Is the Christmas card incident being hyped in the West again？ Not a heroic play, but a farce.
On the outskirts of London on Christmas Eve, a little girl bought a greeting card in Tesco. When she opened the inside of the card, she suddenly found a distress message written on the cardboard, to the effect that:
We are foreign prisoners in Qingpu Prison in China. We are forced to work. Please help us and contact a man named Peter Humphrey.
▲ Note content
Coincidentally, the little girl’s father contacted this Englishman named Humphrey on the Internet. He was once held by the China government and happened to be in Qingpu Prison. More coincidentally, Han Feilong immediately wrote a long article and published it in the Sunday Times.
Christmas, human rights, China, prison … … Seeing these keywords, the western media began to speculate wildly.
But the reality is always better than the movie. Under the coincidence again and again, Tan found that things are not that simple. There are countless strange things about this "blockbuster".
Listen to the news and believe in it.
Real and objective? inexistent
Let’s take a look at the title of the Sunday Times, which was first reported:
Tesco greeting card "wrapped by slaves in China prison"
The Sunday Times uses the word slaves in its title to refer to criminals in prison, rather than the words commonly used to refer to criminals such as offender, culprit and prisoner. The Sunday Times was anxious to label China as a "slave to criminals" before it was clear what happened.
Let’s look at the so-called truth written by this Han Feilong. In this long article, Han Feilong used a large number of sentences such as "I consider" (I think) and "I know" (I know) to express subjective position and subjective guess. But what the facts are, and whether there is evidence to support them, he hardly mentioned it.
"I don’t know the identity and nationality of the prisoners who slipped this note into Tesco greeting cards, but I’m sure they are prisoners in Qingpu and knew me before I was released."
In the Sunday Times, he explained how to determine that this card came from China prison, and said that he didn’t know the identity of the prisoner. But in a subsequent BBC interview, Humphrey changed his mind:
I think I know who he is.
▲BBC report screenshot
So inconsistent and contradictory, I wonder whether what Han Feilong said is the truth or his "imaginary fact"? And how are the western media reporting these unverified subjective information responsible for the truth of their news?
Wang Xuan and Chen Minglei, CCTV reporters in the UK, checked the western media reports on this matter for the first time. They found that there was a great balance problem in the western media reports on this matter:
"At present, the biggest problem with these reports is to win the trust unilaterally, and basically only interview unfavorable voices."
Wang Xuan found that in the whole report, there was no interview with any institution or relevant person in China.
Tan Zhu interviewed Li Qiang, director of Qingpu Prison in Shanghai:
"This batch of greeting cards is absolutely impossible to flow from us. This imagination is a bit rich, but it runs counter to our transformation. (Reform) is to cultivate criminals’ skills. First, (criminals) are voluntary; Second, his project is based on his own characteristics. He wants to apply and we will give him a job if he wants to take part in it. Third, according to his labor situation, we have a reasonable proportion and give him a certain amount of labor remuneration. "
At the same time, the CCTV reporter station in Britain also contacted the other party to the incident — — Tesco selling greeting cards. Tesco, for its part, has held discussions with the factory in China, which makes greeting cards, and launched an investigation, during which the cooperation with the factory in China will be suspended. Its written statement also provides a very important message:
"We have a comprehensive audit system. Just last month, this supplier was audited independently. There is no evidence that they violated our regulations prohibiting the use of prison workers."
This should be a reliable factual basis in the whole incident. Why? Wang Xuan analyzed:
1. The investigation time was just last month.
2. The target of the survey is the factory in China that supplies greeting cards to Tesco.
3. As a third-party organization, the investigation agency is impartial and professional.
In the face of professional third-party survey results, how did these western media respond? Let’s take a look at the picture below:
▲ Report screenshot: "But this incident highlights the difficulty of monitoring the production of cheap goods in China. Subcontracting is very common in China, and the use of forced labor is often difficult to detect. "
Any clarification from Tesco, followed by a "BUT", is said to be that the company audit has no way of knowing what happened in China’s prison system, so it is useless to explain it.
Obviously, the independent audit results show that "there is no evidence that they have violated our regulations prohibiting the use of prison workers", but the western media turned a blind eye and just exaggerated in the title that Tesco stopped its cooperation with China enterprises.
This is equivalent to falling into a logical cycle: only use evidence that is beneficial to your own point of view, even if the source of the evidence itself is suspicious. In this closed cycle of "the answer has already been predetermined", the voice from the other side seems to have been pressed the "mute" key anyway.
Thus, from the choice of words to the selective amplification and neglect of facts, some western media have hacked China in order to hack China, and they may not care about the truth.
Catch the wind and catch the shadows is everyday.
It is a common practice of some western media to attack the country of origin with a "distress letter" with unknown source and unverifiable authenticity.
