China Media Group and the Coronavirus: Independent Television quotes China Media Group’s inspiring News

The following is a translation of an article published by People’s Daily, on January 29.

A few explanations to make it more readable:

China Media Group is a  state-owned Chinese multi-media, multi-language conglomerate, resulting from a merger of China Central Television (CCTV), China Radio International (CRI) and China National Radio (CNR, or, in Chinese, Central People’s Broadcasting Station/CPBS). All these flags are still up in the national media landscape, but under the “Media Group’s” more or less centralized control. China Radio International’s last director Wang Gengnian reportedly retired in 2018 from his now obsolete job, and Yan Xiaoming, who used to head the domestic CPBS radio service, became the new organization’s deputy director. Shen Haixiong became China Media Group’s first director (and party secretary).

The level of China Media Group’s international “successes” can’t be measured from the People’s Daily article. However, it may count as an indicator of the pressures under which the state-owned media giant has to justify its budget. The CPC has become more demanding of the propaganda industry after Xi Jinping became the party’s secretary general, and less tolerant of fiefdom’s within the propaganda structures.

Links within blockquotes added during translation.

Main Link: International mainstream media pay attention to China’s epidemic prevention and control work, widely transmit China Media Group coverage

In the last few days, China Media Group’s coverage of prevention and control work against the new coronavirus viral infection pneumonia epidemic has been widely republished by American, British, German, French and other country’s mainstream media. According to unfinished statistics until January 28, some ninety mainstream media, including Fox Broadcasting Company, the BBC, CNN, Russia National Television, French BFM Business television, German ZDF channel two television, Italian RAI national broadcaster and other have quoted from relevant China Media Group coverage.

连日来，中央广播电视总台有关新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情防控报道，受到美英德法等国际主流媒体的广泛转发。据不完全统计，截至28日，包括美国福克斯广播公司、英国广播公司、美国有线电视新闻网、俄罗斯国家电视台、法国BFM BUSINESS电视台、德国电视二台、意大利广播电视公司等近90家主流媒体引用了总台相关报道。

In recent days, American Fox Broadcasting Company news channel, the BBC’s international news channel, America’s CNN international channel have all transmitted relevant China Media Group coverage and presented the measures taken by China in its prevention and control work against the epidemic, and America’s, Asia’s, Europe’s and other regions’ epidemic situation.

近日，美国福克斯广播公司新闻频道、英国广播公司国际新闻频道、美国有线电视新闻网国际频道均转引了总台相关报道，介绍中国在防控疫情方面所采取的措施以及美国、亚洲、欧洲等地疫情情况。

CMG media review: Just look at our incredible propaganda!

On January 28, Russia National Television, Russia Today TV, Independent TV [Dozhd TV]  and other mainstream media continued to pay close attention to China’s new coronavirus epidemic situation, with several television broadcasters using China Media Group coverage on that day. Dozhd TV reported that inspiring news was coming from China, with Chairman Xi Jinping stating that China had full confidence and the ability to win the battle of preventing and controlling the new coronavirus epidemic pneumonia.

28日俄罗斯国家电视台、今日俄罗斯电视台、独立电视台等主流电视媒体继续关注中国新型冠状病毒疫情，多家电视台当天引用了总台报道。独立电视台报道称：从中国传来令人振奋的消息，习近平主席表示中国完全有信心、有能力打赢新型冠状病毒肺炎防控攻坚战。

Also on that day, Russia National Television gave a full rebroadcast of China Media Group reporters’ interview with Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang, reporting the city government’s resolve in handling and overcoming the epidemic.

俄罗斯国家电视台当天全文引用总台记者对武汉市长周先旺的采访，报道武汉市政府处理疫情的考量和战胜疫情的决心。

Russia National Television channel 1’s primetime “Sixty Minutes” live broadcasts at noon and in the evening invited China Media Group reporters and Russian experts to interpret together the epidemic in China and the Chinese government’s active steps against it. An edited video of the program was uploaded to Youtube and viewed there nearly 100,000 times.

