PLAN SCS Bases/Islands/Vessels (Not a Strategy Page)

Jeff Head said:

Those are the types of pics the PRC should be flooding the media with, including similar pics from the new islands in the SCS as soon as they can make them available.

Families. Playgrounds for the kids. Tourists visiting. The markets and infrastructure to support families...etc.

Partcularly any SAR facilities, Weather facilities, light houses and other Navigation, etc. for peaceful use.

That will help them in their arguements for peaceful intentions and infrastructure to help their nations.

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While I applaud the sentiment, the unaccountable western media will just play its usual tricks and spin like crazy.

They'll will just censor images like that so they never surface in the mainstream media, except maybe as a means to make China like look bad, like accuse China of using those children and civilians as human shields for example.

plawolf said:

While I applaud the sentiment, the unaccountable western media will just play its usual tricks and spin like crazy.

They'll will just censor images like that so they never surface in the mainstream media, except maybe as a means to make China like look bad, like accuse China of using those children and civilians as human shields for example.

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I don't think that is entirely true.

One thing is for sure, when the PRC puts out picture of new air fields, and military aircraft landing on the islands, with hardened shelters for them, and military sensors, etc. then the press will show that and it will be used to justify fears.

I am simply saying that showing a lot more of the types of pictures I enumerated will ensure that some of them (and probably more than you might expect) will also get out there and give some balance.

It certainly cannot hurt.

Jeff Head said:

Those are the types of pics the PRC should be flooding the media with, including similar pics from the new islands in the SCS as soon as they can make them available.

Families. Playgrounds for the kids. Tourists visiting. The markets and infrastructure to support families...etc.

Particularly any SAR facilities, Weather facilities, light houses and other Navigation, etc. for peaceful use.

That will help them in their arguements for peaceful intentions and infrastructure to help their nations.

Click to expand...

Also pictures of supermarkets to attract people living on nearby islands occupied by other countries.

I would like to comment on the West's prejudice news reporting.

First of all, does its exist? Yes, it does. And I hate it.

Secondly, is it normal? Yes, it is. It is practically human nature. It is natural for those already in the elite club to look down on, laugh at and ridicule those new to the club. In fact, we were just talking about this over the weekend. One of my neighbors had a party over the weekend. Since it was the Labor day weekend, one of the ladies brought up a "fashion rule": no whites after the Labor day. And we all wondered why that is... Since no one knew, we googled. It turns out the fashion rule was made up by the traditionally wealthy to laugh at the newly riches at the turn of the 20th century. At the time, the economy in the US took off and created a lot of newly riches. That made the traditionally wealthy people unhappy as they saw these new guys threatening their elite status. So wives of these traditionally wealthy families made up many rules that were supposed to be only circulated among those in the inner circle of the elite club. And when they saw people not adhering to these rules at parties, they knew they would be the "simpletons" who just got rich through "some idiotic and most likely illegal means".



And the Chinese also developed ways to ridicule the newly riches. Ever heard of the phrase "暴发户", used to describe those who got rich overnight? And it is a very demeaning and derogatory term. People have also developed ways to tell whether a family has been traditionally wealthy vs. newly rich. Look at the trees and pavement outside a palace/mansion. If the trees are young and small and pavement is new, the owner of the mansion must be a "暴发户".

China is now at that stage of the economic development, where the traditional elites in the West saw China as the newly rich or "暴发户". that is of course companied with all the prejudice against China.

So I don't think that the prejudice is some racially motivated and inherent hatred against the Chinese among the traditional Western nations. And I also don't think there is any conspiracy to destroy China all together. It is simply prejudice from those elite members of an elite club against a new comer. Of course what is natural does not make it right. However, once we identify the motivation behind such prejudice, we can find ways to correct it.

