Note: Someone pointed out this is an old story, even though the version I was alerted to is dated May 21. Sorry – this is old news.
One of the oddest editorials I’ve seen, even for People’s Daily. Let’s dive right into it. Here’s the main premise:
Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) recently fired another four editorial staff of Chinese origin working for the China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle (DW’s Chinese Department), for what it claims were financial reasons, but in actuality, as a result of expelling “dissidents” with “Communist background”. The four dismissed Chinese editors have probably fallen victim to DW’s intense censorship and deep-seated prejudice.
Syntax aside, there is so much wrong here, at least from a journalistic perspective. First, where do those scare quotes — “dissidents,” “Communist background” — come from? Did Deutsche Welle call them that? Or is the editorialist second-guessing and putting words in their mouths? Then there’s the audacious and breathtaking assertion in the last sentence: The four dismissed Chinese editors have probably fallen victim to DW’s intense censorship and deep-seated prejudice. Probably? Probably why? What makes this probable?
This entire opening is nothing less than a sweeping indictment of DW, but the sole source, cited toward the end, is an open letter written by the fired editors, who might be a bit biased, no? (If they even wrote the letter.) But obviously People’s Daily’s wrath toward DW goes way back, and the firings are simply a catalyst for the new scathing attack.
The editorial then gets better (that is to say, worse):
…Deutsche Welle has been eagerly appeasing overseas Chinese dissidents. DW hired a disputed Sinologist based in Germany, whose job is to sniff out all reports with even the slightest hint of friendliness toward China.
After two and a half years on his throne of censorship he has amassed venomous remarks on not only China-friendly reports but also the editors working at the China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle and he even clamors for recognizing Taiwan as an “independent country”.
What the Sinologist and DW have said and done underlines their hostility toward China and clearly deviates from Germany’s persistent stance on the “one-China” principle.
For a long time, Deutsche Welle has been lambasting China and the Communist Party of China in its anti-China reporting, which, it claims, arises from the rigorous journalistic censorship imposed by the Chinese government.
It is really sad for a news organization to lose its dignity and objectivity and choose to publish or broadcast only the negative side of a particular country or even tarnish it with lies.
Has the writer ever heard of people living in glass houses? What media on earth is less objective, and what media is more bent on conveying “the negative side of another country” (like the U.S.) than China? And the bizarre allusion to the “disputed Sinologist” whose sole purpose is to make sure China is always vilified, and who sits on “a throne of censorship”? People’s Daily, lambasting censorship? And if they’re so certain this “disputed Sinologist” exists, why not give his name? Is this a secret?
This way-too-long editorial keeps on going, and soon its larger purpose emerges: the whole point is to bang the drum of “the Media War Against China,” a now familiar if hysterical complaint, and one that my trolls adore:
Behind the anti-China biased reporting in the Western media is the broader fear that China poses a threat to the West. With that preconception, some Western media believe that they need to undermine China and seek to bring about the collapse of this socialist country.
This is really convenient. Whenever a “negative” story (real or perceived) is written about China, it can be dismissed with the argument that the Western media seek the collapse of China. It’s the tired old antiCNN argument, but at least antiCNN tries to offer up evidence to back up its ridiculous claims. This editorial is one long list of groundless assertions, without the slightest hint of evidence that DW fired the employees because of their “Communist backgrounds,” except that the employees say so.
Do take a minute to read it all. It’s a stunning example of “journalism” run amok, and of the hysteria that so often makes China’s English-language newspapers the world’s laughingstock. What this reductio ad absurdium boils down to is the same argument as always: China is the victim of Western prejudice and the West is mean to them and wants them to collapse. Same script, a few different actors. Have they no idea how childish it sounds?
Thanks to the commenter who tipped me off to this.
1
By King Tubby
Basically this is JRs turf, and he posted on it sometime ago.
This is like tripping up quadlipedecs, Richard.
