[Oh, btw, President Obama, the communist country you just unintentionally equated to fascism is getting universal healthcare for its 1.3 billion people in 2 years. So how about you do something real for your people instead of making mistakes in your speeches for a change? (no pun intended)]
When China's Central TV broadcast Obama's inauguration with enthusiasm, they didn't expect this line in his speech: "Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions."
The camera instantly cut back to the Chinese studio, and later, BBC, MSN, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc. all jumped up at the fact that when Chinese media had the chance to rebroadcast, and translate the speech, they all cut out the references of "fascism and communism".
Whose wrong?
I think it is a stupid decision for Obama to link the two words with an "and".
First, I say it's a decision because this is a speech he composed, revised, had proof-read and revised probably a dozen times, a speech in which each word and sentence is measured and scaled to precision to express exactly what he wants to convey. So he made the decision, and unfortunately a bad one.
Second, though I understand the "communism" he was referring to was more the Soviet Union, than China, but even without getting into semiotic theories or linguistic theories of unconscious references, we know that when you use an "and", it reveals a tendency of treating the two words on each side of the "and" as equal. Now, you can have all the arguments in the world to say the contemporary Chinese society is actually not communistic, but very much capitalistic, China still holds on to its banner of "communism." So on hearing the word "communism", of course, the most direct and instinctive response for the Chinese is that "omg, Obama is equaling us to Hitler".
Moreover, this would be a speech that goes on into history and will be repeated hundreds of times, and whenever it's repeated, you are going to hear the words "fascism and communism" goes hand in hand together. With the number of repetitions, even if people previous do not necessarily link the two together, or view them with equal animosity, will now, consciously or unconsciously, see them as the same.
That, is dangerous. Especially when you have a country, as important in the world politics and economy as China, which pride itself on being a communist country. With the quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan, the domestic financial crisis, is it really a smart decision for the incoming president of the United States to antagonize China?
Being a debater, I always look at issues by measuring their "cost and benefits", now my real question is what has Obama achieved by using this particular phrase in his speech? Does it rhyme better? If he has nothing to gain through using that particular phrase, then why risk making 1.3 billion people mad at you? Why can't he just say "facism and Stalinism" or something like that. And don't forget Vietnam is a communist state, and that war is a total failure on the U.S. side.
Now back to the Chinese media. Why does it take out this sentence? Why does it censor the speech?
Of course the government is embarrassed by this and therefore, censored it. ("that's what Communists do! censorship!" -- the American and British media acclaims, thinking they've found another evidence of the crime of the government - limit the freedom of the press) But I can say, with the experience of having worked for both Chinese and American media, and the experience of working closely with human rights activitists in China, that Chinese media's move to cut out the part of speech is more to help Obama, and therefore America, than to save its own petty dignity.
Why?
First, if China's target is Obama, if China wants to really censor the speech, it could easily censor the entire speech. Make it like it never has happened.
Second, most Chinese who have watched the speech as it first broadcast and who saw the speech online are outraged by the comment and are now boycotting America. And please take a moment, try to remember what happened in 2002 and 2005, the two biggest anti-Japanese waves in China, and try to imagine what the reprecussions would be if the comment goes into bigger circulation and cause an "anti-U.S.A." movement. --- and believe me, it will. A comment like this- putting communism together with facism- made by a new president, I dare say, would cause even a bigger uproar.
So for those criticising the Chinese media of censoring this particular part of speech, be smart! For the first time that I know of, the Chinese media is actually doing Americans a favor.
Just let this go quietly.
Obama is new. He made a mistake. But he will learn.