Make no mistake about it. Such prejudice and stereotypical perception is very difficult to change. It might take decades to centuries to do that... I think China carries the most responsibilities when it comes to changing people's perceptions. Why do I believe that? It is so much more convenient for the traditional elite to find a scapegoat for anything and everything that is going wrong with themselves. So if it is up to the traditional elite of any club, they would most likely prefer to keep their elite membership exclusive and feel good about themselves. it is up to the new comers to challenge the traditional status.

Thus, instead of complaining how unfairly China has been treated and portrayed, China and the Chinese people should make effort to force the change in the perception. As I have eluded above, no one on the throne would willingly give up their status and power. It is up to the new comer to challenge the existing elite.

And to be honest, China is not doing so well in this department. The traditional Chinese way and the CCP way simply fit into the current prejudice and stereotypical perception about China in the West. China should think hard about how to rebrand itself and make China "sexy".

vesicles said:

I would like to comment on the West's prejudice news reporting.

First of all, does its exist? Yes, it does. And I hate it.

Secondly, is it normal? Yes, it is. It is practically human nature. It is natural for those already in the elite club to look down on, laugh at and ridicule those new to the club.

So I don't think that the prejudice is some racially motivated and inherent hatred against the Chinese among the traditional Western nations. And I also don't think there is any conspiracy to destroy China all together. It is simply prejudice from those elite members of an elite club against a new comer.

Make no mistake about it. Such prejudice and stereotypical perception is very difficult to change.


Thus, instead of complaining how unfairly China has been treated and portrayed, China and the Chinese people should make effort to force the change in the perception.

And to be honest, China is not doing so well in this department. The traditional Chinese way and the CCP way simply fit into the current prejudice and stereotypical perception about China in the West. China should think hard about how to rebrand itself and make China "sexy".

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...and I might add, the mis-representation, the stereotyping, and the mis-reporting is working on both sides as well.

Oh well...we try and stay above all of that as best we can here on SD>

And we are doing so!

We have people here on SD from all of the various places with al of their various stereotypes...and somehow we keep a lid on it and try and get to the actual truth of the issues ewe see.

And I think we do a pretty darn good job of it...better than most of the analysts I see pontificating on various news outlets, and that includes on both sides of the issues!

I would add that the news media in China is more controlled and monitored, plus the Chinese have a better understanding of Europe/America than vice-versa.

So in general, there is less mis-representation, stereotyping, and mis-reporting in the Chinese media.

In comparison, European/American writers are often writing based on obsolete views/prejudices of China from years ago. Plus it doesn't help that they don't understand the language, and their editors have no idea what is happening in China either.

AndrewS said:

I would add that the news media in China is more controlled and monitored, plus the Chinese have a better understanding of Europe/America than vice-versa.

So in general, there is less mis-representation, stereotyping, and mis-reporting in the Chinese media.

In comparison, European/American writers are often writing based on obsolete views/prejudices of China from years ago. Plus it doesn't help that they don't understand the language, and their editors have no idea what is happening in China either.

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I would say many Western Europeans, Americans, and Chinese all have a similar degree of misunderstanding of each other, the particular misunderstandings are all different as they are all ethnocentric in their own way towards others.

Similarly ethnocentric but from a cup half-full perspective, the media and most voices from these countries all end up toeing their own mainstream line for their own mainstream audience regardless of governmental control.

That the media is more controlled, I think patrolled is more accurate, in China just means all the voices (be it super informed, average, uninformed or misinformed) that persist are less extreme and fewer in number though the initial proportion and severity of fringe voices is probably similar to those in Western Europe or the US.

However the media and many voices from Europe and especially the US are definitely much more eager to and self-righteous in minding other countries' business and other peoples' lives than the media and most voices from China and elsewhere.

vesicles said:

I would like to comment on the West's prejudice news reporting.

So I don't think that the prejudice is some racially motivated and inherent hatred against the Chinese among the traditional Western nations. And I also don't think there is any conspiracy to destroy China all together. It is simply prejudice from those elite members of an elite club against a new comer. Of course what is natural does not make it right. However, once we identify the motivation behind such prejudice, we can find ways to correct it.

