In an article published by Epoch Times, Dr Sun Yanjun writes about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official media handle “sensitive news” by employing what he calls “Three-Step process” and a “Basic Law”.
By Sun Yanjun
While throughout the world people have watched media reports detailing the massive anti-government protests in Egypt that began on Jan. 25, in China the media reports have been either minimal or misleading and online discussions have been closed.
When coverage of the Egyptian crisis inside China has been noticed outside of China, it has sometimes been misunderstood. For instance, the deputy chief editor of the Russian magazine Issues of the Far East has said that China’s low profile reporting of the Egyptian uprising is due to China’s interests in northern Africa and the Middle East.
In fact, the reporting in China on Egypt is just the latest example of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official media handle sensitive news. Common citizens in China have a clear understanding of how this works.
Handling Sensitive News
The CCP calls “sensitive” any news that will cause the general public in China to oppose the totalitarian rule of the CCP. The CCP handles such news with a three-step process that follows a basic law.
First, do everything possible to censor the story. All official media remain silent about the sensitive news and report as though everything is peaceful and in harmony.
However, due to the advance of modern communication channels, if the censorship lasts too long, the news will eventually leak out. At that time, the CCP official media will implement the second step and will have low-profile reporting on the sensitive news in some hard to notice corners of the newspaper.
As the incident continues to escalate, the official media eventually have to make their response. The Party mouthpieces will unanimously distort the facts and publish twisted stories. This is a common tactic of the CCP called “snatching the right to speak.”
The reporting of the fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Saddam’s rule in Iraq, large scale protests inside China, the corruption of CCP officials, and other sensitive events has basically followed this three-step procedure.
Reporting the Egyptian Incident
The unrest in Egypt apparently really scared the Chinese Communist Party leaders. If Chinese people all took to the streets and everyone protested like the Egyptian people, that would be very hard for the CCP to handle.
Therefore, the CCP performed its old tricks. First, all media collectively censored the story and all posts containing the word “Egypt” on the SINA microblogs were deleted or censored.
Next, the official Xinhua News Agency published low-profile reports as part of a news brief. The reporting mainly centered on how trapped Chinese citizens escaped from Egypt, with very little information about the scenes of mass demonstrations on the streets of Egypt.
As the situation in Egypt continued to develop, the CCP censorship agency allowed reporters to mention demonstrations in Egypt, but reports must avoid the real reasons behind the demonstrations. That Egyptians want reform, democracy, and the removal of President Hosni Mubarak was not mentioned.
Then the CCP media gradually embarked on the third step of the procedure. They started to distort the facts and report twisted stories. For example, while the international media reported that the Egyptian military promised to stay neutral, the official Xinhua report on Feb. 2 said that the Egyptian military urged the demonstrators to stop protesting.
Xinhua emphasized the need for stability. An article on Feb 4 said that the Egyptian military did not dispatch troops to stop the unrest, resulting in complete loss of control.
Xinhua ignored the views of the general public in Egypt. A Jan. 31 article on the Sina website, “Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Met with Secretary of Defense and Other Military Officials,” gave support to Mubarak. So, too, did a Feb. 6 report on Xinhua, “Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Did Not Resign From Presidency.”
The Basic Law
Many experts who study Chinese affairs are often frustrated by their inability to predict political and economic situations in China.
In reality, there is no need to be frustrated. The predictions of any expert who just reverses whatever the CCP media reports will achieve over ninety percent.
This is the “basic law” of CCP media reporting as formulated from the long term observations of the general public in China.
For example, if the CCP media says that commodity prices will not rise, this means that inflation has reached unbearable levels. If the CCP media reports that Chinese grain reserves are sufficient, it certainly means that there is a food deficit.
If the official media reports that SARS did not break out and Chinese society is stable, that means SARS has spread all over and Chinese society is highly unstable.
If the official media says that the stock prices will improve, that means the market is about to plunge drastically.
This law also applies to international reports as well. For example, during the Gulf War, the CCP media reported that there will definitely be brutal street fighting in Baghdad and it will be another Battle of Verdun. The results were that the U.S military easily occupied Baghdad and was welcomed by the Iraqi people.
Looking at how the CCP handles sensitive news reports, it’s obvious that the CCP official media is simply a tool for deceiving the general public. The “basic law,” on the other hand, shows how foolish and clumsy the CCP’s lies really are.
In this highly developed information age, the concepts of democracy and freedom are taking deep roots in people’s hearts. The CCP’s foolish lies try to cover the truth, but in reality do nothing other than give people something to laugh at.
Dr. Sun Yanjun writes on Chinese politics and society. He was an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the Capital Normal University in Beijing. In 2009 he publicly renounced the Chinese Communist Party and now lives in the United States.
