Sinister Cultural Marxist
22nd May 2012, 16:06
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/15/beijing-pledges-to-clean-out-illegal-foreigners/
Beijing Pledges to ‘Clean Out’ Illegal Foreigners
Beijing has launched a 100-day campaign to “clean out” foreigners living or working illegally in the city amid a fervent online debate over the behavior, both good and bad, of outsiders inChina.
The campaign, which kicked off on Tuesday and will run through the end of August, was announced in state media as well as on Peaceful Beijing, the official Beijing Public Security Bureau account on popular Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-SY777_strike_E_20120515075856.jpgSina WeiboA screenshot shows the announcement of a 100-day illegal foreigner “clean up” campaign posted to the official account of the Beijing Public Security Bureau on Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo.
According the Peaceful Beijing notice (in Chinese (http://weibo.com/1288915263/yjfVY5JeH)), the city’s police will employ “checks of key neighborhoods, regular crackdowns in key places and strict examination of visa applications” in an effort to identify foreigners who have either entered the country illegally or are living or working in the city without the proper visas.
Underneath the notice, the Beijing PSB pasted an image of the “strike hard” fist typically associated with Chinese public crackdown campaigns, along with the number for a hotline residents can call to report suspicious foreigners.
The Beijing Public Security Bureau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The state-run Xinhua news agency said Beijing has about 120,000 foreign residents.
The clean-up campaign arrives in the midst of a heated discussion among Chinese social media users about the way foreigners comport themselves in the country. Last week, the stories of two foreigners – one an American who bought French fries for a homeless woman in the city of Nanjing (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/beijing-an-american-student-in-nanjing-has-shot-to-fame-on-the-chinese-internet-after-buying-a-packet-of-mcdonalds-french.html), the other a Brazilian man who was badly beaten by a trio of thieves after trying to stop a woman from having her bag pickpocketed in Dongguan (http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/05/brazilian-beaten-by-thieves-for-stopping-crime-as-dozens-of-chinese-and-2-chengguan-look-on/) – spread quickly online as Chinese Internet users engaged in a round of soul-searching over the belief that Good Samaritans in China are in relatively short supply.
A similar discussion took place late last year after a foreign tourist, 34-year-old Uruguayan Maria Fernanda, jumped into Hangzhou’s West Lake (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-11/02/content_14019692.htm) to save a drowning woman as dozens of Chinese onlookers stood idly by.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, noted online (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/08/15/new-china-envoys-airport-antics-rile-chinese-internet/) in China for carrying his own backpack and attempting to buy coffee with a coupon, has continued to build on his popularity in China, most recently by deigning to kneel (http://cmp.hku.hk/2012/05/14/22802/) when talking to a nine-year-old girl in Shanghai.
But much of that goodwill has been erased in recent days thanks to the wide circulation online of a video that appears to show a foreigner caught in the middle of sexually assaulting a Chinese woman. In the video, uploaded on Wednesday and viewed more than 10 million times on Chinese video site Youku (warning: disturbing content (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzkzNDY5ODI0.html)), the foreigner is pulled away from the woman, scuffles briefly with a Chinese man and is later shown lying motionless in the street, where he is hit and kicked again before police arrive.
In a notice later posted on Sina Weibo (http://weibo.com/1288915263/yivce1eAn), Beijing police said the foreigner in the video, a Briton traveling in China on a tourist visa, had “acted indecently” toward the woman after drinking and had been detained pending an investigation. Sina Weibo users subsequently flooded the post with comments, many of which accused the police of trying to soft-pedal the incident.
It’s unclear whether the incident is related to the crackdown. But the announcement of the campaign nevertheless prompted an outpouring of anti-foreigner vitriol on social media on Tuesday, propelling “illegal foreigners” into the top 10 list of trending topics on Sina Weibo.
“I raise both hands and both feet in support of clearing out illegal foreigners: Send that foreign trash rolling back to where they belong,” wrote a Sina Weibo user (http://weibo.com/1441588635/yjiLbcvn7) posting under the handle Wenfeng Qingluo, one of many who complained that the China had become a destination for people with poor prospects in their home countries.
