The Chinese administration, when
launching its illegal acts in the East Sea, has been supported by its media, a
special force that helps distort events in the region and fool people.
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| China's HD-981 rig |
Means of communication play a very important role in driving
public opinion. Therefore, they have big impacts on any policies, home or
foreign. They are compared to the bridge that helps convey people’s opinions to
the authorities, and as the tool for authorities to explain their policies to
the people.
As for China, mass media also serves as a propaganda instrument
as well. Most of the press and media agencies in China are under the state’s
control, which only disseminates the Chinese government’s viewpoints and
policies.
How has the Chinese propaganda engine been doing during the
HD 981 oil rig deployment campaign?
Providing
wrong information
After Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s speech at
the 24th ASEAN Summit, Chinese newspapers published a series of articles on the
installation of the HD 981 oil rig.
Chinese newspapers all had the same argument: that the
location where HD 981 is set up is entirely within its sovereignty and
jurisdictional area. Chinese media argue that all the activities of its
military patrols, mineral and oil exploration and exploitation in the area are
consistent with Chinese sovereignty and with the 1982 United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea.
Chinese website ifeng.com on May 7 made unfair accusation
that Vietnam is trying to induce Japan and India, two countries which have
territorial disputes with China, to join with it to balance the power.
On May 13, Shen Zhen Television reported that the government
of Vietnam used numerous tricks to pressure China.
A researcher from the Chinese Global and Asian Strategies
Research Institute argued that it would be very difficult to reach a consensus
from involved parties, including Vietnam, on the idea of putting aside disputes
to exploit the treasure in the East Sea together. Therefore, China unilaterally
deployed the drilling rig as a way to claim its sovereignty in the area.
She also emphasized that the oil rig would serve as a
testing method for the settlement of disputes in the East Sea. She wrote on
ifeng.com that Vietnam has made the oil rig deployment activity complicated and
has excessively criticized China, behaviors which would badly affect
Vietnam-China bilateral relations.
Meanwhile, a representative of China’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs provided false information on CCTV that from May 3-7, Vietnam sent 35
ships to the site and attacked Chinese ships 171 times. He misled the public
with the claim that most of the Vietnamese vessels on the site were military,
while insisting that China did not send any military troops there. China said
that Chinese ships were attacked from under water by Vietnamese frogmen,
fishing nets, and other objects.
A
dangerous tool of China
The Chinese administration, through its communication
engine, has been trying to gloss over the illegal acts it is carrying out on
Vietnamese territory, molding public opinion in a way that brings favor to it.
Chinese leaders have been nurturing expansionism for the
past thousands of years. The propaganda engine regulated by the leaders,
therefore, leads Chinese people to misunderstanding.
In long run, skewed Chinese viewpoints will make it more
difficult to settle disputes based on argument and reason. The Chinese
communication apparatus, double-tongued and equivocal – especially on the issue
of sovereignty – will not help settle the internal problems of the country. To
the contrary, they will make the situation worse and more dangerous.
Vietnamese mass media needs to help protect Vietnamese
territory with its convincing arguments, explaining the Vietnamese fight for
justice to the international community. Youtube and social networks
should be considered as effective tools for transmitting information to the
Chinese people, especially given that Vietnamese websites are being blocked by their
government.
Small countries can put themselves at an advantage if they
follow smart policies.
Nguyen Tang Nghi
The
Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanity
