US Media Labeling Chinese protesters pro-Chinese government

After China and Chinese Americans and Chinese legal immigrants and students in the US demanded apology from CNN and Jack Cafferty for his comments. Yesterday many Chinese Americans and Chinese people protested in Los Angles. However, the US media tried to label those Chinese people as pro-Chinese government, because Jack Cafferty called “Chinese government goons and thugs”.

However, only in CNN’s statement they interpret Jack Cafferty’s comments that way. In his original transcript, he did not mention “Chinese government” but only “Chinese” and “they”. Even if that is really what he meant, many US media failed to inform readers that maybe Chinese people misinterpreted his comments. US media intentionally doctrine their viewers that these Chinese people are protesting because “their Chinese government” was criticized. For example:

AP reported:

Protesters are also lashing out at the CNN TV network over its commentator Jack Cafferty, who caused outrage last week when he called the Beijing leadership “goons and thugs” and slammed the quality of Chinese exports.

San Francisco Chronicles:

Chinese Americans rallied outside CNN’s Hollywood office on Saturday to demand the firing of commentator Jack Cafferty for calling China’s goods “junk” and its leaders a “bunch of goons and thugs.”

Abstract for this news:

Chinese Americans protest commentator who called China’s goods “junk” and its leaders a “bunch of goons and thugs.”

AFP reported:

Protesters are also lashing out at the CNN TV network over its commentator Jack Cafferty, who caused outrage last week when he called the Beijing leadership “goons and thugs” and slammed the quality of Chinese exports.

More neutral reports such as on Los Angles Times, did not use “Chinese government” but “China” as the subject of “goons and thugs”.

What Jack Cafferty actually said:

I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We are also running hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart.

So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.

From this transcript and using my naive English, I think it is absolutely not clear he was talking about “Chinese government”. Maybe he did not mean “Chinese people” but at least he meant “China”. Even if he meant “Chinese government”, there are at least two major problems:

1) Chinese government don’t produce these lead toy and poisoned pet food. Those products are not Chinese government’s property, but Jack said “their junk with lead paint… poisoned pet food”.

2) He said “places where you can pay workers a dollar a month”. This place is not China because China is not THAT cheap. And he totally missed the target. The real target is the capital in the US want to make more money by outsourcing these manufacturing jobs. The main problem is exactly within US; not in China, not the Chinese people, and not the Chinese government.

So apparently CNN and Jack Nasty is trying to excuse themselves for saying something inappropriate and insulting and even racist. And some US media are trying to “help” and infuriate other Americans by labeling those protesting Chinese Americans as supporting “Chinese government”. This is pathetic.

By the way, quality of many Chinese products are probably not top quality, but they are worth the import price. Wal-mart and such made a fortune buying those Chinese products at unbeatable prices and sell many times more the import price. Also, China is a developing industrial country. If China can produce everything the quality US would, it probably wouldn’t be US who is bullying China now, right? And from my experience with some Made in USA products, I don’t think they worth their prices. Sometimes the quality is also… unsatisfactory.

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