Others made an explicit connection between the clean-up campaign and the Briton in the video, with many posting screenshots of the suspect standing over the woman.
To be sure, there were some skeptical voices, including one user posting under the name Big Two Hundred, who quipped (http://weibo.com/1674225831/yjhYEyGBU) that as soon as illegal foreigners are chased out, “there will be more opportunities for Chinese thugs.”
Still, the majority of commenters appeared to be behind the campaign, with some suggesting the sweep be extended to include Uighurs (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/), a Muslim minority from China’s northwest, and others dragging in China’s territorial spat with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal – a topic much in the headlines lately (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304192704577401861069925448.html).
“Beijing has started cleaning out illegal foreigners,” wrote Wang Tao (http://weibo.com/2189687293/yjiw04N5q), general manger of Beijing-based consulting firm Capital View Research. “Will Filipinos be the first to be cleaned out?”
China has long been a relatively easy place for foreigners to live and work, with a small but robust industry built around finding loopholes in the visa application process for those without the proper paperwork. That, combined with the country’s huge demand for English teachers, has turned the country into a haven of sorts for those unable to find work back home.
Beijing has conducted one city-wide sweep of illegal foreigners before, just ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Prior to that, Beijing police have been known to crack down on a district level.
“The online reaction is a little scary, but what the police are doing isn’t particularly new,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the Chinese media-tracking website Danwei and a resident of Beijing since 1995, adding that he thought the crackdown was most likely a response to the controversy over the video.
“I do think the free pass we’ve had in past years to misbehave has been taken away, but I don’t think this necessarily reflects any general rise in anti-foreigner sentiment,” he said.
A report in the state-run English-language China Daily said police will stop foreigners to make sure they are complying with regulations that require them to carry their passports and residential registration documents at all times. “We will enforce the rule and make sure every foreigner knows that,” Jin Song, the police officer in charge of the campaign told the China Daily.
Police plan to focus their efforts on areas popular with foreigners, including the Sanlitun bar district and Haidian, where many of the city’s universities are located, the report said.
http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/
by David Wertime (http://tealeafnation.com/author/oolong/) on May 15, 2012
Chinese Netizens Say Time To “Clean Up” Foreign “Trash” (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/)
Foreigners, watch out. Beijing police have sent a shot across the bow of the city’s estimated 120,000 non-Chinese residents, some of whom are in the country illegally. After a video of a British man apparently sexually assaulting a Chinese woman caught fire (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/todays-most-viral-image-the-horrible-foreigner/) on Weibo, Beijing police have announced a campaign to “clean up” (清理) unwelcome outsiders (Chinese) (http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-05-14/183824414088.shtml).
http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Foreigners1.jpg (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/foreigners-2/)Beijing police want to see more of these
Specifically, the police have announced they will go after foreign nationals who are 1) in the country illegally, 2) remaining illegally, or 3) working illegally. They call such foreigners “san fei” foreigners, or 三非外国人, meaning “three illegals.”
Clouds on the horizon
Reading through a small sample of the 114,000 comments to the recent news, Tea Leaf Nation found netizens roundly and angrily supportive of the measure. Many argued this step was “overdue” and “better late than never” (亡羊补牢). Many from other cities chimed in to call for similar measures in Dalian, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
The overall tone of discussion will surely be deeply troubling to anyone who has ever had to be an “outsider.” @魚魚桑 (http://weibo.com/bluelittlefish) honed in on, and lauded, the dangerous semantics employed by Beijing police: “‘Clean up’…This is really the right word to use. I feel like it’s cleaning up trash from the street.”
