DHARAMSHALA, January 22: A noted New Yorker writer and China hand has asked the staterun China Daily to remove an article published under his name saying he had not written the piece on China.
The article, under the byline of Peter Hessler, who spent several years in China and now based in Egypt, praises various aspects of China whose political system was referred to as “quite stable” in the article.
Hessler, on his Facebook page, said he wrote to the paper asking the article be removed and a retraction be issued.
Hessler is the author of three acclaimed books about China and has contributed numerous articles to The New Yorker and National Geographic, among other publications.
“China Daily published an article under my byline, presented as an article that I had written solely about Egypt and China, and including much of my response on the question about post-revolution Egypt. But it omitted crucial parts, including the most important point: that I believe it’s harder to make a political change in China, where the system is deeper rooted than in Egypt, and thus the flaws are also more deeply rooted. I said that this is the reason why the current anti-corruption campaign will be a failure, because China is not addressing its systemic flaws. This material, among other things, was not included in the published article,” said Hessler.
Hessler said he had agreed to be interviewed along with Li Xueshun, a former colleague from Fuling who has translated several editions of his books on life in China. A
He said it asked the paper to retract the article purportedly written by him “because it should not have been under my byline and it did not accurately convey the substance of the interview.” The paper, however, has since removed the article from its website but has not issued a retraction.
“I want to emphasize that this article does not in any way represent a comprehensive picture of my views on China and Egypt, and I never would have agreed to such a story. And I want readers to understand that the terms under which I was approached – that this was a year-end interview with my friend and colleague Li Xueshun, on a range of topics – are completely different from being approached for an article specifically about Egypt and China (especially when my byline will be used, not to mention with key material removed).”
Hessler also noted the this incident has not been representative of his recent experiences with Chinese journalists. “Over the past two years I’ve had many interviews with the Chinese press, including a book tour last fall. I’m well aware of the pressures that journalists face in China, especially in the current climate, where there is a risk that words can be twisted or taken out of context for political ends. I’ve appreciated the fact that so many of the Chinese journalists that I’ve met have been sensitive to this, and in some cases have worked with me directly in an effort to find the best way to convey ideas responsibly and accurately.”
Chinese state media’s blatant disregard to ethics and code of journalism in getting the party’s line across is not a rare phenomenon. China regularly publishes views of the communist government under different names of individuals in its mouthpieces, glorying its achievements in Tibet and denouncing the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama whom most of its publications refer to as “a monk in a wolf’s robes.”
