I want to punch the American media in the face

I’ve never been able to understand why American newspapers can’t get decent journalists covering China. Though I suspect sometimes that the problem is with the editors. Either way a recent joke of an article from the New York Times is a textbook example of how American papers can’t seem to mull up decent journalism from their China bureaus.

The basic gist of the article, is that when China has legitimate trade grievances with America, those grievances are in fact clashes of economic systems, because the Chinese are spooky Communists. Though the word “Communist” is never used the term is not too deeply coded:

The Americans scolded the Chinese on mismanaging their economy, from state subsidies to foreign investment regulations to the valuation of their currency. Your economic system, the Americans strongly implied, should look a lot more like ours.But in recent weeks, the fingers have been wagging in the other direction. Senior Chinese officials are publicly and loudly rebuking the Americans on their handling of the economy and defending their own more assertive style of regulation. (my italics)  

Their argument though about this clash of economies seems to hinge on selective quoting, and bad interpretation of official statements. The most hilarious example of selective quoting being:

Song Hongbing, author of “The Currency War,” a best-selling if conspiratorial book  

essentially admitting that he was a bad choice for quoting. The second example is a bit more nuanced:

Some economists say it has improved its state-owned banking system by writing off bad debt and overhauling management even as it rejected American pressure to privatize banks and allow unfettered competition in the financial sector. Its financial system is more tightly regulated and less dynamic than the American one, but also more stable, Chinese economists argue. (my italics)  

Tragically, these anonymous Chinese economists tricked both the New York Times and the Economist, into thinking they speak for the entirety of the Chinese economists… I talk to a lot of economists, Chinese and Western, and I have yet to run across one who thought that the Chinese financial system is stable. The Chinese financial system is rather too unstable to liberalize quickly. Meaning that if I were writing this article

Its financial system is more tightly regulated and less dynamic than the American one, but also more stable, Chinese economists argue.  

would be replaced with

 Its financial system is more tightly regulated and less dynamic than the American one, but it must liberalize slowly in order to remain stable, economists argue.  

Towards the end of the article they quote a few people who dismiss the entire angle of their article as hogwash, and say that Chinese statements about America are just airing of grievances between trading partners… these quotes are from such people as the Secretary of the Treasury

“We’ve had a relationship where both sides have been pretty frank privately and pretty frank publicly,” Mr. Paulson said in a telephone interview in Washington. He said China’s criticism of American policies grew out of its rise as an economic power, with greater voice in global discussions on trade, currency and the flow of capital.Nicholas R. Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in an interview that “the Chinese are reacting adversely, and I think with some justification.”  

Only to end the article with a small point about the maintenance of American hegemony, as though trade were about gigantic power struggles, and not about just making money.Lou Dobbs also recently had a show about China… but I doubt that’s even worth my time.Bradley Gardner