Frequently Asked Questions by Nothostiletous
(I wrote the post everyday at midnight when I am traveling in another country. I am in a very busy trip. I tried to get time to write this. My only hope is that you can read the post carefully, and feel our heart in-depth. Sincerely appreciate any of your assistance. Thank you very much!

By the way, I don’t have much time to put in more questions. I hope more Chinese friends can add in more, and translate more Chinese news for them. Please do NOT resort to childish and impolite words. We are trying to look for more help from western friends!)

1.
What is the objective of our discussion here?
The objectives of the discussion are: to clarify the truth of Tibet, to point out the biased reports from western media, and to get more support from western society as well.

I would like to highlight the last one, 'to get more support from western society” to all western friend here. We are actually not trying to convince individual western friends one by one. I hope western friends can do us a favor, i.e., trying to speak to western people, media and politicians for us, letting western people know that it is not correct, and is actually brutal to distort the truth purposely, to ruin the ten-years dream (Olympic) of Chinese civilian due to bias and arrogance. We hope western people can listen to both sides before they do any action, such as protest or boycotting the Olympic. We hope western people can get into China to know more about it by themselves before they make any critique.

I want to make clear that, we are not against any of western friends. Actually, we need the support from western people to win the war against bias in the end, because the western politicians and media do not care the response of Chinese civilian, but they do care the feeling of western people because of the vote and the reader rating. So, dear all western friends, please do NOT only addict yourselves to debating with us here, and please do NOT forget everything after you log out of this website. Try to give us a hand whenever and wherever you can. No matter how much China’s government needs to improve, it is NOT fair to ignore the voice of Chinese civilian. We sincerely appreciate any generous and practical help from you. Thank you very much!


2.
China’s official news has problems too, so western media shouldn’t be criticized. (This suggestion is raised by Thomas, a nice western guy. So I copy my previous reply here.)

Well, Thomas, you really paste a lot of information here. I roughly read your post, and noticed that your point of view on the Xinhua (one China’s official news agency) and SMH (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia). I strongly agree with you that Xinhua does erase some information in the news. For example,

Xinhua:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said here Wednesday he opposed a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games and suggested building "continuing, profound and sincere friendship" with China.
SMH:
Mr Rudd told the university students he came as a "true friend". Mr Rudd said a boycott would be counterproductive because "the Olympics are important for China's continuing engagement with the world"."We wish to see the year 2008 as one of harmony and celebration, not one of conflict and contention,"

To myself, I would like to believe SMH at this point. Actually, Chinese never deny that China's official news agency erase some information in the news, and make it look more positive. That's why we don't believe the China's official news agency much. But, I have to point out several issues here.

²
A. The fact that China's official news agency makes revision on the news does not mean that western media have the right to make biased news to Chinese. Do you agree? Please notice that I am using "Chinese" here, instead of china's government. Chinese civilian expected the Olympic game for 10 years. This is a wonderful dream for every Chinese. The biased news made by western media and politicians is not against to China's government, it is actually more against to Chinese civilian, It did hurt Chinese civilians’ hearts heavily. I hope you can understand people's anger when their ten-year dream was broken by someone.

²
B. As you said, the China's official news agency blocks some facts to Chinese. In other words, Chinese civilian are hurt by China's official news agency. Does that mean the western media have the right to hurt Chinese civilian once more?

²
C. China's government did a lot of things to protect the Olympic game, which is favored by Chinese civilian, no matter what China's government did before. I can understand that China's official news agency sometimes doesn't report the truth completely. But, we must notice that it is improving. In my viewpoint, if western media and politician really want to help us to increase the media freedom, they should do in a positive way, giving China's official news agency a good sample.


[ Last edited by uglyrain at 27-4-2008 23:39 ]

3.
All media have varying degrees of biases towards different issues. So differences in opinions within our media are welcomed - and should be welcomed. (This point was raised by Objectivity, another western friend.)
This question is also presented as “why Chinese concern so much about the western media”.

I strongly agree with you that different in opinions should be welcomed, because they can help people to know things from difference perspectives, and improve the society in the end. But I would like to point out seriously that, the violence behavior is DEFINITELY not allowed, and the behavior that supports the violence (either directly or indirectly) should DEFINITELY be condemned by all people. I believe that you should agree with this point too.

Now let’s look at the behavior of so-called “protestors” in Tibet. There are innocent passengers who were labbered with gas oil by the rioter (including monks) and burned into death. And a few very young girls (only around 17 years old), and one a-few-month-old baby were burned into death too. Old man riding bicycle in the street was caught, and was attacked by them. The rioters intruded into civilian’s houses and cut people. Tons of houses were burned by them. Lhasa city was actually damaged by those rioters heavily, the economic was seriously affected. Do you agree these behaviors are violence?

