http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jh...4/12/do1210.xml


Chinese ambassador Fu Ying: Western media has 'demonised' China
By Fu Ying, China's ambassador to London
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 12/04/2008

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In the morning of April 6, looking at the snowflakes falling outside the window, I could not but wonder what the torch relay would be like.

News: Chinese ambassador says Britain 'lacks respect'
About 8 hours later, when the torch finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at the O2 dome, and 4,000 spectators cheered, obviously with a sense of relief.


A police officer tackles a demonstrator during the Olympic torch relay in London


This day will be remembered, as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first western country to greet the 2008 torch.

On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic gold medalist, Miss Qiao.

They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn't believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens.

Another asked: where is the "gentlemenship"? I used all my knowledge to argue for London, and looking into their watery eyes, I knew I was not succeeding. I can't blame them.

They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers.

They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now.

Worse still, they had to endure repeated violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate to sit at the rear of the bus and saw smiling faces of Londoners who came out in the tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather.

In the darkness of a London night, waving the chartered plane goodbye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on, and the journey will educate the more than a billion Chinese people about the world, and the world about China.

A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on the BBC: "I felt so many things all at once – sadness, anger and confusion." It must have dawned on many like him that simply a sincere heart was not enough to ensure China's smooth integration with the world.

The wall that stands in China's way to the world is thick. In China, what's hot at this moment on the internet, which has 200 million users there, is not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair, helped by a blind athlete. She held the torch with both arms to her chest as violent "protesters" tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay.

There is especially infuriated criticism of some of the misreporting of China in recent weeks, such as crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a crackdown. On the other side of the wall, the story is different.

Standing in the middle, I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions. I cannot help asking why, when it comes to China, the generalised accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean; why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support.

Even my own participation in the torch relay had been the subject of continuous speculation. I remember a local friend said, "We all like to read media stories. Only when it comes to ourselves do we know they can't all be true."

Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years saw the income of farmers and herdsmen increasing by 83.3 per cent. In 2006 there were more than 1,000 schools, with 500,000 students.

In this Autonomous Region, where 92 per cent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people – which is more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people.

There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.

I personally experienced China's transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up. The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese, those born since the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous, better-educated and freer China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West.

My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word "why" dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonise China.

We all know demonisation feeds a counter-reaction. I do pray from the bottom of my heart that the younger generation of Chinese will not be totally disillusioned about the West, which remains an important partner in our ongoing reform.

Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. Coming to China to report bad stories may not be welcomed but would not be stopped, as China is committed to opening up.

China is far from perfect and it is trying to address the many problems that do exist. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of the long-gone past.

In my one year in the UK, I have realized that there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-1980s, and most of it is quite close to the real life of China, good or bad.

China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China. The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.

Fu Ying is the Chinese Ambassador to London

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...bassador112.xml

Chinese ambassador attacks Western media
By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor, and David Eimer in Beijing
Last Updated: 8:28am BST 13/04/2008



The Chinese ambassador to London has denounced "violent" British demonstrators who attacked the Olympic torch relay - and hit out at the western media for "demonising" China.

Full article by Chinese ambassador Fu Ying
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Fu Ying claims that Chinese Olympic athletes were so shocked by the protests at the relay in London that they questioned whether Britain could really have been the land that produced Shakespeare and Dickens.


Fu Ying carries the Olympic torch through London


In her article, Madam Fu says: "Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media’s attempt to demonise China. We all know demonisation feeds a counter reaction.

"Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect."

The unprecedented attack comes after international concern about the crackdown in Tibet, with Tibetan exile groups saying Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters during violent clashes.

Protests during the Olympic torch relay by activists critical of China’s actions have taken place all over the world ahead of the Beijing Games in August.

Voicing her own disappointment that the relay in London last weekend was marred by demonstrations, Madam Fu said: "On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic Gold Medalist Miss Qiao. They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn’t believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens. Another asked: where is the 'gentlemenship’?"

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Dismissing criticism of China’s actions in Tibet, she said: "Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. People are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries."

Gordon Brown has confirmed that he will not attend the Beijing opening ceremony, although he denied it was a protest or change of plan and said he will go to the closing ceremony instead. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also informed China that he will not attend the opening ceremony.

China’s President Hu Jintao defended the suppression of the protests in Tibet yesterday and appeared to rule out any possibility of holding talks with the Dalai Lama.


Chaotic scenes of protest marked the Olympic torch's progress through London
In his first comments on the protests, President Hu denied that they had anything to do with human rights, or with Beijing’s restrictions on religious freedom in Tibet.

Instead, he blamed the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the largest uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet for 20 years.

He said that China was ready to meet with the Dalai Lama, but only if the Tibetan spiritual leader stopped trying to "split the motherland", "incite violence" and "ruin the Beijing Olympics".

Interviewed on US television late on Friday, the Dalai Lama reiterated his opposition to a boycott of the Beijing Games and told China, "We are not against you. And I’m not seeking separation".

