Lim Teck Ghee
Among international media engaged in China news reporting, CNN and BBC stand out as the most prominent in their production of anti-China stories and analysis. Of late, Nikkei Asia which is a part of Japan’s Nikkei Inc. media empire appears bent on giving these two organisations a run for their money in which outfit can produce the most mischievous and twisted interpretation and commentary to accompany any China news they carry.
In its China closeup column, Nikkei Asia most recently published a lurid account of a knife attack incident near Shanghai. Written by its Tokyo based senior staff and editorial writer, the article led with the title, Tragedy shows China’s anti-Japan social media fire burns out of control: Other stabbings reflect a society that cannot vent its social and economic frustrations. In its inflammatory effort to generate propaganda and hate material against China and the Chinese population, the article linked what is a tragic and isolated incident to the “anti-Japan and anti-U.S. trend … seen as an outgrowth of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy toward Japan, the U.S. and Europe”. See https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Analysis-Tragedy-shows-China-s-anti-Japan-social-media-fire-burns-out-of-control
In the attempt to further increase the volume of anti-China distorted news generally supported by manufactured ‘alternative’ facts and views by often anonymous ‘experts’, Nikkei Asia’s sister news organisation – the Financial Times (FT) previously a British publication headquartered in London with editorial offices in Britain, the US and Europe and now owned by Nikkei – came out with a similar story three days later with the title, China stabbing attacks raise concerns of growing social tensions. Economic doldrums, unemployment and isolation could be playing into crime wave, analysts say.
Despite its claim to be an ‘independent provider of quality journalism’, the Nikkei news empire is seen as far from being independent. Its political alignment has been variously described as Center-right, Conservative Liberalism and Conservative. What it stands for is to wave the Japanese flag of nationalism and militarism in support of the Liberal Democratic party which has led the government since 1955 in what is virtually a de facto one party state that few among its western supporters will admit to. It also has a long standing institutionalised relationship with the national government to benefit itself and Japan’s big business. According to reporter Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times in 2022, the Nikkei’s purchase of the FT was “worrying” as “[the] Nikkei is basically a PR machine for Japanese biz; it initially ignored the 2011 Olympus accounting scandal (which FT broke). Nikkei has also hardly covered the Takata airbag defect; almost no investigative work on that issue whatsoever. Nikkei is Japan Inc.”
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