by Melissa Block

Reading about the same news events in two different outlets.

Sunday 9 p.m. Chengdu time

Reading the English language newspapers here is a kind of journalistic Rashomon: the same events seen through radically different prisms. I've been comparing coverage in the state-run paper China Daily with stories in the South China Morning Post, which is published in Hong Kong.

The South China Morning Post splashed a big story across page one on Friday: the 3-year jail sentence handed down to the prominent human rights activist Hu Jia.

In the second paragraph, the article notes that "critics say (the case) is part of a clampdown on dissent before the Beijing Olympics." The paper featured a large photo of Hu Jia's wife, Zeng Jinyan, who has been under house arrest since December. She's seen leaving the courthouse with their baby daughter in her arms, her face frozen in grief. She's quoted as saying of her husband, "He's been kidnapped. This is unfair, this is unjust. Hu Jia is proud that the Olympics are finally being hosted by China, but he didn't want to see a lot of ordinary people living in misery because of the Games."

Next to the photo of Zeng Jinyan, the Post also ran a box showing prison terms handed down to five other mainland dissidents recently convicted of subversion. The story of Hu Jia's sentencing barely rated a mention in China Daily: one paragraph buried on page four, under the headline "Subverter jailed."

 

Protest Attention

Both papers have devoted a lot of attention to the Tibetan protests. China Daily has a page one story in its weekend issue about a Chinese website which claims to have gathered 1.14 million signatures from people protesting "alleged Western media bias in their coverage of last month's riots in Lhasa." Much of China Daily's coverage has to do with how the events in Tibet and beyond have been "distorted" by Western media. The paper frequently quotes researchers who repudiate the intentions and legitimacy of the Dalai Lama. One headline on Friday: "Dalai Lama has 'never done anything good'." The phrase "Dalai clique" pops up with some regularity, referring to supporters of the Dalai Lama who the paper says "organized and masterminded" the violence, "bent on Tibetan independence."

Contrasting Coverage

By contrast, the South China Morning Post has devoted quite a bit of attention to protests that have accompanied the relay of the Olympic torch as it makes it way toward China. When the torch passed through Istanbul a few days ago, the paper ran a photo showing Turkic-minority Uighur protesters holding a sign in which the five Olympic rings have been turned into linked handcuffs. "End the Chinese invasion in East Turkestan and Tibet", the sign reads.

Same day headline in China Daily: "Istanbul folk full of goodwill for Beijing."

There is one story on which there seems to be no divergence of views: the return to China of Chinese demigod and NBA star Yao Ming, the 7'6" center for the Houston Rockets. Yao has been sidelined with a foot injury and underwent surgery last month. Now he's back home, on crutches, hoping that traditional Chinese medicine may help him recover in time to play for the Chinese team in the Olympics. "There's no reason to dismiss it," Yao said of Chinese medicine. "It's been used in our country for thousands of years — I don't think it's short on science."