Illustration: Liu Rui/GT









Recently, the New York Times reporter Edward Wong published a lengthy report, "Resettling China's 'Ecological Migrants,'" focusing on the relocation of people in Miaomiao Lake village, in the Xihaigu region of Ningxia. The report wantonly smeared China's policy of alleviating poverty through relocation, calling the relocation communities built by Chinese governments "refugee camps," while referring to the mud brick building of farmers in Xihaigu as an "imperial palace." This obviously showed the writer's lack of professional ethics.



Wong's method of deliberately clipping facts and instigating ethnic conflicts is a breach of journalistic ethics with ulterior motives. Xihaigu has an extremely fragile eco-environment, suffering from serious soil erosion and frequent natural disasters. In 1972, Xihaigu was identified by the United Nations Food Development Agency as one of the world's most unfit regions for human survival. The environment dragged down development in Xihaigu and made farmers there struggle in poverty. Relocating these people is a strategic decision to eradicate the roots of poverty, and it's supported by the people there. According to my survey there, no farmers are skeptical about this and there was no forceful relocation in Xihaigu.



After the relocation, the migrants have enjoyed convenient transportation, good education conditions and a convenient water supply, in stark contrast to their life in the past. Poor households have also been offered aid in education, work and other aspects of life.



However, Wong has selectively ignored these facts, and not asked the reasons for the previous backward conditions in life and education of people in Xihaigu. Instead, his report depicted the past in Xihaigu as an Arcadian life, and exaggerated some individuals' dissatisfaction with some specific events in an attempt to criticize China's relocation policy.



The report even cited some Western scholars as saying, "Chinese resettlement policies are at least partly aimed at controlling ethnic minority populations," trying to trigger ethnic strife.



Media ethics requires reporters to present objective and fair coverage to the public. China's laws and policies welcome Chinese and foreign media to provide objective and impartial coverage. According to the Decree of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No. 537, China protects the lawful rights and interests of permanent offices of foreign media organizations and foreign journalists in accordance with law.



However, this in no way means that foreign media can ignore facts and even confuse black and white, like Wong did. In order to discredit Chinese officials' image, Wong intentionally misrepresented their words; for the sake of showing discontent of people, he deliberately quoted several farmers' words to exaggerate the anger; with the view of creating a hopeless picture of people there, he purposefully took advantage of pastoralism.



At present, China is in a crucial period for shaking off poverty. Chinese local governments and people are working hard to build a comprehensive well-off society. In this large, complex and systematic project, the formulation and practices of poverty alleviation policies cannot be perfect, and poverty eradication cannot be achieved overnight.



We will face difficulties and shoulder our responsibility, and welcome constructive supervision and comments. However, it does not mean we will tolerate other people's malicious attacks.



It may be the time for the New York Times to think about the US President-elect Donald Trump's words that he would have lived about 20 years longer if he didn't read the newspaper.



The author is a scholar of China Rural Governance Research Center at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn Follow us on Twitter @GTopinion