The two smiling gentlemen on the left are Richard D. Parsons, CEO of Time Warner and Zhao Qizheng, the head of China’s State Council Information Office.
The State Council is the administrative body of the government, something like parliament. The State Council Information Office is similar in function to the Publicity Department (formerly known as the Propaganda Department) of the Communist Party.
This is what Zhao Qizheng had to say at the FORTUNE Global Shmoozefest as reported by Xinhua:
China is unsatisfactory about some foreign media’s news coverage on China, which was biased and exaggerated, Zhao Qizheng, head of the SCIO, said at the Fortune Global Forum round-table meeting for cultural issues, which was held on Monday in Beijing…
…Some foreign media used to “exaggerate China’s growth and help fabricating a theory of ‘China Threat,'” and commentaries for suchpurpose were even more biased than related news, said Zhao.
Fair enough Mr Zhao, there is a lot of truth in that. But then it gets silly:
He said that when he met some foreign friends, more of them expressed their hope for understanding the development trend of China’s economy and what opportunities they could share from them.
Ah yes, just what we need, more news coverage of development and the booming economy. It’s not like we have enough of that in the China Daily already.
The Xinhua piece ends thusly:
“The Chinese Government always encourages domestic media to cover China’s progress and shortcomings and inspires them to tell the truth and let the readers to make their own judgment,” Zhao said.
Well, enough of Mr Zhao; let’s see what Mr Parsons is up to:
Red Herring: Time Warner’s China TV Deal
– CEO Richard Parsons is in Beijing for talks about providing programming to two leading mainland broadcasters.
Yahoo: Time Warner in talks for China TV tie-ups
LINKS AND SOURCES:
Foreign media urged to take just attitude towards China
Chineseinternetnews.com: Chinese official asks international media to cover China objectively and fairly (in Chinese, including a quote from Zhao Qizheng saying that Xinhua’s China reporting is “comparatively accurate”)
Sycophantic China Daily article: The making of a Zhao Qizheng speech
China Daily: Great forum, great Beijing (from which the above image was taken; soundbite from the article: “So far, the forum is fabulous,” said Mr Parsons)
CNN (owned by Time Warner): Full text of Hu Jintao’s speech at the FORTUNE forum
Running Dog: Lickspittle foreign hacks tell lies about China (where many of the above links were found)
China Vitae: CV of Zhao Qizheng