Others piled on, in many cases disregarding the original distinction between illegal foreigners and legal foreigners. @Bob_慕小落 (http://weibo.com/u/2352454803) wrote, “Clean slowly, so that not a single one is left.” But @味同烂嚼 (http://weibo.com/u/1817206080) wanted speed: “We should thoroughly clean up, hurry up and clean up, I don’t want to see these disgusting people anymore.” @山哥SANGER (http://weibo.com/wlzq) opined, “White-skinned pigs [白皮猪], black devils [黑鬼], sticks [棒子, a slur referring to Koreans], devils [鬼子], Southeast Asian monkeys [东南亚猴子] and other kinds of foreign trash should all be swept out the door.”
http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Xinjianren-332x500.jpg (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/xinjianren/)A man from Xinjiang. He can enter Beijing sans visa
Some netizens did not seem to know what “foreigner” actually meant. A number of users asked that people from Xinjiang, a (sometimes reluctant) Chinese border province, be expelled from the capital. As @阿琦爱ZHOULINBO (http://weibo.com/u/2564098960) wrote, “Xinjiang people are the scariest, I hate the Xinjiang [people] the most.” When one user challenged her view, she simply wrote, “I don’t need to explain.”
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/21/chinese-tv-star-tirade-against-foreign-trash
Chinese TV star launches tirade against 'foreign trash'
Presenter of English language chatshow calls al-Jazeera journalist a 'foreign *****' on Chinese equivalent of Twitter
Monday 21 May 2012 13.32 EDT http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/21/1337621471645/Melissa-Chan-008.jpg Melissa Chan, pictured, the recently expelled journalist for al-Jazeera television, was described as a 'foreign *****' by Chinese TV presenter Yang Rui. Photograph: al-Jazeera/EPA
A high-profile state television presenter who launched an online tirade against "foreign trash" has sought to temper his words after calls for overseas guests to boycott his show.
In the diatribe by Yang Rui, published on the popular Sina Weibo service, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he described a recently expelled journalist as a "foreign *****" and praised police for "clearing out foreign trash".
The attack by the host of the English language programme Dialogue, which says it seeks to promote cross-cultural debate, was initially viewed by some commentators as an attempt at satire. His programme is shown on CCTV-9, the channel regarded as part of China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china)'s soft power drive to present a more humane face to the outside world.
Melissa Chan, the al-Jazeera journalist expelled from China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/08/al-jazeera-closes-beijing-bureau) earlier this month, was the target of the "foreign *****" remarks by Yang. They followed an announcement by Beijing police of a 100-day crackdown on foreigners illegally living or working in the city (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/15/beijing-pledges-to-clean-out-illegal-foreigners/) and controversy over the behaviour of foreigners in China, including a man – said to be British – who was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a Chinese woman.
"Cut off the traffickers, unemployed Americans and Europeans who come to China to take money, and engage in human trafficking and illegal immigration. Identify foreign spies, who find a Chinese girl to live with while collecting intelligence, posing as tourists to get mapping and GPS data for Japan, South Korea, the United States and European countries," Yang wrote.
"We kicked out that foreign ***** and closed al-Jazeera's Beijing bureau. We should shut up and kick out those who demonise China."
Speaking to the Guardian, Yang said the remarks were a spontaneous response to the police crackdown: "The wording, I acknowledge, is very strong and incompatible with my image as host of a professional talk show and I can say for sure I am sorry for hurting those who respect my profession.
"I don't mean I am beating a retreat from the principles that may be implied in the initial posting. The crackdown on illegal foreigners is a must. Ninety-five to 98% are honest people, well educated and abide by our laws … I am only talking about the bad guys."
His post was still online on Monday evening and, despite coming under fire on Weibo, he has not tempered his comments. He said he initially accepted the translation of the term he used as "*****", but claimed it did not truly reflect his meaning. "It somehow carries an overtone of sexual discrimination," he said.
"I never meant to humiliate any woman. I respect women. In general terms, I feel China is not covered responsibly or fairly."
Yang has previously said he has to remind himself he speaks not just for himself, but for his country.
He said his Sina Weibo account was personal, but the comments were also carried on his microblog feed on the official CCTV website. A CCTV spokeswoman said: "His microblog is a personal account. It does not represent CCTV; it was a very personal post."
Yang said he believed any effect on guest bookings would be temporary. "If these guys refuse to appear, it's a reflection of cowardice," he said.
A Chinese campaign, going from the highest echelons of the state down to CCTV, lauding the persecution and exile of foreigners. They also exile journalists who expose embarrassing truths about state corruption and brutality. Some voices on the internet laud this, saying it should be extended to ethnic minorities. Is the CCP becoming the party of Han Fascism?
