Honestly the title of the piece and the use or the term "sick man of Asia" is pretty racist, regardless of your evaluation of the Chinese government's reactions.
5
The false equivalence is at it again. It is actually anything but similar to your own experience.
Calling any Chinese, including those in China or the United States, "sick man in Asia" is equivalent to calling African Americans the "N-word". Would you utter the "N-word"even on WSJ? I guess not.
The Chinese government is such an easy target. But it does not make it right to throw blatantly racist slurs at all the Chinese. Mr. Stephens, shame on you!
2
“ New Virus Arrives in USA “. No Problem, Trump has a new Box of Sharpies.
Sad.
1
Since both these journalists are living off China reporting and It would be interesting to see how long these 2 journalists can keep their job at WSJ after sticking out for another unworthy Fox News.
Bret, imagine putting the N word in the title of your article. I believe both you and the editor will both lose your jobs. And that’s why I am a loyal NYT subscriber till this day.
3
I don't see how an openly racist and vile headline that harks back to the opium war and the humiliations of china in the 19th century can be defended on any grounds whatsoever. It is racist and indefensible. If a similar thing was published about African Americans (the equivalent might be calling them the N-word) the outcry would be immense and editors would get fired immediately.
I'm not that surprised, as the Wall Street Journal barely deserves to be called a newspaper anyway.
2
the heading smacks of racism. As an oversea Chinese, I felt insulted by the WSJ
1
Opinion or not, a paper bears some responsibility for what is printed. Would an op-ed piece titled, “Jewish greed underlies Israeli policies” ever be acceptable?
Didn’t think so. In fact, I bet that even this comment will considered too offensive to print.
1
Too bad Xi doesn't have Fox News to keep him informed.
If your blood doesn’t boil at the thought of the Chinese Communist Party dictating what can and can’t be published in American newspapers, then there’s something wrong with you.
3
We have seen very clearly that the Chinese dictatorship is a failure. A decent government would have heeded the warnings of doctors about this virus before it was too late. But no, the vain and stupid dictatorship suppressed correct medical warnings. Now thousands are dying and China could possibly poison the whole world. Colossal failure.
1
China's Communist Party is its own worst enemy when they suppress the reporting about an international health emergency, maybe it's time for a new Chinese Dynasty to arrive on the scene care of the Chinese Communist Party's lack of concern for fellow Chinese citizens; Chinese Communist Party running dogs could likely get it all going after this and future meanderings from the truth! Xi, Xi Xi Jinping the revolution has begun & soon the commies will ge gone!
It seems to me that the Article mixed up two separate issues: the issue of a wrongful use an insulting headline and the issue of the Chinese government's suppression of free speech. The journalists have the right to comment on a foreign government's action. But, it does not mean it can overlook or omit the wrongdoing of their own. Both the Chinese government and the Chinese Americans in the U.S. had requested the WSJ to apologize for the erroneous use of the offensive headline "Sick Man of Asia." The WSJ merely responded by explaining that the editor did not know it means a stigma in the context of Chinese culture and history. Maybe the editor didn't know. Maybe he should have known or WSJ should have done more thorough research or internal check as this is their job. Nevertheless, what is wrong is wrong. Should the WSJ apologize to the people for the hurt it has caused?
2
I don't know Stephens. The term “de-Sinicize” sounds pretty racist to me. Especially in the era of the Trump administration. Sounds an awful lot like "de-Latinize" if the term were applied to Central and South Americans. What's this I hear about a border wall?
I think the Chinese government has a legitimate grievance. Their track record with free press and human rights more generally leave China open to criticism. However, I can see how a government attempting to tackle a major epidemic would find Mead's comments unhelpful at best. Expelling journalists was the most expedient way to convey their displeasure.
Also consider, China is a highly bureaucratic and administrative nation. This was true long before Mao. Occam's razor: The mishandling of CONVID-19 was mostly due to misinterpreting facts on the ground rather than an actual failure to reply. What would you say if New York ports suddenly had a suspiciously large flu outbreak?
I suspect New York politicians would prove even more inept than China. There's more than enough precedent to justify my assumption.
1
It is astounding that the Editors of WSJ and other Pulitzer Prize winner can be so apparently ignorant of the historic racist context of that phrase.
"The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for example, was steeped in fears about Chinese workers bringing disease to the United States. A cartoon published that year in the Wasp, a popular West Coast magazine, captured the sentiment in the form of three horrifying ghosts looming over San Francisco and bearing the names Malarium, Small-Pox, and Leprosy.
Image: George Frederick Keller/‘The Wasp’ via The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
The image represents a moment in California history when Chinese immigrants were scapegoated for the spread of disease. " https://medium.com/s/story/our-history-of-blaming-immigrants-for-disease-2cf77c474961
This is particularly apt as a new hysteria has arise over the latest COVID-19. Sure it is a threat due to its many unknowns. But we already have lost close to 10,000 people in the US to the regular flu - and we have NOT seen a similar level of fear. Is WSJ defending its right to report facts or to whip up fear and hysteria?
2
"Any regime that depends on the manipulation or manufacture of “truth” for its own survival is bound to act in similar ways"
I thought we were talking about China, not Trump and his Republican homies in Congress
4
No, it is the obscene rump-up in Sinophobia and anti-Chinese propaganda by US government and media that returns not only China but the whole world to the darker age. Most puzzling is the complete irrationality of it. Do the propagandists really believe that they can stop or even slow down China's rise by their hateful lies? It is like they are preparing US public to war with China. That is completely insane.
3
Poor China, they are apparently stuck with a foolish leader who suppresses journalistic freedoms. Not only that, their leadership denies the people accurate information and is complicit in the spreading of rumors and falsehoods. They hold themselves above the law. They view themselves as the law and wield this power to grant privilege to those that are loyal to the party. Nothing like that can happen in America. Just keep telling yourself that and soon, maybe, you might believe it.
2
Good piece of writing!
I'm reminded of Schiller's "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain…" ;)
The headline is offensive.
China silences.
The US misinforms.
1
Conservative columnists always
show very poor taste. China is
going through a crisis-thousands are sick and thousands have died. It was
a show of bad manners for Russell Meade to insult them in their distress. Paul Gigo, editor, should have shown
some sensitivity to use inoffensive
headline. He is another conservative
who delight in insulting others. China
did the right thing by kicking WSJ's
reporters.
1
Wannabe dictator Trump has effectively shut down the credibility of legitimate news sources for his cult by proclaiming them fake news and enemies of the people. Polls show that his supporters do not believe anything in the Times, Washington Post, CNN, and others.
A leader who doesn't want facts to come out, even if it means his people will be put at risk. A leader who suppresses and attacks all press stories he takes to be attacks on him or his policies, and who slanders and threatens his critics. A leader who runs as a strong man, and who surrounds himself with sycophants. Yes, and given their own leader, things are bad in China, too.
35
China's continued suppression of vital coronavirus information reflects the inherent flaws of an authoritarian regime. Expelling journalists, another heavy-handed move, shows that the regime is as touchy as ever.
But in this case it is not entirely unfounded. "The Sick Man of Asia" is a politically and racially charged term, last used to describe China when it was being colonized and invaded by foreign powers. Westerners may not be aware of these associations, but every Chinese schoolchild learns them.
That said, I don't believe this is a case of willful racism. I worked for Professor Mead as an intern; he does not choose his headlines, his editors do. The content of the article makes no reference to the term. Even in the case of Prof. Mead's editors at WSJ, I believe they were probably unaware. Nevertheless, ignorance can cause misunderstandings, especially with the Communist Party's prickly pride.
40
You are right. Some editor thought it would be cute to retrieve an catchy old saw — that’s how they are trained to write headlines that will grab attention. The article was not offensive (and not particularly enlightening). Since Sun Yat-sen, Chinese leaders have been in a state of recovery from the national humiliation of occupation at the end of the last dynasty. Every Chinese learns about the details of the 19th Century, is outraged by the loss of face and is eager to show that the Middle Country is back (and this is exploited by the leaders). “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it” has an unfortunate side-effect on those who cannot forget history. I have often thought that the great weakness of Americans is that we do not know what happened more than 10 minutes ago and we do not care but it is also our great strength. People come here with historical grievances that consume them and are forced to put them aside and get to work. It is hard to imagine, but the Chinese will only be free when they look forward and not back.
13
@Simon
The meme started when the Ottoman Empire was described as “the sick man of Europe” in the 19th c.
Since then several other territories havve received the appellation. There is an exhaustive Wiki article on the subject.
4
@Simon
Completely agree - the WSJ has every right to select their headlines, but this was an astoundingly poor choice because it did a disservice to the article and its authors.
For many Chinese, it immediately brings to mind the opium wars (and abject racism / colonial policies by foreign powers), which is an incredibly sore subject. If not racism, the headline has a strong whiff of ignorance.
Now the message is overshadowed by the headline...
6
C'mon Stephens, the Wall Street Journal headline harkened back to "yellow peril" fears of the 19th century. The article itself was just okay...avoiding most racist inference.
But the headline was thought out and specific and if the Journal didn't know its connotations, well, that says something about the intelligence of the leaders there.
It's also rich that you are ignoring the headline when you are well known for calling out anti-Semitic tropes of all stripes.
You can't have it both ways, pal.
