Words can deceive but behaviors never lie. I am inclined to believe what the West has to say about China, because China behaves in a way that gives veracity to many of the claims made by others about China, and what they are/aren't doing. Once you start making judgements based on behavior rather than "he-said/she-said", you will find that you make far more accurate decisions about things in general.
Because china is the rising power to US dominance, and both sides will discredit each other from time to time. Also western journalist orgs have an incentive to paint an unflavourable picture while getting non of the blowback.
Also, keep in mind yours is but one experience out of many.
China has no free press. Literally none. Hongkong's free press was obliterated shortly after China broke the treaties they had with the UK about keeping Hongkong independent. Try traveling to the areas where Uigurs are being detained to look for yourself if China is lying. You can't and so can't journalists or independent observers. Why is that?
Saying that both are bad and so nobody can be blamed is a bad faith argument.
Not what I'm saying. Blame both sides but this is just tit for tat behaviour that happens especially when one side deems the punishments unfair. You are never going to solve anything in that manner.
Same here. And lately I’m getting the feeling that people systematically “distrusting” western media takes on China, would just take Chinese media at face value.
They would be surprised that they probably actually do.
I would change to directly from the CCP, because there is no independent free press in China at any meaningful scale.
Not only does a lot of their media get big readership online here, People's Daily and others.
Also does anyone know how much SCMP's independence has eroded now? I don't know that much on that one but it still gets placements in news aggregators for example as if it were the NyTimes.
CCP also pays for reach, spending millions to get their content in the large US based media like WaPo. Most people don't realize they are reading an ad, not an actual article by a WaPo reporter.
Though maybe funnily on the opposite end, a CCP persecuted group Falun Gong owns the Epoch Times, which has grown huge too. In the past few years they have been one of the top sources of social media/fb links. A lot of it is just meme & engage bait. but it's still interesting to think about.
