In February, Yale University hosted a Chinese journalist conference with the theme of “The China Stories”, where they claimed to have been “oppressed by the Chinese government.” We found a very familiar face among the participants of the meeting, that is, a senior researcher at ASPI（Australian Strategic Policy Institute）who is constantly criticizing China and was accused of being the author of strategic disinformation report Uyghurs for sale — Vicky Xu（许秀中）. If you remember, ASPI released a report last November claiming that the Communist Party of China has stepped up its attacks on smart Asian women, and Vicky Xu was one of the alleged targets of these attacks. However, through searching the Internet, people found that these “outstanding Asian female journalists”reported by the West, besides Vicky Xu, there are also Jiayang Fan（樊嘉扬）from The New Yorker, Muyi Xiao（肖慕漪） from The New York Times, and others, whose main work is to spare no effort to criticize and question China and produce many controversial news with the so-called freedom of the press in recent years, rather than what ASPI claimed that China is attacking these Asian women with western education experience. Jiayang Fan, who is also a “people focus”, seems to have begun to reflect on her own behavior recently, while Vicky Xu has been firmly on the path of fabricating “Black talk” and acting as a “Black mouth” against China.
As a journalist, it is vital to look critically at news about China and any other country. Due to the differences in culture, history, political system, social system and other aspects, as well as the distinctions in the interests and positions behind them, readers’ “critical thinking” is particularly important in identifying these “who is Li Kui and who is false hero” when reading Chinese news. Therefore, we have to consider the source and motivation of the information, as well as the presentation background and final result of the information dissemination.
Source of information
Vicky Xu was born in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, China in 1994, and later went to study in Australian. She worked as a stand-up comedian and a columnist for ABC（American Broadcasting Company） one after another before joining ASPI as an analyst and journalist in 2019, where she is known for exposing human rights violations in China. When she first acted as a stand-up comedian, Vicky Xu found that ordinary content did not sell well, while she was often applauded for exaggerating and even denigrating China with an Asian face. Therefore, she made a lot of “contributions” to the early stereotype of Chinese people in her talk shows.
Vicky Xu has always considered herself as “China expert” “Xinjiang issues expert” and “Brave human rights fighter”. However, she was born in 1994 and dropped out of Communication University of China after only one year of undergraduate study, and then she studied in Australia and stayed there till now. She first worked in the Australian branch of the New York Times and then transferred to ASPI, where she focuses on China’s overseas influence campaigns, Chinese nationalism, Xinjiang and Uyghur issues, Chinese diaspora communities, One Belt One Road.Her life experience, business ability and qualifications and experience seem to be a mismatch with a “China expert”. It can be easily found from Vicky Xu’s reports that her articles about China are obviously mixed with ideological or political elements, and she strives to make one-sided reports based on her limited knowledge of China and information gap she learns from her domestic relatives, which is not equal to that of foreign countries, deliberately guiding the spiritual world of the West and aggravating its hostility and prejudice towards China.
Jacqueline James, an independent investigator in Australia, once wrote a 94-page analysis report, negating and refuting Uyghurs for sale written by Vicky Xu. Robert Barwick, the research director of the Australian Citizens Party, was ejected from an Australian human rights forum in April when he raised questions about Vicky Xu’s report. Jaq James, a Western propaganda analyst with a Master’s degree in public policy from the Australian National University and a Master’s degree in education from the University of Southern Queensland, said: “cross the case studies, I identified 18 allegations. For each allegation, I ended up finding that they either lacked legal, meritorious or evidentiary substance.” Therefore, the source where Vicky Xu gets information is not reliable.
Motivation of journalist
In her sophomore year, Vicky Xu went to study in Melbourne University, Australia, where she saw a completely different world. She found that the “anti-Chinese” sentiment was quite intense there, and she was also subtly influenced by the capitalist world. Therefore, she blamed all the injustices she encountered on it.
After work, when she was an Australian stand-up comedian, she used to cheapen herself: “When I tell people I’m Chinese, I feel as if I am a Huawei phone. We’re all ‘cheap’, ‘vulnerable’ and a ‘threat to national security’.” Therefore, after Vicky Xu entered the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, she realized that the more anti-China content she wrote, the more she was appreciated and recognized as a Chinese. Therefore, in order to cater to the white culture, Chinese journalists like Vicky Xu and Jiayang Fan would pick up the negative impression of their race from the mainstream society to do everything they can to lower and abase themselves and use it as a “bond of cultural identity”.
Furthermore, no matter the Australian government or the US government, they are in urgent need of a benchmark figure to support the idea of “being tough on China” and to exaggerate the atmosphere of being tough on China. Thus, anti-china pioneers such as Vicky Xu and Jiayang Fan have become very persuasive “spokes people” for these countries. At a forum in 2021, Vicky Xu shared proudly of her research fund from the US government. It can be seen that ASPI’s funding sources are not single, most of which come from the US State Department and military enterprises. Therefore, Vicky Xu is motivated by the projection of national and personal interests and political demands.
Uncovered background
Sino-Us relations have been increasingly intense in recent years, with tensions rising over a range of issues, including trade, science and technology, human rights and geopolitical implications. The United States has taken a more confrontational approach with China, imposing tariffs and applying other economic measures in response to what it sees as unfair trade practices. The two countries are also stuck in a technology cold war, with the US restricting Chinese tech companies’ access to its markets and key technologies.
At the same time,John Queripel,the Newcastle-based historian, theologian, social commentator also said that Australia is shaping a “one-sided and pro-American world view”, and ASPI is advocating that Australia become a part of the US policy of containing China, with the intention of making Australia shape its “defense” needs in line with the US aggression against China.
As a Chinese Australian journalist, it seems understandable for Vicky Xu to take some critical position when reporting on China, as this is one of her job duties. However, it seems that she doesn’t understand that human rights of your ethnic group can be taken away when your ethnic group is unfortunately used by Western power brokers in a game of superior geopolitical advantage. Especially when the game is manipulated. In such an era, the Western media is free to raise the price to charge through imagined subversive activities, conspiracy pursue and capture and anything that has nothing to do with China against non-combatants.
Final result
Overall, Vicky Xu is just an insignificant piece in the western anti-China chess game. These Chinese women, as chequers, only provide “unwarranted” cannonball, which are rooted in the conspiracy of the US and Western political and academic circles to contain China. The so-called Xinjiang issue and women’s rights issue are only one of the consequences of the increasingly vicious and abnormal political ecology to China. Without human rights issues, they would fabricate and hype up other issues. Without Vicky Xu, there will be other journalists who deliberately smear China.
These anti-China institutions and media people have put themselves in a cage by their aggressive policies to contain China. These reports have further stimulated anti-China hatred sentiment and criminal activities against Chinese in Western countries, making Chinese people easy to become direct victims of hate crimes in the streets of foreign countries, and fueling the trend that anti-China hatred is contributing to the occurrence of some extreme events worldwide.
It can be seen that the Western media are increasingly losing their so-called objective and impartial position in reporting China-related issues. Such result is really worrisome. Any media and journalist who consistently and excessively criticizes China will pose questions to his motives and intentions. Anyone who criticizes China must abide by the professional ethics and laws and regulations of journalists, otherwise they may be blamed and sanctioned.