1
China’s wildlife markets, filthy deplorable places of inhumanity will continue to be source of untold viruses until China once and for all closes them down permanently. Why won’t it happen? Because government officials are profiting hugely in the elicit and illegal animal trade that threatens countless species and their own poorly educated society. A society that believes rhino horn will cure impotence or that eating wild exotic animals will boost their “Jindu” or vigor. Thousands are dead because of rampant Chinese corruption and cronyism. The Chernobyl apocalypse helped to bring down one communist government. Will a future virus from some endangered “hunted to death” species bring down China? The worlds resources and species are not infinite and do not belong to you China! Is there no one capable within China of stopping this corruption and madness?
1
We used to be able to have hope for authoritarian regimes- there are so many in the world, but primarily Russia and China- that their people would look to the United States as an example of a free and fair, democratic state. We were always at our best when leading by example, showing others how a country could be when, when it was relatively free, open and democratic. That is precisely what is under attack now. We are one more failed election away from losing that, probably forever.
1
And, this is why the GOP endangers not just the First Amendment, but human health, whenever it allows its leader to attack the free press.
I was born in China and moved to the U.S. some twenty years ago. I have to say that the title of Mead‘a article is deeply offensive to Chinese people. I read the article but did not find anything that echoed the poor taste of the title. Yes, I think WSJ should apologize.
3
I agree that this is a very offensive title. This constant drumming on China from the right and left is racist, full of fear, and so counterproductive to actually building a world that works together.
1
This title is racist and derogatory. This is a "painful" reminder of the stigma in the 1900s that has been imposed on the Chinese people. There is no place for this in America. This is a very sensitive topic when this derogatory term is used. This totally lacks sensitivity and is indefensible. WSJ should apologize which they did not. Bret Stephens should do the same for supporting such article even though some of the content may be legitimate.
1
Lest anyone forget, President Trump has pronounced the free press as the enemy of the people. Only Fox News--state authorized media?--wins his approval, except when they deviate from abject adulation.
Speaking of vaccines is the old expermental one against SARS ever tried? Can one tell if antibodies are produced? Can one find volunteers to test if it confers resistance? If the Times or the Journal cannot be accessed from within China what does the government conceivably gain? Like a lot of governments borderline insane.
Did you expect any different from a dictatorship? Whenever the truth is uncomfortable to the regime, and is revealed, the unusual would be to let the journalist stay and keep informing us. Of course, it won't stop with foreigners, as the courageous chinese physician that 'informed' Mr. Xi of the Corona virus, was subjected to censure...before he succumbed to the disease. Now, even in this democracy of ours, do you think, for a second, that the current despot in the Oval Office wouldn't do likewise if he could? His declaration that the 'free press' is the enemy of the people ought to be enough to scare us all...and want to take action to stop an unhinged, and criminally-oriented narcissist in our midst. Darker ages may be coming all around us...if we allow it.
The headline IS racist. Turkey was referred to as the "sick man of Europe" for decades because of its heterogeneity. This repetition of the phrase shows the racist limitations that Euro-Americans continue to use even if they don't realize it. It's a false claim to say there's not an "iota of racism" in it.
1
“China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia” brings back the memory of when Britain forced the import of Opium and turned the Chinese, literally in the sick men of Asia
The nadir of humiliation it has never been forgiven by the Chinese people
The remainder of the story is the familiar shān gāo, huángdì yuǎn, the mountains are high and the emperor far away,
The proverb has come to generally mean that competent central authorities have little influence over corrupt local authorities .
A perpetual issue in Chinese history
Yes, China is terrible. If they were a smaller weaker country that did not hold trillions of dollars of our debt, and supply us with trillions in consumer goods, we'd probably sanction them.
I think it needs to be stated for the record that while WSJ employs some very fine reporters, its opinion pages constitute a seething morass of offensive nonsense on par with Fox News. While I can't condone the practice of punishing journalists operating with integrity in China (or elsewhere) for the stupidity of others, WSJ should seriously rethink what it permits under the rubric of conservative opinion. Americans believe that free speech should triumph, but not all speech is worth publishing or airing. Fatuous pluralism is my term for the idea that "everyone is entitled to their evidence-free, counterfactual, thoughtless and offensive opinion." Entitlement is a strong word. News venues need to be more responsible.
3
Hi, I've been living in China for a few decades. The title of this article caused a great deal of outrage amongst the Chinese people and was widely regarded as offensive and racist (it was all over the net here, people were furious). The govt was no doubt responding to popular sentiment. Now, I'm familiar with Walter Russell Mead's fine work, and knew there is just no way he would have attached such an idiotic headline, and frankly the editors of the WSJ should have known better.
20
China's attitude towards freedom of speech and of the press sounds remarkably like that of the Democratic Party. The penalty for "wrong think" is cancellation.
You can't do anything about China, Brett, but you can at least try to do something about the Democratic Party's functionally equivalent devotion to censorship of wrong think.
Of course, biting the hand that's currently feeding you may not be an astute career move, but since you brought the issue up....
1
China manages its economy on the cheap for the benefit of the wealthy at the expense of its population with the most significant disparity of income and wealth in the world.
On the ongoing pandemic of Coronavirus, as will as the previous pandemics of SARS, etc., all of which originated in China, China’s unregulated livestock industry is a cesspool of dangerous viruses and bacteria. There are many reports of the outbreak of dangerous virus among animals, most recently pigs, in China which forces the culling of large herds of animals. This is why the West has a prohibition for the import of any animals, fowl, etc. from China. The science of the transfer of virus from animals to humans has been proved. There will be more pandemics originating from China as long as China’s livestock industry is unregulated.
I was listening to a epidemiologist on Canada’s CBC radio (a sister organization to the PBS) last week and he indicated that if the coronavirus reaches Africa or large developing countries in south Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.) or in the west Pacific (Indonesia, Philippines) then it can emerge and spread to be a global disaster … he added that this is because these countries do not have the infrastructure to deal with or control coronavirus.
There is the risk that if this scenario happens, then the coronavirus may have the impact of the 1918 influenza that killed more people than who died during WWI.
1
This is a chilling article, China with over 1.4 billion people and an economy that is approaching its historical norm of largest in the world will be a key player in the Anthropocene for good or for ill. Its handling of Covid-19 as well as its crises with environmental pollution and degradation give pause for the future of our species.
And this is the government of the country that everyone in power is assuring us is the one we can do business with for the betterment of all. We have a long history of complete surrender to reason, and complete ignorance of facts on the ground - when it comes to China. We began by believing that we if we engaged them, if we helped them get rich, they will start behaving like good global citizens. No amount of evidence - apparently - has led us to change our minds.
1
Brett, You and Steve Schmidt would be perfect aides to Mike Bloomberg to bolster his debating skills so that he is ready for the next debate. You compare the dishonesty of China's administration with Trump's and the devastating effect it has on the governance of both countries. Bloomberg wants to restore honesty, integrity and intelligent management and leadership of this country. I still think Bloomberg is the sole democrat who can dislodge Trump but he needs the help of both of you to accomplish this task. The Democrats will lose if Sanders or Warren is their candidate.
This article begs the question: can an authoritarian regime in today's world survive long-term in the Information Age? Today, China is semi-open, but still restricts the flow of information to its people. Clearly, they worry (and rightly so) that unfettered access to information and ideas is an existential threat. Beijing sits atop a huge country comprised of 60 different ethnic groups, speaking some 300 languages. If China let all chips fall where they may and allowed true freedom of speech and information, how long could they last? I'd wager not long. For the all chaos, disorder, and fluidity that characterizes the west, it has a resiliency that authoritarian nations will never have.
A falling birthrate should be lauded, not feared.
Rapid population growth---fourfold in a century---drove the industrial and consumption expansion that caused the nascent climate catastrophe.
Reduced or, if possible, negative population growth is a crucial element of a serious, as opposed to cosmetic, program to deal with the gathering disaster.
1
Good article.....I am getting to the point where if I didn’t see it with my own eyes I don’t believe it. There is, your truth, my truth, their truth, our truth, and then there is the truth. Truth is another one of life true joys that has been trampled underground a long time ago and still stalking us today. Native American, African American, Women, Viet Nam War vets, the Pentagon Papers, Abu Ghraib, GW Bush War, crash of 2008 so many truths.
Well stated, Bret Stephens
1
Wow - "Demographers point to China’s falling birthrate, aging population and gender gap. Economists cite its faltering productivity, its made-up statistics and its giant debt bomb."
You just described the US.
3
It is ten years from now, and there are three large space based internet companies, offering fairly cheap high speed internet, access that cannot be blocked or controlled by any one country.
Where does the Wall Street Journal or the Times for that matter, fit into that world, how will opinion get formed and truth be seen as the truth?
I don't know, but sure have hopes it brings an end to the rule of the privileged.
Hugh
Has WSJ asked the Chinese people how its 'exposures' have helped them? Does WSJ have the solution to see through this outbreak? Plainly, WSJ is useless to the Chinese people.
Mr. Stephens:
There was a lot more wrong with Walter Russel Mead’s WSJ OpEd of 4 February 2020 than just the title: The piece was clearly intended to attack the Chinese government by inciting panic and anger during a public health emergency. It was the equivalent of yelling “Fire” in a crowded public venue. While the WSJ is blocked in China—evidently for good reason—we all know that VPNs are widely used to circumvent the “great firewall.”
