CNN's Jack Cafferty's Situation Room is SRO with angry Chinese
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By M&C Smallscreen Apr 19, 2008, 22:51 GMT
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I think the person who wrote this have difficulties with English, he might be a new comer to America like many protesters.
He claims that the Chinese Americans are upset because Jack (ass) said Chinese products are 'junk'. Well sorry to tell you there my new comer friend, the Chinese are actually upset because Jack (ass) there call Chinese 'a bunch of goon and thugs'. Now please learn some English, how did you get this job?
Mr. Cafferty,
Your apology and/or clarification was not acceptable. Although, as a person, you have right to make and to defend your comments made toward China and Chinese people. But you forgot that you a journalist and you had violated the very important roles of journalism; speak the truth, just, fairness and unbiased facts.
Even if your comments were toward Chinese government, you forgot the government was elected by the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens. You have no rights to even questioning, much less to criticizing them. Just so you know, Tibet, Taiwan are part of China, it is a undisputable fact. Chinese will never allow Tibet & Taiwan separate from China. I will tell you why: If you have some knowledge about history, you should know why you have accomplished so much, because your comments united all Chinese people regardless where they are from, regardless their race, religion and political point of views for that matter. Chinese has suffered long enough repression and injustice from foreign ocupation. “The harder you hit the ball, the higher it will bounce back”. It is very simple physics, and I sincerely hope that you could comprehend what I meant by that.
Chinese are proud people and China is a proud country. I don’t think you know the Opium War was caused by the westerners selling drug in China. The reason China lost the war was due to a weak and corrupted Qing Dynasty. To educate you, I would quote the following from WikipediA: “The Opium War was known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, lasted from 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 respectively,[1] the climax of a trade dispute between China under the Qing Dynasty and the United Kingdom. British smuggling of opium from British India into China and the Chinese government's efforts to enforce its drug laws erupted in conflict.
China's defeat in both wars forced the government to tolerate the opium trade. The United Kingdom coerced the government into signing Unequal Treaties, opening several ports to foreign trade and yielding Hong Kong to Britain. The British also gained extraterritorial rights. Several countries followed Britain and forced unequal terms of trade onto China.” – End of Quote.
I could understand your hatred toward Chinese, because China is much stronger now. The arrogant few westerners like you can no longer feel the superiority like your ancestors any more. So, you will use any opportunity you could get to rant, to rave and through a few tantrum with the media. I wonder what makes you think that you people could take on Chinese? Have Korean, Vietnam, Iraq wars taught you any thing?
CNN’s clarification, that Cafferty was criticizing the government and not the people, made his comments much more heinous, and -- unless CNN is prepared to back them up with a parade of scholars and independent analysts -- showed either moderate cultural insensitivity or tremendous chutzpah. For those subject to the jurisdiction of the Beijing Government, you see, it is a potentially capital crime to suggest that there is any daylight between the policies of the central committee, Chinese culture, and the will of the Chinese people. In the run-up to the Olympics, some of those (like CNN & J. Cafferty) who do business in or with China are being given an opportunity to sample what it is like to live under a totalitarian regime. Is this an instance of Beijing trying to see if their authoritarian grasp can reach beyond their constantly expanding borders? Or is it simply a case of myopia from autocrats grown too accustomed to having the people always available to do their bidding?
All people in China hate the Chinese government, but almost all are too terrified by the retribution that will be handed out -- not only to themselves, but to all members of their extended families, their loved ones, their friends, and a few innocent bystanders for good measure -- to speak out against it. Real Han (Nan tse Han) oppose the Beijing government with vehemence equal to the Tibetans. Han Chinese living abroad (those in the US are encouraged to refer to themselves as, “Dragon’s seeds”) publicly rally to support a government which has oppressed them, their relatives, and their friends in the hopes that their work unit leaders back home will credit them and their relatives for their loyalty to the party. Likewise, were they ever to hear a fellow Chinese speaking out against the Government, any loyal or opportunistic overseas Chinese would report the dissenter so that the dissenter’s family could be punished back on the mainland. This is how the Government of China keeps a muzzle on potential dissenters even when they are abroad.
just fire Jack Cafferty, nice and simple.. we don't need someone who can't speak 'ENGLISH'...