今天早上看到她的新闻，觉得她说得不错。我们要强烈地呼吁西方媒体"show the world a real China"。不错，中国有propaganda，但是我们要让西方民众认识到，这里也有propaganda（其实一部分西方人是知道的，但大多数是完全没有意识到这一点的）。

一个一辈子待在中国的人，主要受中国媒体的影响，可能对中国，对西方的人士都不全面。同样的，一个一辈子都没有在中国居住过的西方人（不仅仅是旅游），也不可能了解到真正的中国。我们这些海外华人在两边都待过许多年的，先后接触过两边不同的ideology的，才是最有发言权的，我想这一点应该不难说服西方百姓甚至媒体。所以我们可以进而呼吁"listen to the voice of overseas-Chinese"。

Check BBC Chinese news, which newspaper? Times or Sunday Telegraph?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/news...900/7344955.stm

中国驻英国大使傅莹指责西方媒体把中国妖魔化，并说西藏存在着“复杂问题”。

傅莹在4月13日的《星期日泰晤士报》上说，上周伦敦站奥运火炬传递在一片示威抗议声中结束后，一名华人女士问她：“绅士风度都哪去了？”

她还说，许多到伦敦来的中国游客在火炬传递后认为英国都针对他们。

傅莹在《星期日泰晤士报》上写道，中国人都“热爱”西藏；他担心中国和西方人民的相互印象将迅速趋向对立。

傅莹写道：“对于那些大声疾呼地示威的人来说，他们许多人可能没有见过西藏。对于中国人来说，西藏是他们热爱的地方，而且关于这地方的资讯是充裕的。”




如何看奥运火炬传递遭示威干扰
中国应该如何面对西藏人的要求？

“那里可能存在着宗教与政治混为一谈的复杂问题，但是人们都吃得饱、穿得暖、住得好。”

“这都是中国几个世纪以来的目标。西藏也许不会像中国东部的城市一样发展成为工业地区，但它将跟中国其它地方一样向前。”

BBC政治记者库尔斯伯格说，英国外交部官员曾指出，中国要解决偏颇报道，其中一个方法就是让国际记者自由地进入西藏。

但是傅莹说西方媒体要先赢得中国的“尊重”。

她说：“许多人投诉中国不允许（人民）有充足的媒体接触。在中国，人们的看法是西方媒体需要尽些努力去赢得尊重。”

“到中国报道坏的新闻不会被禁止，因为中国承诺了要予以开放。”

是啊，我觉得傅莹和SEGA说的都很对。我们这些在国内生活过的华人在比较了两边的‘事实’后最容易分清真相。

看了一些comments，真可笑，有人連作者的性別都沒弄清楚就長篇大論，很難說服我這樣的人有什么求實的精神。

great article. I've decided to print this and hand them out to people at the protest next weekend.

呵呵，我也看到了。

说的好啊！我们现在就缺这种有分量的人出来说话，最好是外交部发言人、北京奥组委主席都轮番出来谴责就好了。

我也觉得傅大使说得很不错。尤其是这句：Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.
可是，那些敌视我们的人真的愿意去了解我们吗？？

A bunch of idiots are still posting their baseless arguments on there. This is my reply. I would recommend everyone to let yourself heard!

"to
To Timberlake:

You said:
" One thing is still very interesting. i saw many pro-chinese protesters in london and paris on TV, most of them are han chinese. can anyone ask them one question--can they freely organise any kind of protest in their own country--china so freely? the answer is a clear-cut!"

I see your point, and at no point that we the Chinese had denied the fact that there are still things need to be improved in China. However we don't need the constant political bashing, the unfair treatment or the discrimination. We don't need the humiliation on our motherland or our people. We certainly don't need some hypocrite to point finger at us, interfering our domestic affairs.

China is still a developing country, with its economic growth, a better political environment will eventually follow. Don't forget China only had 25 years since it opened its doors to the rest of the world, you can't expect it to achieve the level of democracy that took Europe over 300 years to develop and mature. If the Western World, and indeed, YOU, really want to improve anything, start with UNDERSTANDING the real China. Don't forget you can't force your values onto anyone else. How Britain runs its country is its own domestic decision, China has the same right. Managing a country that's got over 1.3 billion people requires certain rules and restrictions in place. You might not agree with everything the Chinese government do, but if the majority of the Chinese citizens are happy, why can't the western world live with it? It's OUR country after all.

You are absolutely right, that most of the pro-China protesters are Chinese. Don't you think you should listen to what they have to say. Don't you think they would know their OWN country better than some foreign journalists? I could ask you that, most of the Pro-Tibet protesters I see on TV are not Tibetans, they are not even Chinese. How much do they know about Tibet or the culture and history behind it? Or are they just jumping on the moral bandwagon? I think the answer's pretty clean-cut too.

Back to the point that Ambassador Fu is making, it's a fact that the report from the BBC were biased, single-sided, baseless, nonfactual, inaccurate and sometimes even manipulated. Take Tibetan riots as an example, and yes it was a domestic violent riots, the BBC had made it look like a blood-shed government-backed 'crackdown' on some 'peaceful protesters' by using footage/pictures out of context, it repeatedly reported the number of Tibetan rioters died in the conflict, but never once mentioned how many innocent ethic-Han Chinese killed by them. They showed the picture of Chinese military personel carring an injured civillian onto an ambulance, with a purposely misleading tag line that read 'Heavy military presence in Lhasa'. The list goes on.

