| If you read The Art of the Deal, you should also read this. |
Recently, a prominent China scholar said during a podcast that he never read the two collected volumes of Xi Jinping's speeches. He found the speeches too repetitive and meaningless to read. While I agree with his characterization of the speeches, I think his decision not to read them shows a frightening sense of arrogance. Even today, prominent players in the China watching community continue to ignore important works of Chinese propaganda. As a result, they miss out on important insight into the regime including its goals and core values. For example, Xi Jinping's speeches contain numerous speeches referencing the Chinese race. Yet, few China scholars reference Beijing's efforts to create a united block of politically involved citizens throughout the overseas Chinese community.
In the book Tiger Trap, a CIA translator tells a field agent that they don't bother to translate the "nationalist stuff". I found this statement incredibly frightening. Considering the amount of nationalist stories printed by the Chinese state media, the CIA must not bother translating 90% of state media. The events chronicled book took place in the 1990's. I sincerely hope the CIA has changed this terrible policy.
Chinese state media plays a fundamental role in the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to shape public opinion both inside and outside of China. Mostly, the media parrots the office party line. Regardless of the position taken by Chinese state media, the content of
What it produces offers indispensable information for formulating the US's China policy. Chinese citizens receive a steady diet of patriotic propaganda, and its ubiquity shapes the unconscious opinions of the average Chinese citizen. The idea that America's spy agency didn't bother to translate and catalog nationalist statements in the Chinese press shows a massive amount of hubris.
Many of Xi's speeches contained important foreshadowing of China's recent policy shifts. For example, his speech in 2013 that called China a "maritime" power. Chinese propaganda helps telegraph the goals and the perceived threats to China's communist regime. Only a fool would fail to read and study the words of his adversary.
