ESWN recently translated a Chinese post from Anti CNN documenting fake photos used by Western media in fomenting a “Jasmine Revolution” story and he titled it, “Fake Western Media Coverage Of Jasmine Revolution In China.” Here is an example, an article written by Reuters and sold to Irish Independent for distribution; never-mind the article itself having little fact, the Reuters photo itself was made up:



Despite the non-news, the Western media continue to milk this “story” by molding it into Chinese government crack-downs of dissent and confrontations with Western journalists. Even the supposedly cream of the crop, NPR, continued the assault; their latest piece from the Associated Press, “China Rolls Back Press Freedoms Amid Protest Calls.”

When there is no protest, the “crackdowns” become news. When the “crackdown” news become dry, they will vacillate on something else, and you can bet money it will be about “freedom” or “democracy” through some other spin. They all employ this strategy. As I have said before, there need not be any sort of conspiracy. Once a certain spin is in the public, they all take hint and echo one another.

Boxun News, based in the U.S., was reported by the Western media to have carried the original article calling for the “Jasmine Revolution” protests in China. It has recently announced taking down the related articles. ESWN relayed the Boxun announcement for his readers below:

(Boxun News (temporary websites)) February 26, 2011. Reader friends, people in various sectors of society: Thank you for your attention and concern for Boxun recently. Although Boxun merely posted the Jasmine notice as sent to us, Boxun has come under tremendous pressure. The severe attacks on Boxun since February 19 has made it difficult for Boxun to operate normally. The dissemination of the Jasmine incident has also caused uncalled for hard to countless numbers of activities and netizens in China. In order to ensure that our readers can see the normal Boxun and read about the analysis of current affairs in China, we think that it is necessary to suspend the publication of the relevant notices. We hope that our readers and people in various sectors of society will understand. At the same time, we hope that the relevant authorities will cease the persecution, intimidation and harassment of certain people and t heir families, as well as stop the attacks on Boxun as soon as possible.

As Boxun says, someone or organization solicited Boxun to relay the call for protests. I think that person or organization also at the same time organized the announcement on Twitter and probably on Facebook and other Internet services. It is interesting that the Western media focused on Boxun as the “original” source of the call. To me, that was a strategy to fixate Westerners on the idea the original call came from a Chinese to give credence to this story. So far, they have not offered any evidence on who actually called for the protests.

Anyone want to bet, if the call actually came from a Western NGO, the Western media would still be interested in sharing that fact?

ESWN also relayed this information below, and it looks like FLG is determined to make something out of this “Jasmine Revolution.”

(Tang Baiqiao’s blog) Influenced by the democratic revolutions in North Africa and Middle East, the courageous Chinese people (the young people in particular) are promoting a Jasmine Revolution in China. We who are overseas are deeply enoucraged and we want to be able to contribute our share of efforts to promote democratic revolution in China. Over the past several days, the overseas news website Boxun has published a vast amount of information about the Jasmine Revolution, serving a very important role in promoting this democratic revolution. But today Boxun made a public statement to the effect that it will no longer publish the relevant information: “Because Boxun was attacked, we are unable to continue to publish information about the Jasmine flower,” “Boxun has come under a tremendous amount of pressure,” “we hope the relevant authorities will cease their persecution, intimidation and harassment of certain people and t heir families, and the attacks on Boxun should also stop as soon as possible.” We are deeply sympathetic towards the attacks on the Boxun website. We also strongly condemn the Chinese Communists for attacking the Boxun website as well as intimidating and persecuting the Boxun workers and their families. For this, we held an emergency discussion which led to our decision to establish a global information platform for the Jasmine Revolution in China. We will take on the task of disseminating and spreading information about the Jasmine Revolution activities. We welcome all netizens inside and outside China who support and participate in this Jasmine Revolution to forward information, exchange ideas and help each other. We welcome all Internet media to join us to support this Jasmine Revolution and work together to serve the Jasmine Revolution in China. Democracy shall prevail!

ESWN did some research and found the background of Tang Baiqiao:

[Tang Baiqiao’s Wikipedia entry: In an August 2009 interview with The Epoch Times: “I resist [CCP violence], not only for myself, but for all the dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners…all the people of this country [who wish] to be free, everyone has freedom of speech, [and should be able to] express their views.” Tang is a frequent on-air special commentator for New Tang Dynasty Television. He is a spokesman and officer for the China Interim Government. In the Chinese version of Wikipedia, 唐柏桥 is a Radio Free Asia special commentator, a NDTV special commentator, an Epoch Times columnist and a Kanzhongguo columnist among other things.]

Recently, I saw some Epoch Times papers on a counter in a local store. I noticed virtually all of the Epoch Times articles were authored by non-Chinese. Patrick French, former director of the Tibet Campaign in London, U.K., once wrote an Op-Ed arguing that the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan cause has been hijacked by Western NGO’s. He implied the NGO’s have agendas of their own, and no longer compatible with that of the Dalai Lama. He advised the Dalai Lama to start afresh in his approach with the Chinese government.

My point here is that the FLG on it’s own probably does not have the clout to pull off the organization of Westerners in its staff of writers for the Epoch Times paper. It appears the FLG and some certain Western NGO’s seem to be aligned to reach the scale it has in the West. All these players along with the Western media seem well aligned. Again, forget about the conspiracy theory. They each have their separate interests. And the FLG’s politics, like the Dalai Lama’s, may have been usurped.

Regardless, I don’t think a revolution is likely. The reason is quite simple. Unlike the 1980’s, these types of reporting in the last two decades have completely destroyed Western media credibility. (The Western media can no longer be a rallying force they were like pre-1989.)

Hence, back to the point behind this post’s title, I want to share the following Chinese readers comments at the Anti CNN article: