much tact to its international relations while the U.S. applies too little. But, in all honesty, politicians are surprisingly alike not matter where their country of origin – unlike each countries’ political critics which are ineluctably different from one country to the next. So lip-service is an art that is too well practiced in politics but that gets filtered through by the political ‘analysts’ in most nations. Frankly, China has yet to get that part of the process down. So, until then, almost everyone just ignore these ‘news’.
February 22, 2006 @ 6:50 pm | Comment
25
By ACB
As I recal, harmony in China means nobody disagrees with each other because they are to afraid to say anything.
February 23, 2006 @ 5:19 am | Comment