China Post Again

Another excellent piece by Michael Cole on the skewed viewpoint of The China Post. The views are so obvious--and skewed--one could dedicate all his time blogging about little else. I wonder what English population their agenda is aimed at? Since most foreign English speakers are required to have an education and probably possess basic media savvy, it hardly seems worth it.

This time we see Chen Shui Bian being touted as the 'most corrupt' in the 'Asian world'. After a couple of weak straw-man inclusions of President Ma, we make the conclusion that Chen was both incompetent and corrupt.

It's really quite insulting to all those other despots. Either we are trying to smear someone here, or they are so culturally isolated they forgot about their neighbors across the strait and/or half of South East Asia. Whatever the case, that's not what the rest of the world thinks as depicted in the recent sensationalism about Taiwan in the US.

I should also point out that terms like "Western liberal democracy" are very recognizable phrases. When I worked with the Central Party School in the PRC, I heard very similar arguments like "western-style democracy is not right for the Chinese people"--very similar to the jumbled statements made by Jackie Chan earlier this year. (Interestingly, Jackie has been busy working with Jet Li on his CCP-sponsored movie on the Communist Revolution). Anyhow, whether you like the statements or not, it is interesting to see the rhetoric, like that of the protests over the Dalai Lama's recent visit, is lining up very closely.

Anyhow, Mr. Cole dissects this much better than I ever could, so I direct you to his article.