During an epidemic, it is absolutely essential that the public remain calm and cooperate with the government in controlling the contagion. If people lose confidence in the government, fear reigns, panic ensues, cooperation ceases, control efforts fail, disease spreads and more people die.
The initial response to the epidemic might have been suboptimal—that is unfortunately most often the case in most epidemics—but when the problem became clear, the Chinese government’s response was organized, vigorous, resolute, effective and competent. The last thing that China and its people need at this critical time is a malignant, invidious screed like Mr. Mead’s to stir up hate and discontent. Fortunately so far, the Chinese people are cooperating.
Mr. Mead and the WSJ editorial board tried to advance their own political agenda at the expense of the Chinese people. Both rightly deserve the indignation and opprobrium that they received from the Chinese government. You deserve it too for defending their indefensible malevolence.
4
Trump would love to do what the Chinese censors do. He would love to have the WSJ fact journalists edited by the opinion ones or, even better, by Lou Dobbs. But Mr. Stephens prefers him to Sanders.
To those who found the title problematical, it is actually an allusion to history. The Ottoman Empire was described as the Sick Man of Europe in its last century. If a fairly innocuous title arouses concern, that only shows even more how weak the Chinese really are.
1
@Terry McKenna For anyone who understands Asian history as well as European history, this is also a veiled reference to China's Century of Humiliation, spanning roughly the period from the Opium Wars to the emergence of Deng Xiaoping. A period that the Chinese citizenry are still extremely sensitive to. And though the headline writer himself might not have been aware of this, certainly others in the editorial department should have been.
@Terry McKenna For anyone who understands Asian history as well as European history, this is also a veiled reference to China's Century of Humiliation, spanning roughly the period from the Opium Wars to the emergence of Deng Xiaoping. A period that the Chinese citizenry are still extremely sensitive to. And though the headline writer himself might not have been aware of this, certainly others in the editorial department should have been.
@laolaohu disagree. but if you want to play in the wide world, you need to toughen up. look where press secrecy got them.
Putting aside most of your article, Bret – spread of 2019-nCoV an open-mike moment for amateur epidemiologists…
By-country numbers make no sense at all – unless multiple vectors, and the one leading to the most severe cases is the most localized, quickly leading to speculation like…
> The most severe cases may be spread by animal bites or droppings. If the virus made its way into the blood via laceration or ingestion – and then found its way to the lungs, where it then becomes a severe form of viral pneumonia, without having given our immune system a heads-up by pausing in sinuses or throat
> Less severe cases spread a la other flus – for these, the numbers are underwhelming
> #2 sovereign entity for cases not a country, but a cruise ship. Here, even single rat bites would be quickly noticed, vs droppings making it into food
> Creative context probably not military, but drug-discovery. The number of permutations across both lab rat and virus variants and mutations is perversely large. What makes this even plausible – doctors involved close to ground-zero keep dying. And, is anyone profiteering by selling lab rats to food courts – either as food or feedstock?
> With this, the intersection of this with our current paranoia of all things Chinese – sort of a weaponized viral version of Murphy’s law
PS
If this were found to be the case, the biological recovery will be much quicker than the economic one…
Discussing whether the majority of the article or even the intent being racist or not is beside the point. The headline use of a well-known demeaning and racist phrase is horrible enough. There is no debate about its racist nature. And that is the responsibility of the editorial desk, which represents the WSJ. No point citing it was an op-Ed as if the paper doesn’t exercise any editorial authority.
Now the journalists. That’s what we call collateral damage. Plus they signed up for the JOB. There is nothing personal. They do however need to re-evaluate their employer’s worthiness to their time and professional commitment.
Poor judgement on WSJ to publish something like that, let alone at this crucial time when the world need information on what could be one a pandemic. Mr. Mead, I do not know. But I expected more professional acumen, better taste and more decency from WSJ.
1
Though I see the Chinese system as entirely autocratic and corrupt, I have to wonder about its parallels to America. We, too, have an entrenched top class riven with self dealing and corruption funneling largess to cronies; a stalled birthrate; an aging population; and a massive debt bomb.
Probably, the Chinese are not very familiar with arcane bits of European history but the phase "sick man of Asia" is not anything other than an allusion to the term "sick man of Europe" used in the beginning of the past century to refer to the Ottoman Empire. Will the tremendous Chinese nation, so recently regaining its footing after centuries of rot go the way of the Ottoman Empire? Not likely but the Chinese form of totalitarian repressive government will certainly not go as far as Comrade in Chief Xi would like.
1
One could argue the state of Israel is similar to the state if China. Israel also condemns any criticism of it as anti-Semetic and therefore beyond the pale, even though a lot of the things done by it break international law and defy ethical, moral, or human rights standards.
I am no fan of the Chinese government, but anyone with even an inkling of Chinese history would realize how insulting and demeaning that headline was, to the entire Chinese nation.
1
Yet here in the US the administration refers to the press as the enemy of the people.
Meade has every right to write the article (which by the way is rather good), WSJ’s editor has every right to choose the headline, and the Chinese government has every right to send WSJ journalists packing: journalism is a trade, no more no less, and there is nothing universal or sacred about it. How many tradesmen denied entry to US everyday? What makes Western journalists so divine?
1
On February 3, when the WSJ headlined China as "The Sick Man of the World," there were approximately 3,500 new cases of COVD-19 in the country.
The headline was astoundingly callous, vituperative, and cruel.
Viewed historically, the "sick man" was used in parallel with "the white man's burden."
So who would be surprised that the Chinese government reacted by expelling the WSJ reporters? The WSJ does owe an apology for using such crude and vile language at a time when the country deserves charity and kindness in its struggle against the COVD-19.
1
The CCP would have attacked the WSJ piece in any case, and we all know it! The double entendre in the title was an excuse for the CCP, as usual, to blame foreigners for their own problems and for their own crimes. Here in Hong Kong we see how any critical voice is met with howls and cries from the oppressive surveillance state which claims to speak and act for the Chinese people. Registering state displeasure by using the phrase 'hurting the feelings of the Chinese people' is getting a bit old...
By the way, why do some of the comments here decry the fact that persons from outside of China have an opinion on issues in this region? Why would that possibly trouble them? Everyone can comment on any issue that they care to, thank you very much.
One last bit: here in Hong Kong we know who the sick man of Asia is...the toxin is creeping down across the border and choking us.
2
Expelled, I don't know; but for a paper with the credibility of WSJ to head the story with a sick pun is a sign of where they will go in the future. Downhill.
1
What’s worse: China expelling WSJ journalists for publishing things they don’t like, or Trump firing the DNI’s Joseph Maguire for advising Congress on Putin's campaign meddling again. Yet, Sheldon Adelson is throwing a Trump re-election fundraiser The Bloomberg/ Adelson question is a challenge for our Democracy after all
All governments, to one degree or another, violate free speech and freedom of the press -- an inherent cost of government.
Even with something like the First Amendment with its unqualified prohibition on restricting free speech and freedom of the press, and the Fourteenth Amendment extending this to state and local governments, the American government has carved out exceptions.
Furthermore, it has used McCarthy tactics to suppress certain views. And it also uses surveillance which has a chilling effect on speech.
With its case against Julian Assange, who published the Iraq War documents leaked by whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, that the NYT Editorial Board claimed "aims at the heart of the First Amendment," the government puts journalists at risk of the law. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/opinion/julian-assange-wikileaks.html
The American government has jailed journalists who refused to name their confidential sources. In the fictional movie "Nothing But the Truth," Alan Alda as attorney Burnside presents a speech in favor of the right-claim of journalists to protect their sources. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFqyuu-o4-I
While some might believe government's violations of free speech and freedom of the press to be acceptable, they reveal its illegitimacy.
1
I don’t disagree with the author, but do want to add a perspective into why Chinese government is so upset about the Walter Russell Mead article. The words he used to refer China (Real Sick Man of Asia) is a sensitive term that revokes historical discrimination against Chinese people in general. This is the same as in US when you use certain words to refer to African Americans, you would be called a racist, but people from other countries with no knowledge of American racial history would understand why. “Real sick man of Asia” is what colonial western powers called Chinese back in the 1900’s after Britain exported opium to China and caused a national opioid crisis (sounds familiar?) and then 8 western colonial powers invaded China. They took Chinese lands, built historical buildings and loot national treasures. So, that is a revival term. When the author said that article contained no racist words, he is wrong.
1
I look forward to Bret Stephen's next opinion piece "The State Department's great leap backward," re: the expelling of an NPR reporter from Sec Pompeo's orbit, and his attacks on the free press in response to NPR questioning his paper-thin "foreign policy."
2
“And those familiar with The Wall Street Journal will know that the paper, like The Times, enforces a strict separation between its news and opinion sections — meaning the reporters facing expulsion had absolutely nothing to do with the writing and publication of Mead’s column.” Setting NYT as an example of separation is very rich. It takes a narrow approach of separating writer’s responsibilities at the NYT. The reality is that there is no separation when it comes to picking topics regarding current administration or berating Trump 24/7. The news and the opinion is exactly on the same page. This is because it comes from like minded people. I will believe in separation when I start seeing at least neutral pieces about Trump.
1
Perhaps now is the time to remember Mr. Kashogghi who was beaten and cut into pieces in Saudi Arabia. There are similarities in these systems of government and neither could be called a democracy. The current administration is beginning to have similar characteristic to say the least. Any reporter should be careful in what he/she says or they are denied a seat on the plane -------NPR.
