Commentary
The People’s Republic of China wields a vast propaganda apparatus of global scope. One of its main organs is the Global Times. The English version’s online site can give us a window into what the ruling Chinese Communist Party thinks of states like California.
According to Wikipedia, it’s “a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. ... In June 2020, the United States Department of State designated Global Times as a foreign mission,” meaning it’s connected to a government.
However, it’s much more sophisticated than the Maoist-era denunciations of America as a “paper tiger” run by “capitalist running dogs.” The Global Times was founded in 1993, and its English version came out in 2009. Because English has become a global language, this is the way most of the world receives the messages Beijing wants people to hear. For example, on Dec. 28, the front page featured five stories on the reduction in the COVID restrictions, such as, “More countries welcome Chinese travelers, expecting to boost exchanges after border reopening.”
Concerning California, the Global Times does run some stories about sports and other nonpolitical matters. But its political stories show California in the same bad light as the rest of the country.
Crime
From Nov. 29: “Travel warnings show US’ closest friends have low confidence in US governance.” At the top is a picture of protesters holding up a sign reading, “STOP GUN VIOLENCE.” The caption: “People are seen at a memorial service for victims of a mass shooting in San Jose, California, the United States, May 27, 2021.”The story begins:
As the conflict between Americans with different political demands becomes increasingly violent, some countries close to the US have expressed concerns about the safety of their citizens in the US, reflecting their growing lack of confidence in Washington’s political system and governance capability.Actually, crime in America largely is a local problem, not much affected by “Washington.” Most areas still are safe. But some cities have suffered increased violence, especially after the 2020 riots following George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis. The solution is what Mayor Rudy Giuliani did in New York City in the 1990s: crack down on crime. But cities run by liberal Democrats continue to resist that obvious solution.
The Global Times’s recitation of U.S. crime is an old trick they must have picked up from the Soviet Union’s propaganda. I remember back after the riots in many U.S. cities in the mid-1960s, the Soviets produced TV news stories on the rioters. They also showed the poverty of blacks in American inner cities. But they had to stop because Soviet people seeing the TV images said, “The blacks may be oppressed, but at least they have cars!” Which at that time were scarce even in Moscow and Leningrad.
Inflation and Poverty
A pre-Thanksgiving article says, “Inflated cost of Thanksgiving leaves Americans with more worries than thanks.” It begins with a picture of people, apparently well-fed, waiting in a line. The caption, “People in need wait in line during the Bay Area Rescue Mission’s annual turkey giveaway on November 22, 2022 in Richmond, California. The Bay Area Rescue Mission delivered Thanksgiving turkeys and meal ingredients to an estimated 800 families at their annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway.” The beginning of the story:At this year’s Thanksgiving, Americans may find very few things to be thankful for, and a lot to worry about.
Complains of this being the “most expensive Thanksgiving” in decades have replaced festival gratitude. At the same time, Americans have to endure the constant bickering between Democratic and Republican parties who point fingers at each other for the current plight, as the country is further torn apart by politics. Yet Chinese experts warned that the hard-pressed situation that has trapped Americans is just the tip of the iceberg, and more will emerge as the country’s failing system is incapable of providing effective solution.
It quotes a California woman:
“For about 5 years, I had given back to communities and families in need. I donated food, clothing, and school supplies etc. I am not rich, but God has blessed my family with more than enough I’m grateful,” a resident in California who preferred to be called Jane told the Global Times on Wednesday. “This year, because food is so expensive, I won’t be able to make thanksgiving food boxes.”Actually, despite this country’s many problems, which I write about all the time, the main food problem is not hunger, but obesity. Food costs of course have risen. But in California, it’s easy for any poor person to get a CalFresh card. And we never had a Great Leap Forward famine, which killed up to 55 million people, due to the CCP’s socialist incompetence under Mao, whose picture still is on the renminbi bank notes.
Pelosi and Political Disarray
The paper obviously doesn’t like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because of her foray to Taiwan in August. So it couldn’t resist some digs against the California politician over the attack on her husband, Paul. It headlined Nov. 18, “Division, partisan struggles to keep haunting US politics after Pelosi’s exit.” There’s a picture of her with closed eyes and looking sad. The story begins:US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who dragged China-US diplomatic relations into unprecedented danger after a provocative visit to the island of Taiwan in August, has announced that she will not seek the Democratic leadership again after Republicans secured control of the chamber.
However, Chinese observers believe that at the age of 82 and having led Democrats for two decades, Pelosi will continue to have an influence in the US Congress as a lawmaker. With her image as “a radical,” Pelosi’s stepping down will not end, but rather open another chapter of US’ polarized politics trapped in bitter partisan struggles, they said.
According to AP News, Pelosi said the October attack on her husband by an intruder into their home in California made her “think again about staying.”…
Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday that Pelosi would remain an important operator as long as she’s in the House, as her possible successors, such as Hakeem Jeffries [who will become Minority Leader] are strongly influenced by her. …
Whether it’s a radical or ostensibly rational Pelosi, or whether it’s an establishment or extreme [California Rep. Kevin] McCarthy, their words and deeds cannot escape intensifying partisan struggles that are chronically paralyzing US democracy, experts said.
Well, we have “partisan struggles” because we have two parties, not one as in the PRC. This does show how closely the PRC watches U.S. and California politics. After her Taiwan trip, they’re especially interested in Pelosi. Another story from Nov. 8 gloats:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, loves to say “no one is above the law” when it comes to prosecuting Republicans or former president Donald Trump – but she and her fellow lawmakers are definitely a different category when it comes to things like insider trading.
It was the uncanny over-performance of Pelosi’s own stock portfolio that drew attention to potential insider trading by Congress, back in 2021. An anonymous Twitter account named “Nancy Pelosi’s Portfolio Tracker” attracted over 200,000 followers before it was banned without explanation in early December. With a congressional salary of $223,500 a year, she was somehow worth an estimated at $120 million. Confronted about her seemingly uncanny business sense that month, Pelosi argued the US has a free-market economy and that members of Congress “should be able to participate” in.
Freedom to Joke
If Republicans make McCarthy House Speaker next week, no doubt the Global Times will be getting in its digs against that California politician as well. Of course, they wouldn’t dare criticize their own political leaders, beginning with President Xi Jinping and his estimated worth. That reminds me of a joke President Reagan actually told to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. It’s the second on this YouTube video of Reagan jokes on the Soviet Union, starting at 2 minutes:This story was an American and a Russian arguing about their two countries. And the American said, “Look, in my country, I can walk into the Oval Office. I can pound the President’s desk and say, ‘Mr. President, I don’t like the way you’re running our country.’”
And the Russian said, “I can do that.”
The American says, “You can?”
He says, “Yes, I can go into the Kremlin, to the General Secretary’s office, pound his desk and say, ‘Mr. General Secretary, I don’t like the way President Reagan is running his country.’”
Too bad Reagan isn’t around to deal with China the way he did Russia, where less than three years after he left office in 1989, on Dec. 25, 1991, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union abolished itself.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