Okay so Chinese people are angry that Jack spoke out against their junk products, but Americans should not be angry at all. Are the people at the rally American or Chinese? I didn't mind when news commentators called the people of my heritage Krauts, etc. The Germans of Hitler's time were criminals. And don't try to tell me that none of the ordinary people didn't know what was going on. My husband doesn't mind that all sorts of comments were made during the Cold War against the people of his heritage. We are Americans now. We are no longer loyal to the countries our ancestors came from. Let's stop with this hyphenated American stuff. You are either an American or you're not. You either salute the Stars and Stripes or you salute some other flag. You can't have it both ways
Dear K_Chen,
In your open letter to Mr. Cafferty posted on this site, your statement that the opium war was ‘caused’ by “westerners selling drugs to China” is out of place for several reasons. For one, if the government in Beijing is the same bunch of, “goons and thugs” that they have been for the past 59 years, as J. Cafferty asserted, this would be true regardless of the dynamics of the opium wars, which, in this case, would be a red herring.
If you want to refute the charge that the current Beijing regime are as autocratic and totalitarian now as they were 40 years ago, when they engineered a famine which resulted in cannibalism and the deaths of over 40,000, point to developments in the rule of law, freedom of speech, toleration of dissent, etc. – if you can find any. With regard to the mass starvation and imprisonment of large sections of the population, since the authoritarian rule of the Party has now been firmly and unquestionably established, and such wholesale brutality is no longer deemed necessary to establish order, you could potentially refute J. Cafferty by arguing that it is a more refined and efficient group of thugs and goons running things now.
As to your point that the government of China was elected by 1.3 billion people in China, even the Communist party of China, which is used to fabricating data to support outrageous claims, makes no such assertion. In fact, advocating the popular election of the government, as you appear to have done here, is a serious crime back in the motherland. In 1980, Wang Xizhe received a 14 year prison sentence for advocating democracy in China. In 1998, the Chinese Democracy Party was declared an illegal organization; democracy activist Qing Yongmin was sentenced to 12 years in prison, Zhu Yufu received seven years, and hundreds of other party members were detained, arrested and sent to prison. When Hu Jia asserted that China was not living up to its pledges to the IOC to improve the human rights situation in China, he was also imprisoned.
With regard to the Opium Wars, recall that the use of opium in China predated the arrival of the British by many centuries. In Guanzhou, prior to the arrival of the British traders, people in markets could be seen carrying blocks of opium which were used as currency, a certain number of grams being used to exchange for other commodities, such as foodstuffs. Being prohibited from selling textiles and other manufactured goods by the Chinese government, the British turned to using the accepted currency of opium, as well as gold and silver, in which to engage in trade. The problem, from the Chinese point of view, was not the opium itself, but the potency of the variety which the British were using as a medium of exchange. Grown in India, it was much more potent than the native strain, and hence much more valuable. This angered the opium producers in China, who lobbied the government to put an end to the trade with the British. The government was sympathetic to these objections, as it relied on the taxes from domestic opium and the political support of the domestic producers. Within a few decades Chinese growers had replicated the more potent Indian strains, and the issue became moot. The wars were not about the propriety of the drug trade in China during the 19th century, but about who would retain the profits from that trade, and a host of trade and diplomatic concerns.
Have you ever stood up against the brutal Chinese government that treats its people in whatever way it wants? Have you forgotten how innocent citizens were crushed simple because they vented their legitimate grievences? Where were the energy and enthusiasm when heinous brutalities occurred in China? If you had channelled that energy to change your own government first, the world and your life would be much better, and perhaps you wouldn't be this angry anymore.
You whiners and cowards!!
I love China, i love our government.
Hello Jack, I like your thinking. I live in Central Florida and we were told that our votes would not count, so naturally (we) the people I spoke to, did not vote, now (we) are being told that those people who voted, their votes will count, I'm moving south to Cuba before night fall. I looked up the meaning of communism and it came up with Hillary Clinton.
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Carl LiuApr 20th, 2008 - 01:16:26
This is Jack Cafferty's comment: 'So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years.'
If you replace the word 'China' with the word 'America,' and read it again.
Is it a comment about America or Americans? If you ask me, it is not very clear. CNN can provide different explanations. But it is not unreasonable for many to perceive this as racist comments. CNN should give apologize for what it conveyed. It should not hide behind its alleged intention.
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