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When I started conceptualizing my new role as an investigative correspondent, I knew one of the stories I wanted to dig into was how & why extreme pro-Beijing narratives are hardening within parts of multicultural Singapore, my home. Here is what we found:
n a country where the media is a reflection of the state and vice-versa, we chose to focus our investigation on @zaobaosg , Singapore’s flagship Chinese-language newspaper. Some history: Zaobao was created through a merger in 1983 that was encouraged by then-PM Lee Kuan Yew
LKY was worried about the future of Chinese newspapers, and believed it is in Singapore’s “interest as a nation to maintain at least one high-quality Chinese-language newspaper…This is a national project which we must do our best to promote.”
In the early years of China’s opening under Deng, Zaobao was circulated among high-ranking CCP cadres. LKY’s Singapore was a model for Deng — and by extension, Zaobao became a medium for them to understand the world. In 1993, ZB became available in Beijing hotel bookstores
I’d heard during the 2019 protests in HK that Zaobao’s coverage had become indistinguishable from that of Chinese state media. We set out to forensically examine that claim, and collected some 800 ZB articles on themes sensitive to China: HK, TW, Xinjiang, US/China relations
We also looked at ZB’s coverage of the blank paper protests and the spy balloon over the U.S. In addition, we sought views from inside the paper — speaking to almost a dozen current and former reporters. We wanted to make sure that we were comprehensive with our analysis
We worked with @AlbertYZhang @ASPI_org to analyze the articles, and found that a majority of the articles on topics including Taiwan, Xinjiang, and the Russia-Ukraine war relied heavily on pro-CCP media or CCP officials, rather than any alternate source
On the op-eds: we found at least two CCP officials, one of them specifically working on online propaganda (!), were writing regular columns for ZB without being identified by their official titles. They were credited as China affairs commentators
Another columnist, HK-based Xing Yunchao who claims to have founded something called “Cambridge Think Tank,” writes for China Daily saying the NSL was needed, America’s democracy is failure, etc. and also writes for Zaobao. He isn’t identified in ZB as a columnist for state media
In an ecosystem where people including my friend’s parents get forwarded extremely pro-CCP messages that veer on explicit Han chauvinism within this multi-racial society, Zaobao — a respected, trusted newspaper backed by the state — can provide a counterweight. It has not.
Journalists at Zaobao say that the paper’s main fixation is not getting banned within China, and it “underlines everything”. Access has been traded for critical coverage. Singapore journalists have long had to navigate their own state’s red lines — and now China’s too
More broadly, some Singapore groups (including but not limited to clan associations) are being pulled closer into China’s orbit. Five such groups attended the Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Association, part of Beijing’s overall “United Front” strategy
Some of these SG groups were proud to be there, posting their attendance on Facebook. But none responded to repeated requests on why they chose to go, what they were doing there, what sort of topics were discussed, etc. https://facebook.com/TPIHK/posts/pf
As for the government’s response: clearly there are segments within the SG state apparatus that is concerned, most clearly evidenced by the Chinese portion of LHL’s 2022 national day rally speech and Shanmugam’s comments at the Hokkien Huay Kuan’s CNY reception this year
But how effective is this sort of subtle messaging against a very concerted and explicit campaign waged by the other side? What is at stake here is the very fabric of Singapore’s society, where multi-racial pluralism has been our founding ethos
Singapore is not alone in feeling these pressures and campaigns specifically targeting ethnic Chinese populations — Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, really all of Southeast Asia is vulnerable, home to 80 per cent of Chinese people outside mainland China, HK and TW
In an already lengthy piece, there wasn’t enough space to discuss how less Anglophone Chinese Singaporeans have felt increasingly like they’ve lost their place in society, so the CCP has become a “fictional hero”
This is even truer in neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia, where the ethnic Chinese population has been systematically marginalized and suffered a long history of persecution, all ripe for exploitation by a superpower neighbor that sees them as a crucial part of Xi’s “China Dream”
Still keen to continue exploring these themes from my base in Singapore, and as always DMs open (even on this dying platform).
Massive thanks to @ChongJaIan @alfredmwu @sehof @AlbertYZhang for insights and guidance, and @carmenyowjw @stronghead_yo for the many hours of research
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In Singapore, loud echoes of Beijing’s positions generate anxiety
President Xi Jinping wants to build influence among ethnic-Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, raising concerns that the Chinese Communist Party is stoking divided loyalties
By Shibani Mahtani and Amrita Chandradas
July 24 at 5:00 p.m.
SINGAPORE — As China accelerates efforts to build its global power, President Xi Jinping has laid out an extravagant vision for overseas ethnic-Chinese communities that he hopes will “give shape to a powerful joint force for advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Promoting these communities as a vehicle for China’s geopolitical ambitions has become something of a mantra in Beijing, often wrapped in bland rhetoric like building a “shared future.” But in seeking to incorporate citizens of other countries into its vision, critics say, Beijing is stoking divided loyalties, and their potentially destabilizing consequences, across Southeast Asia — home to more than 80 percent of the ethnic-Chinese people outside China and Taiwan, researchers say.
Concerns are most pronounced in Singapore, a multiracial city-state with a majority ethnic-Chinese population that is increasingly sympathetic to Beijing. A 2022 survey of 19 countries by the Pew Research Center found that Singapore was one of only three that saw China and Xi in favorable terms. In June, the Eurasia Group Foundation released a survey conducted in Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines that found Singapore was the only one that viewed China more favorably than it did the United States. Fewer than half of respondents in Singapore viewed the United States favorably, compared with 56 percent who viewed China favorably.
“If too many Chinese Singaporeans are foolish enough to subscribe to Xi’s version of the ‘China Dream,’ the multiracial social cohesion that is the foundation of Singapore’s success will be destroyed,” said Bilahari Kausikan, a former permanent secretary of Singapore’s Foreign Ministry. “Once destroyed, it cannot be put together again.”
Singapore’s government passed a law to prevent foreign interference in domestic politics that went into effect last year, and has warned its ethnic-Chinese population against “hostile foreign influence operations” and stressed a distinct Singapore-Chinese identity. But messaging by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on key issues such as the role of the United States in the region and China’s internal politics is already entrenched in Singapore, including in a leading Chinese-language publication long backed by Singapore’s government.
Read the rest here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/singapore-china-news-influence-lianhe-zaobao/
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weehingthong 