Newly appointed Russian Ambassador to China addresses Chinese Public

–

Igor Morgulov is Russia’s new ambassador to China, replacing Andrey Denisov there.

According to Russia’s state-run “Sputnik” website, Morgulov was born on May 4, 1961 and graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Asian and African Countries’ Research Institute. He speaks Chinese and English as foreign languages (even “fluently” according to RIAC, a thinktank’s website). He held the post of Counselor and Minister of the Russian embassy in China from 2006 to 2009, headed the Russian foreign ministry’s Asian Department next, and was appointed deputy foreign minister in 2011. Still according to “Sputnik, he has been awarded the “For Merit to the Fatherland” medals, order 4 and order 2, among other awards. “Sputnik” also quotes from President Putin’s presidential decrees that remove Morgulov from his previous post and appoint him to his new one, similar to the way TASS newsagency also does.

When you google Morgulov’s role as a deputy foreign minister, you’ll probably get the impression that central, east and southeast Asia were his main fields of work from 2011 to 2022, as well – including Russia’s relations with North and South Korea, as well as the Korean nuclear issue.
As a rule, there appear to be about half a dozen to ten deputy-minister posts in Moscow – see “Current Deputy Foreign Ministers” on Wikipedia. In that light, becoming Russia’s ambassador to China should count as quite a promotion (it’s probably the most important embassy for Moscow anywhere around the world).

Morgulov addressed the Chinese public by video this week, published by China News Service on Youtube on Friday.

^{Click photo for video}

Translation:

亲爱的中国朋友们，你们好。首先请允许我自我介绍一下。我是莫尔古洛夫。本月１３日俄罗斯总统普京把我任命为新的俄罗斯驻华大使。对我来讲，这是一个很大的荣幸，也是很大的责任。	Dear Chinese friends, pleased to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Morgulov. On the 13th of this month, Russian President Putin has appointed me as Russia’s new ambassador in China. For me, that’s a great honor and a great responsibility.
１９８３年，作为第一批苏联留学生的一员，我首次来到中国。从那时候起，我的职业生涯同你们的古老而日新月异的美丽的国家紧密地联系在一起。在当今的复杂多变的国际形势下，俄中两国建立的新时代全面战略协作伙伴关系具有特殊的意义。	In 1983, I came to China for the first time, as a member of a group of Soviet students abroad. Ever since, my professional career has been closely linked to your ancient and rapidly progressing beautiful country. In today’s complicated and unsettled international situation, the comprehensive strategic partnership established by Russia and China in the new era is of special significance.
在新的岗位上，我愿意同中国朋友们积极合作，为落实好俄中两国元首所达成的重要的共识进一步推动两国关系全面发展，加强俄中两国人民之间的传统友谊而努力。朋友们，下个月我将要抵达北京。期待与大家尽快相见。谢谢。	On my new post, I wish to work actively with our Chinese friends, to implement well the important consensus reached between the Russian and Chinese heads of state and to promote our two countries’ relations further, and to make great efforts to strengthen the traditional friendship between the peoples of our two countries. Friends, next month, I will arrive in Beijing. I hope to see you all very soon. Thank you.

____________

Related

“Important choice, firm action”, Sept 14, 2022
Restive bulk of allies, May 6, 2022

____________

Chinese-Philippines Ties: “Brimming with Expectations”

The following is my translation of a press release by the Chinese foreign ministry (FMPRC), published on Wednesday morning (GMT) this week.

Links within blockquotes were added during translation.

一百聞不如一見：
maritime disputes (click map for source)

Main Link: 

Wang Yi meets Philippine national security advisor Carlos

王毅会见菲律宾国家安全顾问卡洛斯

On July 6 local time, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Philippine National Security Advisor Ms Carlos¹⁾ in Manila.

当地时间2022年7月6日，国务委员兼外长王毅在马尼拉会见菲律宾国家安全顾问卡洛斯女士。

Wang Yi said that Sino-Philippine have a thousand-year history of friendly relations. During the past six years, with the joint efforts of both sides, Sino-Philippine relations had achieved a change for the better and advanced quality. The election of President Marcos had opened a new page in Sino-Philippine relations, and the two countries’ peoples were brimming with expectations for the development of bilateral relations. This visit represents the Chinese side’s focus on Sino-Philippine relations and its support for the new government, the continuity and stability in China’s friendly policies toward the Philippines. China would like to cooperate with the Philippine side to implement the important consensus between the two heads of state, to deepen pragmatic cooperation and to initiate another “golden age” in Sino-Philippines relations.

