No matter how differently Western media outlets reported the March 14 incident in Tibet last year and the recent riots in Urumqi, their comments shared the same judgment toward the Chinese government. China's political system was often the single target attacked quickly and easily.
"One party dictatorship," "China's Communist leadership" and "the continued rule of the Communist party" are terms the Western media liked to use while underreporting the severity of the riots and the brutal attacks on innocent people.
This stereotypical thinking shows Western media outlets always feel the political system of their particular country is absolutely superior to China's.
Once something bad happens in China, they simply blame China's political system. In their eyes, it is inevitable for such a "backward and flawed" political system to have problems. With no change in the system, China and its government can never solve these problems.
However, every country is distinct and complex. There must be many factors that lead to the occurrence of social and ethnic problems, instead of just one. It is unwise and irresponsible to blame everything on China's political system.
For example, the imbalance of development and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor are universal problems in China's transition from planned economy to market economy. This problem becomes entangled with ethnic issues in areas where ethnic minorities live.
As a result, many Western media outlets criticize China's problems with its policy toward ethnic minority groups and further attack China's political system. But these problems have nothing to do with the system.
Actually, China's current political system, in the past decades, has made remarkable achievements in developing the economy, improving the well-being of the Chinese people of all 56 ethnic groups, and promoting the country's role in the international community. China's governmental system was the practical choice of the Chinese people and revolutionaries after a long search and struggle.
History and reality have proved it to be the right choice, one in keeping with China's characteristics.
The Western media's prejudice toward and ignorance of China's political system's achievements stem from deep-rooted distrust of the system's capability to survive and to succeed.
Any country, including Western countries, cannot be free of social and ethnic problems in its development. Serious social problems such as racial issues and the high rate of crime are rife in the US and other Western countries.
In recent years, social and racial unrests of various scales happened in Western countries such as the US, France and Germany.
If Chinese media simply attribute all this to the US' political system, it will be "nonsense" to Western media and do nothing good to build mutual understanding between the two countries and the two peoples.
It is time for the Western media to take an objective approach toward understanding and explaining China's problems and changes, one which is less simplistic and more open-minded.
Only in this way can they tell the truth and achieve mutual trust.
(Global Times July 27, 2009)