By: Yang Jianli
I find it very curious that American diplomacy and American society in general accepts such glaring inequities in its bilateral relations with China. These inequities would be humorous, if the consequences were not so serious.
Nowhere are these inequities more glaring than in the field of media access and utilization. While the Chinese government has wide access to American academic institutions and media outlets through which they advance their opinions, rationalize their actions, and influence policy makers, Chinese citizens and even U.S. officials are denied even the most basic press freedoms inside China, For instance, Congressman Chris Smith recently reported that on his last trip to China, his meetings with Chinese citizens were suddenly cancelled, people with whom he was scheduled to meet were arrested, and he could not even access his own website. Even President Obama’s inaugural address was edited before it was posted online in China. In fact, virtually all American media are blocked, jammed, or otherwise censored in China while China can freely broadcast in America.
The consequences of this inequity cannot be underestimated. Media influences opinion and drives policy. We witness everyday how the Chinese government’s manipulation of the media, academic institutions, and think tanks are shaping attitudes and actions. Even as I write this, Many of my countrymen believe that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a “terrorist”. In June of 1989, I was in Tiananmen Square, Beijing where Army tanks, under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, crushed and killed peaceful protestors. Today, from inside China, one can find no information on this event. As a result of such media control my country is a nation where groups are intentionally pitted against one another and hatred is spread for the sole purpose of maintaining the entrenched power of the totalitarian state.
Most recently, over 300 brave Chinese citizens, all respected professionals, intellectuals, and civic leaders, published a document called Charter 08. This well-reasoned manifesto cited the Chinese government as a total failure in its protection of the rights of its citizens and proposed 19 specific recommendations for constitutional reform. In reaction to this peaceful and constructive exercise, The Chinese government arrested Liu Xiaobo, a respected Beijing lawyer, and signatory to the charter. The other signatories were interrogated and harassed. The Chinese government is utilizing its vast security apparatus to remove all mention of Charter in the media or on the Internet.
Meanwhile here in the United States, the Chinese government is leveraging our free institutions to influence American opinion and policy. It has done a marvelous job of creating the opinion that China is making steady progress on human rights and democratic reform, when the facts show this to be utterly untrue. Consider the following: It is estimated that over 90% of the Chinese- language media in the U.S. are Chinese-government controlled; Many so called “sinologists” from academia and think tanks who testify before Congress and advise policy makers, have interests which rely on the good graces of the Chinese government. This obviously clouds their objectivity. For example, during his testimony last summer before the House Human Rights Caucus, Dr. Kenneth Lieberthal, a University of Michigan “sinologist”, was confronted by Congressman Rohrbacher with the fact that he had a business interest in Beijing. Dr. Lieberthal acknowledged that his firm relied in part on having access to Chinese government officials; On September 11, 2008, the Brookings Institution held a forum on “challenges facing the practice of religion in China today”. As it turned out, this “forum” consisted solely of representatives of the Chinese government and their surrogates. The person who organized and hosted this absolutely one-sided “forum” is now an advisor on Asian affairs to President Obama.
The bottom line is that our policies and attitudes toward China are increasingly shaped by the Chinese government itself through its relentless utilization of our open and free institutions. The determination of the Chinese government cannot be underestimated. It has been widely reported that this year, China is aggressively expanding its media influence by spending more than RMB 45 billion (about $6.5 billion) into medial control through the establishment of print, broadcast, and other media outlets around the world.
We can no longer afford to ignore this gross inequity. We cannot expect to advance democratic values or even to preserve our own hard won freedoms, if we acquiesce to the Chinese government’s unfettered use of our free media while it fails to grant similar freedoms in its own country. The advancement of democracy and human rights can no longer be an adjunct of American foreign policy. It must be its backbone.
As a first step, Secretary Clinton must call for reciprocity with the Chinese government. It is fair, appropriate, and consistent with President Obama’s promise of change, for Secretary Clinton to demand that the Chinese government give our officials and delegations the same access to the Chinese people that we afford the Chinese government here in the U.S.; to provide the same open discussion and exchange of ideas in China that the Chinese government enjoys here; and to afford the same freedom for American media in China that the United States extends to the Chinese government in America. And specifically, it is fair and appropriate for Secretary Clinton to demand the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and to call for immediate dialogue with the signatories of Charter 08. This is a call for change in which we can believe and which is in the best interests of the U.S., the Chinese government, and for the advancement of freedom and peace around the world.