王毅表示，中菲有着千年友好交往历史。过去6年来，在双方共同努力下，中菲关系实现转圜改善、提质升级。马科斯总统当选为中菲关系翻开了新的一页，两国人民对双边关系发展充满期待。此访旨在体现中方对中菲关系的重视和对菲新一届政府的支持，体现中国对菲友好政策的连续性和稳定性。中方愿同菲方落实好两国元首重要共识，深化各领域务实合作，开创中菲关系下一个“黄金时代”。

Carlos said that the two peoples of the Philippines and China were were deeply attached and culturally connected to each other. China was a friendly major power. Chairman Xi Jinping had emphasized that he wanted to create a prosperous and beautiful future together with the Ascia-Pacific countries. The Philippine side is fully in favor of this and would like to broaden exchange and cooperation with the Chinese side, handle disagreements properly, promote mutual trust, improve confidence, gather goodwill and strengthen friendship.

卡洛斯说，菲中两国人民相亲、文化相通。中国是友善的大国。习近平主席强调要同亚太国家共创共享和平繁荣的美好未来，菲方完全赞同，愿同中方扩大交流合作，妥善处理分歧，促进互信、增强信心、积累善意，巩固友好。

Wang Yi said that China had never followed the traditional great powers’ road of colonialism and lootings and that it would maintain its own peaceful development, maintain cooperation and win-win, maintain shared development of opportunities with neighboring countries, join hands to build the community of human destiny²⁾ together and take good care the global village inhabited by all of us together.

王毅说，中国从不走传统大国殖民掠夺的老路，将坚持自身和平发展，坚持合作共赢，坚持与邻国分享发展机遇，携手共建人类命运共同体，呵护好我们共同居住的地球村。

Wang Yi emphasized that China and the Philippines were neighbors neither of which could be moved away, and our choice was friendship, friendship, and friendship again. The healthy continuation and the stable development of Sino-Philippine relatoins was in accordance with the two countries’ and the two peoples’ fundamental and long-term interests. Given the current international and regional situation full of uncertainty and instability, the two sides must continue and enhance their traditional friendship, and let Sino-Philippines relations become more stable and durable, so as to keep them moving forward on the right track.

王毅强调，中菲是搬不走的邻居，我们唯一的选择就是友好、友好、再友好。中菲关系健康持续稳定发展符合两国和两国人民的根本和长远利益。面对当前充满不确定不稳定性的国际地区形势，双方要传承弘扬传统友好，使中菲关系更加稳固坚韧，始终沿着正确轨道向前发展。

Both sides believed unanimously that people-to-people exchange should be strengthened and that the two countries’ friendly public opinion and the societal foundations of the two countries’ friendship be solidified.

双方一致认为应加强人文交流，夯实两国友好的民意和社会基础。

The two sides unanimously believed that the valuable experience of the two countries should be summed up, the overall situation of Sino-Philippine friendship should be actively protected, bilateral relations should not be defined by disputes, and definite differences not be allowed to be in the way of the two countries’ cooperation.

双方一致认为应总结两国交往宝贵经验，努力维护中菲友好大局，不以争议定义双边关系，不让具体分歧阻碍两国合作。

____________

Notes

¹⁾ Clarita Reyes Carlos, aka Clarita Carlos
²⁾ frequently, but not precisely, translated as a community with a shared future
____________

Cute Pandas and Lovely Tanks – CRI and CGTN cover Russia’s War in Ukraine

How is our motherland doing, comrades?
CRI Russian / CGTN Russian war coverage

I don’t speak Russian, but it seems that China Radio International’s (CRI) coverage leaves nothing to be desired when you want to be kept up to date with your country’s war in Ukraine (without too much disturbing news, I suppose). The first 25 minutes of CRI’s Russian program at 17:00 UTC on Sunday were all about Donbas, with a CGTN correspondent reporting from there.

CRI might have dispatched its own correspondents a few years ago, when the station was actually an organization in its own right, and quite a fiefdom at that. CRI’s then director, Wang Gengnian, even delivered his own annual new-year address.

