{"id":2838,"date":"2014-08-31T15:45:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T15:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=2838"},"modified":"2014-08-31T15:45:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T15:45:16","slug":"chang-ping%ef%bc%9ahow-brainwashing-works-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/chang-ping%ef%bc%9ahow-brainwashing-works-in-china","title":{"rendered":"Chang Ping\uff1aHow Brainwashing Works in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

published: August 30, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

(This is Chang Ping\u2019s third rebuttal, declined publication by Deutsche Welle, to Frank Sieren\u2019s defense of the Tiananmen massacre and the \u201cright to forget\u201c (links in German) in the Sieren vs. Chang Ping debate earlier this year in DW about the June 4th massacre in 1989 in China. Read Tiananmen Massacre not a \u201cPassing Lapse\u201d of the Chinese Government, and Without the Right to Remember There Can Be No Freedom to Forget, Chang Ping\u2019s first and second rebuttals to Sieren. \u2013 The Editor)<\/p>\n

In his article, \u201cFrom Tiananmen to Leipzig,\u201d Frank Sieren reproaches Western media with \u201cunilaterally exaggerating the facts in reporting the incident,\u201d the \u201cincident\u201d in question being the Tiananmen massacre. After Chinese commentators, including myself, raised objections, the example Sieren gives in response turns out to be brainwashing. \u201cI would like to re-explain what I meant. I believe that titles such as \u2018Communist Party Succeeds in Brainwashing,\u201d or \u2018Unprecedented Brainwashing of the Chinese People,\u2019 and \u201cImposed Collective Oblivion\u2019 are all complete exaggerations of the facts.\u201d In other words, he tosses out a completely new topic.<\/p>\n

It is quite difficult to quantify the level of success the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) achieves at brainwashing, and reasonable people may well differ in their estimates. However, from Mr. Sieren\u2019s reasoning, we can gather that he is completely ignorant of the brainwashing juggernaut at the service of the CCP and its significant evolution since 1989. From where he is sitting, he sees some people travel freely and have access to diverse points of view from around the world, and concludes that brainwashing is impossible. Acknowledging that the Internet is under tight controls in China, throwing up \u201cmultiple barriers,\u201d he believes that \u201cnonetheless, people can easily and cheaply get around censorship using VPNs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cScaling the Great Firewall\u201d Is neither Easy nor Cheap<\/p>\n

A Chinese online commentator retorts that Mr. Sieren\u2019s conclusion is not too far from claiming that \u201cthe Berlin Wall is no big deal, since East Germans can just dig tunnels around it.\u201d Mr. Sieren may see this as another \u201cunfair accusation against the Chinese government,\u201d given that using VPNs is necessarily \u201ceasier and cheaper\u201d than digging tunnels. The only problem is that this is not true. VPNs regularly break down during upgrades of the Great Firewall \u2013 some of the most sophisticated censorship mechanisms around. Technical interference is common, and in the worst cases VPNs put their users at risk of arrest. In addition, the authorities may camouflage viruses as popular circumvention software, and hapless users who install them find their computers hijacked or broken down.<\/p>\n

Nor should we ignore the psychological impact of political taboos. Once censorship makes such terms as \u201cTiananmen massacre,\u201d \u201cTaiwanese independence\u201d and \u201cFalungong Sect\u201d politically sensitive, even in safe personal conversations, people tend to steer clear of them. The same dynamic is at work when many people turn down offers of free VPNs, seeing circumvention of censorship as something the government does not allow them to do.<\/p>\n

The Immense System Engineering of Brainwashing<\/p>\n

It is even more important for us to realize that the blocking of foreign websites is but a part of the immense infrastructure devoted to brainwashing, whose mission is the unabashed engineering of hearts and minds. Its other parts include education, propaganda, publishing and pop culture.<\/p>\n

With regard to education, as early as kindergarten, children are taught to sing songs that are either nationalistic or inculcate love of the Communist Party. They are directed to draw pictures of Tiananmen Square and the red flag, symbols of New China. Elementary school curriculum, in order to meet political needs, contains so much fabrication that several scholars have published research to enumerate the fallacies. A main subject on which the all-important college examination depends, Political Thought, focuses on developing unquestioning patriotism in aspiring students.<\/p>\n

It is a well-known secret that the CCP propaganda organs issue a variety of customized, up-to-date censorship orders on a daily basis. Again, this is only one part of the whole. Ranging from industry access, operating permits and certification to shadowy controls on the personal and professional lives of Communist cadres, the workflow of news censorship, and financial penalties, the infrastructure is integrated and well-coordinated. The system did come under strong challenges when the Internet first entered China, but ultimately proved resilient after thoughtful tinkering, and now manages the Internet in a highly effective way.<\/p>\n

The curbs placed on publishing are even stricter. One comparison would suffice. We all know that underground publications known as samizdat played a vital role in the expression of dissent during the Soviet era; this is altogether impossible in today\u2019s China. While some websites with a critical bent are allowed to operate, there is little to rival the unfettered rebellious spirit of the samizdat.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sieren may have an inkling of what goes on inside the notorious censorship of broadcast media and films. The insolence of this particular form of censorship is, moreover, quite arbitrary. Before May of this year, Chinese Internet users would never have believed that the powers that be would bar them from watching American dramas that are neither political nor pirated.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice-free Education\u201d After Tiananmen<\/p>\n

The evolution of awareness among those of my generation took a drastic turn in college [in the 1980s]. Coming into contact with Western culture for the first time, we realized that we had been consistently lied to, and felt great anger. However, both education and propaganda have been transformed since then in a process of what I call \u201cjustice-free.\u201d To summarize, if the government had posed as righteous upholders of justice, now they openly swagger as nihilistic thugs, teaching Chinese people that nowhere else are things any different.<\/p>\n

To further these trends, thinkers were sidelined and eggheads given the limelight in the intellectual arena, and the distribution of university research funding also toes the party line. The consequence of political pressure and bribing is a degraded educational system focused on utility, weakening the capacity of the youth for critical thinking.<\/p>\n

Spinning on Truth, not Just Blocking It<\/p>\n

This vast, cumbersome and complex system is not without internal contradictions. For example, even as it preaches the need to \u201ccast off the baggage of history and look forward,\u201d it shows no aversion to the seeking of truth, busying itself with frequent \u201cunveiling of the hypocrisy of Western democracies\u201d where \u201cthe truth about the US\/Germany is told.\u201d Therefore, even those under its influence are not necessarily as anxious \u201cto forget history\u201d as Mr. Sieren portrays.<\/p>\n

The brainwashing juggernaut solves its crisis by a selective and interpretive approach to the truth, which it deems more important than simply blocking information. Just how successful this strategy proves is clear when we see how many Chinese graduate students abroad continue to show sympathy towards the government even after seeing the gory documentary evidence of the Tiananmen massacre for the first time. They have accepted the spin from the government, namely, that China\u2019s rise as an economic powerhouse is contingent upon the crushing of lives under tank treads twenty-five years ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chang Ping. Photo from DW site.
\nCHANG PING. PHOTO FROM DW SITE.<\/p>\n

Chang Ping (\u957f\u5e73) was the former chief commentator and news director of Southern Weekend (\u300a\u5357\u65b9\u5468\u672b\u300b). He writes columns for the South China Morning Post, Deutsche Welle, and a number of Chinese language websites. Forced to leave China and then Hong Kong, he currently lives in Germany.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Translated by Louisa Chiang)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chinese original<\/a><\/p>\n

For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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