How ironic that the Wall Street Journal opinion writers so often stand up for the US party and its leader who declare the news media to be “the enemy of the people.” Sorry... they can’t have it both ways!
3
Bret Stephens rightly says that "Donald Trump's nonstop lying and misstatements of fact aren't just immoral but also dangerous." The current issue of The Atlantic contains an article ("The 2020 Disinformation War") that describes the weaponization of information in great depth. But neither Stephens nor the author of the Atlantic piece explain why disinformation tactics are so widely used and are considered to be effective. The answer should be obvious. Too many voters lack even a basic capacity for information gathering and critical thinking. The long-term solution is a robust education system, like those in the Nordic countries, that emphasizes critical thinking skills. Sadly, neither the states nor the federal government has made that goal a priority.
The Chinese government expelled three very excellent journalists, one of whom reported directly from Wuhan on the coronavirus. I read their work as it appeared almost daily. First rate stuff.
As for the Mead editorial, that seemed like the perfect foil for the gov't to claim racism. Gives them cover to what they really wanted to do, which was expel these pesky journalists. (And as is typically the case, Mead didn't even write the headline to his opinion piece.)
Worth noting: the WSJ or NYT cannot be accessed from within China. So it's not like they were protecting their people from these stories. They're trying to control the narrative on both the coronavirus and Uigher encampments.
20
When China transformed its economy from Maoist Communism to an Autocratic form of Capitalism many thought that it would be impossible to maintain the tension between an open economy and a controlled society. China's rapid economic growth seemed to prove that authoritarian Capitalism could work. People even began to believe that authoritarian Capitalism was a more effective vehicle for rapid growth. In fact, it never really worked. The first sign of failure was the inevitable rampant corruption that flourished because authoritarianism does not allow the societally based controls that are inherent in democracy. No one gets voted out of office because they are corrupt. The natural reaction to corruption in authoritarian society is more authoritarian control of commerce. Fighting corruption then because a political tool of those in power which will eventually strangle the economy. So, in the end, it is true that authoritarian Capitalism has too many internal contradictions to function. Unfortunately the consequence has been more authoritarianism rather that the emergence of democracy that people had hoped for.
Yes, the Chinese suppression of the Coronavirus outbreak let it gain a foothold.
But the absolute power wielded by the government allowed for a quarantine Wuhan, a city of nearly 9,000,000 people.
And extended a national holiday for a week, so that most of the nation remained away from work.
China likely more than recovered from its initial mistake because of its near total control.
I don't like the Chinese government, but we continue to underestimate it to our own peril.
1
All countries in this world, including China and the US of A, have the sovereign right to allow or refuse permission to foreign nationals to enter into or stay in their territory, for any reason whatsoever. That is just the way the visa and modern nation state systems work.
If you don't like it, I suggest you launch a revolution to topple all national governments and bring about a single world government, with the abolishment of all visa requirements and border checks.
1
Nothing to complain about the expel of the WSJ reporters. This is just a one time deal and not repeated offense by the Chinese government.
Of course, we have already retaliated with the re-classification and registration of Chinese news media in US, requiring them to report everything including personnel, US contacts, and activities in details.
Of course, our White House often punishes reporters who ask tough and embarrassing questions in the briefing by not renewing their White House correspondent badges.
This incidence just a diplomatic exchange between US and Chinese government. But should alert the US news media that they have to be careful about misleading headlines.
1
The parallel between Mr. Stephens piece on truth leaving the government building in China and Mr. Brooks piece on how myths are governing our current election cycle are striking. When you mix together the power of the myth with the weakness of the truth---in Mr. Stephens words, the outcomes are catastrophic.
1
Authoritarian regimes fear free expression be it in art, literature, politics, or the press. They fear it so they ban it. Or, in this country, they demean and bully the employees of the press.
Unfortunate headline for a terrific column. During the "Great Leap Forward," as many as 100 million Chinese people died, many of starvation and torture, under the horrifying Mao regime. A great leap "backward" would mean what? That said, and he is not responsible for this column's headline, Mr. Stephens wrote an apt and terribly timely (for our own people under Trump) report on yet another horror story of repression and lies from China's newest ruthless regime.
1
Bret,
There are two separate issues conflated here. 1) Insofar as China believes in a "greatest good for the greatest number" strictly utilitarian social ethic, that ethic is incompatible with an individual rights ethic, so, even though individual rights are important, it does no good to point out to them they are suppressing such rights. They know that and believe that is right. It is like excoriating Trump supporters for his and their not being liberal or not tolerating whistleblowing or enforcement of the Constitutional limitations of his Presidency.
2) Your main argument is that the Chinese people and government would actually be collectively better off if they permitted a free press, which is a different argument from one arguing for freedom of the press as a right. The utilitarian benefit of a free press has more of a chance of appealing to them, but not if considered absolute without exception and without allowing some criteria to guard against harm from abuse (like libel or like revealing sensitive classified information).
In short, I think you would be more effective trying to get them to see the benefit of a free press that respects utilitarianism instead of championing a free press as an absolute right in the way that Fox News and Mark Zuckerberg seem to and instead of chastising Chinese officials for not accepting or tolerating that view.
So let's see how the civilized world handles stuff like this. We say TBI are mere headaches. We say wildfires on federal land in California are caused by the state's not raking the ground enough. We alter the path of a hurricane with a Sharpie. We see the answer to homelessness is not to address the causes, but to round up the homeless and put them on abandoned military bases. We try to end immigration by taking the most precious thing from a parent at the border...their children. We address gun violence by promoting guns. Need I go on? Glass houses. The biggest, most beautiful, best of all time glass houses. Ever.
3
It is a supreme irony that our global leaders, Trump especially, have disparaged objective information in an Age of information glut brought on by meticulous and questionable data gathering practices and advanced machine learning and analytics. We seem to be moving into an era where the power structure owns information and dispenses mythology. This last happened in the 18 centuries between Julius Caesar and Benjamin Franklin. In the midst of that Thomas Hobbes wrote that for most people life is, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” It could happen again.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Arrogance Column...
H1N1 erupted in Mexico in 2009 and spread all over the world. The Chinese were able to contain it better than most countries, presumably because they had recent experience with pandemics and an authoritarian system that allowed more effective measures than those taken in other places. About 800 people died from H1N1 in China; nearly four times more died in the US, with a third of China's population.
China's rigid authoritarian system might have saved tens of thousands of lives.
China has an ugly political system but it was not the Party, or Xi, that arrested those doctors and tried to hide the pandemic. It was the culture, the system, and some local bullies in police uniforms who did it. It would be reassuring to see them prosecuted and see the leadership condemn that kind of reaction. It would be reassuring to see them open up.
We have an ugly system too. God forbid a pandemic like this should break out in a US city of 10 million people. I am not so sure things would go so much more smoothly, although a certain someone would reassure us that he has "the best doctors" on the case. In a word, I am no fan of Xi and I think the Chinese can do better than their ugly system. That's for them to do.
This is a tragedy, and it's appropriate to blame China's political system (judging from Weibo, the Chinese certainly seem to). But it's not a time for arrogance. We may be eating humble pie when the next pandemic strikes.
1
Re the WSJ. Good Article, Bad Title.
Re China. Best to devote your energies to the corona virus, not Western journalists who, unlike the virus, pose no threat to the Chinese people nor its regime.
I have wondered whether Xi Jinping would have the staying power to become a rational version of Mao, a communist emperor. The great test for Xi's cult of personality is likely to be the corona virus. If, as we all hope, it burns itself out in fairly short order, his grip on the country will be unshaken.
But if the virus becomes a great pandemic, it will undermine political order, not just in China but everywhere.
True, true, true.
When is the US government going to bring back the concept of "captive nations," highlighting the state of affairs in Tibet and Xinjiang?
1
@Jon Harrison
When we bring back real leaders, that's when. Serious people who don't tweet, who don't whisper "resistance" and who don't tear up speeches in his hissy fits. Whose kids don't trade off dad's name, who don't care about shareholder value more than America's values and who don't care about money more than people.
Not holding my breath.
1
@West Coaster: I sympathize. But I don't see any Democrat doing anything significant about China. Barry did nothing but lecture them a bit; and the current crop of candidates does not seem to contain any real China hard-liners. Trump's people have called the Chinese out on trade and intellectual property theft, but I agree with you that in the end Trump is much more concerned with Ivanka's business in China than he is with human rights. (What am I saying? Trump doesn't even know what "human rights" are.)
1
Another article predicting China’s demise because they’re not like us. We’ve been saying that for as Long as I can remember and they’re now surpassing us in a number of important fields.
Keep telling yourself that as they take the lead in 5G, quantum communications, drone technology, high speed rail...etc.
Here’s my prediction, they overcome COVID-19, get their economy back on track and you before you know it, you’ll be reaching for another reason for China’s impending and inevitable collapse.
1
The Communist party inside China is ever-evolving but always maladaptive. Whilst it no longer shoots people in the streets or drags them into the town square for humiliation, don't be fooled. It persecutes, tortures and imprisons high profile tormenters to frighten dissenters and the nascent middle classes who have more education than the previous generations.
China would probably prefer to hack all email, and monitor all intra/international conversations, but it realizes there are limits on controls.