In 2017, Reuters revealed that a female consumer in Braintree, Essex, England, bought a Christmas charity card in a department store, which contained a China bill, which read "Good luck and happiness" and signed "The third product store of Guangzhou Sixth District Prison". But when it comes to evidence collection, the staff responsible for investigation and verification can only say:
"We can’t verify the authenticity of the banknotes."
Even if the authenticity is in doubt, the above events are still widely reported by western media.
This time, too.
The author of this report, Han Feilong, accepted an interview with BBC on December 22nd. When answering a reporter’s question, he used a lot of subjective, arbitrary or vague words:
I’ M pretty sure; Obviously (obviously); I think I know … …
The western media, which have always flaunted their news attitude by pursuing truth, objectivity and fairness, seem to be suffering from amnesia collectively this time, and they have no time to verify the truth and no one to investigate, so they hastily launched a "public opinion offensive".
Remember the "39-person container truck" incident more than a month ago? At that time, the British police only guessed that the victim might be Chinese based on several fake passports, which was a terrible thing. When it was reported to the BBC, the "possibility" became "confirmation" and "yes", and other western media reprinted it one after another, and then to CNN, it became "China just celebrated its great achievements and progress in 70 years. How could anyone leave China in such an extreme way" — — But in the end, the victims were confirmed to be Vietnamese, which made them embarrassed. (Poke the link and review the article "CNN people have thought about the answer before asking cold-blooded questions")
It is a familiar bridge and a familiar routine — — "Maybe", "Maybe" and "I think I know", but I can’t prove it. Western media still refuse to take off their colored glasses.
No wonder Wang Xuan said that during her years in Britain, she and her colleagues were all familiar with this routine.
The rhythm is brought up, where is the moral integrity?
Anti-China business is also a routine.
The "exclusive" report on the "Christmas card" incident in the Sunday Times was written by Han Feilong. Another article by Han Feilong describing how he spent another Christmas in China prison and an "expert" interpretation were published together.
In the article, he repeatedly mentioned his identity as a journalist and said that he was imprisoned for "angering the China government".
Yes, he was a reporter in Reuters. But not when he was arrested in China.
In 2013, Han Feilong was imprisoned in China for illegally obtaining citizens’ personal information. His business in China is ostensibly a consulting company, but in essence a commercial private detective. Being a journalist has nothing to do with his arrest.
Then why mention your identity as a reporter at this time?
Of course, he knows very well that this is in line with the smear routine that the western media has always demonized China. They are familiar with this routine. If you give a little hint, readers will make up their own brains.
"Reporter+angering the government" gives readers unlimited imagination.
This man is not simple.
Just yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Geng Shuang commented on this man at a press conference:
"Mr. Han Feilong is always unable to bear loneliness. From time to time, he has to jump out of my hype for fear that people will forget him. But the farce he made up this time is really a bit old-fashioned. I advise him that if he wants to catch his eye, at least he will come up with some new tricks. "
Why does Humphrey always jump up and down?
▲ Personal introduction of Han Feilong LinkedIn
In his personal introduction on LinkedIn, Han Feilong called himself "China Veteran" and "Political Commentator", and described his two-year detention in Qingpu police for violating the law.
So, what "good things" did he do in China?
Help others!
In July 2013, Humphrey’s former employer — — GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical giant, was fined RMB 3 billion by the China government for bribery. After being fined, the company "hired" Humphrey to investigate and report the bribery of China employees.
The hired Humphrey used some illegal means to obtain the personal information of the employee; However, it soon became public that Han Feilong was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for the crime of illegally obtaining citizens’ information, and he was in Qingpu Prison in Shanghai.
For Han Feilong, Li Qiang, director of Shanghai Qingpu Prison, recalled:
"Han Feilong served his sentence in our prison. As far as I know, the time is not very long. While serving his sentence, he was not a very outstanding one. You have opinions on the case, you can appeal to the court and sue, and these rights are all open to us. However, I have read his entire prison record, and he seems to have no such situation. "
Two years later, Han Feilong returned to Britain, but he spread his dissatisfaction with the Chinese court trial everywhere. However, his experience of committing crimes and being imprisoned in China was not regarded as a stain on his life, but became a "precious wealth".
In the following years, he published articles in major western media for a long time, peddling his life experience in China prison, attacking China on various China-related issues, and earning a lot of royalties and manuscript fees.
It is reported that Han Feilong is looking for a publisher to publish a 1,000-page book about his detention by the Shanghai police, claiming that this incident has "international influence".
The doubts began to come to the bottom: why did the small note contact Han Feilong by name, why did it happen that the Christmas card was made by "Qingpu Prison in Shanghai", and why Han Feilong’s response was vague … …
The probability of coincidence after coincidence is extremely low, unless someone deliberately creates, directs or uses it.
Among them, some people are guilty and others are making profits. "Anti-China" has become an important tool for some people in the West to seek money or political interests.