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Perception that China is a one-party state is misconception - Dong

Perception that China is a one-party state is misconception - Dong
By Mwala Kalaluka in Beijing, China
Thu 01 Dec. 2011, 13:20 CAT

AN academician in media politics and public policy at Beijing's Tsinghua University says the perception that China is a one-party state is another misconception by the powerful Western media.

Professor Guanpeng Dong, the chair and director of the Institute of Public Relations and Strategic Communications at Tsinghua University, said, however, that the West was not entirely to blame over the fact that China was misunderstood in the international arena.

"When people talk about China, what is China? Who is China? It's very apparent people think about the national flag because that is the colour of China. So people will say China is a very red country," Professor Guanpeng said during a lecture to information officers from

English-speaking African countries in Beijing on Wednesday.

He said he had established in his surveys that the international media's first thoughts of China was about Communism/Socialism, a one-party system and fast economic growth.

"People will say this is a one-party system country. It's not really one-party system because we have other ethnic minority parties as well. The only difference is the Communist party is the strongest and at the moment everybody likes to support the one-party system," Prof Guanpeng said.

"…‘Made in China' means cheap and low quality. We are not happy with this but this is what is always covered by the international media."

He said the other outside label of China was that it was a mysterious emerging power and a troublemaker.

"Definitely China is a rising power but are we the enemy of the world? I don't really think so," Prof Guanpeng said.

"Who always call China a troublemaker? Definitely the United States and definitely the United Kingdom and sometimes France and occasionally our very close neighbour, Japan and maybe the Filipinos, because they want to have something special in the South China Sea."

He said these misconceptions arose because for a long time China adopted a closed-door kind of approach to its international relations.

"So people have to guess what is inside? What is going on? Probably there are a lot of controversial things," Prof Guanpeng said.

"This is the big problem for China because we are always misunderstood. Misunderstanding is not our fortune. Economic growth will not get rid of all the problems. For years in China we thought when we have better economy...then our image will become automatically better but this is not really the case."

He said it was not always the case that economic growth can guarantee a better image.

"Because there is another word in the dictionary, it is called ‘jealousy' and also another word called ‘suspicious'. So all these become kind of a big new challenge for China," Prof Guanpeng said.

"We need a better understanding by friends and partners for further collaboration and development but as Chinese we are so bad at communicating for centuries. So in China we have a lot of very silly mistakes when we talk about cross culture communication."

He said instead of being angry when the world misunderstands them, the Chinese people have to find the right image to present to the world.

"Unfortunately, if you look at the history after the founding of the People's Republic of China, for many years we are misunderstood by international society and especially by those very dominating Western media," he said.

"This is China in the way the American media described it between 1949 to 1978. This is not something we want to tolerate anymore. But the problem is not just the US, it is also part of us because we did not care about it for a long time."

Prof Guanpeng said it was during the time of another Chinese leader, Deng Zaoping, in the 1970s that China was urged to shake off the Cold War thoughts and embrace a public diplomacy strategy.

He said the only way forward in presenting a good global image of China lies in the software of cultural and public diplomacy and managing the vast country's affairs in a right manner.

Prof Guanpeng said the media in the developing countries should join forces and counter the West's domineering position of the global media landscape.

Labels: CHINA, COMMUNISM

posted by MrK @ 4:13 PM