[volkisch]

> it feels like they are just doing this to please their readers by reinforcing the negative image of China.

It's not like China has been doing a good job on removing this negative image of themselves, aren't they? Granted, not that they should care, they just pay attention at their own game.

Either yanks or russians pulling strings in MENA to satisfy their geopolitical ambitions, or the CPC doing the same in Subsaharan Africa, or major cities of the western world.

It shouldn't really surprise you to see headlines like this.

[seanmcdirmid]

China doesn’t really care what the rest of the world thinks about it, so they aren’t thinking of their international image when they do things like this.

Reading the Chinese press makes this even more obvious, and leads to an even poorer image of China than CNN could ever accomplish. The western media actually makes China look better in that way.

[emodendroket]

I think that's a mistake to say; I'd say rather that their goals of national unity without domestic challenge override their international image in this case. It's really no different than Trump's obsession with purging immigrants overriding the hit to the US' reputation that his policies have caused

[seanmcdirmid]

With Trump, however, most Americans know he is hurting our image abroad. In China, they are almost completely oblivious to global PR.

[emodendroket]

What do you base that claim on?

[seanmcdirmid]

US western media talks a lot about how trump is damaging our image. Chinese media never even mentions how Xi or decisions made in China are giving it a bad reputation.

[emodendroket]

Perhaps, but you are assuming, I think unjustifiably, that Chinese people are unable to use their imaginations or what information they can find online (the censorship is largely reactive). Also, Chinese papers often will highlight foreign criticism to rebut it and foreign criticism can sometimes be a galvanizing force. On a more basic level I have to imagine that when Chinese people heard Xi Jingping talking about his principle of non-interference in internal affairs they have some idea that he's rejecting foreign criticism.

Additionally, China is a global power and has to care about its reputation to the extent it affects its international projects.

[paradite]

What I mean is double standard in reporting:

Does every negative article about UK talk about brexit?

Does every negative article about Trump talk about his sexist remark? (Granted, Trump might be in similar situation as China)

Does every negative article about Russia talk about annexation of Crimea?

Not that I've seen.

Edit: confusing wording.

[seanmcdirmid]

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I’m not sure what your point is here?

[paradite]

I am too lazy to google, but here is the first result when searching for "russia election meddling", which does not talking about annexation of Crimea (hence proving your third "yes" wrong):

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/03/trump-russia...

The point is, every news article that is negative towards China will talk about all the previous negative articles about China regardless of their age or relevance.

[seanmcdirmid]

Your point was muddled. You asked do I read everything about Russia annexing Crimea, I replied “yes.” Not that every article about Russia was also about crimea. That isn’t true, nor is it true that every even negative article about China mentions Uighurs.

[paradite]

My bad, fixed my wording.

Do send me an article that talks about something negative about Chinese government but doesn't mention Uighurs if you come across one. I would like to keep it.

My contact information is pretty easy to find.

[seanmcdirmid]

You don’t really need to look very far, see:

https://www.wsj.com/news/types/china-news

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/china

https://www.cnn.com/china

https://www.economist.com/sections/china

Look at any article that is negative and not about xinjiang. Eg China lending crisis doesn’t mention Uighurs at all. I personally recommend the Economist’s recent article in Tianjin’s current building bust. I mean, I saw derelict skyscraper husks when I first visited tianjin in 1999, that’s still a think in 2018???