In my point of view, these rioters are not different from 911 US terrorists. When 911 tragic was happening, whole world especially the western media stood up and condemn the terrorists, almost every day. They even criticized the slow response of President Bush. However, why do almost all western media lose their voice to the rioters in Tibet, and criticize the so-called "crackdown" when China policemen went to Lhasa and protect the civilian there? Even they mentioned about the rioters, they call them “protestors”. Western media seldom reports these violence. They gave a lot of speaking right to the so-called protestors and their supporters. May I say those western media and some politicians are actually supporters of the rioters or the supporters of the rioters’ supporters?
‘
Now, let’s see if Dalai Lama is a peaceful man or the supporter of violence.

Sub-question: Dalai Lama is a peaceful man or the supporter of violence?

The spokesman of Dalai Lama said that, ‘The rioters should be understood because they lose the hope to negotiat with China government.’ (Refer to VOA news.). This exactly shows their point of view, i.e., as long as they can’t discuss with the government, they can use violence, even to innocent people. Following the same logic, can we say that 911 terrorists should also be understood because they lost the hope to deal with US government? If the violence of 911 terrorists and the supporters of 911 terrorists in Afghanistan can’t be forgiven, then what about Dalai Lama who is trying to look for excuses for rioters in Tibet. May I say that Dalai Lama is actually conniving or the supporter of the rioters? (The western media is actually doing the same thing.) The spokesman of Dalai Lama also said that, the burned houses were whorehouses, so they should be burned. I don’t know what the logic is. First of all, should houses be burned only because they are whorehouses? Second of all, it was proved the house owners that the houses were actually not so-called whorehouses.

In my point of view, Dalai Lama is not only a supporter of rioters, but also a rumor maker. He gave a list of people ‘who were killed by government in the Tibet riot’. However, it was proved that the name list was faked; the people in the list do NOT exist at all! Furthermore, if they can say that the burned houses of civilian were whorehouses without any evidence, what rumors can’t they make? (I really hope you western friends and read Chinese, because a lot of materials introducing Dalai Lama were written in Chinese. If you guys can read all those materials, you will know who he is, and it actually can save a lot of debating time. Anyway, I hope more Chinese friend try to take your time to translate for our western friends after you busy work at daytime. Thank you!)

As a conclusion, I think the biased reports by western media at this time are NOT normal ‘differences in opinions’ which should be welcomed. They are actually supporting the violence, which should be condemned by all human kind.

4.
Should we get used to the biased reports and paying less attention as it is one of the good ways to deal with it? (This suggestion is raised by Thomas, a patient and understanding western friend.)

(The answer is basically the same as Question 3.)
I do agree that getting used to the biased reports and paying less attention is one of the good ways to deal with it. However, we won't let the biased media go in their way to support violence without any protest. We can't pretend there is nothing happened. The rioters killed a lot of innocent people, but got the support from west media and politician. The behaviors of western media and politicians did hurt us a lot, ruining our ten-years dream (Olympic). I also hope you can understand how heavily a person is hurt, if these issues happen to him. They helped the terrorists in Tibet, which should be condemned by all human kind.


5.
Are we brainwashed?

Please do NOT think we are brainwashed. As the development of internet, it is more and more difficult to block the news from overseas. Furthermore, China's government also becomes more and more open. The freedom of media is also improving. I read a lot of overseas news when I was in China. We are not protecting the China's government by saying this. More precisely, we are protecting ourselves, and our ten-year dream, the Olympic game. The brutal behavior of separatists, western media and politicians actually hurt the Chinese civilian, because we dreamed the Olympic game for ten years.

A lot of Chinese who stand up to fight against the biased reports of western media and politicians are living overseas. They are able to read news in English and Chinese. Obviously, they can listen to the viewpoints of both sides, and thus give the objective judgment relatively. However, most western people can only read English news from western media, such as CNN, VOA news, etc.

Many western friends said that they actually didn’t believe their media much. But, in my point of view, they must be affected by western media, because there is only one kind of voice. So, in a certain degree, the western people, instead of us who are living in overseas, are brainwashed. Am I right?

6.
Why Chinese do not make democracy and human rights big topics?

Well, this topic is actually not the focus of this website. But if you really want to talk about this, I will give your some personal viewpoints here. I hope the webmaster won’t delete this question although it is not in the scope of this website.

There are two differences between my understanding of democracy and that of western society. First of all, in my point of view, the highest target of human society is to achieve good life for all people. Whatever that harms this target should be taken out of the way, even it is so-called democracy. In human history, there are quite a few examples, in which some persons destroyed people’s lives in the name of democracy. I guess you guys know Hitler, the Austrian-born founder of the German Nazi Party and chancellor of the Third Reich (1933-1945). His fascist philosophy, embodied in Mein Kampf (1925-1927), attracted widespread support. In other words, this philosophy got the support of democracy. In this case, should we welcome the democracy? In contrast, in the viewpoint of western society, democracy is the target of human society, i.e., the more freedom, the better, even the democracy ruins people’s life.

