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Former Chinese Reporter Reveals
CCP's Far Reaching Propoganda
Fan Huiqiang
The
Epoch Times
Tuesday November 6, 2007
On October 23, The Melbourne branch of The Epoch Times held
a symposium on The Nine Commentaries —a series of social
commentaries detailing the brutal history of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP)—at the Australian Catholic University. The symposium
featured Mr. Fan Huiqiang, former reporter of Beijing Radio Broadcast
who spoke of his personal experience with the Chinese media. He
explained that the Chinese media is merely a tool used by the
CCP to deceive both China and the Western world. The following
is an abridged version of his speech.
When people describe reports from China's Xinhua News Agency
they say, "Nothing is true but the date." When people
describe the programming found on China Central Television Station
(CCTV) they say, "Nothing is true but the 'Animal World (a
program produced by CCTV).'" Chinese people have grown accustomed
to false news reports. People have even described Chinese news
agencies as the Party's lap dog. One Chinese folk song goes: "It
is a dog raised by the Party, guarding the Party's gate. It would
bite anyone the Party wants it to bite, and bite however many
times the Party wants it to."
These are the how many Chinese view their media today. I was
a radio journalist in China for 13 years from 1975 to 1988. Today,
I am going to talk about how the CCP has controlled the media
and why it shouldn't be trusted.
(Article continues below)
1. Chinese Media Is the Mouthpiece of the Party and Government
In China, the media is strictly controlled by the Party. On the
first day when I went to work at Beijing Radio Broadcast I was
told, "Our radio is the mouthpiece of the Party and government,
and therefore serves to promulgate the policies of the Party and
government. We must follow the Party line." Newspapers and
TV stations are the same—they are all propaganda tools of
the Party and the government.
Now, let's see how this works. When any major event happens in
China, such as the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, or
elsewhere in the world—for example the Iraq war—we
would have briefings from the Ministry of Publicity or even higher
officials, and they would set the tone for how we would report
the issue. Without exception, all media would be expected to "speak
along the same lines." For example, on April 5, 1976 people
in Beijing went to Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of former
Premier Zhou Enlai. The authorities did not like people to mourn
the premier so they ordered to disperse the people with force.
Politburo member Yao Wenyuan, who was in charge of propaganda,
came to the then broadcasting administrative bureau and held a
press briefing. He declared the gathering an anti-revolutionary
activity. Therefore all media directly under the central government
would follow the same line. This is the instruction on the level
of the central government.
As for local media, since they have no editorial rights to cover
such major events, they merely reprint stories from Xinhua News
Agency. For local major events, the media takes its instructions
from the propaganda department at the local level. These local
media outlets have only one editorial policy—declare how
great, how glorious and how correct the Party is. Sometimes when
the Party is clearly at fault, people will simply be told to have
the faith in the government.
In fact, the Party decides exactly what people will read, listen
to and watch. When this degree of brainwashing day after day,
month after month and year after year people become accustomed
to it and begin to assume that what they read, hear and watch
is the truth. Even when you are wrongly accused, imprisoned or
thrown into the forced labor camps you and your family would thank
the CCP for its leniency when you are released.
2. The CCP Uses Every Possible Means to Block Outside Information
from Reaching the Chinese People
To make sure its lies are not exposed, the CCP has continuously
tried to cut off all links with the outside world. In the days
before the Internet, the CCP jammed signals from the BBC, VOA,
and Taiwanese radio stations, and branded these as enemy transmissions,
and those found listening to these stations would be punished.
In the summer of 1978 I went back to Shanghai City to visit my
parents. One day, I switched the radio on and tuned to Beijing
Radio Broadcast's English broadcast. Since it was very hot inside
the house I turned the volume a bit louder so that I could hear
the radio from outside. Soon, a lady from our neighborhood committee
came over to see what was going on. Since she could not understand
the language being spoken on the radio, she thought I was listening
to a foreign station. She started to question me about the content.
When I explained that it was one of our own radio stations and
it was the very station I was working for she was not convinced.
Only when the "The East Is Red" came on was she satisfied
and left. When satellite TV and the Internet came into being,
people outside China thought that the Chinese people would now
be able to freely access information. But they have been proven
wrong. The CCP screened Internet content with what they called
the "Golden Shield" firewall which blocks all so-called
"sensitive" topics and words.
Installing a satellite receiver is illegal in China. Individuals
receive a 5,000 yuan (US$671) fine and organizations a 50,000
yuan ($6,706) fine for installing a satellite receiver. In the
absence of any alternatives, people still read what the Party
allows them to read from the Internet and continue to watch CCTV.
3. Propaganda Effectiveness
I think a lot of you still remember the June 4th Tiananmen Square
Massacre. I was working at Radio Australia so I am not qualified
to talk too much about the massacre itself. I only want to tell
you how effective the CCP's brainwashing propaganda was. We received
thousands of letters from China. All the letters from Beijing
described the massacre they had seen or experienced. These listeners
all accused the CCP of murdering its own people with guns and
tanks. Some listeners vividly described how people were shot dead
around them. As a matter of fact, the deputy director of Beijing
Radio Broadcast's Russian Department was shot dead on his way
back from work. However, listeners from other parts of the country
all believed the version they got from the Chinese media. They
thought no one was killed and in their letters they enclosed local
newspaper clippings accusing the "mob" of anti-revolutionary
activities and claims that the students attacked the soldiers.
Here are some more examples of the CCP manipulating news: When
SARS occurred in China the Chinese media covered up the facts
for a long period of time. When it could not cover up the true
situation any more it finally admitted the existence of the epidemic.
The strategy then switched to blanket coverage of how much the
Chinese government was concerned about people's welfare, and promoting
that under Party leadership SARS would be brought under control
and finally eliminated.
