China is increasingly determined to control how it is portrayed overseas, frequently attacking what it calls a Western media bias and demanding that a documentary about a Muslim Uighur activist should be dropped from an Australian film festival.
The anxiety to massage its international image has been stirred by violence in the western region of Xinjiang, where Uighurs rioted on July 5, leaving 192 people dead, most of them Han Chinese. Beijing has accused Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled Uighur businesswoman, of fomenting the violence and has been enraged by international newspapers that carried comment pieces by her pleading her case.
Among the most strident statements was an opinion piece by Ding Gang, of the Communist party newspaper People’s Daily, entitled: “I Don’t Read The Wall Street Journal Anymore”. Mr Ding criticised the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal, which referred to the Uighurs as protesters and the Han Chinese as mobs.
More...