May 25, 2011 @ 9:20 am | Comment
2
By Richard
JR? And the story is three days old – could he have posted on it “some time ago”?
May 25, 2011 @ 9:24 am | Comment
3
By Richard
KT, you’re right. Just googled and saw that this story appeared in April, which leaves me wondering why PD sent out the same story with a May 21 dateline. Sorry about that. Please ignore this post. I missed it because it came out in April when I was traveling in China, ironically.
On Facebook, here’s one of my friend’s comments on this:
In reality, DW was protecting their families from retribution by firing them noisily. The Chinese govt noisily denounces DW. Then, everything back to normal. It’s a game.
May 25, 2011 @ 9:30 am | Comment
4
By Wei
Whether it’s a few weeks old doesn’t matter, Richard. The way you wrote about it is very interesting. I’m sure a lot of people missed this story so I’m glad you blogged it.
May 25, 2011 @ 10:15 am | Comment
5
By King Tubby
Richard. No worries. And my:
“This is like tripping up quadlipedecs, Richard”.
I was referring china media reports/editorials etc and not to yourself.
May 25, 2011 @ 10:47 am | Comment
6
By Richard
KT, no worries, I got the joke!
I do feel kind of dumb, blogging an old story, and I may take the whole thing down.
May 25, 2011 @ 11:19 am | Comment
7
By FOARP
@Richard – The only dumb thing is that People’s Daily decided to run this editorial now.
May 25, 2011 @ 1:53 pm | Comment
8
By S.K. Cheung
So if the People’s Daily is to be believed, any news organization that dismisses employees of “Chinese origin” can be accused of lacking objectivity and smearing China, if the PD chooses to play the victim card and engage in this formulaic song and dance. That’s quite a useful and compelling argument…though nothing new for CCP mouthpieces.
On the other hand, it is an editorial, so it’s maybe just the author’s opinion. The People’s Daily editors would never simply parrot the party line, now would they?
May 25, 2011 @ 2:12 pm | Comment
9 Posted at adamcathcart.wordpress.com
[…] respected blog The Peking Duck has a must-read post on a recent People’s Daily denunciation of Deutsche Welle, the German […]
May 25, 2011 @ 4:24 pm | Pingback
10
By Readthru
“Cold war mentality”is a term often used by Chinese media and FM spokespeople to retort criticisms. “Censorship” is however a sensitive word for them. It funny that PD used it this way and certainly is an invention. PD is so furious as if its infiltrators had been exposed. Those guys can come back and join GT.
May 25, 2011 @ 5:24 pm | Comment
11
By Bowen
Oh it gets better, on May 17th, a journalist’s weibo I followed repost a information, saying “this year’s principle on news reporting: prefer lift to right, prefer tight controlled to loss.” Then today, Chinese version of People’s Daily (cf. http://opinion.people.com.cn/GB/14727703.html) published this jounralist’s comment, with a centural meaning translated as “Party members are forbided to comment otherwise on central decisions”
Although the DW is yesterday’s news, based on life experience these three evens are never independent. It means that like the times before Jing, before Hu, they are trying to tighten up the “thought education” so that the calling for political reform can be put aside. Yet just like Pieke (1995) wrote, this is never the best decision. However, this time they do it more carefully because they too have too much to lose now.
May 25, 2011 @ 7:21 pm | Comment
12
By justrecently
I didn’t actually come across PD’s English paper, KT, but mostly Chinese-speaking press. The Welle has become more critical of China (which I appreciate), but the suggestions or insinuations in the Chinese press that this had led to a kind of purge is unproven, and actually unlikely.
I gave some explanations in a recent comment as to how the Welle works as an institution, and as to how it is accountable.
Anyway, it ain’t exclusively my turf.
May 25, 2011 @ 7:52 pm | Comment
13
By slim
I’m not sure what they’re saying in Chinese or on China, but the Deutsche Welle broadcasts I get on world topics in English late at night in the US via National Public Radio are quite tame and even anodyne by, say, BBC or NPR standards. More like Japan’s non boat-rocking NHK.