Some adjustments for synergy were called for, and the central committee delivered, early in 2018, by amalgamating CRI, CPBS (domestic radio) and television into a “Central Radio and Television Network” (中央广播电视总台).   Some three years later, many CRI language broadcasts on shortwave were replaced by mere music loops or endless repetitions of always-the-same cultural programs.

Taiwan’s government appeared to have similar plans for Radio Taiwan International (RTI) – not to take them off the airwaves, but to create an tri-medial organization, integrating RTI, Taiwan’s national newsagency CNA, and public television. Instead, RTI got a new director-general, and its Spanish, French and Korean services returned to shortwave from a mere online existence.

Now, questions are occasionally asked which plan for RTI was better – the one devised in 2018 or the one actually implemented in 2019 and onward. In my view, starting an international television channel on the one hand as is done with “Taiwan+” and keeping RTI as a station focused on audiences in different languages looks like a comparatively wise choice.

For one, RTI might provide a pool of foreign-language speakers for television if need be. Also, if I go by my own fondness for radio, “Taiwan+” isn’t for me, and never will be. In fact, it’s nice to be spoken to in my first language by RTI’s German department.

But above all, developments at Radio Japan and CRI aren’t looking really promising. At Radio Japan, English is only broadcast on shortwave three times a day, and as for the news, that’s only a soundtrack from NHK’s global  English-language television channel. (You won’t even know who’s speaking at times, because obviously, you are missing out on the subtitles.) And while I don’t know what they are talking about in Russian on China’s foreign media, I seem to notice that there is a similar problem with the CGTN correspondent’s contributions that are also used by CRI, i. e. by “Central Radio and Television Network” foreign-radio channel. The correspondent, Kirill Volkov, seems to interview a number of people for his video productions, but as a listener, you can only guess who he is talking to.

It is easy to think that CRI’s German service has lost some of its (not too numerous anyway) German listeners after leaving shortwave, along with many other CRI language services. The German editorial department’s current trimedial attempts at agitating their listeners in China’s favor may be good for a laugh every now and then, but contrary to CRI’s radio productions in the past, these days’ online content is useless.

“Some US politicians behave more and more like
dirty swines!” -CRI German’s
“sharp commentary” online, January 2022

In that regard, one has to wonder why RTI has recently been busy with grandstanding of this kind. Reportedly, what really happened is that the same half-hour Russian program in Russian already in existence for Europe has been rebroadcast for an additional 30-minutes time slot on another frequency.

Stunts like the above seem to suggest that RTI’s directors are worried that the government might cut RTI’s budget.

That shouldn’t happen. If Taiwan’s government wants to raise its country’s “international visibility”, it can’t do without RTI, and it can’t do without shortwave. At least, Taipei better wait how “Taiwan+” develops before making cuts to the foreign-radio budget.

Xi Jinping’s Reply Letter to “Global Young Leaders Dialogue”

An organization named “Global Young Leaders Dialogue” has made it into the number-one headline¹⁾ of China People’s Broadcasting Station‘s morning news on Thursday.²⁾ The “Global Young Leaders Dialogue” is, by self-description, a “unique communication, education, and professional development platform for young achievers under the age of 45 with diverse regional, cultural, disciplinary, sectorial, and professional backgrounds across the globe”, “jointly initiated by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS)”.

The “Center for China and Globalization”, in turn, is a “think tank” devoted to the development of “a new narrative system” in track-II diplomacy (possibly not exactly the same, but similar to, “people-to-people diplomacy”.

The project appears to have formed a “partner” organization in Europe, too, the “Europe-Asia Center”, whose colors come across as somewhat EU-China-centered:

“Europe Asia Center” logo

Fittingly, former President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy sent them a “congratulatory letter”, too, dated August 5.

The project is probably some kind of “must-have”, not only among “people-to-people diplomacy” advocates, but in the view of the party leadership, too: cooptation stuff like this forms part of the imperial regalia. After all, the World Economic Forum runs a “Young Global  Leaders” project, too. German Green Party chancellor candidate, Annalena Baerbock, is among them.

But back to the Chinese copy of it.

The following is a translation from a letter reportedly sent by Xi Jinping, to the “Global Young Leaders Dialogue”.

