Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

It has been interesting to note how quickly China sought to capitalize on the BBC’s recent difficulties, and even more so how this has backfired with popular opinion.

The state-run China Central Television (CCTV) has led the Chinese charge against the BBC, reporting at length that the BBC is “deeply mired in a credibility crisis”.  A joint despatch from the official news agency Xinhua and China National Radio accused the BBC of “covering up mistakes to hide shame” and said that this could only lead the outside world to “question its credibility”.

The Communist Party-run Guangming Ribao talked about “the dirt hidden under the halo of the BBC’s corporate culture”.  The party-run Shanghai newspaper Liberation Daily added: “After one scandal after another, the halo on the head of the Western media represented by the BBC is fading gradually”.  The Hong Kong tabloid The Sun said that the BBC’s credibility “is on the brink of bankruptcy”.

By contrast, China’s social media and blogosphere was quick to point out the irony in the officially-sanctioned criticism of the BBC.  One post on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, summed up the general feeling, saying: “It is really admirable that one piece of unverifiable false news can lead to the resignation of BBC chief Entwhistle [the director-general].”  Another commenting on Entwhistle’s resignation said: “His behaviour makes me feel that this is a responsible media organization.”  Another wrote: “I heard the BBC chief resigned over a wrong report.  Shouldn’t the head of CCTV have resigned a thousand times.”

Meanwhile, the blogosphere has also been very critical of the performance of China’s leaders at the 18th Party Congress, particularly of the sycophantic speeches.  As an example of the sycophancy, Beijing delegate Ju Xiaolin composed a poem called “Getting New Hope” in praise of President Hu Jintao, which he proceeded to read out in between emotional sobs.  He ended by saying he had finally found new hope in Hu’s 64-page report.

Another delegate, Li Jian from Ningxia, claimed to have cried five times during Hu’s speech.  The blogosphere reacted with derision to this performance, with one microblog post saying that Li was clearly trying to further her career “one tear at a time”.