俄罗斯国家电视台1频道收视率最高的时事评论节目《60分钟》28日播出的午间和晚间两档直播节目，邀请总台驻站记者与多位俄罗斯专家一同解读中国国内的疫情和中国政府的积极应对。节目视频经过剪辑上传到YouTube平台上后观看量近10万次。

Italy’s biggest privatly-run television station, Mediaset TgCom24 TV, in its live news program “Behind the Incident”, repeatedly contacted China Media Group’s Italian-department reporter(s) to get information about the epidemic’s latest developments, and prevention and control measures, reporting the Chinese people’s confidence in overcoming the epidemic, and China’s desire to actively participate in international cooperation.

意大利最大的私营电视台——梅地亚塞特传媒集团TGCOM24电视台——的新闻直播节目《事件背后》，多次连线总台意大利语部记者，了解中国疫情最新进展及防控措施，报道中国民众战胜疫情的信心以及中国积极参与国际合作的意愿。

France’s BFM Business TV cooperated with China Media Group’s French department on January 23, inviting  Foundation for Strategic Research Antoine Bondaz to invite the in the program’s discussion. He said that “the Chinese government has taken active and fast measures to control the spread of the epidemic. The Chinese government’s quick response deserves recognition.”

法国BFM BUSINESS电视台23日与总台法语部合作，邀请法国战略研究基金会中国问题专家安东尼奥（Antoine Bondaz）参加节目访谈。安东尼奥表示：“中国政府采取了积极迅速的措施，控制了疫情蔓延。中国政府做出的快速反应，值得肯定。”

DRF Deutschland‘s [Germany] “China Info” changed its originally planned program on January 27, quoting from material from China Media Group’s German department, with a focus on the active measures taken by China to fight the epidemic.

德国DRF电视台《中国新闻》栏目27日改变原播出节目，转引转发总台德语部稿件，重点报道中国抗击疫情所采取的积极举措。

Also, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Israel and other countries’ media have amply used China Media Group’s multilingual coverage, informing their countries’ national audiences about the Chinese government’s active measures in preventing and controlling the epidemic, and its work together with the international community to maintain regional and global confidence in public health.

此外，巴西、印度、印尼、泰国、土耳其、以色列等国的媒体也充分采用总台多语种报道，向本国受众及时介绍中国政府在防控疫情方面所采取的积极措施，以及与国际社会一道，共同维护好地区和全球公共卫生的信心。

[…]

____________

Related

The true story, Montsame, Febr 14, 2020
Borrowed boats, Jichang Lulu, Nov 4, 2015
This content in Swahili, Nov 13, 2014

____________

Reception Report: Radio Japan Weekly News in Simple Japanese / Iran Radio Bros’ compromised Farsi

 

— Japan

Radio Japan has reportedly carried a new program since April, “Weekly News in Simple Japanese”.

From their announcement on May 21:

The program summarizes Japan’s weekly news in easy-to-understand Japanese which is read slowly and clearly by the announcer. Through the program, listeners will be able to grasp what is going on in Japan today. Weekly News in Simple Japanese is ten minutes long. It is broadcast every Saturday from 02:50 UTC on 17.810 MHz in Southeast Asia, and 15.325 MHz in Southwest Asia. It is rebroadcast seven hours later from 09:50 UTC on 15.280 MHz in Southeast Asia and 15.290 MHz in West Africa.

The news broadcast recordings can also be found online, on the NHK World Japan website.

— Tibet

A recent QSL card from Tibet – frequencies are shown to the right

— Iran

On Thursday, Islamic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has reported extensively on talks by the country’s unelected leader, Ayatollah Ali Chamenei, first on US policies on Iran, and later on a “didactic” and “instructive” function of poetry. IRIB also had to convey some supreme criticism of itself:

Notice that our people have beautiful dispositions. The way our people responded on the issue of the floods in the north and south was very beautiful. Those who are aware of the developments – including in Golestan, in Khuzestan, in Khorram Abad and in Ilam: these were the main areas which suffered from the recent floods – who are aware of the presence and sacrifices of the people, and the services they rendered.

Well you can describe this in your poetry. When you include such concepts in your poetry, it becomes in fact the flag of national identity. It becomes the flag of the identity of your nation no matter if you compose poems on Islamic, national revolutionary and revolutionary issues, or on moral values or about such events. And my dear ones, identity is very important to every nation. A nation that loses its identity is easily squeezed and crushed in the fists of foreigners. This was about poetry.