May 26, 2011 @ 1:05 am | Comment
14
By yourfriend
And what, pray tell, gives the Western press the “right” to label Falun Gong as martrys, Tibetan nationalists as holy men, and warmongers as human rights activists?
This double hypocrisy is a riot.
May 26, 2011 @ 1:07 am | Comment
15
By yourfriend
In fact I think it’s humorous that People’s Daily and Global Times is resorting to Western style rhetoric. Lots of convenient propaganda labels to be consumed, no content, they’re really on their way to meeting the standards of NYT or BBC or Fox News. They just need more weasel words, edutainment, celebrity gossip and to dial back the rhetoric slightly (to make lies more believable).
May 26, 2011 @ 1:14 am | Comment
16
By Adam Cathcart
Richard, thanks for the essay. Huanqiu Shibao appears to have published a follow-up today:
http://world.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-05/1716825.html
May 26, 2011 @ 1:16 am | Comment
17
By Richard
Ferin/yourfriend, we can always count on you to turn a post about a Chinese newspaper into a diatribe against the US and the West. Tiresomely predictable. I think it’s pretty safe to say you’re deranged, or at least unhinged (with all due respect).
Adam, why do you think they’re resurrecting this?
May 26, 2011 @ 1:48 am | Comment
18
By S.K. Cheung
To #14 and 15:
yo Einstein, nobody is questioning the People Daily’s “right” to say what they want. We’re just having a laugh about how stupid they sound when they say it. If you must compare (and of course I know you must since it’s in the genes and/or training manual), people who call FLG “martyrs”, any Tibetan nationalist “holy”, and any “warmonger” indiscriminately a “human rights activist”, sound silly as well. But that doesn’t detract from legitimate FLG grievances, legitimate Tibetan grievances, nor legitimate acts that promote human rights. Of course, painting with silly broad brushes is all that you are capable of, so I can sympathize with where you’re coming from.
So if you can concoct a legitimate criticism of something “western” from that goofy PD editorial after you dispense with the usual CCP verbiage, feel free to share…I’ll wait…
I don’t think PD or GT will ever amount to much so long as the CCP is around. Being a mouthpiece does not make for good journalism. (and yes, I know, your standard CCP apologist refrain will be that NYT is a mouthpiece also, but that would be when you belie your CCP training and start comparing apples to oranges yet again).
May 26, 2011 @ 2:28 am | Comment
19
By yourfriend
We’re just having a laugh about how stupid they sound when they say it.
Yo Cheungsie, I guess you’re denying yourself a lot “laughs” as you’re unable to see the humor in a West-worshiping shill like yourself lecturing the PD for being less propagandistic than mainstream Western press.
May 26, 2011 @ 2:44 am | Comment
20
By S.K. Cheung
Oh no, I find certain “mainstream western press” pieces funny as well. That’s one difference between you and me. I find things funny and objectionable on a case-by-case basis. You do so by rote teaching. To each their own, as I always say.
I must say, however, that I prefer the way things are done in the “west”, which is why I live here. How about you? ….Bueller….Bueller….
And on the matter of reading comprehension, I didn’t suggest that PD was “being less propagandistic”. There you go again, can’t get out of bed in the morning without making a comparison. You guys are so comically predictable.
May 26, 2011 @ 4:15 am | Comment
21
By slim
At some level, you have to admire YF’s unwavering and unbroken commitment to intellectual dishonesty. A shining lodestar of untruth. Don’t ever change!
May 26, 2011 @ 6:58 am | Comment
22
By yourfriend
I must say, however, that I prefer the way things are done in the “west”, which is why I live here. How about you?
No, you live in the West because you enjoy the comforts that their neocolonial blood money afford you. If you were a true shill of democracy, you’d move to India where they’re developing on the stuff- instead, you prefer nations that didn’t allow women or other minorities to vote during the entire time they were developing.