Reply letter
回信

Delegates of the “Global Young Leaders’ Dialogue Project”:
“国际青年领袖对话”项目外籍青年代表：

Hello! I have received your letter. You all study, work, and live in China, and I am very glad that you now have the opportunity to deepen your knowledge and understanding of China through thorough travels and visits.
你们好！来信收悉。你们都在中国学习、工作、生活，这次有机会到各地深入走访，加深了对中国的认识和了解，我感到很高兴。

Just as you wrote in your letter, the Chinese people rely on their own wisdom and sweat to build a fertile and beautiful homeland on the earth of China, to create a civilization of many forms and colors, and to achieve the life of modest prosperity it has long yearned for. Happiness demands struggle. The most important thing is to be based on the national condition and to take one’s own road. Practice shows that the new Chinese-style road of modernization becomes ever broader and will help to develop better ourselves and thus benefit the world.
正如你们在来信中谈到的，中国人民依靠自己的智慧和汗水，在中华大地上建设富饶美丽的家园，创造多姿多彩的文化，实现了梦寐以求的小康生活。要幸福就要奋斗。中国幅员辽阔、人口众多，要想发展振兴，最重要的就是立足国情、走自己的路。实践表明，中国式现代化新道路越走越宽广，将更好发展自身、造福世界。

Youth is always accompanied by dreams. The Communist Party of China has passed the 100-years’ milestone, but our original intentions have only grown stronger as time has passed. After 100 years, you are just in your prime time. On our new journey, we will continue to make the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation happen in an indefatigable struggle, and indefatigably struggle to promote the progress of mankind’s development. We welcome more international young people to come to China for exchange, and hopefully, Chinese and foreign young people, as they learn from each other and set examples for each other, will improve understanding, earn friendship, grow together, and devote youthful power to contribute to the building of a community of common destiny for mankind.³⁾
青春总是同梦想相伴。中国共产党走过了百年奋斗历程，但我们的初心和梦想历久弥坚。百年恰是风华正茂。在新征程上，我们将继续为实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦而不懈奋斗，为促进人类发展进步而不懈奋斗。我们欢迎更多国际青年来华交流，希望中外青年在互学互鉴中增进了解、收获友谊、共同成长，为推动构建人类命运共同体贡献青春力量。

I wish you all the best in China!
祝愿你们在华一切顺利！

CPC Secretary General and State Chairman Xi Jinping, August 10, 2021 / Xinhua, August 11
中共中央总书记 国家主席 习近平 2021年8月10日 （新华社北京8月11日电）

____________

Notes

1) That’s no reason for the “young leaders” to get too exhilarated though. If Xi Jinping had opened a parrot-breeding station the day before, it might have been the number-one headline, too. In national news, it doesn’t matter what is done, but by who it is done.
²⁾ CPBS, August 11, 2021, 22:30 UTC
³⁾ More literally translated: a community of common destiny for mankind.
____________

Related

Center for China and Globalization’s New Narrative System, July 19, 2021
Enhancing Zhou Enlai’s Convivial Diplomacy, Febr 20, 2012 (re Oct 9, 2009)
____________

Updates / Related

Xi Jinping schrieb zurück, CRI, Aug 11, 2021
____________

Center for China and Globalization develops “new narrative system”

The following is my translation of an excerpt from a book review by a Chinese think tank named Center for China and Globalization (全球化智库), (re)published by a number of Chinese online media. The book is probably CCG’s own work. The review and the content related there should not be too easily thought of as a possible new trend in Chinese public diplomacy unless it is echoed elsewhere in Chinese politics. An article published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute contains some information about the think tank’s work abroad and its background.

My translation may contain mistakes. Corrections are welcome.

Links within blockquotes added during translation.

[…]

Based on CCG’s practice of track-II diplomacy, this book summarizes the ten experiences CCG went through while developing a new narrative system. Specifically, CCG, in new international narrative exchanges, CCG emphasizes the following aspects.

基于CCG二轨外交的实践，本书总结了CCG打造新叙事体系的十条经验：具体来说，CCG国际交流新叙事注重以下几个方面：

1. Look at China’s topics from a global perspective, talk more about common values and emphasize universality. Let China’s voice in globalization be heard.

第一，全球化视野思考中国问题，多说共同价值，多讲普遍性，向世界发出中国的全球化声音；

2. Less conceptional advocacy¹⁾, and more objective and reasonable ways of expression. Use facts and figures. Talk more about China’s contributions to globalization, and tell China’s story from a multilateralist point of view.

