No matter how evil and brutal a regime might be, it can always rely on apologists and fifth columnists in ‘free’ countries. Such would-be Quislings seize on any propaganda to champion their authoritarian daddies and conveniently ignore everything else.
So, for instance, apologists for Hitler pointed to the “economic miracle” of the Third Reich, while wannabe fascists praised Mussolini for making the trains run on time. Later, George Bernard Shaw and the New York Times’s Walter Duranty swore that they’d never seen any sign of starvation in the Ukraine, while French president Francois Mitterand visited Maoist China at the height of the worst famine in history – and never saw a thing.
But then, as Chinese writer Yang Jisheng testifies, many Chinese lived through the Great Leap Forward not knowing that tens of millions were dying across the country. Fed on nothing but Communist Party propaganda, they sincerely believed that the devastation in their own village was merely an isolated incident. “Compared with the advent of the great Communist society, what was my family’s petty misfortune?”
The Chinese communists are about to unleash a wave of propaganda on the West. No doubt there will be no end of eager buyers in academia, business and politics.
China must assert itself more effectively on the world stage to strengthen its voice and status, President Xi told the country’s leaders yesterday.
The remarks, made by Xi as he addressed a session of the ruling party’s 25-member political bureau, come at a time when China’s global image is being battered over human rights controversies at home, the crackdown in Hong Kong and its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the propaganda machine has become more forceful in recent years, Xi said that Beijing must build a more sophisticated “strategic communicative system with distinct Chinese characteristics” to lead global public opinion.
With the right communication tools, China would have more friends and be seen around the world as “credible, loveable and respectable”, Xi claimed.
Sure, and pigs might fly.
Unfortunately, as we see too often, pigs are capable of remarkable aerobatics in the imaginations of the “intelligentsia”.
The world must learn that the “Communist Party is truly striving for the wellbeing of the Chinese people, and understand why Marxism works, and why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good”, he said.
Let’s face it, Xi won’t have any trouble convincing the chattering classes of the virtues of Marxism and socialism: nearly all of them believe that without question, anyway.
All Xi has to do now is finish the final coat of gloss over the patches of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Wuhan.
The Chinese leader proposed several ways to achieve Beijing’s goals. “We should better play the role of high-level experts, use important international conventions and forums, and make our voices heard through foreign mainstream media,” he said.
In other words, what the CCP was doing for years with remarkable success, until the Wuhan virus ripped the scales from the eyes of at least a great many ordinary people. As surveys have shown, China is detested and distrusted by huge majorities of people in Europe, Asia, the US, Britain and Australia.
Still, at least they can rely on the “smart people in the room” in business, media and universities to remain loyal followers.
China is actively supplying news by its state media to developing nations and even western countries to try to change the narrative worldwide.
The Australian
The CCP spent millions buying favourable opinion in US outlets like Time, and major newspapers in numerous American cities. Without a doubt, it is doing the same here. It has also bought and paid for universities, with lavish funding tied to “Confucius Institutes”. Hollywood will do and say anything for Yuan.
So stand by for an onslaught of pro-China propaganda.
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