May 26, 2011 @ 7:58 am | Comment
23
By S.K. Cheung
“enjoy the comforts that their neocolonial blood money afford you….”
—man, if someone had a question about the CCP playbook, they should consult you, cuz you seem to have it memorized chapter and verse. I guess you are useful in your own unique way after all.
“you prefer nations that didn’t allow women or other minorities to vote”
—and you apparently prefer a nation that doesn’t allow men, women, or minorities to vote, period. But of course you don’t prefer it enough to actually live there, cuz that would mean walking the walk, and that’s not in the CCP apologist’s job description.
However, #22 didn’t have your usual comparisons. So it is physically possible. Good to know. Well done!
May 26, 2011 @ 12:29 pm | Comment
24 Posted at chinadigitaltimes.net
[…] 北京烤鸭– 评《人民日报》对“冷战斗士”《德国之声》的批驳 […]
May 26, 2011 @ 12:31 pm | Pingback
25
By FOARP
Rich, help us out here – Yourfriend is posting from the US?
May 26, 2011 @ 2:08 pm | Comment
26
By justrecently
Targeting at yourfriend is an exercise for beginners.
May 26, 2011 @ 2:43 pm | Comment
27
By slim
Back to the OP, that editorial has Li Hongmei’s name at the top. Doesn’t that explain a lot?
May 26, 2011 @ 7:49 pm | Comment
28
By FOARP
@Slim – You mean the same woman who described Chinese netizens as “under educated and under paid”? Finding myself under attack as “anti-China” because I use the grass-mud-horse character as my blogger avatar, but People’s Daily defended even though they are willing to print disparaging commentary on Chinese netizens in general, is yet another bizarre thing about the sino-webs. Ah well.
May 26, 2011 @ 11:01 pm | Comment
29
By richard
FOARP, of course he’s in America, just like Red Star and Mathematics.
May 27, 2011 @ 1:30 am | Comment
30
By S.K. Cheung
Ms. Li seems to believe that the German media in question propulgates a one-sided opinion of China. That, to her, seems to constitute the bias and censorship of which she speaks. Her position is really no different from the standard refrain that we see from CCP apologists the web over. “western media bias”, much like “German media bias”, is based on opinions that the reader (in this case Ms Li) finds objectionable. If a difference of opinion constitutes “bias”, then Ms. Li is as biased as Deutsche Welle, and vice versa. And her point becomes pointless.
If those 4 dudes who wrote the open letter really feel hard-done by, then they should find a media employer who shares their opinion, rather than complaining that DW should change theirs.
========
To Richard:
was there really ever any doubt?
May 27, 2011 @ 3:26 am | Comment
31
By justrecently
Adam, why do you think they’re resurrecting this?
Not from Adam, but I have some cents to offer. The man – allegedly – on the “throne of censorship” is a sinologist, and well-connected in China. According to the open letter (to the broadcasting commission and German federal parliament, he was hired as a consultant by Deutsche Welle. As a co-founder of the German Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, he isn’t a nobody there. So the decision to pick the story up most probably took some time.
May 27, 2011 @ 5:57 am | Comment
32
By yourfriend
was there really ever any doubt?
You mean beyond me saying no less than five times that I travel between Taiwan and America? Entirely on my own dime, of course- America owes the overseas Chinese, not the other way around.
man, if someone had a question about the CCP playbook, they should consult you, cuz you seem to have it memorized chapter and verse. I guess you are useful in your own unique way after all.
man, if someone had a question about the corporate American playbook, they should consult you, cuz you seem to have it memorized chapter and verse. I guess you are useful in your own unique way after all.
May 28, 2011 @ 3:06 am | Comment
33
By yourfriend
SK Cheung
cuz that would mean walking the walk, and that’s not in the CCP apologist’s job description.
Yes, because Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are such awful places to live. You know, the Taiwan that was developed under essentially 50 years of authoritarian rule?
