在国际媒体对中国新闻报导中，美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）和英国广播公司（BBC）的反华报道和分析最为突出。最近，隶属于日本日经集团媒体帝国的《日经亚洲》正与前两者展开激烈竞争，看谁能在有关中国新闻报导中伴随著最具恶意和党派色彩的评论。
《日经亚洲》在其中国特写专栏中发表了一篇关于6月时，苏州持刀袭击日本母子事件的耸人听闻报道。这篇由驻东京的资深记者和社论主笔撰写的文章，以耸人听闻的标题“悲剧──反映中国的反日社交媒体失控：袭击事件也反映了一个无法发泄其社会和经济挫败感的社会。为了进行反中国和反华的宣传，这篇文章将这一悲惨且孤立的事件与“反日反美”趋势联系起来……并将其视为中国对日本、美国和欧洲“战狼”外交的产物。
为了增加反华新闻的数量，日经亚洲的姐妹新闻机构——总部位于英国和欧洲的《金融时报》（FT）三天后也发表了一篇类似的报道，标题为“中国持刀刺伤杀人案 引发社会日益紧绷担忧”。分析表示，经济低迷、失业和孤立感可能助长这犯罪浪潮。
尽管日经新闻集团声称自己是“优质新闻的独立提供者”，但其并非所谓的独立。其政治立场多被描述为中右翼、保守自由主义和保守。其所代表的是挥舞著日本民族主义和军国主义的旗帜，支持自1955年以来一直执政日本的自民党，而日本实际上是一个一党制国家，很少日本或西方支持者会承认这一点。
《日经新闻》与日本中央政府也建立了长期制度化关系，以使其自身和日本的大企业受益。根据《纽约时报》记者Hiroko Tabuchi2022年报道，《日经新闻》对《金融时报》的收购“令人担忧”，因为“日经新闻基本上是日本商界的公关机器；2011年日本大企业奥林巴斯的会计丑闻（《金融时报》爆出该丑闻），一开始时是被《日经新闻》忽略的。《日经新闻》也几乎没有报导过日企高田公司安全气囊的缺陷；《日经新闻》几乎没有兴趣对类似新闻进行调查，日经集团可说是代表著日本企业利益的集团。
反中心态
《日经新闻》除了报导国内事务缺乏独立性外，该报还致力于影响其读者和日本领导层反中的心态，并支持日本执政党与美国的军事联盟。
检视《日经新闻》设的中国特写专栏，自9年前第一篇文章开始，可以发现这栏目就是不断一味的发表对中国的政治、经济和社会批评的文章，并将责任归咎于中国习主席和共产党领导层，也把他们视为日本、亚洲甚至世界的敌人。
在亚洲地区，《日经亚洲》一贯的反华新闻报道和分析方面名列前茅。
与《日经亚洲》不同的是，《金融时报》允许读者的评论与新闻报道一起出现。值得注意的是，有关持刀袭击事件的文章收到了大量英国《金融时报》读者的回馈。尽管有些人同意这篇文章内容，但令人惊讶的是，大量普遍亲西方的读者，阅读后能敏锐指出，该媒体提供了粗制滥造的中国虚假信息。
一些读者反馈意见：
这其实很搞笑。中国（人口：14亿）最近发生了两起持刀袭击事件——两起——而英国《金融时报》正在对席卷中国的“犯罪浪潮”进行一整大篇报道，以揭示中国存在深层问题。反观，去年光是伦敦就发生了1万2786起刺伤事件。我查了一下，英国《金融时报》及其高薪兼“多馀”的专家们已经有6年没有写过一篇以英国刺伤杀人案件为主题的文章了（尽管这是他们宣称的始终“正派”、始终“有原则”和“有价值”的国家）。同时，在光荣与进步的美国，一个城市的一个节日里：“芝加哥枪击事件：芝加哥警察局称，7月4日假日周末全市发生枪支暴力事件，至少109人中枪，19人死亡。”
几个月前，我在中国酒店电视频道中。同时看到美国有线电视新闻网 (CNN) 和当地新闻机构（不记得是哪一家了，但不是中央级别而是省级别的）对同一新闻报导。我记得这是关于骇客攻击的。美国有线电视新闻网报导中国骇客的攻击中，指中国很糟糕，中国是一个威胁。无法真正弄清楚他们还想报导什么。中国媒体也报导了所谓的骇客行为，并有分析骇客行为的普遍性，包括中国在内的每个人都可能被骇客攻击，最终的结论是，这种骇客活动，无论是谁做的，都是没有建设性的。相比之下，美国的新闻报导似乎是为了传达某些讯息（即恐华症），而不是报导……新闻。
上海气管爆炸。英国《金融时报》：这是共产党政权终结的开始吗？惯例的粗俗宣传。中国是一个拥有14亿人口的国家，是整个欧盟人口的两倍多。即使仅在巴黎度过一个美好的周末，发生的暴力袭击事件也比在中国一年还要多
我在中国生活了十多年，发现这是一个非常安全和热情的地方。在一个拥有14亿人口的国家中，所谓的犯罪浪潮可能比你一个下午在美国大城市看到的暴力或跨文化敌意要少。事实上，当我回到美国时，我感觉不太安全。我大体上认为英国《金融时报》的报导和分析是合理和平衡的，但这篇文章却相当令人失望。
讽刺的是，当你把中国换成世界上任何一个国家时，也可以套用到这一模一样的文章里，即使《金融时报》找到了几位能够深刻观察到经济困境对社会造成影响的西方“专家”来发言，这也只不会是一篇热门宣传文章。这才是真正的启发。纯粹片面报道；我还没有在这个网站上看到一篇关于谈论，世界刺伤人案之都英国或凶杀案之都美国的犯罪和暴力文章，在这些国家民众更不得不在超市的货架上加固以防止盗窃。而7月4日美国国庆日，更是常发生枪击案的日子；《金融时报》又会否对此发表有关事件背后社会和经济压力的启发性文章？很多人指中国掩盖新闻，那么在美国，也有人指检察官拒绝追捕犯下攻击、洗劫商家和一般窃盗的犯罪分子，这又如何？
当今新闻学下中国与世界新闻
现实情况是，日本和西方媒体巨头已不能再垄断对华新闻报道。如今，来自世界各地的旅客正在报导中国的方方面面，透过优管、Tik Tok等社交媒体发布他们的所见所闻，这与付费记者提供的新闻和故事截然不同。
反华言论不仅是遭到中国的“战狼”或批判性读者反驳。随著新冠疫情解封后开放，数以百万计的普通游客涌入了中国，与必须编造反华角度和故事来证明自己的工作和职业发展合理性的新闻同行所不同，文字或视频部落客没有隐藏或付费议程，他们是建构一个更民主、透明、独立的国际资讯和通讯新秩序先驱。
