Commentary

The Los Angeles Times continues to profit from slipping in an unedited Chinese propaganda sheet, “China Watch,” into its Sunday newspaper, as I reported last September in The Epoch Times. The L.A. Times China Watch “advertising supplement” is part of China Daily, which Wikipedia identifies as “an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] … Scholars have described China Daily as effectively controlled.”

This is important because China Watch promotes what the CCP wants Southern Californians to believe is going on in the People’s Republic of China. The latest issue is upbeat about China’s economic recovery after ending lockdowns even more draconian than those imposed in California by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Here’s the top of the fold on Page One. Note the weak disclaimer, “It does not involve the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times.” But do they endorse it?

It’s all positive. Note the emphasis on imports to China from Asia and “other geographic regions,” such as California. This is big business and will be welcome news to the state’s executives. According to the California Chamber of Commerce:

“In 2021, China continued as California’s 3rd largest export destination, with approximately $16.7 billion in exports. Non-electrical machinery accounted for $3.8 billion. Computer and electronic products brought in $3.69 billion, and chemicals brought in $1.89 billion. This was followed by agricultural products with $1.33 billion. Imports to California from China totaled $145.99 billion in 2021. The top import was computer and electronic products making up $50.6 billion, this was followed by miscellaneous manufactured goods, electrical equipment, and apparel. ...

“In 2021 in California, the eighth largest source of FDI [Foreign Direct Investment] through foreign-owned enterprises (FOEs) is China. Chinese FOEs in California provided 18,324 jobs through 694 firms amounting to $1.809 billion in wages. The top jobs by sector are: transport/warehousing/utilities, wholesale trade, education/health, professional and business services and manufacturing (World Trade Center Los Angeles FDI Report).”

With the lockdowns over, those numbers will be substantially larger for 2023.

Saving the Environment?

Page 2 of China Daily/L.A. Times provides more revealing propaganda. I’ve detailed in many articles how China just keeps building coal plants that greatly overwhelm the tiny reductions in greenhouse gases from California’s stringent anti-CO2 laws. But look at the following article, “Birds of a feather survive together,” about the Siberian Crane that migrates to Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province in Eastern China. The CCP, you see, is just as concerned about the environment as any California environmentalist.

And on the right of Page 2 is an article on how everything is hunky-dory with Taiwan. No invasion preparations here! It reads:

“Ma Ying-jeou became the first former leader of Taiwan to visit the Chinese mainland when he made the trip March 27 and April 7, and experts said it has shed light on the common culture and history of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.”

Of course, a People’s Republic of China propaganda sheet would not call Taiwan by its official name, the Republic of China. And although Ma may have been “the first former leader of Taiwan to visit the Chinese mainland,” he was not the first actual leader. Because that would be Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, just before he left the Mainland for Taiwan—which kept the Republic of China name formerly used for all China—to continue the fight for freedom in all China. He briefly stepped down as president, returning to that role in 1950 until his death in 1975.

As United Press International reported at the time:

“But the 61-year-old generalissimo did not close the door to his possible return in the event no peace agreement can be reached with the Communists.

“He did not in his farewell statement announce his definite resignation as president. He used instead a Chinese phrase meaning ‘leave of absence.’”

Conclusion

When I was growing up in the 1960s as an anti-communist reading National Review, we always hoped Maoist Red China would be toppled and Chiang would return to restore freedom. That never happened. The Chinese Communist Party continues to rule with an armed fist. Although the move away from a Maoist centralized communist economy to a quasi-market, still controlled by the CCP, certainly has improved living standards. It’s amazing what even a little freedom can do.

I bring this up because it’s unlikely even one in a thousand China Watch/L.A. Times readers, or even writers and editors, knows this background. They’re just drinking in the CCP propaganda. Although, given how left-wing and biased the Times itself has become in recent years, it’s a seamless transition from the Times’ Party Line to the CCP Party Line.

John Seiler’s email: writejohnseiler@gmail.com