May 28, 2011 @ 3:08 am | Comment
34
By slim
“man, if someone had a question about the corporate American playbook, they should consult you, cuz you seem to have it memorized chapter and verse. I guess you are useful in your own unique way after all.”
Of all the lazy, lame and illogical FQ-style name-calling shite you throw at us here, the “corporate” or “corporate America” tag has got to be the most feeble.
Even IF that’s an insult to some ears — and that’s highly debatable outside of leftist circles, while you strike me as a racialist/fascist — it hardly compares to the stigma of communist or Chicom or CCP apologist. Take a bold step and start using words that mean something and start grounding your rants in fact and logic.
May 28, 2011 @ 5:34 am | Comment
35
By S.K. Cheung
“You mean beyond me saying no less than five times that I travel between Taiwan and America? ”
—relevance. Ever heard of him? Who cares if you regularly travel round-trip to Timbuktu? The point is that you prefer the CCP system …just not enough to live under it. You should perhaps try to comprehend the question before offering up irrelevant non-answers.
It’s wonderful that you’re paying your own way. Is that supposed to be somehow unique, or laudable? Were you expecting free vacations as part of the deal when it comes to living in America?
What does America “owe” overseas Chinese? And when did anyone suggest that overseas Chinese owe America anything? Was there a point to that little blurt, or just some of your random musings about nothing in particular?
The second part of #32 was truly impressive. ‘Look ma, I can take someone else’s words, replace one word with 2 others, and re-use it just like that’. Well done indeed. Gold star for you for exceeding expectations on recycling. You would do swimmingly on a grade-school playground. Your handlers must be so proud.
“Yes, because Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are such awful places to live.”
—you really take the concept of being disingenuous to an art-form. Perhaps you can show me where I was referring to Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. Listen, you are a hypocrite cuz you sing the CCP’s praises but don’t have the stones to subject yourself to their system. It would exhibit mildly character-redeeming qualities to at least acknowledge that much, rather than the pathetic display of obfuscation you’re offering up here. But you do what you gotta do.
May 28, 2011 @ 6:21 am | Comment
36
By yourfriend
slim
“corporate America” tag has got to be the most feeble.
precisely because you’re so cowed and inured to the truth.
yawn. you’re one boring hipster.
while you strike me as a racialist/fascist
you strike me as hipster. no, as much as I like an orderly society I don’t think “the gubmint” should be unduly privileged.
SK Cheung
The point is that you prefer the CCP system …just not enough to live under it.
And the corporate drivel continues to flow out of your propaganda spewing mouth. Last I checked, this debate is not about where “I” prefer to live. In fact I had no choice as to where I ended up. This is about which developmental model is superior- democracies from the get-go like India, Jamaica or Haiti, or authoritarians like Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Enough with your logical fallacies- your “argument” is nothing more than a glib ad hominem. I would gladly live in Singapore or Taiwan.
What does America “owe” overseas Chinese?
Tax revenue. Countless lives as they’re overrepresented as doctors. Patents and international competitiveness thanks to their work in American MNCs. This generally applies to most “Asian Americans”.
Gold star for you for exceeding expectations on recycling.
Considering your tired old line was nothing more than twice regurgitated puke straight from the corporate board room of Fox News, I think replacing a single word took more artistry than anything you’ve written thus far.
Listen, you are a hypocrite cuz you sing the CCP’s praises but don’t have the stones to subject yourself to their system.
Listen, you are a hypocrite cuz you sing the West’s praises but don’t have the stones to subject yourself to their system.
Go live in Saudi Arabia, where the West sponsors terrorism, torture, and mutilation for oil profits.
Go live in Egypt where the people have only recently overthrown a US-backed dictator.
Go live in Congo that suffers from decades of neoimperialist machinations from the West.
It’s funny, almost no Chinese people you meet on the street feel “subjected” yet Cheungsie here who has never left his village in Canada thinks he should be able to tell them when and why they should topple their government.
