对于长期关注西方媒体如何报导中国的新闻的人来说，在中国共产党第20次全国代表大会于10月22日结束前几周，反华和反习近平的报导会达到前所未有的高峰，是不足为奇的。英国广播公司（BBC）和美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）每天发布的头条新闻，都试图在煽动一切的报导，以误导、贩卖恐惧和焦虑，来诋毁中国领导人和中国共产党。
这两家美国和英国媒体似乎是西方反华媒体集团领导者，他们试图相互超越，努力让他们的读者相信习近平主席和中共对世界其他地区构成的威胁。无论如何，他们的一些新闻报导从充满戏剧性演变成闹剧，反映了这两家自称独立媒体的不堪。如：
一名抗议者悬挂横幅揭开了反习行动
利诱英国退役飞行员协助培训解放军空军
我在中国驻英领事馆被拳打脚踢
中国抗议：神秘北京示威者引发网上追捕和致敬
其他以习近平和中共为重点的所谓分析报导，往往也导向以推翻中共政权为目标，这也成了越来越多西方主流媒体在报导中国时的主旋律。也因此，出现了诸如以下标题：
危机感定义了习近平的统治
习近平正在改写中国历史
英国情报局长：中国技术构成重大风险
反习抗议在中国和全球蔓延
CNN在10月22日发布的最新一份报导，如往常般引述一些匿名者言论来批评中国政府——在这个报导中，引述共8名海外留学的中国学生谈话——构成了一篇不仅抨击习近平威权领导和高压统治的故事；更声称反习抗议运动现在已经遍及全球，可笑的是尽管在中国或世界其他任何地方都绝对没有证据表明这发展趋势。
这些西方媒体在关于中国的报导中，惯用半真半假，甚至虚假讯息，并不是什么新鲜事。自第二次世界大战结束以来，这已成一种惯例，应用于每一个被美国及其盟友认定为反美和反西方的国家和领导人身上，并试图摧毁他们。这名单包括越南、古巴、伊朗、伊拉克、利比亚、埃及、阿富汗、巴勒斯坦、毛泽东、胡志明、卡斯特罗、（埃及）纳赛尔、（刚果）卢蒙巴、（智利）阿连德、（伊拉克）萨达姆侯赛因、（利比亚）卡扎菲。
今天，美国及其盟友的目标转向了普京领导下的俄罗斯和习近平领导的中国。对于中国，美国及其盟友目标不仅仅是抹黑习近平和推翻中共政权。这背后更大目的，在于中国及其人民，在过去20年来取得的进步，已被视为威胁了西方在关键领域的主导地位，西方一向认为在这些领域，其有著无可置疑的领导和控制权。
因此，在经济、地缘政治、社会发展、文化、科学、技术、芯片、人工智能和政治治理等不同且看似不相关的领域上，西方媒体的报导作用，不仅仅是突出中国的坏消息。其既是西方的宣传机器，也是西方的“侍女”，通过煽动排华情绪来贬低中国的成就，持续散播“黄祸”的论述。
中国橄榄枝
无论如何，中共20大结束后不久，习近平主席于10月27日表示，中方愿与美方共同努力，寻找有利于双方的相处之道。尽管西方媒体和一些西方政治领导人不断发表反习和反中共言论，但中方对这一和解讯息立场是明确和毫不含糊的。也就是中美作为大国，应该加强沟通与合作，为世界提供稳定。可是，中国向美国提出的和平与国际上合作的献议，似乎被忽视或遭拒绝了。
与此同时，拜登政府同一天在华盛顿发布的最新美国国防报告将中国列为美国的主要敌人，并呼吁美国“未来几十年”增加在常规武器和核武器的开销。
为合理这一最新战略，美国一位高级国防官员辩称，美国面对著中国的“节奏挑战”，因为中国是“唯一有意图并越来越有能力全面挑战美国的竞争者，无论是在军事、经济、技术和外交层面上。”
在最近举行的雅典民主论坛上，美国社会科学家杰弗里萨克斯（Jeffrey Sachs）教授就将美国形容为自1950年以来“世界上最残暴的国家”。于2016年在吉隆坡成立的双威可持续发展中心，就是以杰弗里萨克斯教授命名的。
杰弗里萨克斯认为，一个国家最重要的是其独特体制文化：以政治制度对国家进行分类（自由民主与否）是过于简化。
他还批评美国的政体是“一个半民主的，在白人主导的等级制度下充斥著种族主义的国家，旨在维护精英阶层的特权（并建立）一个奴隶主主导，执行种族灭绝政策的国家。”
杰弗里萨克斯指出，“全球真正的挑战，在于人类如何和平共处并克服我们共同的危机。此外，这个世界问题的解决方案，就是更多地相互沟通交流……我们在美国的政治精英不与中国政治精英沟通交流，除了指手画脚或对他们大喊大叫。……如果我们坐下来沟通，我们实际上会有所收获。”
萨克斯对于美国无论是在内部体制还是与中国关系上可能会有所改变的看法，实在是太乐观了。很明显，拜登政府决心以一切可能的手段除掉中国，无论是和平方式还是其他手法。
林德宜《中美：战争或和平》原文：China and the United States: War or Peace
For those following the western media on its China coverage it was not surprising that the weeks leading to the 20th party congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which ended on 22 October should see a crescendo in the anti-Xi and anti-China coverage. A daily barrage of headlines from the BBC and CNN attempted to sensationalise every possible bit of reportage to mislead, instil fear and anxiety, and denigrate China’s leaders and the Chinese Communist Party.
