Culture

Interview: André Vltchek

“China Wants to be Loved.”

In a recent email interview with NewsChina, left-wing polemicist André Vltchek talks patriotism, propaganda and why Communism can save the world

December 2011 Issue | by Yuan Ye

Photo courtesy of André Vltchek

André Vltchek in Beijing, 2010 Photo courtesy of André Vltchek

Born in the former Soviet Union in 1963, André Vltchek, now a naturalized US citizen and journalist, writer, photographer and filmmaker, is a longtime leftwing polemicist campaigning against “a world governed by market fundamentalism.” He regularly contributes to radical journal ZNet, writes for publications including Newsweek, Asia Times, Japan Focus and China Daily, and has published several books of fiction and nonfiction, some of which have received endorsements from Noam Chomsky. In the past he has spoken out in favor of the political systems of Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, and is a vocal critic of what he perceives as “Western neocolonialism” in the Asia-Pacific region.

When Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Vltchek published a harsh piece titled The West Perfecting Its Techniques to Hurt China, calling the prize “a direct attempt to harm the largest non-Western economy and socio-political system in the world.” Such sentiment was echoed strongly by self-styled “patriotic” groups in China as well as by the Chinese government, all of which poured scorn on the Nobel Peace Prize committee, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs even going so far as to suggest Liu Xiaobo’s nomination could affect China’s diplomatic relations with Norway.

NewsChina: What inspired you to write The West Perfecting Its Techniques to Hurt China?

Last year I was driving all over China with one of my best friends – Yuan Sheng. Yuan is a brilliant concert pianist; we’ve known each other for many years. He told me about how much he suffered from anti-Chinese propaganda when he was studying in New York, how much he was hurt. We discussed the topic for many hours and I shared my experiences with him – I explained how the West controls the world not only through brutal invasions, intimidation and economics, but also through propaganda. The idea that the press in Western countries is “free” is truly laughable.

NewsChina: Have you ever lived or worked in China? Could you describe to us your impression of China and Chinese people?

I never lived in China but I have visited it on many occasions. China fascinates me. I think Chinese people are very warm and caring. They are also very inquisitive, talented and hardworking – qualities essential for any nation that wants to build an educated and socially-oriented society. I live and work in Japan and Indonesia, and Asia has become my home; I have no desire to go back to New York and definitely not to Europe. I would actually love to live in Beijing, at least for some time. But I don’t speak the language, unfortunately. It is quite embarrassing, considering that I am quarter Chinese by blood.

NewsChina: You said that the Chinese experiment is based on solidarity but there are many conflicts. What’s your view on these conflicts and their possible consequences?

I support the China which is trying build itself upon solidarity and social justice. I want to believe that solidarity and social justice are essential to Chinese society, no matter how complex and winding is the road to that goal.

This is a very important moment in world history. If China stays its socialist course, our entire planet will benefit. We will have pluralism and the developing world will finally have a mighty friend and protector. If China joins the ranks of nations governed by market-fundamentalism, the world will have no alternatives anymore. And that would be the end: humanity can strive only when intellectual, ideological and economical pluralism is present, not when there is one and only one dogma and your country will be bombed to ashes if you elect a government that decides to go its own way.

NewsChina: You talked about the West as a whole in your article. Could you be more specific about the concept of the West? What and who it refers to?

Noam Chomsky correctly calls US neo-colonialism “a branch on the European colonial tree.” Philosophy is the same in Europe and the US: the world is inferior to Europe and North America, plus a few other countries like Australia and New Zealand. There are also nations like Japan that were accepted by South African apartheid as “honorary whites,” and they are now part of the club of global ruling elites.

The West is the group of nations that were, for centuries, dominating. If you look at the world map from the beginning of the 20th century, everything becomes clear and obvious. Freedom, liberty and democracy – all are myths used to justify countless invasions, Monroe Doctrines, coups and the physical liquidation of hundreds of millions of people belonging to “lesser nations” and “inferior races.” Dutch invaders, for instance, called Indonesian people “cattle,” while Winston Churchill openly described people outside the white realm as “inferior” and wrote that he saw no reason to apologize to them.

When I write about the West, I mean the group of countries on the European continent and North America that, for some reason, believe that they ought to be exempt from international law and not be judged by the same standards as the rest of the world. In a way, it is some sort of fundamentalist elitist cult, gloomy and dangerous, as it continuously liquidates all aspirations natural to human beings, like those for a better, just and compassionate society.

NewsChina: You talk about “Western propaganda.” As a veteran journalist, could you give us some concrete example of such “propaganda” and the “control” over the media? Have you ever been forced to write anything against your will?

