Stephen McDonell is a China Correspondent for the BBC, after 9 years as ABC Beijing Bureau Chief. McDonell’s reporting on China has changed dramatically since he left the ABC, adopting the rank anti-China stance of his current employer, the BBC.
This is interesting, because there was a time when his reporting was more balanced and fair.
Ever since the violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, a fear of fanaticism has taken hold. Is the government’s decision to demolish the Uighur area Kashgar really due to an earthquake threat?
Kashgar is a cultural icon. Parts of the city have stood for 2000 years and within its labyrinth, Uighur traditions are unchanged. ‘We live as we did in the old times’ says Tursun, a sixth-generation pot thrower. But times are changing. Beijing’s deputy mayor has announced that destruction of the old town is the only way to prepare for an earthquake threat. ‘I spent my whole childhood in this place. If they destroy it, we can’t continue our business’ cries one of Kashgar’s many blacksmiths.
Many Uighur’s are convinced that the authorities ‘never tell the truth’. Yet some are happy to be rehoused in government buildings, admitting that their homes are dangerous. Kashgar is of great strategic value for China – if small separatist groups here link with Taliban insurgents across the border, there could be a full-scale armed conflict in Western China. ‘If a handful of religious extremists, or international terrorists appear, we will crack down on them immediately’ says Beijing’s deputy mayor. His plan could rebuild a sour relationship. Or give the Uighurs a new reason to throw off Chinese occupation of their homeland.
Attempts at fair and balanced journalism
At a time when journalism might have been judged to have some integrity and before it became an element of a propaganda machine, McDonell was able to ‘balance’ the story such that the precarious state of the region both for the population of Xinjiang and China as a whole could be understood.
China faced the geopolitical reality of a porous border with countries where decades of Soviet and US intervention had created a militancy in Afghan insurgency that flowed out to the world. At the same time, locals, predominantly ‘Uyghur’, faced both the effect of modernisation of their world and an unstoppable drive from Beijing for development, almost at any cost.
McDonell filmed a piece on the border of Xinjiang and Afghanistan and noted that:
McDonnel on the Pakistan border – Journeyman Pictures
Kashgar is surrounded on one side by the desert. It’s protected on the other side by enormous mountain ranges … We drove along the Karakorum Highway. Southwest of Kashgar is a special military zone. You need to get clearance from the authorities at a series of checkpoints just to enter here. The further you go you see more military …
Across the mountains is Pakistan. The army there is fighting a war with the Taliban. Across the mountains in that direction is Afghanistan; same story. The Chinese government feels that if small separatist groups here could link up with insurgents across these borders they could have a full scale armed conflict in western China.
China, of course, took the issues of insurgency seriously. It had discovered a pattern of radicalisation that was emerging in Xinjiang and it, quite appropriately, responded. But this created tensions.
In a few telling moments, McDonell was able to illustrate a different side of the tension that development created for a largely under-developed area:
“Everywhere you go in this labyrinth of a place, there are working examples of a very different way of life. Tradition permeates everything and even dictates people’s jobs. Fifty-year-old Tursun Zunun was born in this 400-year-old house. He’s a 6th generation pot thrower.
Tursun Zunun, potter, explains his traditional trade to McDonnel – Journey Pictures
TURSUN ZUNUN:
(footage of Tursun sitting in a windowless room in a T-shirt) “We live as we did in the old times. We don’t use electric lights. I use my feet to turn the wheel to make pots. If I was to stop doing this the souls of my father and grandfather would also stop”.
MCDONELL:
As the oldest of twelve children, Tursun Zunun inherited this trade from his forefathers. He has three daughters and also a son who he hopes will take over after him. Yet he worries that his culture is under threat.
TURSUN ZUNUN:
“In the past we had no hair – we had to shave our heads. We wore these dopas. But everything is changing – am I right? We didn’t wear this type of clothing, but now we do. The old things are going. We’ve put away the dopa, and wear nothing on our heads. We’re Uighurs in name only – so much of our culture has already changed”.
Zunun focuses on how electricity and the mode of dress are already threatening the Uyghur identity. He points to his T-shirt as an indication of the changing ways. The house in which the segment is filmed is dark and poorly ventilated.
McDonnel makes much of the demolition of the old city of Kashgar, but manages to acknowledge that:
Kashgar rebuilt – Journeyman Pictures
The arguments for and against demolition are complex. Some Uyghurs suspect this is all about control…
When you look at some of these buildings you do wonder how this ramshackle old city has held together. It is true that many buildings here do not have modern facilities.
The ‘noble savage’ trope
Naturally, for many in the West, the lives of the traditional Uyghur are an ‘exotic artefact’, to be poked and prodded, but, by every means possible, kept in the ‘dark ages’ and later paraded before the waiting horde of tourists taking their dose of ‘poverty porn’.
Note, that Zunun has little to comment about the central government, nor the Han Chinese, nor the source of this erosion of traditional modes, nor the need for separatism, nor his Muslim beliefs. As any intelligent person might be, he is fully aware that his traditional identity is fading into a new lifestyle predicated by both the ‘luxuries’ of modern living (electricity, ventilation) and consumerist values (clothing). In this, he faces what has occurred globally for billions – the tensions created by the changes that are necessary for prosperity.
Along with the simple addition of electricity, development hinges on education, equality, environmental awareness, universal affordable health care and absence of conflict. Those in the West addicted to ‘poverty porn’ do well to pay attention to these indicators, since none of those who pontificate about China would do without these for a millisecond. Hypocritically, the rank sponsorship of ‘traditionalist’ values by Western media and authorities in developing countries is entirely incompatible for most in their own lives.
The ‘noble savage’ paradigm is convenient for smearing China and its efforts in addressing terrorism, insurgency and poverty.
For other stories featuring Stephen McDonnel, check out:
Stephen McDonell is a China Correspondent for the BBC, after 9 years as ABC Beijing Bureau Chief. McDonell’s reporting on China has changed dramatically since he left the ABC, adopting the rank anti-China stance of his current employer, the BBC.
