State media in China spills a great deal of ink attacking reports on China by western organizations that subscribe to this or that anti-China theory - "China threat", "China collapse" and so forth. Like other catch-phrases in the media - "three represents", "peaceful rise" and such - the words are often bandied about without any explanation. Global People (环球人物), a magazine under the People's Daily group, promises to remedy that situation in its latest issue, which profiles the "China attackers" most closely-associated with a number of anti-China positions.
Here's a translation of the promo for that issue:
Global People: Who is viciously attacking China?
For several years, absurd theories like "China Threat" "China Collapse" "China Split" and "Yellow Peril" have continually attacked China from the west. These arguments and rhetoric are not worth refuting, since they have never been real and will not become reality in the future. However, they have harmed China's international image and have disrupted China's efforts at development and engaging the world, and for this reason they should be taken seriously by Chinese people.[more]
So who are the people planning and disseminating these irresponsible opinions? How have they maligned China, and what is their goal in doing so? For the answer, you must look to "China's vicious attackers." Only by gaining a deep understanding of their words can you truly uncover the means and motives of those attacking China, and by doing so lay bare their sinister machinations. To this end, this magazine has selected several "attackers" from the US, Japan, and Russia:
· Bill Gertz, The Washington Times: For 20 years he has been spinning the "China Military Threat Theory." Bogus news stories like "Chinese submarine tracks American carrier" and "China paid millions to steal B-2 bomber stealth technology" were entirely his creation. Most galling, this forger has won the support of the Pentagon and some members of congress.
· Larry Wortzel, former assistant army attache at the US Embassy in China [1988-1990]: This is a man who detests China to his very bones. He worked within the military intelligence system surveying China for 25 years. In his eyes, China's planes and guided missles come from Chinese exchange students and computers, and pose a "serious threat" to the US. In the first half of this year, the US State Department's purchase of Lenovo computers was scuttled by him at the last minute.
· Michael Pillsbury, Pentagon consultant: His greatest trait is that when he's in China, he speaks of "friendship," but when he returns to the US he talks of "threat." He claims to have "a good deal of undertanding of Sunzi's Art of War," but the strange thing is that he "discovered" from The Art of War a "threat" coming from China. He was the main author of the Pentagon's 2005 Report on the Military Power of the PRC that trumpeted the "China threat."
· Gordon G. Chang, Chinese-American opportunist: "China's economy is in decline and has begun to collapse; the time will be prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and not after...." His "China collapse theory" is so much sensationalism. Though he is "besieged" at every turn because of the utter nonsense that issues from his mouth, his wacky theories still find purchase across the globe.
· Shintaro Ishihara, Governor of Tokyo: Chief among the anti-Chinese in Japan, forty years ago he started on the anti-China road. By cursing China to "split apart" and calling for a re-invasion of China, he has become a classic representative of vicious attacks on China. Worth being aware of is that his anti-China ideas run deep in the fringes of Japanese culture and have extremely negative effects.
· Mineo Nakajima, "anti-China hero" of Japanese academia: The earliest person in Japan to put forth the "China collapse theory," and an advocate of the "China split theory," he goes travelling every month for exchanges with anti-Chinese elements in other countries and to spread his anti-China fallacies. However, nothing that he has predicted has come to pass, so he had no recourse but to return to the "China threat theory."
· Evgeniy Nazdratenko, Russian official: He is one of the leading modern drum-beaters for the "Yellow-Peril Theory". "China has plans to expand its population across the Russian border," "Russia will inevitably fall to become a raw-material tribute-state for China" - during his tenure as governor of Russia's Maritime Region, he not only made noise about this sort of twisted theory, but also instituted discriminatory policies toward Chinese people and gave orders to expel tens of thousands.
Why do these people attack China so viciously? In addition to reasons of so-called "national interest", are they perhaps motivated by abnormal psychology? The latest issue of Globe People will give you a compete report and explanation.
To explain why anyone could possible attack China, Global People offers two analyses. The first (by special contributor Peng Xiao, for whom I have found no other information) identifies three types of attacks, and offers three possible motives. The attacks (in excerpted translation):
Exaggerating the "threat to world peace and stability" of China's development: What kind of effect on the Asian region and on the world does China's sustained stable development have? This is a major question that has attracted the attention of western scholars. The majority, through scientific research, believe that its influence is positive. However, a minority find evidence that "China is threating the world" in the areas of politics, military affairs, economics, and culture, and use that evidence to launch theories of a "China military threat," a "China economic threat," a "China economic threat," a "China technological threat," and a "China soft power threat."
Smearing China's image: A benign image is beneficial toward a country's entrance into world society and can gain the support and understanding of other countries and peoples. To contain China's rise, individuals opposing China do their utmost to smear and demonize China; they invent facts and conduct exaggerated, one-sided analyses, attacking China's domestic and foreign policy.
Making groundless conclusions that "China's outlook for development is dim," and attempting to blow China off: During the course of China's development, there have appeared a few problems are are entirely normal and are completely solvable. However, some anti-China elements have refused to let go of some specific issues, and explain them as "unsolvable, destructive conflicts," and continue on to conclude that "China's future development is fraught with danger; collapse is imminent."
The reasons Peng gives are (1) a Cold War mentality; (2) ideological, cultural, and structural differences combined with western-centered thinking; and (3) crass pursuit of fame and profit, since the media eats this stuff up.
The second analysis, by Huang Qing, a long-time People's Daily reporter who has been stationed for brief periods in Japan, Germany, and the US, performs a sort of "psychological analysis" of the China Threat theory. Huang divided the theory's supporters into patriotic types, who prove their affection for their own country by bashing others, moral types, who oppose China on a religious or ethical basis (he puts Pelosi here), and realpolitik types, who simply need a convenient enemy.
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