Western Journalism

I came across this article titled "Nationalism at core of China's reaction to Tibet unrest"

which reflects pretty typical attitudes toward China in the West. And this is one of the more balanced articles.

First of all, it is always nationalism when it's China, but patriotism when it's the US. I'm not saying nationalism/patriotism is good, but it's not like there's much of a distinction between the two except it's always nationalism when it's someone you don't like and patriotism when it's someone you like.

Second, "Scholars often describe nationalism as the state religion in China now that the Communist Party has shrugged off socialist ideology and made economic development the country's priority." As if patriotism isn't an American state religion in addition to Christianity? Geez.

Also, "Commentators in Chinese state media have said foreign news reporting has been more sympathetic to Tibetans in Lhasa than to the Chinese who lost their lives and property in the riots. Meanwhile, Chinese from around the world were infuriated when several Western news organizations mislabeled photographs of the police beating pro-Tibet protesters in Nepal as being from China." Yeah, isn't that pretty bad? Chinese people have reason to think that Western media is out to get them.

So much for free speech. Given that everything they write is so twisted, is it really a surprise that the Chinese don't want them in Tibet? I don't think it's necessarily right, and it's obviously non-ideal, but their case - that they're unbiased and therefor should be there - is not very convincing.