As for the language, the truth is that I am worried. In the area of poetry, the poems that you compose are fortunately good poems and they enjoy a solid language. However generally speaking, language is wearing down. One can witness this. Tonight, one of the brothers from the radio was present here and he spoke with me about a very good development. I have, however, a complaint about the IRIB because instead of promoting proper, standard, refined and correct language, it is promoting a kind of language that is devoid of any identity, that is sometimes wrong, that uses wrong terminology and that worse than all, uses a language stuffed with foreign and western terminology.

Fortunately, foreign media are so much worse, so IRIB could turn to a reading of this article just a few minutes after its own dressing-down.

____________

Related

Shortwave Log: Holy Tibet, January 2014

Donald Trump’s Quiztalks

When Donald Trump speaks without a script, it sounds like BBC Radio 4 entertainment – the I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-a-clue style, where people are supposed to talk without repeating a single word, or without mentioning a specific world. Something like …

Host:	Mr. President, you are supposed to speak about clocks for sixty seconds, and you must use the word “clock” only once.
Trump:	I don’t mind clocks. I like those things. I actually love them. We have a great relationship. The only problem with clocks is …
Detector:	BUZZ!!!

Anyway. Why is the president supposed to participate in a game where winning is not important? That’s preposterous.

Blog and Press Review: Frugal New Year

–

Warning: the following translation from a classic is just my guesswork – if you copy that for your homework, the mistakes will be your fault, not mine. Links within blockquotes added during translation.

–

Frugal New Year: the Xi Style

The year of the dog is upon us, and it must be a dog’s life if you are a cadre in the Xi Jinping era. That’s what you might believe, anyway, if you read secretary general Xi Jinping’s spiritual nourishment for comrades. After all, in a totalitarian society, administration, legislation, crackdowns and Something Understood all need to come from the same source.

People’s Daily has published three instalments of Xi Jinping thought. The first: go and visit the poor, and ask about their suffering, find solutions to the problems and dump the worries. The second: have an affectionate reunion with your family, as a good family style promotes virtue.

For the third instalment, the sermon turns to the New Book of Tang:
奢靡之始，危亡之渐 (which means something like “what begins lavishly will move towards danger”, I suppose).

I can only find the Chinese original [no English edition] of the  New Book of Tang online, and there, in chapter 105, Chu Suiliang, an advisor with morals, tells his surprised sovereign the meaning of things that only appear to be innocent at first glance:

帝尝怪：“舜造漆器，禹雕其俎，谏者十馀不止，小物何必尔邪？”遂良曰：“雕琢害力农，纂绣伤女工，奢靡之始，危亡之渐也。漆器不止，必金为之，金又不止，必玉为之，故谏者救其源，不使得开。及夫横流，则无复事矣。”帝咨美之。

The emperor said: “Shun made the lacquer, Yu gave us the embroideries, but the remonstrances never seem to end. How can small things be evil?”
Suiliang said: “ornate artwork harms the peasantry, and embroidery hurts the working women. What begins lavishly, will indeed move towards danger. It doesn’t end at lacquerware, it takes gold, too. It doesn’t end there, but jade will be required, too. Those who remonstrate do not want to see things pass the point of no return.”

If my impression of the Chinese texts is basically correct, Xi seems to present himself as someone who speaks truth to power – which is corny at best, and quite probably populist. The latter, anyway, is a tool lavishly handed around among the Davos jetset more recently, and it probably works fine, especially at the grass-roots level, with people who routinely delude themselves.

Roar back, if you still dare, fly or tiger.

Xi Jinping probably found a lot to copy from Ronald Reagan. His May 4 speech in 2013 resembled Reagan’s endless-opportunities speech in 1984. While frequently considered risk averse when it comes to reform, optimism, a “determination … to educate his audience” and “unobtrusive and imperceptible moral influence” (OK – it depends on how much corniness you’ve grown up with) are features Xi’s propaganda style seems to share with the late US president’s.

Footnote: when it comes to education on the ground, education of the public appears to be anything but imperceptible, as The Capital in the North reported in January.

–

Central Europe (1): After the “Czech Reversal”

The China Digital Times has an article by a Czech academic, describing Chinese influence in Eastern Europe (although the Czech Republic is hardly “eastern” European), and more particularly about a “China Energy Fund Committee” (CEFC). Czech president Miloš Zeman, who is quoted there with some of his characteristically tasteless remarks (about Chinese eyes, before he changed his mind), has explicit opinions about journalism, too.

–

Central Europe (2): German Mittelstand’s Main Thing

If the German Mittelstand can’t be found in China, it’s probably because they are investing and selling in the Visegrád countries, and beyond. the Handelsblatt‘s English-language edition has a critical assessment of Mittelstand companies role in Central Europe, quoting an apolitical German trade functionary to prove its point:

Ultimately, politics is not that important for businesspeople. Order books are full: That’s the main thing.

Obviously, German politicians (and journalists, for that matter) aren’t nearly as sanguine, and following US President Trump’s attendence at a Three Seas Initiative summit in July 2017, the Economist even recorded Teutonic tremors:

Germany is already concerned about China’s “16+1” initiative with central and eastern European states, a series of investment projects that the Chinese expect will build influence in the region. The Germans are also putting pressure on the Polish government over its illiberal attacks on independent newspapers, judges and NGOs. And they are fending off Polish criticisms that their proposed “Nord Stream 2” gas pipeline from Russia to Germany will make Europe more dependent on Russia.

But the Mittelstand shows no such unease. In fact, smaller and medium-sized companies often feel easier about countries that are closer to Germany, both regionally and culturally – it takes less time to travel, less time spent abroad, less worries about intercultural competence (or its absence), and less worries about market barriers or technology theft.

–

Hualien, Taiwan

Most people will have heard and read about the earthquake that caused deaths and injuries, especially in Hualien, on Tuesday.

But the place should be known for its beauty, too. There’s a travel blog about the Taroko Gorge, apparently written by a Singaporean, with some practical advice which  should be quite up to date (based on a visit in November 2016). That, plus some history.

–

The Spy Radio that anyone can hear

No, that’s not the BBC. They’ve only produced a video about numbers stations.

But what’s the fun in them if anyone can listen? I want some numbers of my own.

____________

Related

Budapest Guidelines, in Chinese and in English, Nov 2017

____________

Xi Jinping’s “Press Briefing”: BBC, Guardian, New York Times giving way to Borrowed Boats?

China Global Television Network (CGTN or CCTV) published a video on Youtube on Wednesday, with the full remarks by CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping at a press briefing at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday following the 19th CPC National Congress. The first groupies have already issued ringing endorsements:

Applause from all over the world – click screenshot above for Xi’s speech

 

The video provides English subtitles to Xi’s speech. A written Xinhua account (in Chinese) can be found there.

Access to the show was reportedly denied to the BBC, the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Guardian, “in some cases for the first time in more than two decades”. The Guardian’s Beijing correspondent wrote on Wednesday that

[a] series of heavily scripted “press conferences” have been organised, which were attended by a large number of foreign reporters on the payroll of party-run media outlets. Many of the questions appeared to have been pre-screened.

This could refer to China’s innovative guidance of public opinion (abroad). When the Great Hall of the People’s East Hall is full of borrowed boats, access needs to be denied to some of the traditional troublemakers foreign vessels.

No wonder then that the reappointed secretary general was full of praise for the reporters in front of him:

Many of you have come afar. All of you have provided numerous and ample coverage of the congress, and aroused the global public’s attention. You have worked hard, and I give you my heartfelt thanks.

这次来了很多记者朋友，许多是远道而来。大家对会议作了大量、充分的报道，引起了全世界广泛关注。你们辛苦了，我向你们表示衷心的感谢。

Chairman Xi – the Old Normal Cult

“How did one man come to embody China’s destiny?”, asks the BBC‘s China correspondent, Carrie Gracie. Part of the answer lies in the way the BBC designs her article – The Thoughts of Chairman Xi. Opening it, you feel as if you enter that Yan’an “cave” museum yourself. And as this is a global village, the design also resembles CCTV’s doxology.

Editors and designers – click picture above for CCTV webpage

Now, what made Xi Jingping the man who “embody’s China’s destiny”?