The second difference between my understanding of democracy and that of western society is the absolutization of democracy. In western society, there is only one democracy, i.e., the democracy which is consistent with western society. Western society does NOT allow any different definition of democracy, which shows the arrogance.

Why don’t we like the western-style democracy at this stage? In my point of view, one of the most disadvantages of democracy is its low efficiency. For every government policy, parties take a lot of time to debate, instead of doing practical and fast response. Sometimes, the parities debate for benefits of themselves, instead of people and countries, like the democracy happened in Taiwan. This democracy extremely harms the life of civilian. The economic in Taiwan became very bad, and the unemployment rate increases much. Some people can’t sustain themselves, and committed suicide. If mainland of China also uses the same kind of democracy, I don’t know when we can catch up with USA. Maybe that day will never happen. It is not important for western society that Chinese’s lives get improvement, because they don’t know the feeling when Chinese are hungry. But for Chinese, if the so-called highest-standard democracy delays the improvement of economic and technology even for one day, there are a few more people who will die of hunger and diseases (A lot of people in China are still very poor.). What is more important, the people’s lives or the so-called democracy, i.e. debating without concerning people’s lives? You give yourself the answer.

I must clarify that I am not against the democracy itself. But, we will take different democracy at different stage of our society, according to our own practical situation. Please do NOT forcing us to accept your democracy, because you do not know our specific situation, and some of you even never came into China.

During the period of Olympic torch relay, the western media completely displayed the ‘perfection’ of western democracy. They are totally free (the characteristic of democracy) to select the news that they like without considering the impartiality of press. I saw one report of a Taiwanese friend. He attended the Olympic torch relay. One western media interviewed him on the spot. He clearly stated that, it was not acceptable to harm the Olympic, no matter what arguments’ there are between China's government and Dalai Lama, because the Olympic is a game of Chinese civilian and the world. But as his forecast, his interview was not reported in the newspaper, whereas the voice that was against to Olympic was reported a lot. There is another example. One western friend stayed in Tibet during the riot. He found that a lot of western news didn’t report the truth. He wrote letters to three western news agencies to describe what he saw during those days. Two of them didn’t get back to him. The third one used his material. But the material was changed, only partial of it was used for the standpoint that was against to his own. If CNN and BBC really want to report from both sides, why don’t they use all those materials in a right way? (I am actually tired of repeating these reports on biases. If you guys can read Chinese news, you will know a lot of information which you will never be able to obtain from mainstream western media.) When all these unfair things are happening to Chinese people, I didn’t see how the democracy helps us. Instead, the western democracy was fooled by their media and politicians.

7.
Are we afraid of being boycotted?

When People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, it was boycotted by almost all western countries. We couldn’t have any political and economic relation with them. We were really isolated and lonely. It was really hard to develop the economic and society in such an environment. I don’t think people can find harder situation than that. But, we still lived through it. So, I don’t think we are afraid of the Olympic game’s being boycotted?

If you really want to help us to develop our country including the democracy, the best way is to throw the arrogance, to contact Chinese and China’s government, to show us the better options, and to give us good samples that happened to yourselves. The lousiest way is to harm our lives (Chinese civilian) with boycott and other methods, which will arose our repulsion and rage. What do you want to select if you really want to help us?

8.
Please be more patient with this website, a newborn website with a lot of problems, and tell western friends it is attacked by Dalai’s supporters, but no western media report this.

Why do they build up this website? That is because basically there is no mainstream western media that report for us. When those media are reporting the Olympic torch relay, they always point their cameras to the Tibet separatist, and shut down the cameras when the supporters of Olympic torch appear in front of the cameras. They are actually not trying report the truth from both sides. Instead, they are trying to report what they like.

I do understand that you are not happy when some people express their viewpoints in a emotional way in this website. I don't like this way either. But, I hope you know that this website is actually built up by Chinese civilian, either in China or overseas. They don't have any experience on organizing a website. They don't have any financial and technical support. Everything is provided by Chinese volunteers. So, it is inevitable that there are quite a few problems on managing the posts, and securing the website. (This website was actually attacked by Hackers of Dalai's adherents. People can hardly log into this website sometimes. It took quite long time for the web masters to look for technical assistance from volunteers. They can't pay the volunteer, because there is no financial resource.) Therefore, please give more tolerance to this new-born website, and please do believe that this website will be better in the near future. This is nearly the only way for us to tell western people some truth.



9.
Western media can't get into Tibet, so they can't report for both sides?
(In the post written by MartinFromUK, a western friend, he mentioned "Our reporters are not free to report in China, but they’re in India, so can speak to the Dalai Lama. Its not the media getting at China, the media wants the story, but can only get one side." This post is used to reply Martin's comments.)