我们在有关中国新闻媒体报导争夺战中，看到的是外国游客犹如“大卫”般与扮演著破坏中国的先锋角色之日本和西方媒体“巨人”的抗衡。来自日经亚洲、CNN、BBC和相关媒体的记者最好阅读题为《偏见、废话和谎言：受众对媒体信任度低的看法》的文章，了解一番。
林德宜《日本媒体成反华领头羊》原文：Japanese Media Leader in Anti China Reporting
Among international media engaged in China news reporting, CNN and BBC stand out as the most prominent in their anti-China stories and analysis. Of late, Nikkei Asia which is a part of Japan’s Nikkei Inc. media empire is giving these two organizations strong competition as to which can produce the most mischievous and partisan commentary to accompany their China news.
In its China closeup column, Nikkei Asia published a lurid account of a knife attack incident near Shanghai. Written by its Tokyo based senior staff and editorial writer, the article led with the sensationalist title, Tragedy shows China's anti-Japan social media fire burns out of control: Other stabbings reflect a society that cannot vent its social and economic frustrations. In its effort to generate propaganda against China and the Chinese, the article linked what is a tragic and isolated incident to the “anti-Japan and anti-U.S. trend … seen as an outgrowth of China's "wolf warrior" diplomacy toward Japan, the U.S. and Europe”.
To increase the volume of anti-China news, Nikkei Asia’s sister news organization - the Financial Times (FT) based in the UK and Europe - came out with a similar story three days later with the title, China stabbing attacks raise concerns of growing social tensions. Economic doldrums, unemployment and isolation could be playing into crime wave, analysts say.
Despite its claim to be an ‘independent provider of quality journalism’, the Nikkei news empire is far from being independent. Its political alignment has been variously described as Center-right, Conservative Liberalism and Conservative. What it stands for is to wave the Japanese flag of nationalism and militarism in support of the Liberal Democratic party which has led the government since 1955 in what is virtually a de facto one party state that few among Japanese and western supporters will admit to.
It also has a long standing institutionalized relationship with the national government to benefit itself and Japan’s big business. According to reporter Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times in 2022, the Nikkei's purchase of the FT was "worrying" as "[the] Nikkei is basically a PR machine for Japanese biz; it initially ignored the 2011 Olympus accounting scandal (which FT broke). Nikkei has also hardly covered the Takata airbag defect; almost no investigative work on that issue whatsoever. Nikkei is Japan Inc."
