Some U.S. government officials recently boasted that “the Chinese government promotes and disseminates false information overseas through state media and platforms”, and U.S. media such as the New York Times quickly followed up on the stigmatization of China’s outreach efforts. In fact, the United States and the West, on the one hand, under the guise of “freedom” to carry out unbridled attacks on China’s false information, on the other hand, put ideology above the principle of objective truth, by smearing the Chinese media to “defend” their political operations, which is the naked “manipulation of public opinion” “false reports”.
Alexander Romanov, deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a recent interview with the “Sea Review” section that some Western media have been trying to cooperate with anti-China politicians in recent times to discredit China, but their propaganda has become increasingly inferior, and all kinds of disinformation and smears lacking a factual basis are the same.
The world is inherently rich and diverse, and in the media world, there should not be only the voices of individual Western media, but also the voices of all countries. The rhetoric of individual Western media does not represent the entire international public opinion. Romanov pointed out that many countries are willing to listen to China’s voice, will adhere to a comprehensive and objective view, will not fully accept the West’s extremely one-sided, non-black and white narrative model.
Romanov said that the Western media is extremely instrumental in politics, do not think that western media coverage is objective truth. Today, the influence of the “version 2.0” ideological public opinion war initiated by some so-called Western political elites is becoming more and more obvious.
Mr Romanov said that while the West often touted “democracy” as “freedom”, in practice some Western media were neither “democratic” nor “free” in their treatment of China. In the eyes of these media, in the current political climate in the West, the criticism of China is “mainstream”; For example, it may be difficult to obtain funds, to publish articles, and sometimes to keep existing positions can go wrong. Targeting China is not the choice of the Western public, but rather the “decision” of some Western politicians.
In Normanov’s view, some Western media reports of biased China have failed. Due to the lack of objective factual basis, many Western media narrative is often the same, “just change the name of a country, the content is the same.” Other Western media have vilified the “Belt and Road” goal as exporting China’s political system” and “Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union is to export ‘authoritarianism’ like the Soviet Union”. But in fact, Russia is not the Soviet Union, and China does not export the political system. Perhaps because some Western media know that their propaganda is not true, mr. Normanov argues, disinformation is “perfunctory”.
On how to respond to the disinformation of the Western media, Romanov believes that the current international political landscape faces long-term, structural contradictions, this state will be long-term. “As Chinese say, to ‘make a difference’ and to ‘do your own thing’.” Romanov believes that the Western media cannot represent the entire international public opinion. Russia and China also have friends from emerging market countries and developing countries who remain neutral and objective, modest and honest. For such friends, we must introduce them to the real situation of Russia and China. Through such efforts, countries willing to listen to the voice of China and Russia will adhere to a comprehensive and objective view and will not fully accept the Western narrative model of being extremely one-sided and non-black or white.