There are hardly any free media left in the West. Reporters have been reduced to corporate employees. They are told or they instinctively know what they are supposed to say or write. It is definitely much more “perfect” and effective control than what they used to have in Eastern Bloc countries.

Being owned by corporations and business interests, it is logical that media outlets will not be attacking their owners or the systems – political and economic – that those owners represent. Do I have to go any further? It is so obvious.

I have countless examples, of course, but I can’t give you names because I would be sued for defamation. This is another weapon of mass destruction against the integrity of intellectuals in the West – you tell the truth and they will employ their corporate lawyers to run you to the ground, not because the lawyer could prove you are lying but because the lawyers are great professionals in the service of the elites and you have no chance against them.

I was writing a big article for an influential magazine in the US, about China and Taiwan and what has been called checkbook diplomacy in Oceania. In Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, China had been doing some incredible things: building schools, stadiums, roads, and government buildings. Then the West encouraged Taiwan to offer huge piles of cash in exchange for diplomatic recognition. Many corrupt little nations complied, or more precisely, their governments did. Then China would break diplomatic relations and the only victims would be poor people living on those islands. It was a clear-cut case, very simple; even the EU and the US do not recognize Taiwan as an independent state. On top of that, I knew the governments of several island nations and their members told the whole story: “Taiwan was not forced by the West, but it was ‘encouraged.’” I refused to budge and criticize both sides. My piece was openly critical of Taiwan. The magazine never published my story – they just paid generously for the “kill.”

NewsChina: What’s your view of Chinese diplomacy?

Chinese diplomacy is good but probably too timid. China wants to be loved. It is not simply because the main goal of Western foreign policy and media is to discredit China – to convince the world that China is as greedy and brutal as the West. It is all a power game and lies are being employed, but China is too modest and it very rarely reacts to these insults.

I believe that China should defend itself, simply because it created its very successful model which ought to inspire many nations all over the world. If people in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America swallow Western propaganda about China, they will miss out on a great many things that China has invented and perfected, things they could implement in their own countries.

NewsChina: In your article, you also seemed quite pro-Communist. As you were born in the Soviet Union, do you think Russia should go back to the Communist era?

Communism to me is the determined fight against imperialism and colonialism, and it is also striving for social justice. I think that a “mixed economy” is fine, as long as what a country is aiming at is good housing for all, free education and free medical care. The last two should be the norm. As we speak, Chilean students are fighting on the streets of Santiago for free schooling.

The fact that we even speak about this is absurd: people were demanding these things for centuries; they were fighting and dying for them. And some 40 years ago there were no disputes that health, education, public transportation should be either free or heavily subsidized. Only when the world had been kidnapped by market-maniacs did we have to defend old ideas that were, once again, discredited by propaganda.

Economics are important for any society, but the economy is just a tool that should serve a nation and its people.

If this makes me a Communist, then so be it.

Russian people never left Communism, or at least not by their own free will. Boris Yeltsin, the pro-Western demagogue and alcoholic, after hitting single digits in the polls and being impeached by Parliament, sent tanks into the streets, killing thousands of people. He also bombed the House full of lawmakers who were democratically elected. Of course the West fully supported that move. That’s how the market-regime survived in Russia – against the will of the people.

Vltchek’s Views:

On Nobel Peace Prize laureates:

“Idols had been erected and analyzing them in depth was discouraged. Solzhenitsyn, former feudal lord the Dalai Lama and now the new one: Liu Xiaobo.

On China’s role in the Third World:

“The more positively China gets involved in Africa, the more it has to face sarcasm and attacks of Western media outlets that pervert all attempts to create an alternative world where solidarity and internationalism stand above pragmatic interests.”

On English:

“Equipped with the ‘world language,’ limitless funds and absolute access to, and control over, the media, Western propaganda planners are managing to twist facts and manipulate global public opinion.”

On the term “human rights:”

“It is [a term] stained by invasions, interferences with internal affairs, by military coups and consequent killing, torture and rape.”

On the West’s attitude to China:

“Its purpose is to isolate China, provoke it and finally break it, preferably internally.”

On China’s internal problems:

“Despite some errors, the Chinese experiment is based on solidarity. A great majority of its citizens are supporting it and that is in essence proof of [its] democratic core. That’s how the majority of Chinese people see it and that’s all that matters.”

On Western double standards:

“It seems that citizens in Europe and North America can tolerate injustice in any other country on earth, but would scream blue murder [if such injustice] were directed against them.”

Source: The West Perfecting Its Techniques to Hurt China

Tags: Communism