In the current campaign to wipe out Falun Gong, the CCP, on the
one hand, has mobilized the media and bombarded the Chinese people
with fabricated stories to demonize the practice and scare the
populace, so that they will shun Falun Gong practitioners. On
the other hand, this media campaign has destroyed all the Falun
Gong books and materials so that people have no way to check whether
what the media says is true or not. With no other source of information,
many people only believe what the media tells them.
4. CCP's Media Has Always Maintained that Socialism Will Prevail
Over Capitalism
I was born after the CCP took over power in 1949 and was brainwashed
by the 'education' I received growing up. Therefore, I always
believed what I had learned was the truth and never had doubts
about what the CCP told us.
After the Cultural Revolution, all the intellectuals, including
teachers and students of higher learning, must go to a special
school to temper themselves through labor (or reform through labor).
In 1974 I went to such a school in Fengyang County, Anhui Province.
We all stayed at local peasants homes. I was very shocked to see
how poor the peasants were—they live in a mud house. Inside,
there was no normal furniture as I would have expected. A small
table and a homemade bed (a wooden frame with strings woven across)
were the only furnishings. Kids were dressed in rags, if dressed
at all, and survived on sweet potatoes. They all had big bellies
due to malnutrition. We were told that all the grains were for
the urban people. If they could have one meal with pork during
in an entire year it was considered a good year. The most shocking
thing to learn was that during the three-year famine from 1959
to 1961 the locals had to eat tree bark and grass and when these
were gone they were forced to eat dirt. Finally they began to
eat people. If I had not heard this in person it would have been
hard to believe. The CCP attributed the famine to natural disaster,
but now we know that the weather then was not the problem. It
was callousness, unrealistic fantasy and stupidity on the part
of the Party that had caused the famine responsible for the deaths
of 40 million people.
5. How the CCP Fools Foreign Devils
One hoax occurred during Nixon's visit to Shanghai in the early
1970s. American officials were visiting China for the very first
time since the CCP took power. During his travels, Mr. Nixon was
accompanied by a group of what people called China experts. In
order to leave the American visitors with a good impression a
large scale campaign was organized. A friend who lived in Huangpu
District where the famous Nanjing Road is located told me a story.
She said her neighborhood committee asked her to go to Nanjing
Road at a specific date and time. She was told to dress in her
best clothes and walk along a certain section of the road. Therefore,
when Mr. Nixon arrived, it would give him the impression there
were a lot of well-dressed people walking along the Nanking Road.
This was, of course, an illusion as they were there merely to
fulfill a political task. The store Nixon was to visit also received
orders and prepared for their performance. They made up a whole
new set of marked down price tags for every item for sale in the
shop. Shop assistants were advised that when certain music was
played they had to change all the usual price tags with the new
ones. In this way the Americans would be impressed at how cheap
prices were in China. That was a very complicated campaign involving
thousands of people and the coordination of many departments.
However, the CCP managed it with ease.
Now think about it, how easy would it be for the CCP to stage
a Tiananmen Square Self-immolation or take American diplomats
to a hospital at Sujiatun and "prove" to them that there
was no organ harvesting going on there? It would be a piece of
cake.
Some people might question whether what I say is accurate. Let
me tell you something; I have been personally involved in one
of these campaigns of deception. In 1978 when a film crew from
America's NBC network was making a documentary on Chin's education
system I worked as their interpreter. During their filming they
requested to take shots of a food market in Beijing. We, the hosts,
contacted Dongsi Market and told them foreigners would go there
to shoot a documentary and advised them to get well prepared.
I have to explain here, the host would be held responsible if
the image of the Party or socialism was damaged in any way. On
the day when we arrived I was amazed myself at the transformation.
The normally barren market was full of goodies. There were live
chickens and ducks, live fish, lean pork meat, all sorts of fresh
vegetables and soybean products like tofu. When the documentary
was broadcasted in America, people would think it was a typical
food market in China, but actually it is not.
We Chinese have a saying: "Domestic shame shouldn't be made
public." The CCP took that to heart and created the theory
of "Keeping inside information from outsiders or foreigners."
At that time I did not think it was bad, and instead believed
it was my duty to do what was necessary to make the Party look
good and not lose face. I thought it was important that we must
leave foreigners with a good impression of China. When the Party
and authorities were experiencing difficulties we had to help
them to "cheating the foreign devils." This expression
was very often used by the CCP.
6. CCP's Media Control Has Expanded Overseas
The CCP pays great attention to what people say about it outside
of China. To make sure that no one exposes its crimes, the CCP
has worked very hard and spent huge sums of money to control the
overseas media, especially the overseas Chinese media. The CCP
uses four types of methods to reach this goal.
(1) Completely take over or at least buy up the majority of shares
of a media company so as to directly control the overseas Chinese
newspapers, TV stations and radio stations; (2) Use an independent
media company's business interests in China as a means of gaining
influence and exerting economic blackmail; (3) Buy blocks of air-time
or advertising space; (4) Have Chinese government employees infiltrate
media organizations to cause disruption from within.
While keeping a tight control on media at home the CCP still
tries to force Chinese people living outside China to follow the
Party line. It reprints the Party's newspaper the "People's
Daily" here in Australia, which is given away free of charge
and it has also been distributed to all the Chinese language schools,
Chinese shops and restaurants. CCTV has also landed here in Australia.
The tragedy is a lot of Chinese people who've fled their country
and have settled down in Australia still read the "People's
Daily" and watch CCTV. Therefore, their mindset is still
in line with the Party.
However, this is only a one-way trade. Western media is still
banned in China; though many people have tried to enter into China's
media market they've failed to make it. Australian born global
media executive Rupert Murdoch is a typical example. He spent
a lot of money and many years of effort, but finally he had to
admit the failure of his project and pulled out of China.
Thank you
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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