Heavy-handed propaganda alienates Europeans from China
- Source: Global Times
- [21:02 March 15 2010]
- Comments
GT: In the past, when tensions between China and Europe piled up, China would send a group over to make large purchases to fix the relations. Do you think there are better ways to develop a healthier bilateral relationship?
Crossick: Big trade delegations that result in extra exports to China may influence decision-makers, but not necessarily the media or the public.
To seriously improve the relationship requires policy changes in China that are not necessarily acceptable. For instance, better market access, revaluation of the yuan, support over Iran, reducing the use of the death penalty, and increasing press and Internet freedom would all help improve China's image overseas, especially in Europe.
European companies do not believe that they have the same free access to the Chinese market as Chinese companies in Europe. Many sectors are deemed "strategic" in China. Bureaucratic barriers make life difficult for foreign companies. The services market is far from open.
The yuan is believed to be substantially undervalued and this is regarded as contributing to the trade deficit and effectively being protectionist.
Europe and the US are deeply concerned about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. They wish to increase sanctions as all negotiations have failed. Even Russia is tending to support more sanctions.
China, on the other hand, doesn't favor sanctions and extensively supports Iran economically through trade and investment.
The vast majority of Europeans strongly oppose the death penalty. China is not the only country which has capital punishment; many US states, for instance, use the death penalty.
However, it's reported that more than half the world's executions are in China. China also does not publish the numbers.
Europeans deeply believe in freedom of expression. The impression is that restrictions on the press and Internet have increased recently. It is not suggested that you allow a Western-style press, but there should be much greater freedom than now.
Shattering the existing popular stereotype of China is a long-term exercise. The more opinion formers and others spend time in China and the better the communication, the more hope there is of achieving this.
But it has to be recognized that bad news makes good news coverage; good news does not. This is why the tendency of most reportage is negative, whether about China, the EU or any other place.
Short of increasing freedom of the media, the argument will have to be that there is much less censorship than in the past.
Unfortunately, the perception is that it has increased over the last two years. In the case of the death penalty, the only possibility is to publish the figures and show that executions have been steadily decreasing in number.
Although Western companies complain about lack of access, the Chinese economy is much more open than it was, and also more open than many other countries.
Positive statistics and facts also need to be constantly repeated, such as China's remarkable successes in alleviating poverty over the last three decades of reform.