第二，少理念倡导，多客观理性表达，用事实与数据说话。多讲中国对全球化的贡献，从多边角度讲中国故事；

3. Be modest but self-confident, tolerant but not without a position of your own. Practice mutual respect and an interlocutory attitude, without an aim of defeating your counterpart, communicate your own ideas and communicate effectively.

第三，谦和而自信，包容而有立场，相互尊重，对话姿态，不以博倒对方为目的，传递自身理念，做有效沟通；

4. Innovate the popularized narrative discourse system, all-embracing, narrating your case multi-levelled and multi-angledly, from the perspectives of politics, diplomacy, trade, human affairs, and individual experience. Above all, analyze the logic of China’s development with inside information about concrete details of Chinese culture.

第四，创新民间化叙事话语体系，兼容并包，从政治、外交、商业、人文、个体经验多层次多角度讲述个案。尤其通过讲述中国文化底蕴分析中国现实发展逻辑；

5. Take interviews from international mainstream media and make yourself heard on international social media.

第五，接受国际主流媒体访问，通过国际社交媒体发声；第六，走出去主动参与国际主流轮坛平台，积极发言交流；

6. Go out and participate in international mainstream forum platforms, speak out actively and communicate socially.

第六，走出去主动参与国际主流轮坛平台，积极发言交流；

7. Actively set an agenda and expand the topic’s impact on international mainstream platforms.

第七，主动设置议题，在国际主流平台扩大议题影响力；

8. Be creative in building new types of international exchange platforms. Constructively initiate new types of multilateral international organizations.

第八，创造性搭建新型国际交流平台，建设性发起新型多边国际组织。

9. Take the courage to face different opinions, make contact with a multitude of interlocutors. Establish wide-ranged exchange and dialogue in Chinese and foreign political, business, academic and research circles. Promote track-II diplomacy.

第九，勇于直面不同意见，接触多元交流对象，在中外政商学研界建立广泛交流与对话，促进民间二轨外交。

10. Keep up with international and domestic points of strong [public] interest, be flexible in strengthening the think tank’s²⁾ influence through a multitude of channels and methods.

第十，及时紧跟国际国内热点，灵活通过多渠道多方式传播增强智库影响力。

[…]

____________

Notes

1	conceptual advocacy is just my guess for the Chinese term for 理念倡导 – to argue in favor of a topic, approach, or perspective. It may as well be translated as <em>idea advocacy</em>.
2	the think tank in question here should be CCG.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai returns to China

–

Main Link: Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai’s farewell message of deep feelings towards countrymen abroad ( 中国驻美大使崔天凯辞别侨胞深情寄语 )

Xinhua Newsagency, Washington, June 22 report. Cui Tiankai, having served as China’s ambassador to America for more than eight years, published a “farewell letter to all countrymen in America”, thanking the numerous countrymen in America for the care and support they had shown for his work. He also expressed his trust that they would continue to make active contributions to the promotion Chinese-U.S. relations that would develop in a healthy and stable way.

新华社华盛顿6月22日电 担任中国驻美大使8年有余的崔天凯21日在使馆网站发表《致全美侨胞的辞别信》，衷心感谢广大在美华侨华人对他工作的关心和支持，并寄语他们继续为促进中美关系健康稳定发展作出积极贡献。

Cui Tiankai said that from April 2013 until now, the more than eight years he had worked in America had passed in a blink of an eye. He would soon leave to return to China. “This was the longest term abroad in my career, allowing me to experience many historically significant events, getting to know enthusiastic and amicable friends, and leaving me with many unforgettable memories for life.”

崔天凯说，自2013年4月至今，他转眼在美国工作已8年有余，将于近日离任回国，“这是我外交生涯中最长的一次驻外任期，让我经历了很多具有历史意义的事件，结识了很多热情友好的朋友，也给我留下了很多终身难忘的记忆”。

He highly praised the countrymen living abroad, with emotional ties to their homeland, making unremitting efforts to promote mutually beneficial cooperation and connections of popular sentiments between China and the U.S., firmly speaking out for the unification of the motherland and the defense of national dignity. “I will always cherish the profound friendships I have built with all of you countrymen during my diplomatic mission in America.”