I’m forever a son of the yellow earth,

Gracie quotes Xi.

But the real explanation is much more simple. Xi is his father’s son. That’s not just one aspect of the story – it’s the one that really matters. The rest is useful flattery, written by the man’s hand-picked propagandists.

____________

Related

How yellow was my Hometown, Febr 14, 2015
How safe will he be in 2023, Dec 13, 2014
Towering, March 18, 2013
Cross-legged on the kang, Jan 13, 2013
How they cried, Dec 24, 2012
Outgoing and incoming dictators, Jan 6, 2012

____________

Upates

No heir apparent, BBC News, Oct 25. 2017

____________

Hong Kong’s public broadcaster replaces BBC World Service with Mainland Relay

A QDaily article, republished by Fenghuang (Hong Kong) – main link – on August 14, 2017. QDaily (好奇心日报) is a news website from Beijing, focusing on commerical news. Links within blockquotes added during translation.

CPBS may be better known as “China National Radio” these days. However, the Chinese name of the station has never changed. CPBS remains the accurate translation of 中央人民广播电台.

Original title: Central People’s Broadcasting Station’s Voice of Hong Kong to replace BBC’S 24-hours broadcast

原标题：中央人民广播电台香港之声，将取代BBC24小时转播

RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) published a notice on its official website on August 11, saying that “on September 3 at 24:00 hours, the digital audio broadcasting (DAB) service will be officially terminated. There will also be new program arrangements, including the BBC World Service being broadcast  on RTHK’s Radio 4 channel every night, from 11 p.m. to seven a.m., and Central People’s Broadcasting station’s Voice of Hong Kong being broadcast on RTHK’s Radio 6¹⁾ channel.

8月11日，香港电台（Radio Television Hong Kong，缩写RTHK）在官网发布通知，表示“将于9 月3 日午夜12 时正式终止数码声音广播服务”，并会有节目新安排，其中英国广播公司国际频道将于每晚11 时至早上7 时，在港台第四台转播；中央人民广播电台香港之声将于港台第六台转播。

This adjustment has attracted broad attention within Hong Kong society, because this means that Hong Kong’s Radio 6 channel which used to relay the BBC World Service 24 hours a day will be decidated to China People’s Broadcasting Station from early morning on September 4, beginning at 00:00 hours midnight. Besides, the newly-designed airtime will be when most Hong Kongers enter the land of dreams.

这一调整在香港社会引起广泛关注，因为它意味着，原先全日24 小时转播英国广播公司国际频道（BBC World Service）的香港电台第六台，将从今年9 月4 日凌晨零时开始，专属于中央人民广播电台香港之声；同时，更换到港台第四台转播后，BBC World Service 的转播时长将被压缩到8 小时，且新设定的转播时段，是在大多数香港人进入梦乡之时。

This is another step in RTHK’s response to the Hong Kong government’s March 28 notice of “ending digital audio broadcasting”.

这则通知，是香港电台对今年3 月28 日香港政府发布的“本港终止数码声音广播”，做出的进一步回应。

At the time, Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau pointed out that within a short period, three commercial organizations – Fenghuang Uradio, Digital Broadcasting Corporation and Metro Broadcast Corporation – had withdrawn from the market, stating operation problems and insufficient audience numbers as reasons for their withdrawals, showing that the market had lost interest in digital audio broadcasting, leaving RTHK (Hong Kong’s only public broadcaster, and a subordinate agency under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau) as the only provider of digital audio broadcasting services. This meant “a lack of commercial organizations’ participation”, and “no feasibility”. RTHK was therefore required to terminate relevant operations.

当时，香港商务及经济发展局指出，2011年获发数码声音广播的三家商营机构（凤凰优悦、DBC 数码电台及新城电台），“短时间内均以经营困难和没有足够听众群为由退出市场，反映市场对数码声音广播失去兴趣”，而仅剩香港电台（下属商务及经济发展局，香港唯一的公共广播机构）独自提供数码声音广播服务，“缺乏商营机构参与”，“并不切实可行”。因而要求香港电台在六个月内终止相关的服务。

RTHK DAB was officially launched on September 17, 2012. This broadcasting method means “use of digital compression technology for the transmission of various radio program signals, transformed into strings of digital signals.” The advantages [of this procedure] is that a single signal path can cover all of Hong Kong, avoiding interference, improving sound quality, and provide text information service, etc.. In an area like Hong Kong, where up to 70 percent of the territory are mountainous, and high-rise building standing closely to each other, this way of broadcasting is a good choice.