The two US and UK media appear to be the leaders of the western media hound dog pack trying to outdo each other in the effort to convince their readership of the existential threat that President Xi and the CCP poses to the rest of the world.
Some of their stories ran from the melo-dramatic to the farcical showing how desperate the two self professed independent media are
A lone protester unveils an anti-Xi banner
UK pilots lured to help Chinese military
I was kicked and punched at China’s UK Consulate
China protest: Mystery Beijing demonstrator sparks online hunt and tributes
Other so-called analytical stories focusing on Xi and the CCP were framed to lead to the regime change objective which the mainstream western media has increasingly set up as its main mission in reporting on China. Hence headlines such as
A sense of crisis has defined Xi’s rule
Xi Jinping is rewriting China’s history
UK Intelligence Chief: Chinese Technology Poses Major Risk
Anti-Xi protest spreads in China and worldwide
The last report posted by CNN staff on 22 October typically picks on a few anonymous critics of the Chinese government - in this instance a total of 8 mainly overseas Chinese students - and then runs a story not only lambasting Xi for his authoritarian leadership and repressive rule; but also claiming that the anti Xi protest movement is now world wide though there is absolutely no evidence of such a development in China or anywhere else in the world.
The same Western media addiction to half truths, lies and falsehoods in its reportage on China is nothing new. It has been systematically applied against every country and leader that the US and its allies have identified as anti-US and anti-West and sought to destroy since the end of the 2nd world war. This list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan, Palestine, Mao, Ho Chi MInh, Castro, Nasser, Lumumba, Allende, Saddam Hussein, Ghadaffi.
Today the target is focused on both Russia under Putin and China under Xi. With China, the objective is not simply to discredit Xi and to seek regime change. The bigger target is China and its people whose advances in the last two decades is seen as threatening western dominance in the key sectors which the west sees as its right to unquestioned leadership and control.
Thus in disparate and seemingly unconnected areas in economics, geopolitics, social development, culture, science, technology, computer chips, artificial intelligence and governance, the role of western media is not only to stress the bad news about China. It is to serve as the propaganda machine as well as handmaiden of the west in deflating Chinese achievements and sustaining the “yellow peril” narrative by encouraging sinophobic sentiment.
China’s Olive Branch Despite Western Provocation
Soon after the end of the CCP congress, President Xi Jinping on 27 October said that China is willing to work with the United States to find ways to get along to the benefit of both. His position on this conciliatory message - despite the continuous stream of anti Xi and anti CCP rhetoric from western media and some western political leaders - was clear and unambiguous. This was that as major powers, China and the United States should strengthen communication and cooperation to help provide stability to the world. This offer from China of peace and collaboration in international relations appears to have been ignored or rejected.
Meanwhile the Biden administration’s latest US National Defence released on the same day in Washington has identified China as the US’s main enemy and called for significant new spending on US conventional and nuclear weapons “for decades to come” .
In justifying this latest strategy, a senior defence official has argued that China is the US’s “pacing challenge” because it is “the only competitor with both the intent and increasingly the capability to systematically challenge the United States across the board, militarily, economically, technologically, diplomatically”.
War or Peace
At the recently held Athens Democracy Forum, American social scientist, Professor Jeffrey Sachs who has the Sunway Sustainable Development Centre in KL established in 2016 named after him described the US as “the most violent country in the world” since 1950.
Sach has argued that what matters is a country’s unique governance culture: classifying countries in political systems (“liberal democracy or not”) is oversimplifying.
He has also criticized the US governance culture as “A semi-democratic white-dominated hierarchical racist society that aims to preserve privilege by the elites [and was founded as] a slave-owning genocidal country”.
Sach has noted that “The real struggle of the world is to live together and to overcome our common crises. Also that “the solution in [this world] is to speak with each other more …Our political elites in the US do not speak with Chinese political elites except to point fingers or to yell at them.…If we would sit down to speak with each other, we’d actually get somewhere.”
Sachs is really too optimistic about the possibility of the US changing its governance culture whether within the US itself or in its relationship with China. It is clear too that Biden’s administration is determined to take out China - by all means possible, whether peaceful or otherwise.
