Recent BBC report in Xinjiang is a classic snapshot of how Western media reports in China

This is how the report went

1)      The reporter traveled thousands of miles to the most remote province in China to ensure that the background location is as depressing as possible

2)      The reporter start his story by stressing the tightness of media control in China, and implicitly attribute the possibility of the report to his bravery and luckiness, rejecting any possibility that China might be moving forward and the Chinese authority might be attempting to genuinely open up

3)      After interviewing a few people, the reporter found that the message he gets from the people is not exactly what he wants to delivery to the viewers back home. He then attributes the failure to get negative words to the presence of Chinese propaganda official, who might well have volunteered to accompany the reporting crew out of pure hospitality (presence of foreigners in remote parts of China is still a rarity, and is often warmly received by local residents as well as officials).

4)      Giving up on getting a negative story out of passers-by, the reporter starts getting creative,  using images of policemen working on the street (conveniently ignoring the fact that increased police force is the result of recent terrorist attacks in the town) combined with commentary on the authority’s heavy-handed handling of state affairs to reinforce the longstanding misperception

5)      At the same time, he ensures that his camera records only faces that look either miserable, or emotionless, or unintelligent, or perplexed …  

6)      Lacking material evidence to portray a convincingly negative image, the reporter was lucky enough to accidentally bump into a English-speaking local man in the marketplace of this remote town. As always, the man is desperate to talk, yet is hesitant to reveal his identity. With out displaying his face, the man tells the reporter three things that the reporter needs to hear: a) he feels unsafe; b) he fears to talk, c) he can’t answer questions … (wait a minute, so this man was so desperate to talk he dragged a random reporter into a street corner where his identity could be protected. Yet the only thing he wanted to say was that he can’t talk? …)

In summary, the grand rules for reporting in China are

a)       Focus only on bad things.

b)      Make bad things in the middle of nowhere that happens once in a blue moon look like daily phenomena

c)      If interviews don’t come out the way you want, there are three options: ignore it, twig it, fake it – only losers care about truism and objectivity.

d)      Make Chinese look stupid and ignorant. Demand answer and explanations from solders and policeman in English. Avoid talking to Chinese who can speak proper English