[xtypo_dropcap]L[/xtypo_dropcap]i Changchun is accused of terrible crimes. In his role as head of propaganda in China, he has shaped public opinion about the crackdown in Tibet during the Olympics, the crackdown on Uighurs, and the ongoing eleven year oppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Before his current role, he was responsible for a region of China that was among the most brutal in implementing the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Yet when he visited Ireland last week, the Irish media and government were silent about his alleged crimes, and the Irish government even stopped media critical of the current Chinese Regime from entering a press conference with Li Changchun.
Since 2002, Li Changchun has been responsible for all the propaganda produced and propagated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Material produced from his office was used to shape public opinion during the Olympics, when there was a crackdown on anti-regime protests in Tibet. The role of his department was to convince the people of China that the crackdown was necessary to keep the monks of Tibet from interfering with the Olympics.
The latest report issued by Amnesty International about China, published in 2009, said, “The Olympic Games in Beijing brought heightened repression throughout the country as authorities tightened control over human rights defenders, religious practitioners, ethnic minorities, lawyers and journalists.” This makes one wonder why the Irish government would soften its approach in urging the Chinese Regime to improve the human rights situation of the average Chinese citizen.
As the tanks and army rolled into Tibet during the Olympics and foreign nationals and media were flushed out, Li Changchun’s propaganda machine’s job was to convince the Chinese population why such actions were necessary - opposing views were not tolerated, and all witnesses to what was really happening were removed.
Amnesty said in its 2009 report, “The authorities maintained tight control over the flow of information, with many internet websites blocked, and journalists and internet users harassed and imprisoned for the peaceful expression of opinions.”
Crafting Propaganda
When any criticism is raised about the CCP or any of its actions, or if the CCP wishes to target a group of people to persecute, Li Changchun’s department provides the ground-work by making up stories that support the Chinese regime’s line, and feeding them to the Chinese population through the media, which is heavily influenced, and often directly controlled by the Party-state. After this has been achieved, the judiciary in China trump up charges in line with the propaganda to imprison people.
Amnesty International said in its report, “The authorities continued to use broad and vaguely defined provisions of the criminal law relating to state security and ‘state secrets’ to silence dissent and punish human rights defenders.”
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[xtypo_dropcap]I[/xtypo_dropcap]n the last 60 years that the CCP has been controlling China, political campaign after political campaign has led to the slaughter of more than 80 million innocent Chinese people, and the state-controlled propaganda machine has been at the core of each campaign.
Mao Zedong summarised the nature of the Cultural Revolution: “…after the chaos the world reaches peace, but in seven or eight years, the chaos needs to happen again.” Although China has dramatically changed since the seventies, the pattern of the CCP’s political campaigns remains the same. In the fifties there was the Hundred Flowers campaign, the Anti-Rightist Movement, and the Great Leap Forward; the sixties and seventies had the Cultural Revolution; in the eighties was the Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization campaign and the eventual massacre in Tiananmen Square, and from the late nineties to the present the persecution of Falun Gong has been waged unchecked.
There were many more, smaller campaigns in between, but the sad fact of all of these tragedies is that the Chinese people are still in the dark as to what really happened, having been fed lies by the states’ propaganda machine.
Mr Li Changchun’s trip to Ireland was an opportunity to challenge him on his record, much of which is public and undeniable. It was an opportunity to try to improve the human rights situation for the people of China. Instead it was a complete failure for improving the rights of Chinese people, while proving a complete success for the Chinese Communist Party and an endorsement of its policies and approach.
Following his meeting with Li Changchun, a statement from the Taoiseach read, “The Taoiseach referred to the substantial increase in bilateral trade between Ireland and China over the past ten years and said that Ireland’s relationship with China was at the heart of our new Strategy for Trade, Tourism and Investment.”
He added, “In the light of my discussions with Mr Li, I am convinced that there are major opportunities to increase trade and investment between Ireland and China. Mr Li made clear to me that Ireland’s brand and reputation are very strong in China.”
However, in reality, China’s PR man won the battle of the brands, as it was “Brand CCP” that has managed to further improve its appeal since the last visit of a high-ranking Chinese official to Ireland. The real losers following this state visit are the Chinese citizens who are denied their basic human rights on a daily basis under a brutal, and unelected, regime.
