在俄罗斯──乌克兰战争转移了焦点数周后，美国及其西方盟友又回到他们焦点的国家——中国。妖魔化和打压中国的新举动正在两个方面展开。
首先是在外交层面，以美国为首的四方安全对话（QUAD，其他成员为日本、印度和澳洲）正试图使印太区域国家将中国视为需要予以反击的侵略者。
在最近的新闻发布会上，中国军方发言人吴谦在回应美国国防部长奥斯汀不断发表关于反击“来自中国的侵略和霸凌行动”的必要性评论时指出，美国是“最没有资格指责他人的国家”。
“美方的言论一如既往，体现出浓浓的冷战思维、霸权心态，流露出面对中国和平崛起的焦虑。美方的用词不论是‘霸凌行为’，还是‘破坏国际规则和秩序’，我看字字句句说的都是美国自己。”
吴谦举了几个“美国霸主”的霸凌例子，比如攻打伊拉克和叙利亚的行动，以及中国驻南斯拉夫大使馆被炸事件。
吴谦也以美国的单边主义行动和退出各种国际协议指出，“说到以规则为基础的国际秩序，美国是全球公认的规则破坏者”，可是美国却比其他国家更常把国际规则挂在嘴边。
“我们敦促美方停止把‘家法帮规’当成国际规则，推行美式‘霸权秩序’的错误做法，我们鼓励美国应客观理性地接受中国的和平发展。”
近来，印太国家和东盟国家受到美国和四方安全对话组织的招致，以联合起来对抗中国，可从这些区域近代历史，我们可以很清楚地知道，谁才是引发这些地区战争的罪魁祸首，谁是霸凌者，谁才是对和平的真正威胁。这些地区的国家应该避免沦为华盛顿及其盟友的炮灰，就像今天在乌克兰所发生的那样。
西方媒体宣传战
在对华的政治和外交战线同步进行的，就是再挑起中国的新旧争议议题宣传战。在所谓的独立自由的西方媒体牵领下，这些新闻报导重点是涉嫌中国侵犯人权或任何不当治理，只要可用于引起国际舆论的反华情绪。尤其在一些课题报导上给予极大的渲染，如2019-2020年香港抗议示威活动、中国网球员彭帅课题；以及新疆问题。
如果通过谷歌搜索以上三个课题的英文材料，我们可得出以下结果。香港抗议示威──1.47亿条资料；彭帅——1150万条；维吾尔族——18.7亿条。大部分这些资料是来自华盛顿、纽约、伦敦和悉尼的西方媒体之报导和分析。
通过与西方执政党有密切联系的西方企业所拥有的英文媒体传播下，这些反中国（有时伴随著种族偏见的反华）报导，就被东京、新德里、首尔，甚至新加坡和吉隆坡媒体转载，或成了记者参考模式。
在主要的反华媒体中，CNN和BBC可谓脱颖而出，其中BBC最近就试图炒作新疆问题，意图让其引起民众关注。这一举动是在联合国人权事务高级专员访问中国前，BBC在线网站上，以头条，充满情绪、悲情的方式，突出和重现了新疆再教育营课题。
这些声称源自警察的秘密档案报导，试图吸引眼球，并以前所未有的方式，连续数天播出片面的故事，但幸运的是，这场最新的BBC反华运动未能在民众方面和国际上引起关注。
在联合国人权事务高级专员巴切莱特结束中国访问时，虽表达了她对新疆广泛实施反恐和去激进化措施的影响和关切，但完全没有提及西方媒体最常引用的──所谓对维吾尔人“种族灭绝”的指控，或对中国共产党提出了同样荒谬和令人难以置信的“反人类罪”指控。
对此，中国外交部副部长马朝旭指责西方国家和反华团体以人权为幌子，在新疆问题上编造耸人听闻的谎言。中方的立场，与政府采取合法措施打击暴力恐怖主义，为中国西北带来安全、稳定和繁荣是一致的。
“本质上，新疆问题根本不是人权问题，而是事关维护国家主权、安全和领土完整的重大问题。新疆各族人民都是中华民族大家庭一员。”
与美国不同，中国在人权方面的优先事项没有改变。 他们寻求：
●把人放在首位
●尊重不同国家的人权发展道路
●对各类别的人权采取全方位的立场
●促进全球人权治理
中国的国内和国际人权政策当然需要审视和改进，但美国和其他国家的人权政策也是如此。
英谚有云“在玻璃屋里的人不要向外扔石头”和中国谚语“正人先正己”，尤其适用于西方对中国的立场。
林德宜《新一轮反华外交和媒体宣传》原文：Latest US and Western Diplomatic and Media Anti China Campaign
Following a lull of several weeks arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, the US and its Western allies have returned to their favourite nation to whip - China. The renewed campaign to demonise and bring down China is taking place along two fronts.