Make no mistake about it. Such prejudice and stereotypical perception is very difficult to change. It might take decades to centuries to do that... I think China carries the most responsibilities when it comes to changing people's perceptions. Why do I believe that? It is so much more convenient for the traditional elite to find a scapegoat for anything and everything that is going wrong with themselves. So if it is up to the traditional elite of any club, they would most likely prefer to keep their elite membership exclusive and feel good about themselves. it is up to the new comers to challenge the traditional status.

Thus, instead of complaining how unfairly China has been treated and portrayed, China and the Chinese people should make effort to force the change in the perception. As I have eluded above, no one on the throne would willingly give up their status and power. It is up to the new comer to challenge the existing elite.

And to be honest, China is not doing so well in this department. The traditional Chinese way and the CCP way simply fit into the current prejudice and stereotypical perception about China in the West. China should think hard about how to rebrand itself and make China "sexy".

Click to expand...

I think it's a huge stretch to state that the prejudice is not motivated by racism. At least some of it is racially charged. The issue here is not just a simple case of old rich looking down at newly rich. There are certainly elements of it. But IMO, this is not the whole story.


The rise of China presents a more fundamental challenge to elites in the western nations as China has managed to achieve success using a different developmental model. It has demonstrated that the western model, namely democracy is essential for economic development, is not the only way forward. That is a much harder reality for western elites to acknowledge since it goes against the predominant narrative in media and general social discourse post WWII. Positive stories about Chinese success would not only sully the current narrative, it would also cause people in other developing nations to question whether they should follow western advices on governance and development. Since it's much easier to befriend/influence countries that share similar values and developmental models, the viability of Chinese model has lasting strategic consequences for leading western nations. I believe that is chief motivation why there is so much biased reporting on China.


In other words, it's much easier to accept new entrants into the club when they have already accepted and internalized some of your club rules. The club owners know they will fall in line. However one would be more hostile to entrants that have found some of your club rules to be wanting or useless or even worse, fully capable of setting up their own competing club. In which case, it could greatly diminish your influence.


China has shown that it is capable of creating its own clubs when western elites refused to make certain adjustments. The creation of AIIB is a perfect example as it is founded after IMF reform failed. Thus, I don't believe that the onus is on China alone to make major adjustments in order to be accepted into the western elites' club. Both sides need to make adjustments to accommodate each other while fully appreciating both are very proud of their unique ways of achieving success.


Btw, I think we should differentiate between complaining and pointing out obvious prejudice imbedded in western news articles. Meekly accepting biased reporting without challenge would not only embolden those creating and spinning falsified narratives, but also making them much easier to be believed by the uninformed in the west.

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vesicles said:

And to be honest, China is not doing so well in this department. The traditional Chinese way and the CCP way simply fit into the current prejudice and stereotypical perception about China in the West. China should think hard about how to rebrand itself and make China "sexy".

Click to expand...

It don't matter what China does, the haters will continue to find any spin or way to further the stereotype. I do not have faith on the Western media or those who controls the narrative to do anything good, heck why do you think we are having a racial problem and Islam phobia? This has to do with a certain prejudice narrative that's been going on for decades. The ONLY way to change that prejudice narrative is to CHALLENGE it and the Chinese CPC is the best weapon so far to do that (whether one accepts that or not), hopefully more will join in. NO this is not a battle against Western values but rather a battle for a more objective view points instead of the usual dumbing down news and narrative that's been shoving down our throats.

@vesicles

I wouldn't agree on China and America/Europe having the same degree of misunderstanding towards each other.

In general, the Chinese have a positive view of American people, society, wealth, tech etc. The opposite does not hold true.

Americans are also don't know very much about China, whereas the Chinese know more about the USA from the media.

Plus nothing like Fox News (the right wing mainstream) exists in China with its crazy conspiracy stories and anti-foreign/racial content. Media in China is just more more controlled and monitored.

So these are the key reasons why American media displays a lot more bias than the Chinese media