Well, Martin, I think you asked questions some other western friends also concern.

I agree that some western journalists are not allowed to enter into Tibet freely to report. But I want to point out following aspects.

1. Did you find some ridiculous problems in the news reported by CNN, BBC, and other western news agencies? One media put Hu Jintao’s name under a picture of a person who is actually not Hu Jintao. I believe you agree that this problem has nothing to do with the issue that if western journalists can get into Tibet. Am I right? My point is they should at least respect the truth they know already. It is the responsibility of a news agency to check if there are obvious faults in their news, which may cause rumors as well as hard hurt to others. You guess you may know some pictures of Nepel and India policemen were used by western media, saying that these pictures reflect the fact that Tibetans were 'crackdowned' by Chinese policemen. I guess you also agree these evidents are not allowed to appear for a responsible news agency. Am I right? In my point of view, western media do NOT have the right to distort the obvious truth, although they can’t obtain news information by getting into Tibet. I guess you should agree my point. There are a lot of similar distorted news created completely or partially, you may refer to similar news on this website. I actually read all above-mentioned news in overseas websites. (I really hope you or your friends can know Chinese language. A lot of Chinese friends tried their best to translate the news into English, after their very busy working days. Their only hope is more western friends can know about what Chinese civilian are thinking.)

2. Western media actually didn’t lose all information source from the other side. I agree that the western journalists may not be allowed to get into Tibet recently. Then why can��t western media get some voice from this website, or Chinese who came out from Tibet or in overseas? In overseas, a lot of Chinese people went to street to protest the biased reports by western media, and supported the Olympics torch. Can��t western media see this facts which happened in western society? If they can see, why don��t they report in the same amount of reporting Dalai Lama?

3. I saw one report of a Taiwanese friend. He attended the Olympic torch relay. One western media interviewed him on the spot. He clearly stated that, it was not acceptable to harm the Olympic, no matter what arguements there are beteween China's government and Dalai Lama, because the Olympic is agame of Chinese civilian and the world. But as his forecast, his interview was not reported in the newspaper, whereas the voice that was against to Olympic was reported a lot. There is anothe example. One western friend stayed in Tibet during the riot. He found that a lot of western news didn��t report the truth. He wrote letters to three western news agencies to describe what he saw during those days. Two of them didn��t get back to him. The third one used his material. But the material was changed, only partial of it was used for the standpoint that was against to his own. So, if CNN, BBC really want to report from both sides, why don��t they use all those materials in a right way?

4. The thing that I can't understand most is that the western media seldom report the rioters in Tibet, only saying that they are "protestors". The innocent people who were killed by the rioters in Tibet. There are innocent passengers who was labbered with gas oil by the rioter (including monks) and burned into death. And a few very young girls (only around 17 years old) and one a-few-month-old baby were burned into death too. Old man walking in the street was attacked by them. Lhasa city was actually damaged by those rioters heavily, the economic was seriously affected. But western media seldom reports this. They gave a lot of speaking right to the so-called protestors and their supporters. In my point of view, these rioters are not different from 911 US terrorists. When 911 tragic was happening, whole world especially the western media stood up and condemn the terrorists, almost everyday. They even criticized the slow response of President Bush. However, why do almost all western media lose their voice to the rioters in Tibet, and criticize the so-called "crackdown" when China policemen went to Lhasa and protect the civilian there? May I say that because the rioters are pursuing independence unsuccessfully, so they are allowed to resort to the violence to innocent people? The spokesman of Lalai Lama said that "The rioters should be understood because they lose the hope to negotiat with China government." (Refer to VOA news.). This exactly shows their point of view, i.e., as long as they can't discuss with the government, they can use violence, even to innocent people. Following the same logic, can we say that 911 terrorists should also be understood because they lost the hope to deal with US government? Why western media ignore these facts in Tibet this time? In a certain degree, may I say that the western society is actually conniving the rioters? The Paris government decided to offer the citizenship to Dalai Lama, one supporter of the rioters in Tibet. It is somehow like offering honorship to Laten, which definitely hurt the hearts of Chinese civilian.

5. I want to clarify that I am not looking for excuses for China��s government��s not allowing western journalists get into Tibet. I also agree that the freedom of China's media should be improved much in the future, although it did improve these years. But the right way of western media is to give China's official news agency a good sample, if they really want to help China to improve.

6. My point is that it is NOT strong enough to say that western media can��t report the voice from the other side, because western journalists are not allowed to get into Tibet. It is irresponsible, prejudiced for news agencies to ��select�� their favored news ��purposely��. Do you agree this?

Western friends, please read the these posts carefully, before asking questions. Thank you!

I 'm not a westerner,   thank you for your efforts to try to persuade those western people help us. But I don't think they'll quite understand your painstaking. To some extent, they're more self-opinioned and unchangeable than those were criticized by they.