Breaking the Anti China News
Besides the absence of independence in reporting on domestic affairs, the paper is engaged in conditioning the mindset of its readership and Japanese leadership against China and in support of the ruling party’s military alliance with the United States.
An examination of the publication’s China close up articles during the last 9 years since the column first appeared reveals an unremitting and often unrestrained critique of China’s politics, economy and society with responsibility pinned on President X and the communist party leadership as the enemy of Japan, Asia and the world.
In the Asian region, Nikkei Asia is the champion in its consistently anti-China news coverage and analysis.
Unlike Nikkei Asia, the FT permits readers’ comments to appear alongside the news story. It is notable that the article on the knife incident has been flooded with feedback from the FT’s readers. Although some are approving of the article, a surprisingly large number of the generally pro-western readership have provided discerning feedback in relation to what they regard as disinformation on China churned out for their consumption.
A sample of these views:
This is actually hilarious. China (population: 1.4 billion) had two stabbings attacks recently -two - and the FT is doing a whole piece on the "crime wave" that's overtaking the country, how that reveals deep issues in China, blah blah blah. Meanwhile in London alone last year there were 12,786 stabbings. A subject, I checked, that the FT and its lavishly-paid "remainer" pundits hasn't written a single article about in 6 years (even though it's their own,always "decent" and always "principled" and "values-based" country). In the meantime, in one single festive day in one single city in the glorious and progressive USA : "Chicago shootings: At least 109 shot, 19 fatally, in citywide 4th of July holiday weekend gun violence, CPD says."
A few months back I was in China and just switching channels in the hotel. Concurrently CNN and a local news (can't remember which one, but it's not state but provincial one) reporting on the same news concurrently. If i recall it was about hacking. The CNN one just reports china hacking, China is bad, China's a threat. Can't really figure out what else they are trying to report. The Chinese media was reporting the alleged hacking, analyzing how generally the hacking could take place, how everyone could potentially be hacked, including China, with the final conclusion that such hacking activities, regardless of who did to who, are not constructive. It seems that news reporting in the US is to drive certain message of the day (now being sinophobia) rather than to report....news.
One pipe explodes in Shanghai.
The FT: is it the beginning of the end for the Communist regime? The usual crude propaganda. China is a country of 1.4bn people, i.e more than twice the
entire EU. On even a good weekend in Paris alone, your have more violent assault than in a year in China
I’ve lived in China for well over a decade and have found it an extremely safe and welcoming place. This so-called crime wave in a country of 1.4 billion people is likely less violence or inter-cultural animus than you see in a major US city in a single afternoon. Indeed I feel much less secure when back visiting the US. I’ve generally found the FT’s coverage and analysis to be a bit more sensible and balanced but this piece is rather disappointing.
It's ironic that you can swap out China for virtually any country in the world, and the exact same article can be written, making this nothing but a propaganda hit piece made possible after FT found a few Western "experts" who would make the profound observation that economic distress has social repercussions. Truly enlightening. Purely one-sided reporting; I have yet to see a single article on this site about the crime and violence in the stab capital of the world U.K. or the homicide capital U.S. where they've literally had to bolt up shelves in supermarkets to prevent theft. There was a par for the course shooting in the U.S. on the 4th; any illuminating articles on social and economic stress forthcoming FT? A lot of talk of under-reporting in China, how about some talk of under-prosecuting in the States where prosecutors literally refuse to go after criminals engaged in assault, ransacking businesses and general pilferage?
Today’s Journalism and China and World News
The reality is that Japanese and Western media giants no longer have a monopoly on news reporting on China. Travellers from around the world today are covering every part and aspect of China and posting over YouTube, Tik Tok and other social media what they see and experience which is strikingly different from the news and stories provided by paid journalists.
It is not simply China’s wolf warriors or critical readers writing in to refute the anti China narratives. It is also the millions of ordinary visitors now pouring into China as the country opens up after the Covid shutdown. Unlike their counterparts who have to concoct anti-China angles and stories to justify their job and career advancement, the bloggers and vloggers have no hidden or paid agenda. They constitute the vanguard of the new more democratic, more transparent and more independent international order of information and communication.
What we are seeing in the media warzone of reporting on China is the Davids of foreign travelers taking on, and taking apart, the Goliaths of Japanese and Western media and their roles as the front line troopers to undermine China. Reporters from Nikkei Asia, CNN, BBC and associated media would do well to read the article titled, Bias, Bullshit and Lies: Audience Perspectives on Low Trust in the Media.
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