Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Of all China achievements nothing is more prouder than the poverty alleviation program. Nobody can do it but China themselves
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
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These sort of videos (produced by the state media) is exactly the problem with Chinese PR/propaganda. Blowing your own trumpet is not a popular thing to do. Even if what is said in the video is 100% true it will still leave a rancid taste in people's mouth.
If people at this point still don't know that China has done well in the past 4 decades simply means they don't wan't to know. And these type of videos instead of informing them will only increase their prejudice towards China.
China doesn't need to convince others how well its doing. China should simply do its own thing.
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solarz
Brigadier
I think that's debatable. Politicians in the West do this kind of thing all the time. It's true that this one video isn't going to change any minds that don't want to be changed, but then Rome wasn't built overnight.
One of China's definite weaknesses in the current geopolitical arena is PR. Western propaganda has had decades to vilify and debase China, so it will take a while before people change their minds. There will be some cringeworthy attempts in this, but there will also be praiseworthy successes, such as Wolf Warrior 2. The important thing is to keep at it.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
I think you got problem of inferiority complex Why ? It is not matter of trumpeting one success. It is putting the fact on the table
It is more a message to their own people by saying keep up the good work and looking forward for better result
It does not matter if the rest of the world appreciate it or not. Good if they do but It is inconsequential
For CCP it is the corner stone of their legitimacy That is why it has to repeated over and over again
If you feel embarrassed that is your problem. I feel proud about it It is beacon for the rest of the world When we see so much poverty,war , racial cleansing in the news today
It is ray of hope that Yes you can overcome it with right government policy! for better tomorrow
I don;t know what your background is but the world is not only made of slick Hollywood movie There is real poverty out there! I see it with my own eye! For those people China is inspiration and not embarrassment
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It's fair enough for anyone to pat themselves and their fellow citizens on the back, it's appreciative and also informative since most people are not fully aware of how their own work contributes to their country's accomplishments, nor simply the full extent of their own work's or their country's accomplishments. In a way someone has to blow everyone's horn on behalf of everyone else.
Has anyone else seen the CCTV program Amazing China? Remove the blatant propaganda segments, namely the intro and end credits, and it reminds me somewhat of the PBS program America Revealed. The whole series has been posted on Youtube.
Has anyone else seen the CCTV program Amazing China? Remove the blatant propaganda segments, namely the intro and end credits, and it reminds me somewhat of the PBS program America Revealed. The whole series has been posted on Youtube.
Lethe
Captain
I disagree. I think there is still a lot of ignorance out there about the nature and scale of China's transformation over the previous two generations and the real improvements in the lives of a significant subset of humanity that has been the result. We rightly talk about ongoing problems with working conditions, access to health care, and emergent problems increasing wealth inequality and the societal costs of pollution, etc. but the story is incomplete without also acknowledging the successes. And if state organs in China, and stereotypical 'patriotic' Chinese, have a tendency to overemphasise the positives, certainly most western organs have a tendency to over-emphasise the negative.
But perhaps more importantly, by tying the legitimacy of the CCP and the PRC what it has achieved for the Chinese people, this creates a standard for people to appeal to in future, because there is of course still far more work to be done.
Of course the CCP isn't so much of an outlier in this respect as we like to think. In most countries, the politico-economic consensus rests not just on a particular set of power relations between various elites, but on popular acquiescence to that power based upon the idea that this is what works, that it is preferable to any alternative. And if and when reality diverges too greatly from that claim, people start to notice and agitate for change. The USA is probably the only nation where the social commitment to "free market capitalism" rests as much upon an ideology claiming universal moral basis (i.e. individual liberty) as it does the utilitarian principle, i.e. the actual consequences of particular policies. And even in the unusually ideological USA, think how much consternation there is around the fact that the life expectancy for white Americans without a college degree has actually decreased in recent decades. The politico-economic system has been failing significant portions of American society for quite some time now, and as a result many have begun to agitate for change.
Of course popular discontent with the status quo doesn't necessarily express itself in logical or coherent ways, as we can see with the election of Donald Trump, or more spectacularly the excesses of the French revolution, so there is by no means a direct line from discontent to a new and improved status quo, but nonetheless any ruling elite that desires to maintain a "harmonious society" (and therefore its own position) has to make the majority of the population reasonably satisfied with that status quo, i.e. it has to make them believe that the current system serves their interests. Part of that is about making propaganda videos that tell people about what you have done for them, but as per above that propaganda will eventually become ineffective if it does not reflect the reality that people experience for themselves.
At the end of the day, a state apparatus that asserts its legitimacy based on how well it serves its people is far preferable to one that does so based upon appeals to God or the divine right of kings or ethnicity or hatred of the other. Of course most nations, including the PRC, draw upon multiple sources for their legitimacy, but nonetheless the fact that the CCP finds it useful to make videos touting its achievements in e.g. poverty alleviation, is fundamentally a good sign.
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Equation
Lieutenant General
Haters of China have already made up their mind regardless of how the video is made or win any international awards for documentary of any kind. It is rather more of another view point to share with the rest of the people in the world who wants to be inform about China that has not been corrupted by Hollywood soft power.
I wouldn't blame China-hating on Hollywood but I know what you mean, one has to be open to multiple sources of information and be aware of their associated agendas to piece together as much of the whole picture as possible.
Equation
Lieutenant General
Religious institutions and education plays a major role in shaping western people views about China. Hollywood just enforces it.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
That's was pretty tame compared to US politics. I agree that China should do it's own thing but China has to counter propaganda. Just look at how there's outrage over fake news implanted in the US by Russia on American social media on the internet. The West is already doing it trying to spur Arab Springs around the world on countries they don't like. I hear plenty of times from Westerners how they believe China can't feed their own people and depends on them for food aid. You may think of it as nothing but in Americans' minds it gives them an excuse to impose themselves on China because the Chinese can't take care of themselves.