Booting out Wall Street Journal writers is also likely a warning to Rupert Murdoch that he needs to be careful as well as a jab at the Trump Administration that earlier this week claimed several Chinese "news" organizations be labelled (rightly) as instruments of "propaganda." How much should we read into it? Probably not much, but one thing we do know about China is that you cannot trust much of what they say nor their motives for doing what they do. The Mandate of Heaven is alive and well.
3
I live in China, and I've been in a fairly strict lock down the last few weeks. Everyone I know was quite okay with it, viewing it as a necessary precaution. I'm currently teaching my university classes remotely; I don't know when school will resume.
Overall, the response here I think was better than it might have been. Was it perfect? Nothing is. But it just seemed a convenient excuse for a lot of "China watchers" (none of whom probably speak the language), to weigh on the Chinese system. I don't think an outbreak of a disease that is not really well known is a fair time to do that, nor is it really constructive.
And yes, the title of the article, if you know anything about Chinese history, is completely bigoted.
26
While the criticism of the Chinese system and the government’s overreaction in expelling WSJ’s journalists is valid, the suggestion that only Westerners can objectively understand China and save China from its own ignorance is ludicrous. Also, journalism is a specialized trade, no more no less, and journalists tend not to be experts on anything. In the case of Western journalists dispatched to China, very few of them speak or understand the Chinese language and in turn heavily dependent on local informants to procure materials to feed the preexisting biases.
15
@Thumbo
In Bret's story there is reference to three instances when western reporters contributed significantly to certain unsavory things happening in China and those stories could not have been told by people who didn't speak the language. The NYTimes looked through a huge amount of Chinese financial information to uncover the facts of how the Chinese top leader at the time, using his family as proxies, accumulated a huge fortune through government deals. Because of this coverage, the NYTimes is forever banned from China.
Yes, Beijing should respect freedom of speech.
But remember, folks, freedom of speech is in our constitution, not that of China.
China looks back to millennia of glory, but the form of government was always autocracy. They had a notion of good and bad rulers, as explained in the teachings of Confucius. Some of their good autocrats achieved a high level of culture. Under Emperor Taizong of Tang XI'an (598-649), Xi'an was the most cultured city in the world while Europe was entering its dark ages.
Instead of seeing the mote in the eye of China we should focus on the plank in our own eyes.
A few weeks ago the NY Times mentioned that Amazon had stopped carrying books by David Duke because his work was that of a "white supremacist."
I thought back. I myself had ordered a book by David Duke a couple of years ago. I was curious. I wanted to know what Duke actually believed, not what the media said he believed.
I read a few pages. My curiosity sated, I realized that further reading was a waste of time.
But the point is, I made the choice MYSELF to put the book down. It was not because of being forced to by the thought police.
And that is the essence of the experiment that the US embarked upon in 1791. In our system, as opposed to the Chinese one, we had certain rules designed to keep us free.
You see, democracy makes no sense if you cannot trust individual citizens to read whatever they want and choose for themselves.
It's not Duke we should fear but Trump.
6
WSJ's title was in extremely poor taste, and it is now a distraction from the important subject matter of the actual article. The coronavirus epidemic shows how Chinese government's iron grip on the country is actually much more precarious than it looks at first glance. But nobody is even interested in that now. Instead everybody is arguing about the propriety of using "sick man of Asia."
62
@citybumpkin
Perhaps if the leaders of China read more and were exposed to facts not polemics they would know "The Sick Man of..." is a time-tested and well used sobriquet in journalism. Calling an autocrat out for what it really is is the surest path toward offending him. China is a beautiful country with a villainous dictatorship running it. Call a spade a spade.
3
@citybumpkin What's wrong with calling China the sick man of Asia? If a Chinese reporter called the US the sick man of the west, would you support kicking the journalist out? Of course not. But we're supposed to be flexible and understanding about why China would overreact? In a paper that features a relentless and monocultural drip, drip, drip of articles condemning white men, it's refreshing to read an article that rests on the multicultural premise that bad things can come from diverse sources.
6
@citybumpkin Do you not understand that that was a historical analogy to the Ottoman Empire being the sick man of Europe and a clever tie-in to the corona virus?
It is not in poor taste. It is intelligent and informed writing.
2
China is not complaining about the content of the WSJ opinion, which was written by an academic, rather its title, which was chosen by its editors. China demanded an apology for the offensive title, but the WSJ refused. China retaliated by expelling the journalists, as it has no way to directly punish the editors. Ironically, it was reported that WSJ's journalists also complained about the offensive headline, but were overruled by the editors, and it was the journalists who paid the price.
125
Let’s not be coy. Chinese punishment of governments and journalists is never openly responsive to their actual concern. The Chinese government loves to jump on anything it can characterise as an insult to its people to hide what it really wants - fearful silence and self-censorship that eliminates any criticism at all.
49
@Nomad Why is it offensive? The tsar of Russia called Turkey the sick man of Europe. Given the situation in China — and I don’t mean Coronavirus, China might well be the sick man of Asia...
21
@Karl Another issue is to use "insult to Chinese people" as if all people belong to the CCP or speak under one voice.
They don't and there are many in Taiwan that want none of what CCP says.
17
Just so. And one might recall that the absence of an independent press contributed to the terrible Chinese famines of the late fifties. Central authorities overestimated food supplies because local officials lied about meeting harvest quotas, and spreading unflattering news about the suffering of the people was discouraged.
69
@grkoehn
Not really. The top brass of the Chinese communist party knew about the looming problems that created the famine when they attended the Lushan conference in 1959. Mao opened up the Lushan conference by allowing everyone to speak freely. That was a trap. When Peng did exactly that Mao promptly purged him and his supporters, leaving the looming famine, which Mao was perfectly aware was happening, to run wild.
1
Some commenters are making an equivalency between China's CCP and the Trump regime and it is not even close. Imagine the Republican Party having absolute and unquestioning control over the Presidency; U.S. Congress; Supreme, Federal and State Courts; every State Governor and Legislature; every major newspaper, TV and radio station, and the CEO of every major corporation and you will have a good start. China harasses journalists only one time and if they do it again they are disappeared till they understand the error of their ways.
104
@Patrick The irony of making a false equivalency between China and Trump is that such hyperbole from progressives/liberals/Democrats animates Trump's base and leads moderates to believe that the left will say anything to remove Trump. Methinks the left does protest too much.
27
@Patrick "Imagine the Republican Party having absolute and unquestioning control over the Presidency; U.S. Congress; Supreme, Federal and State Courts; every State Governor and Legislature; every major newspaper, TV and radio station, and the CEO of every major corporation and you will have a good start."
One need not imagine very hard when the NYT headline two days ago was Trump doing another round of purges and putting unqualified loyalists in charge of, among other things, the US intelligence community.
23
@Patrick
Big difference in scale, yes, but between fox news and right wing propaganda in radio and social media, we're seeing it here like never before! Isn't it obvious to you, too, Patrick?
9
The Murdoch-owned WSJ is no longer the respected place publishing the capitalist view. It is now a Murdoch place.
A Murdoch place published some truly defamatory extremist attacks on China: the coronavirus crisis is the fault of the Chinese state and form of government.
What are the Chinese going to do when attacked that way?
Perhaps we need to examine whether the scurrilous behavior of the Murdoch press ought to have gotten some real reaction in the West, long before this.
The core of the "fire in a crowded theater" exception to free speech and a free press is when false statements are used to spread fear, so that lies told could kill people.
Fears of a pandemic could kill people. Panic reactions defeat treatment of a spreading disease, as for another example it did in Africa with Ebola.
Responsible reporting and truth is important.
If China has not told as much as it should, as soon as it should, that does not excuse scurrilous extreme reporting in the WSJ designed to cause panic and panicked reactions.
Attack China? Okay, but only carefully in ways that won't get people hurt. It is an important subject, and deserves the care.
Along the way, don't defend Murdoch. We know what he is, and the Chinese are right about that much.
41
@Mark Thomason: Fear of a pandemic? How would we know when reporters as well as doctors are not allowed to report their concerns to the public, let alone to the government. Don't blame the messenger for the message. If it is true, listen, if it is not true listen and refute it. To claim an insult is to hide behind weakness.
4
@Mark Thomason "...scurrilous extreme reporting in the WSJ designed to cause panic and panicked reactions..."
No, not "designed" to cause panic, but the result of panic.
1
While I am delaying my next working trip China for obvious reasons, I have been working there regularly for the past 30 years. Over that time, those "foolish leaders" have expanded and built every type of infrastructure in ways that that make our nation look primitive by comparison, Meanwhile, our President is doing his very best to limit free press in exactly the way Stephens objects to here, while our nation is falling apart at the seams. Time will tell who manages to suppress the press more effectively (and please be clear that I am not arguing that suppressing press is a good thing). but there is no question which country is doing a better job of investing in the future. Meanwhile, Donald Trump claims that we are stronger, better, and richer than ever before, which 40% + of our voters apparently believe is true because we have lost the power of honest and well-informed press in this
nation. No matter what happens in China, we have a crisis of press and truth in government right here and now.
237
@James The irony of making a false equivalency between China and Trump is that such hyperbole from progressives/liberals/Democrats animates Trump's base and leads moderates to believe that the left will say anything to remove Trump. Methinks the left does protest too much.
19
@James 1930s Germany also invested in the future by controlling the press and persecuting those that worshiped differently. Nice playbook China is using. Made one healthy change though. They allow meat to be sold without regard to their citizen's well being.
8
@James
Comments like yours is exactly why Trump will get a second term.
Sure, China has been successful if you mean making slave labor of its 1 billion population, controlling every aspect of its economy by directing money flow to the priority du jour, confiscating "private" property for government use, and stealing intellectual property of American companies and universities, and imprisoning with trumped-up charges any citizens who dares dissent.
Yes, by those measures I'm glad the US has fallen for short of that type of success. You should be glad as well.
24
It would be more productive for The Journal to write more about
Americas environmental disasters than China's environmental catastrophes. Our governments climate policy is in itself an
environmental catastrophe in gutting our own environmental
policies on clean air,water,land use not to speak of our global
retreat from the Paris Climate Agreement--at least China is
still in it.
6
What right do Americans have to criticize any country in the world.
The GOP aspires to have the same power that the CCP has in China. The 60 million GOP outer party members worship Trump like he’s a deity or a monarch.
The USA has self censorship. 60 million pollute their minds willingly by segregating their minds to Fox News, talk radio and social media conspiracies.
At least the CCP has to spend billions on an internet wall and censoring media to keep their people from the truth. 60 million American GOP Outer Party members do it willingly.
7
This is an unfortunate development. It remains my hope that we (I'm US citizen) can develop with China a shared sense of respect for our differences and an overriding bond of amity. We will banter over trade and stand firm against spying but share a common purpose for peace and stability. I believe the US has in many ways grown in it's understanding of Chinese history. We are patient in our approach in not demanding immediate adoption of first world standards in business, law or even human rights while opening our society to China. Actions such as harassing our media organizations reflects China's lack of respect for our much shorter but complex history and culture. I know well that my country will not retaliate in kind by say sending home the daughters or sons of senior Chinese government leaders to sit out a semester at Stanford or Harvard. We must strive to build an understanding as to why expelling responsible reporters is such an insult to the US. China should be reminded that institutions such as the WSJ and the NYT have long demonstrated deep concern and respect for China in the medern era.
1
Do you think for one nanosecond that Trump would NOT expel Journalists, if he gets a whim and no one dares to stop Him ?
Before you, or We, get so high and mighty, look at our own Authoritarian Regime.
Do the Chinese keep Children in Cages, for yet to be determined “ Quarantine Periods “? THAT is a real Crime against Humanity, not a temporary inconvenience to a Journalist.
Seriously.
8
try managing 1.3 billion people in USA
Spot on. China remains a repressive communist state.
2
Yes Mr Mead’s column was not racist but the title of his article was. For someone with his experience he should have known how China treats its history of humiliation at Western hands. That title was meant to be insulting in the late 19th century and it was insulting today. And furthermore given the racially laden hundred years of history that have passed between then and now, it was also racist.
10
Don’t blame the author; editors write the headlines.
Since in the late 19th century, the "sick man of Asia" statement is a symbol of China's past humiliations at the hands of the British, French and subsequently the Japanese powers. The Wall Street Journal choice of this title at a time when China is facing a viral epidemic virus is clearly offensive, crass and bluntly speaking, stupid.
In the unlikely scenario a similarly offensive and racist title about Israel appeared in a major newspaper, the author of this Op-Ed would've roundly condemned it in no uncertain terms.
For instance:
In April 2019, a cartoon included in the New York Times' international edition showed Binyamin Netanyahu as a dog guiding a skullcap-wearing Donald Trump. The New York Times retracted it, saying it was offensive, and an error of judgment.
15
I don’t normally comment on this but I’ll do it today.
This is a very ignorant article. I have heard and read stories of how people in the West stigmatized Chinese immigrants in the 19th Century by referring to their bodies as “disease ridden” and “not like that of white people.” Like racism towards black people, Chinese persons went through a very hard time then. Sick man of Asia was then used to refer to the Chinese in a very racists way to mean Chinese bodies are full of diseases.
This of course can be blamed on “white supremacists” or the “KKK.”
When a journalist publishes an article “sick man of Asia” referring to China at a time when the world is fighting to control a virus epidemic, I cannot think of a more racist way a top flight newspaper like the Wall Street Journal to can be used to draw racist stereotypes and please their racist audiences, signifying just how much racism is deep rooted in Western nation’s culture.
You’d expect some other media houses to disown The Journal article and call it out but to the surprise. They are all quiet “telling China how bad it it to deport journalists.” There we go on with the culture of blaming the victims.
11
@Mwangi
The only thing wrong with your post is calling WSJ a top flight newspaper.
Murdoch ownership has changed this paper and is only to be read when there is a need to check in to see what is going on in the far right world.
Yes, WSJ, should have been disowned by those in the know but, it still retains something of a banner from the past when it was considered reputable.
1
Bret, you may want to brush up on your history.
I'm a Chinese American and no fan whatsoever of the Communist Party in China. Actually, I hate the party.
But the phrase "sick man of Asia" is a racist phrase. Just see Wikipedia's entry of it:
"According to Duke University Professor Nicole Barnes in one of her books, the frequent use of the phrase "Sick man of East Asia" in media in the 19th century, when racism was common ... quickly turned it into a 'universal epithet for all Chinese."
A lot of Chinese people (not the Communist Party) are offended by the term.
It's not up to you, as a white American, to declare that the phrase, and WSJ's use of it, isn't a racist one.
48
The only thing progressive about China might be it's economy (and even that might could be argued). Everything else since Mao took over in 1949 has remained dark, bellicose and yes, backward. It cannot take criticism of any kind. A democracy it is not. It can resort to brute force to confront anyone at any time, citizen and foreigner alike. Four innocent Canadians have been held against their will in China for the past two years because Canada had the temerity to exercise an American warrant (for which a treaty exists) and arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. It is a blatant attempt by China to leverage Wanzhou's release by the only means it knows: intimidation. China can never be trusted - it's skin is too thin.
76
@Rick Morris
What right does the US and Canada have to use brute force to arrest an executive of a Chinese company for doing business with Iran? Sure, Canada has a treaty with the US, but why should that bind a Chinese citizen unless China is a party to it too? If China arrested a Canadian businessperson without warning because his company was selling phones in Taiwan, would you consider that legitimate?
When countries arrest people for unjustified reasons, their home countries do and should try to set them free. For example, when Turkey arrested Pastor Andrew Brunson on similar trumped up charges, the US put severe sanctions on Turkey, at one point shrinking the value of the Turkish currency by 10% in a day. And it worked. Does that mean the US’s “skin is too thin”?
3
"Truth driven underground doesn’t vanish. It stalks."
Well said. But how I wish that Bret Stephens would take his own advice and review the entire subject of climate change / global warming from a viewpoint unbiased by Lomborg and Pielke Jr., who have agendas and ignore vast swathes of evidence and understanding. "let's all get rich and fix it later" - "global poverty is down" (really? $3/day and no clean water) - some genius will come up with something - we can move to Mars - the arguments don't bend to reality.
Our public sphere is also engaged in hiding from the truth. But in fact, "Truth driven underground doesn’t vanish. It stalks."
Trump's economy may look healthy, but real societal assets - the people's wealth, decent working conditions, proper benefits - are being removed at speed by the greedy optimists at the top.
This cannot stand!
23
The Soviet Union imploded. China will as well. Their Power Elite’s governance model was workable for a large agrarian civilization. Their inability to deal with the titanic changes of the Industrial Revolution, led to their Century of Shame. They face and ignore the very same peril.
3
The parallels you put forth are not grounded in reality.
Unlike the USSR, the Chinese have committed to western capitalism in a manner and vigor no other country can match:
- China today is the world’s most entrepreneurial economy, creating more new private businesses each year than any other country in the world, including the US
- the financial markets have taken notice, with China generating more IPOs (capital raising for new companies) over the past ten years than any other country, including the US
- as a result, China has contributed an incremental $10 trillion of GDP over the past 15 or so years (the EU and Japan - almost none)
- and of course, the earnings and lifestyle of average Chinese people have soared accordingly.
This never happened in the USSR, and it was fundamentally economic that tore that society apart....
6
@Rick
You’re right that China does face the same peril as it did in the 1800s. But this is exactly why it is an authoritarian state. Qing China was a weak and decentralized state—so weak it couldn’t even fight off a few thousand British marines in the Opium War. This explains why the Chinese prefer a strong centralized state today. Later, it suffered numerous civil wars because the government lacked control, leading to tens of millions of deaths. This explains China’s heavy handed emphasis on social harmony today. European powers forced China into “unequal treaties” that gave European investors monopolies in many Chinese industries; even the head of Chinese customs was appointed by Britain. This explains why China is a bit protectionist against foreign investors today. As the Qing modernized, their land armies actually performed tolerably but they were still outmaneuvered by European and Japanese forces at sea. This explains why China is interested in preventing foreign militaries from controlling its shores. So it seems to me that China is not ignoring the perils it suffered in the 1800s, but designing its policies precisely to avoid them. And the more threatened China is, the more heavy handed its government will be to avoid the social collapse that happened to Qing China, which had a weak government.
1
@Rick
The better comparison is not with Russia but with China under Mao. Princling Xi is a hard-line Maoist just like his father. He's re-instating show trials, self-denunciation, banishment of religion, kidnappings - the whole thing. He's also quickly burning through the cash reserves built by the hard work of the Chinese people under the era of economic liberalization.