The first is on the diplomatic front in which the gang of four in the QUAD led by the US is trying to entice members of the Indo Pacific community to see China as an aggressor that needs to be countered.
During a recent press briefing in response to continuing US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comments on the necessity of countering “aggression and bullying from China”, China’s military spokesman, Wu Qian noted that the United States is “the least qualified country to blame others.”
“The US comments, as always, reflect a strong Cold War mentality, a hegemonic mindset and reveals its anxiety over the peaceful rise of China. Whichever expressions the US are using, whether it is ‘bullying’ or ‘undermining international rules and order,’ I think, every term applies to the US itself”.
Wu Qian provided several examples of the behavior of the “master of bullying,” such as the campaigns in Iraq and Syria, as well as the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia.
Referring to US unilateral action and withdrawal from various international agreements, he also noted “When it comes to a rules-based international order, the United States is a globally recognized rule-breaker,” though it talks about the rules more than anyone else.
“We urge the US to stop the wrong practice of presenting its domestic regulations as international rules and promoting the US-style ‘hegemonic order.’ We encourage it to accept China’s peaceful development objectively and rationally”.
Indo Pacific and ASEAN countries being courted by the US and QUAD countries to gang up against China know fully well from the recent history of the region who have been responsible for the wars in this part of the world, who are the bullies and who are the real threats to peace. They should avoid being used as cannon fodder by Washington and its allies as is happening in Ukraine today.
Western Media Propaganda War
In step with the war against China on the political and diplomatic front is the propaganda war focusing on new and old controversies. Led by so-called independent and free western media, the news reports focus on alleged human rights abuses or misgovernance of any kind that can be used to arouse international public opinion against China’s government. This is apparent in the coverage given to outwardly disparate events such as the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests; the case of Pengi Shuai; and the Xinjiang issue.
A quick check over google search for the English material on the three subjects turned out the following results. Hong Kong protests - 147 million results; Peng Shuai - 11.5 million; Uyghur - 1.87 billion. The great part of this mountain of information comes from reports and analysis put out by western media based in Washington, New York, London and Sydney.
Disseminated by the English language media owned by western businesses with close ties to the ruling parties in the west, the anti China (and sometimes accompanying racially biased anti-Chinese) reports are reproduced and have become a model for reporters from Tokyo, New Delhi, Seoul and even Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Among the leading anti-China media CNN and the BBC stand out with the latter playing a key role in the latest attempt to sensationalise the Xinjiang issue back into public consciousness. This attempt has come ahead of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to China with a front page emotional, heart tugging effort in the BBC’s online website giving prominence to a reconstruction of what is taking place in the reeducation camps in Xinjiang.
Based on so-called secret police files to tantalise the readership and despite running the one sided reconstruction story for several days in an unprecedented fashion, this latest BBC anti-China campaign fortunately has failed to get much support from among the public and in the corridors of international diplomacy.
At the end of her visit, the UNHC, Michelle Bachelet’s comments mainly related to her concern with the impact of the broad application of counterterrorism and deradicalization measures and made no reference at all to the favourite western media allegation of “genocide” against the Uyghur community and equally absurd and unbelievable charge of “crimes against humanity” levelled against the Chinese Communist Party .
In response Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, accused Western countries and anti-China groups of fabricating sensational lies about Xinjiang under the guise of human rights. The official China position has been consistent with the government adopting lawful measures to combat violent terrorism and bringing security, stability and prosperity to the region in China's northwest.
“Essentially, Xinjiang is not at all a human rights issue, but a major issue concerning upholding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. All ethnic groups of Xinjiang belong to the family of the Chinese nation."
Unlike the US, China’s priorities in human rights have remained unchanged. They seek to
●put people front and center
●respect different countries’ paths of human rights development
●follow a holistic approach to all categories of human rights
●foster global human rights governance
China’s policy on human rights at home and internationally certainly needs scrutiny and improvement but so does that of the US and many other countries.
The English proverb, “People in glass houses should not throw stones” and the Chinese one, “To rectify others, one should rectify oneself first” applies especially to the West in its position on China.