香港电台的数码声音广播在2012年9月17日正式启动，采用数码方式广播电台节目，具体的操作方法是“利用数码压缩技术，把音乐、访问和不同类型的电台节目等信息，转化为一系列数字信号发送”，其优点在于通过单一信道，即可覆盖全香港、避免受到干扰、改善音质、提供文字信息服务等。在山地面积达70% 且高层楼房密集林立的香港，这种广播方式，是一个不错的选择。

To this end, RTHK established dedicated digital channels and five new frequencies, among them Digital-32, broadcasting China People’s Broadcasting Station’s Voice of Hong Kong all day, and Digital-34, broadcasting RTHK’s Channel 6 content, namely the BBC World Service.

香港电台为此专门设立了香港电台数码台，并开发了5个新频道，其中数码32 台全日转播中央人民广播电台香港之声，而数码34 台全日转播香港电台第六台的内容，即BBC World Service。

Voice of Hong Kong is the Central People’s Broadcasting Station’s 14th program. It uses standard Chinese and Mandarin broadcasting news, arts and cultral programs, financial news and life services, whereas the BBC World Service has been relayed on RTHK’s Radio 6 since December 3, 1989, and before it was relayed from five in the afternoon until early next morning, on RTHK’s Radio 5 (stablished in 1978).²⁾

香港之声是中央人民广播电台的第十四套节目，使用普通话、广东话全日24小时播放新闻、文化艺术、财经、生活服务等内容；而BBC World Service，在1989年12月3日于香港电台第六台开始转播之前，均在每日下午5点至翌日清晨，在香港电台第五台（1978年创立）转播。

Closing RTHK’s digital radio spells the need to newly adjust the content of the originally five channels. The results of this readjustment has been described at the beginning of this article.

关停香港电台数码台，意味着原先5个频道的内容要做新的调整。调整的结果，在本文开头已指出。

RTHK’s communications director Amen Ng Man-yee believes that to maintain Central People’s Broadcasting Station’s Voice of Hong Kong is essential: “this channel was tailor-made at the time of RTHK’s DAB launch, and it can strengthen the cultural exchange between mainland China and Hong Kong.”

香港电台机构传讯总监伍曼仪认为，保留中央广播电台香港之声是必要的：“该频道是为香港电台推出数码广播时度身打造，而且可以加强大陆与香港间的文化交流。”

She also said that the compression of the BBC World Service relay broadcasts to eight hours had been made because listeners could listen directly to the BBC’s website for releveant content. As for the choice of the airtime [from eleven p.m. to seven a.m.], her answer was that because of the time difference, there would be more news updates during the night [by relaying the BBC programs at that time].

她还表示，将BBC World Service 压缩到每日8小时，是因为听众可以直接在BBC 网站收听到相关的内容；至于播放时段的选择，她的回应是，由于时差缘故，在香港深夜时会有较多的新闻资讯更新。

The BBC’s high-ranking publicity commissioner Helen Deller said in an interview with the “Guardian” that they were disappointed about the adjustments, and encouraged listeners to continue listening to the BBC programs through the internet.

BBC 的高级宣传专员Helen Deller 在接受《卫报》采访时表示，他们对这一调整感到失望，并鼓励听众通过互联网服务继续收听BBC 的节目。

____________

Notes

¹⁾ Radio 6 refers to the 675 kHz medium wave transmission (reportedly at 1 kilowatt) which can be heard all over Hong Kong (and in parts of Guangdong province, particularly at nighttime).
²⁾ This seems to deviate from RTHK’s statement which says that [t]he BBC World Service has been broadcast live on RTHK’s Radio 6 on AM675 since 1978.

