by Richard S. Ehrlich
BEIJING, China -- Americans, Europeans and other foreigners are helping China churn out Orwellian propaganda, but now feel guilty about continuing to deceive the world after last week's Tiananmen Square bloodshed.
Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich
Website, more Asia news by Richard S. Ehrlich plus the non-fiction book of interviews, documentation and investigative journalism, titled: "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews
June 1989
Americans and Other Foreigners Help China Publish Propaganda About Tiananmen Square
In protest, several have quit their jobs at China's government-controlled television and radio stations, refusing to "polish up" official propaganda into smooth English, and other foreign languages, for international broadcast.
But most of the more than 100 Westerners who work in China's news and publication departments are continuing their work, often agonizing over moral, political and personal dilemmas in the wake of the army's June 4th slaughter of more than 1,000 pro-democracy demonstrators.
One angry Westerner, who is copy editor for English-language news, said in an interview, "Ninety percent of the garbage on Chinese TV and radio is now propaganda, like telling the people to telephone their local police if they see some student who is wanted for demonstrating.
"They're reporting no students were killed by the soldiers, and the massacre in Tiananmen Square never occurred," he added.
Nine Westerners who are employed by the Chinese government in various media departments agreed to a clandestine group interview if their names and nationalities were not revealed, so they would not be expelled from China.
"This job now bothers me morally," another editor said.
"I will not work with any documents which are lies.
"They asked me to work on a pamphlet that went out to all the embassies in Beijing.
"It had the official version of the demonstrations, and explained what answers the embassies should give when foreign reporters asked questions," she added.
"It said things like, 'Soldiers did not soot students.' I refused."
Another Western said, "All the foreigners at China's Central Television (CCTV) have quit.
"That's why the TV hasn't been able to broadcast the news in English anymore."
A fourth Westerner at the group interview added, "One does have the feeling that our work is like '1984' or 'Animal Farm'."
He was referring to George Orwell's novels about propaganda brainwashing and controlling repressive societies.
"Our publication is aimed at people in countries all over the world, not just English-language countries, but many other languages as well," said another Westerner who edits the monthly magazine, China Reconstructs.
"We got a lot of letters this week from readers denouncing the terrible events in Tiananmen Square.
"One letter told us that we should change the magazine's name from 'China Reconstructs' to 'China Destructs'."
China's most influential and powerful media organization is its official news agency, Xinhua, also known as the New China News Agency (NCNA).
Many Western news organizations -- including Reuters, Associated Press, United Press International, Agence-France Presse, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America and others -- subscribe to Xinhua and frequently quote its official reports.
Xinhua is often the only source for official texts of Chinese leaders' speeches, foreign policy statements, statistics and other vital information.
Xinhua's news comes over a teleprinter machine which is installed in many foreign news organizations' offices throughout the world.
At least 24 foreigners work in Xinhua's Beijing office.
In addition to Xinhua, CCTV, Beijing Radio and China Reconstructs, the government also employs foreigners to help produce its main English-language newspaper, China Daily, plus the weekly Beijing Review magazine, and a slew of other publications and books for international consumption.
Radio and printed media is translated into more than 25 languages with the help of foreigners.
"I'm leaving soon. I don't want to work for them any more, because I don't think it is right," said one Westerner who has edited China's news for several years and had planned to stay on.
"Earlier, I told them I wouldn't work on stories about Tibet, because the things they wrote weren't true," she added.
The foreigners said their initial motive in working for the Chinese government was to enable them to live in China for an extended time.
Many found the job "amusing" before the pro-democracy movement and resulting crackdown began.
Despite conflicts with their consciences, many plan on staying in Beijing at their jobs because they have developed close friendship with Chinese who they want to help.
"To leave now would be like leaving a dying friend," one woman said. "But I am finding it difficult to do the job."
Others simply want to use their position as a front row seat to witness the historic upheaval sweeping China.
Some defiantly tell their Chinese colleagues about the need for democracy, a free press, and other subjects which are now considered "counterrevolutionary."
Others discreetly distribute foreign newspaper and magazine reports about the real situation in China.
In return, their Chinese friends privately tell them what is happening on the streets, and in their hearts and minds.
"Someone just told me that people deliberately gave soldiers poisoned food and 20 soldiers died," one Westerner said.
"I can't confirm it, but supposedly it happened last week."
The editors said many foreigners quit amid the heaviest fighting when tanks rumbled through the streets and soldiers fired indiscriminately, but it was unclear if they left China in protest or in fear.
"I don't know if I'm going to stay. It's a moral thing," another editor said.
"All of us have been having a great struggle inside ourselves over continuing our work.
"We do propaganda. We do a whitewash and tell lies. We even make truth seem like lies."
The foreign staffers also teach Chinese students how to be journalists, albeit within a society where strict censorship and other taboos must be obeyed by all Chinese citizens, including the local media.
The foreigners' average pay is about 110 US dollars a week, plus free accommodation, transportation to and from work, and subsidized food, they said.
The group being interviewed said most of their work involved stories filed by Xinhua reporters based abroad, focusing on international events, or about China's tourism, culture, sports and other topics.
Reports about these less controversial topics, however, also distort reality and present only a one-sided "pretty picture" of Chinese life, they complained.
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