May 28, 2011 @ 6:42 am | Comment
37
By S.K. Cheung
“this debate is not about where “I” prefer to live.”
—true enough. But it does go towards the hypocrisy of types like you.
“In fact I had no choice as to where I ended up.”
—oh woe is me. You’ve ended up in America, and are physically stuck there and restrained from leaving, such that you have to resort to admiring the CCP system from afar. Ok, I guess I can spare you some sympathy points.
“This is about which developmental model is superior”
—actually, this thread is about a People’s Daily editor and her goofy editorial. But ok, whatever you say.
Besides, China is no longer at the “get-go” stage.
“I would gladly live in Singapore or Taiwan.”
—what, even when given the opportunity, in a hypothetical scenario, you can’t say “I would gladly live in CCP China”? Where’s the spirit and the strength of conviction?!? That’s pretty weak.
“Tax revenue. Countless lives as they’re overrepresented as doctors.”
—seriously? You are going to measure the relationship of the immigrant to the host country in terms of dollars and cents? What about the education that those doctors received? And the services from those tax dollars? And the salaries that resulted in those taxes? I wonder, if one were to interview some of those Chinese-American doctors, whether they would perceive that “America owes me”. You have a funny mind. What is it with you people? If it’s not playing the victim card, then somebody owes you something. Is it the training? The upbringing? What gives?
“I think replacing a single word took more artistry than anything you’ve written thus far.”
—you have a lame concept of “artistry”. It’s not the only thing you’re lame at, it seems.
“Listen, you are a hypocrite cuz you sing the West’s praises but don’t have the stones to subject yourself to their system.”
—wow, LOL, is this your “artistry” at work again? I realize art is in the eye of the beholder, but seriously dude, this is pathetic. And I live in the “west”, so your logic and your artistry are both a little wonky.
“thinks he should be able to tell them when and why they should topple their government.”
—and when have I done that, pray tell? I only say that Chinese people should get to make their own decisions. You’re the one who likes to insist on what they should do, of course all the while not having the strength of conviction or depth of character to walk the walk yourself.
May 28, 2011 @ 1:38 pm | Comment
38
By Raj
Great news. Chinese people get fired because their employers hate China.
You just couldn’t make it up.
May 28, 2011 @ 4:17 pm | Comment
39
By S.K. Cheung
O/T:
Some guy in Wuhan apparently detonated 3 explosives and blew himself up while damaging some government buildings, in an apparent protest over government expropriation and demolition of his property for which he got no joy in the Chinese “legal” system over a course of 10 years.
It’s sad when people feel so powerless in the system that they feel they have to resort to such measures.
(And for the folks like man’sbestfriend, who have a pathological need to “compare”, I’m not saying this is more sad than people in the US going postal, or flying small planes into IRS offices. It’s simply sad. Hope the disclaimer addresses your “comparison” fetish.)
May 29, 2011 @ 1:11 am | Comment
40
By EM
I can’t blame the anti-China hostle attitude. Lately while I would love “asianess” in my own backyard, if I had a backyard. I am starting to get sick of the big headness from Asians, especially in America. Basically the idea is “The Chinese are now eqaul to the Jues” in terms of monies. That is from an actually former villager. This is another reason why fathers should never die at war. God damn “Devils”…as that villager would like to say.
May 29, 2011 @ 6:47 am | Comment
41
By Dogsbody
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam
May 29, 2011 @ 10:06 am | Comment
42
By kevinnolongerinpudong
Only someone like yourfriend who has probably never set foot in China (“I travel between Taiwan and the US- and even pay for my own tickets!”) could have such a fawning and unrealistic opinion of the CCP and all that it does- completely detached from reality or rebuttal.