他高度赞扬侨胞们身居海外，情系桑梓，为促进中美互利合作和民心相通不懈努力，为促进祖国统一、捍卫民族尊严坚定发声，“我将永远珍惜出使美国期间与各位侨胞结下的深厚友谊”。

Cui Tiankai pointed out that during the 42 years that passed since the establishment of Chinese-U.S. relations, the two countries had achieved historic successes, and their interests had long become inseparably interconnected. By blending Chinese and Western advantages together, Chinese countrymen in America had long become envoys of people-to-people friendship and association. Chinese-American relations were currently at a critical juncture. American policies towards China were being restructured, facing a choice between dialog and cooperation or confrontation and clashes.

崔天凯指出，中美建交42年来，两国关系取得历史性成就，两国利益早已紧密交融。在美侨胞一直以融贯中西的优势，成为中美友好交往的民间使者。当前中美关系正处在关键十字路口，美国对华政策正经历新一轮重构，面临在对话合作和对抗冲突之间作出选择。

He said: “At this very moment, countrymen in America are shouldering a major responsibility and mission. I hope you will continue to be firm promoters of and contributors to healthy and stable development of Chinese-American relations, setting out from safeguarding your personal rights to exist and develop in America, setting out from protecting the fundamental benefits of our two countries’ peoples, setting out from the promotion of global peace and stability.”

他说：“此时此刻，在美侨胞肩负着更加重大的责任和使命，希望你们从捍卫自身在美生存和发展权益出发，从维护中美两国人民根本利益出发，从促进世界和平稳定和繁荣出发，继续做中美关系健康稳定发展的坚定促进者和积极贡献者。”

____________

Related

Keep it simple, June 24, 2011
____________

Europe’s Voice on Shortwave: Radio Romania International

Floriilor Cave, South Carpathians 45.212 N and 23.132 E,
Radio Romania International QSL, 2015
Click picture for more info

The following translation is an excerpt from Radio Romania International’s mailbag show in Chinese. The letter read out there last week was from a long-time listener who hadn’t written before.

[…] By now, Radio Romania International is the only European radio station that has maintained shortwave broadcasting. I cherish your station’s broadcasts all the more!

[…..] 如今，罗马尼亚国际广播电台，是欧洲唯一一家保留对华中文短波广播的电台，我对贵台的广播更是格外珍惜！

Although it isn’t too easy to receive your broadcasts in our area, there are sometimes indications of your signal, obscured by noise. But half of the time, I can hear Radio Romania International clearly, even if it weakens intermittently, but thanks to the hosts’ fluent Chinese, I can still get the general meaning clearly. I cherish every time you broadcast.

虽然，在我的地区，接收贵台并不是一件太容易的事，有时候依稀能够听到播音迹象，却淹没在短波噪音中，但是，另一半的时间里，我还是能够清晰收听罗广的，虽也有信号衰减迹象，断断续续，但得益于主持人们字正腔圆的中文，我还是能听清楚大概意思的，每一次您们播音，我都格外珍惜！我害怕失去你们！作为欧洲唯一保留中文短波的国家，我真的害怕失去你们！作为第一次联系罗广的老听友，我诚恳的建议您们，绝不能依赖网络！

The aforementioned European stations, including yours, although keeping broadcasting online, may not know that in our country, it isn’t convenient to listen to foreign stations online. The network may not be very responsive, it’s operation speed be limited, freeze after a few seconds of good listening, may take time to load again. That’s disappointing, these factors have has made internet radio devoid of value. It can’t be compared with the reliability and smoothness of shortwave radio. I hope your station can hear an ordinary listener’s voice and accompany us on shortwave forever!

前面提到的欧洲国家，包括贵台在内，虽然保留了对中国的网络广播，但是他们或许不知道，在我国，接收外国的网络广播是很不舒服的，网络卡顿，运营商限速，听的好好的，卡顿好几秒，继续播音，甚至加载的时候都得等好久，非常非常的扫兴，这些因素，都导致他们的网络广播收听价值荡然无存………与收听短波广播的可靠流畅是无法比拟的！希望贵台能够听到我一个普通听众的声音，能够在收音机里永远陪伴我们！

____________

Related

Some Radio Romania International history, Jan 25, 2018
DW Chinese informs listeners, Oct 27, 2012
“Opinion leaders”, May 20, 2011

____________

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Navel-gazing Rogue in the Broadcasting Room

Why, sure …

 

Canada’s parliament declares China’s persecution of Uighurs a “genocide”? Cool, but who in China cares when Canada doesn’t speak to the world, including China, and explains the declaration?