It certainly appears that give the fragile and eroding position of Dictator Xi, that China will implode once he has burned through the country's reserves.
Karl Marx believed that when the final stage of Communism arrived, all people would be financially equal, and so there would be no reason for people to disagree. At that point, the state could wither away. In order to hasten the arrival of a stateless world, all Marxist regimes have enforced thought control.
Foolish rulers are part of the problem, but the essence of the difficulty is Marx's dream of a world without differences of opinion.
It's not only China. I see many news outlets in the west which are similarly biased and bountiful sources of disinformation. Some people mostly see disinformation of "one flavour".
That leads to this: "The fate of all mankind, I see, is in the hands of fools".
2
I think your piece is right on and showcases how Trump and his confederacy of dunces, are just the same as the Chinese government in pushing lies and cover ups to look good and of course make money for all the mandarins in Shanghai and US elitist enclaves scattered all around the country.
More importantly, the Chinese government doesn't care what what Bret thinks of them. Or what the rest of us think of them. We still want our cheap trumpy-brand made-in-China ties and other clothing.
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Nonsense. WSJ was given over a week to retract and clarify the racist headline, yet it refused to do so, even attempting to justify its racism towards China by claiming that an analogous term was used against the Ottoman Turks. Of course, the WSJ and the NYTimes have the freedom to publish whatever they want, but they cannot do so without expecting consequences. The Chinese government has the absolute right to deny entry/expel any non-Chinese citizens, for whatever reason it sees fit. And in this particular instance, the expulsions are well deserved.
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They took a step back when Xi declared himself emperor. His government has become more corrupt and will become even more corrupt because that is a necessity of dictatorships. However, we should not lament these things, but celebrate them, because it will assure their failure.
I am sure that Bret is concerned with American investments in China, but to me, anyone investing in China is a traitor to the US. Anyone who invested in China deserves to lose it all.
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Rest assured that the Chinese government's expulsion of WSJ journalists are met with universal approval of the Chinese people.
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The Chinese history is full of great ups and downs. Who knows how bad it will be this time.
I’ve seen several versions on the potential spread of the virus from pandemic to one that may die out in the spring. The financial impact has the same broad view. All the Chinese Government has done is reign in the endless media blitz and spin. Long overdue!!!!
The headline in the WSJ was “China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia” and the first sentence was, “The mighty Chinese juggernaut has been humbled this week, apparently by a species-hopping bat virus.”
That is an astoundingly callous, vituperative, and cynical remark to make in the midst of an epidemic of the COVD-19 threatening China and the world. Words like these automatically harken back to the “white man’s burden” justifying imperial and colonial domination.
The WSJ journalist also has the concept backward. The juggxrnaught is the virus, not the Chinese nation. The Chinese nation has not been humbled at all, they have mobilized incredible resources to cure the sick and prevent the spread of the disease. Yet every single NYT article on the subject cannot help but take shots like calling mass quarantine measures “draconian,” as if there were others choices available to deal with the spread of the disease.
I’m sorry, Mr Stephens, but China has not been humbled at all. Many of its citizens have died, including medical doctors and nurses, but the numbers show that new cases are on the decline. If the WSJ want to get back to China, they only have to apologize for their incredible fumbling.
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@Svirchev “The mighty Chinese juggernaut has been humbled this week, apparently by a species-hopping bat virus.” seems dead-on plain accurate to me, as a description of what is happening with China’s economy at near-stand still.
I suspect that it is the title, with its reminders of China's historical humiliations, not the article itself, that prompted this expulsion. I am actually dumbfounded that Mr. Stephens doesn't even mention this point, nor did Mr. Meade think twice apparently about using this title, which he probably didn't even write!
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Censorship is now impossible -- too many airplanes, too many means of communication. Meanwhile, the "medial" will not touch the real problem: overpopulation, the cause of the Chinese problems mentioned in this article, of global warming, and just about every other you name it.
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China shouldn’t have expelled those journalists, but this comes a day after the US government is requiring Chinese news sources to declare themselves as foreign agents. It seems that all governments fear information and seek to censor it rather than rely on the marketplace of ideas. This should not be framed as a China issue but as the need to reduce government censorship and control in all countries.
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@HO China had routinely embedded intelligence agents in their overseas state media. They abuse the freedoms provided by the west, routinely, to gain political influence and economic advantage. That you would consider the US action against the Chinese state media to be indicative of a fear of information suggests only that you lack a basic familiarity with the situation.
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PRC “journalists” get paid by the PRC, that’s not a market or free ideas, it’s CPC propaganda. So they just need to register as foreign agents, like other government employees, then they can stay and print the state propaganda.
Journalism. That’s one word with a constructed meaning derived from Western culture. And as any culture will do, journalism will guard and defend itself from attacks. Hmm. Do you see something in the similarities between China’s response?
Western arrogance aside, it’s possible Western journalism has a good role in China, although neither the one it imagines, nor the one it is used to performing at home.
Journalists who haven’t looked into their purpose deeply enough might want to take a look and consider what is there to accomplish underneath it all. I would suggest the merit resides in making a contribution to improving the society.
I take exception with the notion that a skillfully worded articulation of negative observations sufficiently meets the “contribution standard.” More often than is comfortable to admit, I suspect, it doesn’t.
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Bret, I of course feel empathy toward journalists faithfully undertaking, many times, difficult assignments in reporting the facts, the obvious truths. I am grateful that the Times and the WSJ maintain their professional ethics and continue informing and educating the public. But my concern is not so much with China right now. Suppression and oppression have been and will continue to be dominant traits of its government's DNA. My fear is that our waning democracy under this administration is forcing us here in the US to become vulnerable, indeed victims, of manipulation, exploitation, and even destruction of that which can not and must not be hidden or altered. One of the few democratic entities we have left during these past eternally long three years are our reputable and time-honored news' media. We need you all. We depend on you. We will support you because without freedom of the press and speech we are lost.
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@Kathy Lollock Don't be concerned for our long term, imagine that we have a chance this year to create a great change in our government, feel sorry for the people that live in mainland China under the communist leader Xi Jinping that will not have that chance. Ever.
The most thought provoking and frightening features of your article are the parallels that can be drawn between what is happening in China and what is happening in the United States of America under President Trump. Fortunately for us we still have a free press that can challenge the President and term limits to get rid of him.
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There is nothing remotely similar between China’s information suppression and Trump’s America. Nothing. Not a thing.
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@Keith Colonna
Maybe you should read this article in today's paper to see the similarity:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html
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@Keith Colonna I really don't understand the many comparisons that I see in these comments.
Bret, they have a crisis that only in a serious threat to health like this one, a command political and economic system like China’s just could be possibly contained.
WSJ reporters need to take a back seat to public safety.
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@JT FLORIDA This is the logic followed by the CCP when it arrested doctors and critics of the government response; it's also the logic used by the NRA after every shooting, ie, it's too early, let's keep politics out of it. And then absolutely nothing is done...
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@JT FLORIDA Your statement nicely ignores the source of the crisis and how it initially spread. This is the arsonist as fireman logic. Having helped to create the crisis, the government is now the only means to resolve it. Your approach insures that this will happen again just as the SARS fiasco apparently failed to imprint any lessons on the Chinese leadership.
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@Craig Freedman : I have zero confidence in Trump to handle any crisis. My point is that a command system has methods at its disposal to at least contain problems even after they mess up.
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'But the problem for the Chinese is much more acute, for the simple reason that they don't have genuinely independent domestic journalism."
And what is fundamentally different from that condition and what Trump aspires to when he declares press coverage not to his liking as "the enemy of the people"?
Wake up, America. Please. Fundamental precepts which we used to take for granted are under active assault.
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@Alan R Brock Seriously? In the last few weeks two Chinese journalists who were independently reporting accurate report from Wuhan simply disappeared. Nobody can find them. Gone. The few outlets that had been running accurate coverage of the epidemic are now publishing happy news and stories about the human spirit. Nothing good in Trump's rantings about the press but if you think there is anything comparable to the situation in China, then you need to spend a bit more time understanding China.
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@Alan R Brock Gripe and moan he may do, but no action to prevent publication or broadcast of any news, true, fake, or in between, has been up taken in US. Or do you have specific examples of where this has occurred?
@Adam
Please re-read my comment and notice the word "aspires". Thank you.
Keep saying that as China takes over the USA as the largest economy in the world in a decade.
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@Blunt In PPP terms, it already is the largest economy.
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That is not going to happen. An aging population with massive debt (yes, it is worse than ours) hits a wall eventually.
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@Dave
You keep saying that too and hope for the best. Unfortunately this is not how things worked out in history. The USA is fatigued and China is still going strong with a plan an purpose. What is ours? Please think and answer.
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It's ironic what a Chinese philosopher, Confucius, said about people in glass houses and stones. The irony is that the exact traits that Mr. Stephens ascribes to the Chinese government, in relation to openness to the media, are the same traits that can be ascribed to the Trump administration. In spades.
Mr. Stephens should cast his gaze a lot closer to home in the future.
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In all fairness, Mr. Stephens has in fact been quite critical of our own administration on similar grounds, so I don’t know that I fully understand or agree with your premise here.
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@judgeroybean
I think I get what you mean, but really now neither Confucius nor Mencius ever talked about glass houses and stones. Mixed metaphors are not useful - though they may be amusing.
