If you are like me, you are baffled by the idiotic mindset
of those Chinese bureaucrats. Apparently, Melissa
Chan was expelled because the "relevant" authorities
were unhappy about some reports criticizing China that involved her (or not). I'm sure
the authorities' desired effect was "killing one to admonish a
hundred" (杀一儆百) — but
guess what? It is only natural that such
a move greatly increases the awareness and impact of those previously
less-known reports. How clever is that?
The disturbing thing is, from my contacts with Chinese
bureaucrats, they really do believe what they are doing is both good and smart.
There is a great gap between reality and their view of it. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell China's officialdom
is dominated by such. Their way of thinking is at least two decades behind the
times. I doubt China can have effective political reform before this generation
of officials withdraw from the stage.
And be sure to read this hilarious (no kidding) report: Chinese Official Questioned About Al Jazeera Reporter's Expulsion, count how many
times the word "relevant" is used, and get a kick out of it. I'm sure the speaker really believes his answers
were very smart.
On a related note, Foreign
Policy's Isaac Stone Fish has an interesting
post that analyzes the possible connection between race and China's
expulsion of Melissa Chan. To further
Fish's point, race has almost always been a factor, if sometimes demonstrated in
different ways, in Chinese attitudes toward foreigners. This again is a generational thing that’s waiting
for change.
Following the Melissa Chan incident, NYT's Edward Wong dug up – and Tweeted about – an old tale of another American journalist, John
Burns, who was expelled from China in 1986 because of his exploration of
the kingdom’s backwaters. Burns' story recalls
intimately the experience of my husband during that same period. In the summer
of 1987, Bob rode his bike across China coming to see me in Chongqing, and
enroute he and his bike were both arrested. I wrote about the episode
here:
4 comments:
That press conference is almost mystically recursive. Q: Which rule was broken? A: The answer to that question can be found in the Book of Rules. Q: Having read the Book, I cannot see which Rule was broken. A: I believe the Book is quite clear. Refer to the Book.
Just so you know, VOA archived the page you linked to, so the link is now broken. The new link is http://www.voanews.com/content/article/369849.html
Richard, thanks for letting me know! The link is now updated.
I'm just glad I never had to encounter such problems. Of course, I tried to avoid writing anything that was overly critical (although I did tell a class of 40 police officers that their textbook, which was written by a Beijing official, was full of garbage and in desperate need of a proofreader).
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