May 31, 2011 @ 2:44 am | Comment
43
By FOARP
Man’sbestfriend seems to have missed the memo that South Korea and Taiwan have been democratic for getting on 20 years now. Which system is preferred by these countries? Look at the direction they have gone in, look at how they again and again express preference for their present systems over the dictatorships under which they once languished. Look at the direction which even he has gone in – living in the US rather than the “superior” system found in the PRC, taking on US citizenship despite the degree to which he obviously despises that country.
Let’s put it really simply: Man’sbestfriend is a self-hating American.
June 1, 2011 @ 6:44 pm | Comment
44
By Jeff
Sorry for the off-topic comment, I just had to laugh when I saw the giant Bachmann for congress ad on this site today.
June 1, 2011 @ 9:22 pm | Comment
45
By Raj
FOARP, but the only reason “demobcrazy” still exists today is because the illuminati have brainwashed the masses through their control of the media and arts. It serves their purposes to pretend that the public have a real choice when really their lives are controlled in what they do and think.
If they had a real, informed choice they would go for an independent one party state every time.
I mean, surely that has to be the answer. Because the idea that people would prefer multi-party democracy to a repressive one party state is just too terrible to imagine…..
June 2, 2011 @ 1:57 am | Comment
46
By slim
I have a creepy feeling that YF’s ego gets stroked when yet another thread gets hijacked by his banal thoughts… (Not that much more can be said about the bizarre original post)
June 2, 2011 @ 2:12 am | Comment
47
By justrecently
True – it makes no sense to complain about YF on the one hand, and to feed him with attention at the same time. But what’s bizarre about the original post, slim?
June 2, 2011 @ 5:43 am | Comment
48
By King Tubby
I am coming to the view that YF, pug-ster and that Hobbeisn (sic) space cadet Hongjian are secretly funded by either NED, FoxTV or the Cato Institute.
Why? Well, they immediately polarise most threads with their story boarded responses, inability to address issues etc, in such a manner that even mild supporters of the political status quo in China who visit this board are tarred with their brush.Sort of like a reverse Manchurian Candidate effect.
Say it isn’t so guys, and nothing less than a stat dec will do.And please explain away your US passports.
June 2, 2011 @ 7:25 am | Comment
49
By slim
I meant that the issue (GT attacking DW in Orwellian terms) is bizarre and it’s hard to see what more can be said about it here, absent more revelations from parties in the dispute.
June 3, 2011 @ 7:30 pm | Comment
50
By justrecently
Agree, Slim. The whole story lies in a grey and foggy zone of industrial relations, legal claims in civil court cases, and data protection – the most central person in this propagandistic brawl, all the way since 2008, is still working with Deutsche Welle, and as far as I can see, she won’t publish her memoirs any time soon.
June 3, 2011 @ 7:48 pm | Comment
51
By S.K. Cheung
O/T, but Google is back in the news with the Gmail hack job.
June 5, 2011 @ 3:01 pm | Comment
52
By Raj
Another O/T
Upwards of 150,000 people took part in the Hong Kong vigil of the Tiananmen protest crackdown.
June 5, 2011 @ 7:42 pm | Comment
53
By FOARP
Or 70,000 – depends who you ask.
June 6, 2011 @ 12:55 am | Comment
54
By Frank
Deleted
June 6, 2011 @ 1:15 pm | Comment
55
By FOARP
“Frank” – And retarded perma-adolescents love to troll the blog of people more successful than them.
I don’t say this kind of thing often but: please fuck off and die.
June 7, 2011 @ 3:58 am | Comment
56
By Richard
FOARP, thanks for putting Frank in his place. I deleted his two disgusting comments, and have to figure out how he got through the filters.
Apologies to everyone, both for Franks comment and for my not posting for so long, especially for not posting on the TSM anniversary. The truth is I’m getting tired of the topic and don’t have much new to add after writing about it for nearly 9 years.
June 7, 2011 @ 9:24 am | Comment
57 Posted at www.pekingduck.org
[…] my last post about People’s Daily, at least one reader asked me via email why I bother posting about […]
June 7, 2011 @ 11:46 am | Pingback