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@judgeroybean
Sorry; that quote was originally from George Herbert who wrote in 1651: '[Those] Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another.' first published in the 'William & Mary College Quarterly'.
or maybe
1677 when Benjamin Franklin wrote 'Don't throw stones at your neighbors', if your own windows are glass.'
Any government that blames the messenger and tries to "manage" the facts is in for a rough time-eventually.
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For all its advancements China like the USA still has country folk. They are people that do not want to see any cultural changes, and that makes it easier for autocratic regimes to survive- maybe even thrive.
Americans are often seen as lucky people who had all the money and resources they would ever need, while the Chinese had nothing.
Our reinvented past provides them with the justifications to continue their transgressions. But, they don't live in a vacuum.
The truth is causing cracks in their shaky foundation. It's gone viral. A free press is great preventative agent, and elixir for positive change.
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Anyone who has taken Chinese history in Asia or possibly in the US ( if they remember their history classes) knows that China considers the term "the sick man of Asia " is worse than calling an African American the N word, or calling a German its version of N word. As a result, Asians spent decades trying to produce athletes that can compete on the World stage, and they have. So it is hardly surprising that China demands WSJ to retract the editor or copy editor choice of title intended to inflame.
Remember how upset you were when WAPO had an Op-Ed implying that you are anti semitic, and your defense was that you are in fact Jewish. Multiply that insult by 1,000 times and you will understand why the Chinese government is aggrieved with WSJ's column.
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@Elizabeth Spot on. Mr Stephens ignores the disgusting headline completely. His sensitivity when it comes to anti-semitism doesn't extend to insults hurled at other ethnic, racial groups.
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@Elizabeth Political correctness in the US routinely brings out retractions, apologies, and censorship. When it's about China, such things suddenly become an issue of "freedom and democracy" on which no ground shall be given. Reminds me of a meme where angry liberals rejoice with a sigh of relief once they hear that a racist joke turns out to be about "Asians."
@Elizabeth well said.
A cruel nation.
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The WSJ should just shutter its China office. If the businesses of the rest of the world need real data about China and its businesses let them have to look elsewhere. I'm sure China would hear about that quite loudly, and it would cost China valuable business at a time when it can't afford to lose any. But that is just my knee-jerk reaction. If China, or Russia, or the Trump administration wants to beat up on journalists, give them nothing to beat up on. I'd love to never again hear about Trump in any news, and I sure won't be watching Fox. Like any tin-pot dictator/bully, without an audience they are dust in the wind.
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Bret, the "sick man of Asia" is an old chestnut used by Westerners to describe Asians during an era when open racism was acceptable in journalism. Please do your homework before you get on your soapbox.
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@Cory : Would "Hollow Man of Asia" work better?
Of course, information poses the largest threat to autocracy everywhere. An educated populace is harder to coral like sheep. That's why the Republican party loves the poorly educated. It's why they hate education and love religion.
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@Andrew I know lots of Republicans and all are well educated and non, in my opinion, hate education. Some love religion, some not. You know, just like the Democrats I know.
Bret, the Chinese are just following the Putin-trump model, create your won narrative, your own fake news and deny everything else, especially the truth.
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A political party that systematically denies and denigrates science to the detriment of the world.
Remind you of anyone, Bret?
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“I think they’ve handled it professionally, and I think they’re extremely capable,”
Donald Trump Feb 13, 2020
Just imagine something like the coronavirus here in the U.S. under the current Administration. Would they act any different, not on your life. Remember Trump and his lackeys altered the path of the Hurricane Dorian.
These type of altered facts is epidemic throughout the right wing world. Whether China, Russia, or the United States, or some other country, it's on a rampage.
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Thanks for calling out the errors and fearfulness of the Chinese government - and more importantly thanks for linking the similar desire of our current "leader".
What scares me the most is that seemingly good and normal US citizens don't seem to understand that the disdain and shunning of (sometimes uncomfortable) truth is creating long-term problems for the country. As you said: "....rumor, which can be dangerous; ignorance, which can be fatal; and miscalculation, which can be catastrophic." Our future currrently seems rather bleak.
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Used to be an old saw how close Canada and the US economy's were that when the US caught a cold, Canada got pneumonia.
There is no joking here.
Apple is starting to see it. Tesla will. Anybody who sources from China will feel the effect.
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'But the coronavirus crisis has exposed a far-deeper weakness: The Chinese regime fears information.'
Really? What a revelation!
Number 1 priority of each communist system is harsh suppression of any freedom of speech and thought. Every one knows that, no covid-19 needed.
They are managing it quite efficiently for a long time now, people quiet and obedient, even admirably so. And rest assured, once that suppression crumbles, it will take the party with it and the entire economic miracle of China, since it will inevitably descend in some sort of chaos.
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Why do your columnists continue to perpetuate the ridiculous concern about China running out of people? Bret Stephens mentions this with a link to a previous NYT article about the falling birthrate in China. Economist Dean Baker has often written about this curious phenomenon (that often afflicts the mainstream media like NYTimes and Wapo) in his brilliant blog "Beat the Press" where he has written "the concern about shrinking populations is complete nonsense" and provides a very clear economic analysis of why a declining birth rate is nothing to be worried about it given other compensating factors such as productivity growth. NYT you can do better than this.
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@julian
You did catch the bit about "falling productivity", right?
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@julian
It isn't so much that China will run out of people. It is that they will run out of enough people young to care for, and other wise provide for, the old.
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@Still Waiting... So we always need to have more young people than there were in the past because of all the old people? This is ridiculous proposition especially with the rise of automation. You've got people like Andrew Yang going around saying watch out the robots are going to take all of our jobs while other people saying oh my - there aren't enough people to do all the jobs. Both cannot be true.
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If "any reader of Mead’s column, headline and text alike, will note that there isn’t an iota of racism in it," why would WSJ reporters "expressed their anger over the headline" in the newsroom, as reported by The Times yesterday?
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China is acting no differently than the Trump regime. Trump and his lackeys have consistently harassed legitimate journalists. Most recently, Mike Pompeo viciously and falsely attacked a NPR reporter and banned her.
How is China any worse?
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@Demosthenes
I loathe the current President, have not and will not vote for him, but there is absolutely no equivalence between China and the current admin.
Can you name any journalist since 1/20/2017 that has been jailed by the trump administration?
I can't, no one can. Because it hasn't happened.
However, in China, that's an almost daily occurrence.
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@Demosthenes
It's not. China is vastly better.
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@Dr B Also, Trump's cult of personality is a bit reminiscent of Xi's attempt to enshrine himself. NY Times ran an article on Xi about 5 years ago where Beijing shopkeepers were selling keepsakes with Xi's face on it. The same way "loyal citizens" can go on Amazon and buy a commemorative plate with Trump's face.
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Mr Stephens has very well shown us that any autocratic system, despite its dominance and brutality, eventually reaches a point of diminishing power when attempts to contain the truth meet up against situations like the outbreak of the coronavirus which so obviously and immediately show "that the Emperor has no clothes". It is incompetence and obvious mistruths , coupled with the misuse of power, that eventually bring down any autocracy, such as the one in China.
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@George Zografi I think your optimism is unwarranted. Autocracies have existed for centuries--far longer than democracies or republics.
Only diligent efforts can preserve a republic. Once lost, they are very difficult to revive.
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@Justin
Indeed. Rome was once a republic, and it took 1,973 years to restore it.
"Information blindness" --Sounds Like Trump and his banning of the NYT at the White House. Ominous and Orwellian times lie ahead with this level of mandated fact information suppression of our government officials.
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Even the historical Great Leap Forward was a tremendous setback for China and the Chinese people. Millions died of famine in what was an economic and industrial disaster for the nation. Even Mao suffered loss of face. But he got his revenge in the Cultural Revolution. So maybe Xi has something worse in store for the country.
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I don't praise China's handling of the virus issue, I don't know enough about it, but I wonder how the U.S. would have dealt with the same thing? Would we (could we) have acted so forcefully to isolate it and prevent its spread? Probably not. Did China's effort exceed any actions the U.S. could have taken? Definitely. Do we plan to give the U.S. government any such powers? Certainly not--but If China has gone beyond what we think proper would we have preferred that they did not? Would we have accepted the spread of the virus in the name of 'freedom'? I am not a supporter of the Chinese government, but do we have to criticize everything they do?
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@Ronald B. Duke You seem to have missed completely the point of Mr. Stephens's column.
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@Ronald B. Duke There is a reason the virus appeared in China and not the US or any other advanced country to begin with: the same government that has acted so forcefully after the fact didn't do anything to prevent such a thing fram happening... despite the previous experience with SARS, another zoonotic virus caused by trade and consumption of wild animals. They cannot even permanently ban the practice -just temporarily until the epidemic is gone, as if it makes any difference now that the virus already spreads person to person. They are even promoting Chinese medicine concoctions made of wild animals as a cure for the coronavirus. So yeah, until they get their act together and stop being a danger for the whole World, we should continue criticizing them -since their own people cannot do it or else, it's our duty as free men and women to do it.
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@Ronald B. Duke
Kicking the dog instead of saying what some really want to say.
The next economic and military power will be China and there's not a darn thing the United States can do about it. The US could up their game, educated, work and compete against China, but that's not going to happen. When you've been used to taking what you want, and change the rules and laws to insure you remain up on top -- the emergence of China has upset the old apple cart.
That's what this column and others like it are really about.
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