If the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) critics state their case correctly, that’s the state of Canada’s foreign broadcasting. Not only will CBC, reportedly, violate the Broadcasting Act by cutting Radio Canada International (RCI) down further. It would also be sort of privatizing it, by shifting its focus to domestic minority broadcasting, thus competing with private ethnic radio operators – and, according to the “RCI Action Committee” – to newcomers to our country”, “engaging with its target audience, particularly newcomers to Canada”, and making this new content “freely available to interested ethnic community media”.

The idea that publicly-funded foreign broadcasters (or media platforms) should shift their attention to migrant communities at home, at least to some extent, is nothing new. Germany’s Deutsche Welle has been doing this for a number of years now, and so has (it seems to me) Radio Sweden.

But that’s not RCI’s mandate, writes the Action Committee.

CBC’s supervisors appear to be fast asleep, while there is “a rogue elephant in the broadcasting room”, according to Peter Menzies, a former Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) vice chair.

According to the “RCI Action Committee’s” blog on December 4 last year, RCI, after what CBC calls its “modernization”, won’t run its own website any more, and the Spanish, Arabic and Chinese services will be basically closed – cut from three editors each to only one editor per language remaining, to translate content from the CBC and Radio-Canada websites. And the English and French programs, it seems, will cease to exist completely.

Menzies, a signatory to a letter calling on senior government officials to get CBC executives to put their latest plans on hold and give RCI employees a few weeks to come up with an alternative restructuring plan, also gives a short account of Radio Canada International’s history, from the final days of world war 2 to 2012, when RCI’s budget was cut into by 80 percent, two-thirds of staff laid off and RCI ceased shortwave and satellite transmission, becoming internet only.

Will CBC listen to its critics? Not if its supervisors remain silent. In fact, RCI staff has often put up resistance and creativity against budget and program slashes, but never successfully, at least not in the long run.

Radio Canada International has been a shadow of itself since early this century, and it had seen cuts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, too.

Radio Canada International once ran a German service. It was one of the most popular shortwave programs among German listeners both in East and West Germany until it was closed in late 1989 or early 1990. At the time, new language services such as Arabic or Chinese were said to be the reason for terminating the daily half-hour German programs.

Gunter Michelson, one of the Radio Canada International German service’s editors who had left or retired before the department was closed, said in a telephone interview at the time that

This is a strange issue. The German programs’ termination is explained by the launch of broadcasts in Chinese. The idea of a Chinese service in itself is up-to-date and very good. China will, after all, be one of the world’s greatest markets. But the same logic demands that Canada broadcasts in German, to the European-Community, which is going to be the world’s biggest trading block in the foreseeable future, with 340 million consumers and 60 million people within the EC and 80 million in central Europe speak German. You can’t simply ignore them.[…]^*)

Sure thing: you can, just as you can ignore a potential billion-and-a-half Chinese audience. OK – many of them were lost when the shortwave broadcasts from Canada ended, anyway.

Thirty years later, the budget slashes are coming full circle – it’s the Chinese service’s turn to be (nearly) eliminated. To whom is Canada talking when its parliament passes a resolution concerning China?

Probably to itself. Be a human-rights advocate and feel good about it.

____________

Note

^*) Michelson, August 27, 1989: Das ist eine außerordentlich befremdliche Sache. Begründet wird die Einstellung des deutschsprachigen Programms mit der Aufnahme von Sendungen in Chinesisch. An sich ist die Idee eines chinesischen Dienstes aktuell und sehr gut. China wird ja eines Tages einer der größten Absatzmärkte der Welt sein. Aber die gleiche Logik erfordert auch, dass Kanada auf Deutsch ins EG-Gebiet sendet, das ja in zwei oder drei Jahren mit 340 Millionen Verbrauchern den in absehbarer Zeit größten Wirtschaftsblock der Welt darstellen wird. Und über 60 Millionen Personen im EG-Gebiet, um 80 Millionen in Mitteleuropa, sprechen ja Deutsch. Die kann man nicht einfach ignorieren. […]

____________

Related

RCI “effectively retired”, April 9, 2012
Advocacy journalism not the problem, Jan 26, 2012
Opinion leaders, May 20, 2011

____________