(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is launching a report on the media in China one year after the death of Deng Xiaoping entitled “A Year After Deng Xiaoping: Asian Values and Obstacles Facing the Chinese Media”. IPI says the death of Deng Xiaoping on 19 February 1997 heralded a period of uncertainty regarding China’s future. While some […]
(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is launching a report on the media in China one year after
the death of Deng Xiaoping entitled “A Year After Deng Xiaoping: Asian
Values and Obstacles Facing the Chinese Media”. IPI says the death of Deng
Xiaoping on 19 February 1997 heralded a period of uncertainty regarding
China’s future. While some analysts believe that democracy in China will
“peacefully” flourish due to market forces, others view the country as a
time bomb. The major events of 1997 – Deng’s death and Hong Kong’s handover
– silently passed by. Nothing changed: Jiang Zemin is still in power, the
market is still open, civil rights still often ignored. And where now for
the People’s Republic of China? Will the Communist Party resist the strong
quest for civil and political freedom or will it gradually lose its control
over the country? And, if this is the case, are chaos and fragmentation an
inevitable consequence; or will the fast developing economy breed democracy
and raise the most populated nation of the world to the status of world power?
We can not underestimate the danger of re-dividing the world into blocks,
where a democratic West finds itself ideologically opposing a booming,
undemocratic East; where an authoritarian alternative is viewed as a short
cut to development. Understanding today’s and tomorrow’s China, without
being dazzled by its immense market and its growing GDP, is vital. It is
vital to avoid major confrontations and negative repercussions emanating
from an unstable environment. And it is vital for 20% of the world’s
population to decide their own destiny. This study analyses Asian Values,
and looks at the obstacles facing the Chinese media, including the systems
of press control and the legislative landscape. Media freedom in China and
the free flow of information is an essential first step in allowing the
Chinese people and the rest of the world to grasp the true situation, and
develop a global strategy in the common interest.
Copies of the 45-page report are available from IPI.
