[jnem]

Regardless of how we feel about genetic engineering, is anyone else tired of seeing manipulative headlines in regards to any news that comes out of China? Every-time I see a story about China, it has a negative connotation. In this case, "Chinese scientists just admitted to tweaking the genes of human embryos for the first time in history" is purposefully inflamatory. They didn't "admit" it, they actually tried to get it published in some major science publications. Use of the word Admission implies they were trying to be sneaky and hide the results. Thats not the case at all.

Journalists of the world, have you no idea what you are doing? Purposefully causing misunderstanding between nations is the path by which wars are paved.

This is a sore subject for me because while Im American, my wife is Chinese, and therefore half my family is Chinese and lives in China. I do work with Chinese developers everyday, but to hear the world news pundits put it, those developers are by default criminals. This needs to stop.

[dbbolton]

Personally, I don't feel it's necessarily unethical to perform experiments on human embryos to begin with. Embryos are not conscious beings, nor do they feel pain (although fetuses do, at around the 5th-6th month). To me it is not much different from experiments involving stems cells, human tissue, or what have you.

But even if you did object to the idea, the embryos in this experiment were non-viable, meaning that they were never going to become human beings. I think omitting that word from the headline made it that much more inflammatory.

[StavrosK]

Is it "journalists of the world?" It just sounds like American propaganda to me, I haven't noticed a similar sentiment towards China in Greek news, for example.

I think Russia and China get the "criminals by default" attitude in the US.

[scarmig]

Out of curiosity, I looked up recent China headlines in some UK papers. Method: Google News, search the newspaper's domain for China and list the first three. Includes opinion pieces, and also syndicated ones (though I think even for syndicated editors will usually write the headline). I also included evaluations of positivity and negativity, but of course YMMV.

UK (total: 4 positive, 2 neutral, 3 negative)

The Guardian: "China warns North Korea's nuclear arsenal is expanding"; "How China's Macau crackdown threatens big US casino moguls"; "Chinese school bars windows and balconies to stop pupil suicides"

2 positive, 1 negative

The Daily Mail: "Japan ministers go to Yasukuni a day after China talks"; "Volvo prepares to send 'Made in China' cars to US"; "Host Malaysia avoids Chinese ire over disputed sea at ASEAN summit"

1 neutral, 2 negative

The Financial Times: "China spells out cost of meeting pollution targets"; "Made-in-China cars steer course abroad"; "Mercedes-Benz fined over China price-fixing"

2 positive, 1 neutral

USA (total: 2 positive, 3 neutral, 4 negative)

NYT: "China's Big Plunge in Pakistan"; "Xi Jinping of China and Shinzo Abe of Japan Meet Amid Slight Thaw in Ties"; "Chinese Regulators Fine Mercedes-Benz Over Price Fixing"

1 positive, 2 neutral

WSJ: "Executive Shows China’s First Home-Grown Electric Sports Car"; "China Says Please Stop Hiring Funeral Strippers"; "Debt Builds in China Stock Rally"

1 positive, 2 negative

WaPo: "What China's and Pakistan's special friendship means"; "China's pathetic crackdown on civil society"; "This Chinese feminist wants to be the country’s first openly lesbian lawyer, and police harassment won’t stop her"

1 neutral, 2 negative

USA papers do appear to be more negative, but another trend is right-leaningness being predictive of Sino-negativity. So the apparent country connection may just be a side effect of that.