____________

Related

Highly symbolic, The Guardian, Aug 13, 2017
DAB no longer realistic, SCMP, March 28, 2017
RTHK Radio and TV, Wikipedia, acc Aug 26, 2017
DAB, Wikipedia, acc Aug 26, 2017

____________

Liu Xiaobo, 1955 – 2017

It won’t be long before Liu Xiaobo‘s first post-mortem biography will be published. But it won’t have the last word. There will be further biographies, and each of them will be contested. That’s because of the man himself, and because of his country. He was a man with a conscience, and his country has been a totalitarian dictatorship for nearly seven decades – if you count the KMT’s martial law in, it’s been a dictatorship for much longer than that.

Liu Xiaobo’s political lifespan lasted for three or four decades. That doesn’t count as long in China. The Communist Party’s propaganda works tirelessly to create and sustain the “People’s Republic’s” population’s imagination of a civilizational history of five or more millenia. And at the same time, the party needs to sustain the notion that the most recent seven decades had been the best in China’s history. Not only the past fourty, after the leadership’s decision to “reform and to open up”, but the past seven decades, including Maoism. CCP propaganda’s aim is to build an image of its rule where the pre- and post-1978 decades are one political unit, without substantial contradictions within.

In all likelihood, Liu Xiaobo had foreseen that trend. Many Chinese dissidents, no matter if opponents of China’s cultural restauration, or opponents of the KMT’s military dictatorship on Taiwan, saw a Chinese complacency at work, considering itself the center of the universe.

Cultural criticism is rarely a rewarding trade, but in China, it can be lethal, as shown in Liu Xiaobo’s case.

Liu’s last camp and prison term, which began in 2009 and ended with his relase on medical parole, with cancer in its final stage, had been based on the accusation that he had “incited subversion of state power”. But the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court’s verdict – passed on Christmas day of 2009, probably to keep the level of international attention as low as possible –  only reflected the CCP’s fear of Liu, not the likely divide between the dissident and his people. A likely divide only, because in a totalitarian dictatorship, these things are more uncertain than in an open society. Hu Jia, himself a dissident who spent more than three years in prison from 2007 to 2011, noted during Liu’s dying days that only about one out of a hundred Beijingers knew who Liu Xiaobo was. Michael Bristow, the BBC’s China correspondent  in 2011, made a similar observation back then.

The 1980s mostly came across as a period of economic optimism, but accompanied by phenomena that were viewed negatively – particularly corruption, which was one of the factors that propelled the June-4 movement at its beginning.

Liu’s answer to what was frequently seen as China’s ailments was “westernization”. Stays in Western countries seem to have intensified his idea, just as Deng Xiaoping is said to have had his own cultural shock when visiting Singapore, in 1978.

But there lies a difference between the great statesman, and the great dissident. Singapore, a highly developed city state led by a family clan, is a model not only for authoritarian Chinese nationals – Taiwanese law-and-order-minded people tend to prefer Singapore as a holiday destination, rather than “messy” Hong Kong.

Liu Xiaobo’s model of development was Hong Kong of the 1980s. It was also the crown colony that provided the intellectual in his early thirties with some public resonance. In one of the interviews, given by Liu to a magazine named Kaifang at the time, Liu made statements that astonished the interviewer:

Q. Under what circumstances can China carry out a genuine historical transformation?
A. Three hundred years of colonialism.  Hong Kong became like this after one hundred years of colonialism.  China is so much larger, so obviously it will take three hundred years of colonialism.  I am still doubtful whether three hundred years of colonialism will be enough to turn China into Hong Kong today.

Q. This is 100% “treason.”
A. I will cite one sentence from Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party: “Workers do not have motherlands.  You cannot take away what they don’t have.”  I care about neither patriotism nor treason.  If you say that I betray my country, I will go along!  I admit that I am an impious son who dug up his ancestors’ graves and I am proud of it.

Both the “insults” and Liu’s expressly stated pessimism probably made for a divide between him and many Chinese (as far as they got to know his story). Or, as Roland Soong, a blogger from Hong Kong, noted next to his translation of the 1988 interview, as of 2010, “I suggest that unless Charter 08 (or any other message) can connect with many people in other social strata, it will remain a mental exercise among ‘public intellectuals.'”

And nothing works in the modern middle kingdom, unless it comes with a festive up-with-people sound. (In that sense, China is globalizing indeed.)

When Soong translated the interview quoted from above, and added his assessment of the Charter 08, the global financial crisis had been wreaking havoc on Western economies for about two years, and at least one of the Charter’s demands had fallen from the tree since: #14 called for

Protection of Private Property. We should establish and protect the right to private property and promote an economic system of free and fair markets. We should do away with government monopolies in commerce and industry and guarantee the freedom to start new enterprises. We should establish a Committee on State-Owned Property, reporting to the national legislature, that will monitor the transfer of state-owned enterprises to private ownership in a fair, competitive, and orderly manner. We should institute a land reform that promotes private ownership of land, guarantees the right to buy and sell land, and allows the true value of private property to be adequately reflected in the market.

There wasn’t necessarily a conflict on this matter, between the party leadership and the authors of the Charter – time will show how the CCP is going to handle the remaining state sector of the economy. But among everyday Chinese people, this demand would hardly strike a chord. Besides, who can imagine a transfer of state-owned enterprises to private ownership “in a fair, competitive, and orderly manner”?

In the Charter’s preface, the authors wrote:

The Chinese people, who have endured human rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these same years, now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values.

It was a cautious description of the status quo: Liu and his co-authors understood that only a critical minority would side with them. And indeed, there was more to endure in the pipeline. The educational dictatorship China is now entering encourages anticipatory obedience rather than awareness, and it is likely to succeed. When you keep beating people up long enough – and provide them with a hopeful perspective for the future -, there is little that can help people of conscience to counter the propaganda.

This may be the main difference between Liu and his enemies (and many of his admirers, too): in the eyes of many, only hard power – no matter if you refer to it as “the people’s power” or as the “authorities” -, creates reality. If the realities are good, you don’t need to get involved. If they are evil, you can’t get involved. And when realities come in many shades of grey, you either needn’t or can’t get involved. The power of the powerless is no reality in these peoples’ world – unless they begin to tilt, so that re-orientation appears advisable.

That’s a stabilizing factor, so long as realities remain what they appear to be.  But appearances can be deceiving, often until the very last hour. Who of the Egyptians who ditched their longtime president in 2011, in colossal demonstrations, had known weeks before that he wanted to get rid of him? A mood had capsized. It wasn’t about awareness.

A manipulated and intimidated public tends to be unpredictable, and that can turn factors around that were originally meant to add to “stability”.

China’s leaders feared Liu Xiaobo. They feared him to the extent that they wouldn’t let him leave the country, as long as he could still speak a word. But in all likelihood, they fear China’s widespread, politically tinged, religious sects even more, which have a tradition at least as long as Chinese scholarship. Falun Gong is only one of its latest manifestations.

By suppressing public intellectuals not only before 1978, but after that, too, they provided space for nervous moodiness. The Communists themselves want to “guide” (i. e. control) public awareness, without leaving anything to chance.

But chance is inevitable. Totalitarian routine may be able to cope for some time, but is likely to fail in the long run, with disastrous consequences.

In that light, the CCP missed opportunities to reform and modernize the country. But then, the party’s totalitarian skeleton made sure that they could only see the risks, and no opportunities, in an opening society.

What remains from Charter 08 – for now – is the courage shown by its authors nine years ago, and by the citizens who affirmed it with their signatures.

Each of them paid a price, to varying degrees, and often, their families and loved ones did so, too: like Liu Xia, who had hoped that her husband would not get involved in drafting the Charter, but who would never dissociate herself from him.

Nobody is obligated to show the same degree of courage, unless solidarity or conscience prescribe it. In most cases, making such demands on oneself would be excessive. But those who hate the Lius for their courage – and for lacking this courage themselves – should understand that their hatred is wrong. One may keep still as a citizen – but there is an inevitable human duty to understand the difference between right and wrong. By denying our tolerance toward despotism and by repressing awareness of our own acquiescence, we deny ourselves even the small steps into the right direction, that could be taken without much trouble, or economic hardship.

May Liu Xiaobo never be forgotten – and may Liu Xia find comfort and recovery.

____________

Updates/Related

再生：致刘晓波, Woeser, July 13, 2017
Rebirth, Woeser/Boyden, July 16, 2017
Wiedergeburt, Woeser/Forster, July 27, 2017
The abuse hasn’t stopped, Wu Gan, July 25, 2017

____________