A Belgian friend of mine returned from a family visit to the U.S. just before New Year. He's got a nice blog too (Surviving Beijing since 1980). It used to be that foreigners loved to hate the China Daily. Propaganda only, no news. Well, no more... I'm gonna shut up and let Gilbert do the talking.
“I do read newspapers that teach me more about the USA than most Americans ever know. I think even China Daily is better than most of their crappy stuff called newspapers. Except the International Herald Tribune. But again, their head office is in Paris… As for TV, forget it.
I felt like going back to the information age when landing in Beijing. Here we know what is going on. Hey guys, believe me: China Daily really is not that bad. When they dish up their propaganda it is that obvious you don’t take them seriously. The rest at least keeps us in touch with the world.”
Right on the spot! Not to mention U.S. Immigration: “Well, I had the unique experience of CHECKING OUT IN IMMIGRATION. When waiting for my flight Chicago – Beijing I saw a lonely lady standing between toilets and other booths next to two terminals that looked like ATMs. I asked her what it was. Oh yes, foreign visitors need to check out here, so there I gave it a try for the experience: fingerprint scans plus face picture and passport scan. I even received an (encoded) receipt from the Homeland Security (I keep it as a souvenir!).” Nobody ever experienced such shit with our friendly Chinese border police.
Conclusion (mine at least, I don't know about Gilbert): the Communist dictatorship (as the neocons define the PRC) is a better place to live in than the 'Champion of Democracy'.
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