To put things in perspective, what if the media in the rest of the world ONLY reports on the British yobs culture, unlawful invasion of Iraq, the incompetence of the government workers that led to the loss of important personal data, murders and pedophilia. What sort of impact would it have on the image and the reputation of Great Britain? Everything has two sides, people have the right to know the full story. The media has the responsibility of representing the facts, from both sides, and leave the viewers to make up their own minds and decisions."

把我的comment給修改了，把指責BBC那個駐華記者的話給拿掉了。 Anyway，好歹還登出來了，也算比BBC好點點。

不過又看到一些人很愚蠢地認為游行示威的都是漢族，漢族臉上有寫“漢”字嗎？ 我還有納西族血統呢，這個能看得出來么？

還有一個女的說什么現在的中國根本就是占領西藏新疆和蒙古這些少數民族，那些地方跟漢族沒關系，還說中國人的歷史是編造的，她看的是英國出版的中國歷史吧？ 中國歷史上統一了多少次？ 對中國不了解到這樣的程度，還出來胡言亂語，真是看不起這些人。

GOOD！

有些白痴西方人，都不知道该说什么了，反正就是恐中恐共以后，对中国的任何东西都不信任，对中国对立面的东西不管怎么都相信，应该同意他们观点，随身附和说，西藏和达赖是伟大，很好，给人类做出极大贡献，连英国和欧洲文明都是西藏和达赖创造出来的

那天去伦敦，到得早了。于是在唐人街附近的麦记吃了份早餐，然后要了被咖啡慢慢等火炬。

其间跟一个埃及人搭上了讪，聊起藏独的问题。说到媒体对西方以外的国家不公，他也深有感触，所以我们很容易找到共同点。

但是说起西藏、新疆和（内）蒙古这些地方的历史，他显然接受西方灌输的观点，觉得是汉人侵略了这些地方。

我就跟他解释，汉人不是一个单一民族的概念。历史上汉地多次被北方少数民族侵略，还不止一次被异族统治，比方说唐朝的李家就有回鹘血统，契丹辽、女真金、蒙古元，还有最后一个王朝清，都是异族。可是这些异族最后都自动汉化了，因为汉文化有凝聚力。他们开疆拓土的地方，最后也就变成中国的一部分。所以说中国的疆域，不是汉人用武力打出来的，而是用文化粘合在一起的。这一点，我们跟罗马人不一样，跟拿破仑，跟沙俄都不一样。

这位埃及老兄算是比较了解中国历史的，所以后来接受我这个观点。可是对于普通西方人来讲，他们脑袋里的大帝国，就只有罗马的武力征服模式，英帝国的殖民模式，对于中国的文化统一模式，他们不了解。我觉得这一点是必须要跟他们好好讲清楚的。

BBC也登出来了：

你真厉害，俺的历史知识太差了。

这好像会很自然地让话题转移到文化入侵上。所以你应该继续普及如何反击达赖culture genocide的指控。

我的英国朋友看了傅莹的信，很感动，说：“我真为那些英国人赶到羞耻，对不起。”傅莹以女性的细腻和温情唤醒了部分英国人的良知。中国官员也会做PR了。

f**king idiot!



To Alex:

you said:"Your daughter was using online chat? Presumably she wasn't being monitored by the 1000s of spies your country employs. It's a shame you don't afford the same freedom to your own people."

No, the Ambassador is not enjoying any exceptional privilege when she's chatting to her daughter online. In fact most of us Chinese living abroad nowadays constantly keep in touch with our family and friends back in China using Skype or MSN messenger.

Have you ever been to China? Have you ever used the internet in China? If not, then I should recommend you to comment only on things you know about or have factual evidence to back up.

I'd imagine you came to the conclusion of that everything is censored, accessing the Internet in China is a privilege after learning a few stories from the media?

By the way, sarcasm does not play a good part in a debate like this. And I don't think the Ambassador deserve your baseless inaccurate accusation like that.

奇怪,我一小时前还能在BBC上看到大使的文章,现在看就不见了,搜索也没搜索出来.BBC是不是又要玩什么花招呢

你這個說法我挺贊成的，歷史不夠悠久的國家，的確很難明白中華民族這樣特殊的混合體，逮到機會確實應該耐性跟對方講一講。

就是有時候看到一些對中國一知半解的人跑出來扮專家亂嚷嚷，火大。

eggcat給的鏈接能打開。

谢谢了, 我看到了.

建议19号集会的时候把 stop demonising China 也加进去

所以我希望大家在游行时能展现出自己民族的特别风貌，让他们见识见识中华民族、华夏儿女的含义！！不然，他们会以为我们都是汉族，他们不明白我们的民族已经经过了上下五千年的融合，我们再怎么抗议，他们还会说是“你们汉族欺压少数民族”。