I wonder how the folks in the PSL and other leftist groups around the world who still actually work under the illusion that this is some kind of "Leftist regime" explain this one away. This is like the exemplification of some of the worst anti-immigrant bullshit you hear in the US and Europe. It is fucking despicable that it is actually encouraged by the government.
Beijing Pledges to ‘Clean Out’ Illegal Foreigners
Beijing has launched a 100-day campaign to “clean out” foreigners living or working illegally in the city amid a fervent online debate over the behavior, both good and bad, of outsiders inChina.
The campaign, which kicked off on Tuesday and will run through the end of August, was announced in state media as well as on Peaceful Beijing, the official Beijing Public Security Bureau account on popular Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-SY777_strike_E_20120515075856.jpgSina WeiboA screenshot shows the announcement of a 100-day illegal foreigner “clean up” campaign posted to the official account of the Beijing Public Security Bureau on Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo.
According the Peaceful Beijing notice (in Chinese (http://weibo.com/1288915263/yjfVY5JeH)), the city’s police will employ “checks of key neighborhoods, regular crackdowns in key places and strict examination of visa applications” in an effort to identify foreigners who have either entered the country illegally or are living or working in the city without the proper visas.
Underneath the notice, the Beijing PSB pasted an image of the “strike hard” fist typically associated with Chinese public crackdown campaigns, along with the number for a hotline residents can call to report suspicious foreigners.
The Beijing Public Security Bureau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The state-run Xinhua news agency said Beijing has about 120,000 foreign residents.
The clean-up campaign arrives in the midst of a heated discussion among Chinese social media users about the way foreigners comport themselves in the country. Last week, the stories of two foreigners – one an American who bought French fries for a homeless woman in the city of Nanjing (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/beijing-an-american-student-in-nanjing-has-shot-to-fame-on-the-chinese-internet-after-buying-a-packet-of-mcdonalds-french.html), the other a Brazilian man who was badly beaten by a trio of thieves after trying to stop a woman from having her bag pickpocketed in Dongguan (http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/05/brazilian-beaten-by-thieves-for-stopping-crime-as-dozens-of-chinese-and-2-chengguan-look-on/) – spread quickly online as Chinese Internet users engaged in a round of soul-searching over the belief that Good Samaritans in China are in relatively short supply.
A similar discussion took place late last year after a foreign tourist, 34-year-old Uruguayan Maria Fernanda, jumped into Hangzhou’s West Lake (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-11/02/content_14019692.htm) to save a drowning woman as dozens of Chinese onlookers stood idly by.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, noted online (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/08/15/new-china-envoys-airport-antics-rile-chinese-internet/) in China for carrying his own backpack and attempting to buy coffee with a coupon, has continued to build on his popularity in China, most recently by deigning to kneel (http://cmp.hku.hk/2012/05/14/22802/) when talking to a nine-year-old girl in Shanghai.
But much of that goodwill has been erased in recent days thanks to the wide circulation online of a video that appears to show a foreigner caught in the middle of sexually assaulting a Chinese woman. In the video, uploaded on Wednesday and viewed more than 10 million times on Chinese video site Youku (warning: disturbing content (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzkzNDY5ODI0.html)), the foreigner is pulled away from the woman, scuffles briefly with a Chinese man and is later shown lying motionless in the street, where he is hit and kicked again before police arrive.
In a notice later posted on Sina Weibo (http://weibo.com/1288915263/yivce1eAn), Beijing police said the foreigner in the video, a Briton traveling in China on a tourist visa, had “acted indecently” toward the woman after drinking and had been detained pending an investigation. Sina Weibo users subsequently flooded the post with comments, many of which accused the police of trying to soft-pedal the incident.
It’s unclear whether the incident is related to the crackdown. But the announcement of the campaign nevertheless prompted an outpouring of anti-foreigner vitriol on social media on Tuesday, propelling “illegal foreigners” into the top 10 list of trending topics on Sina Weibo.
“I raise both hands and both feet in support of clearing out illegal foreigners: Send that foreign trash rolling back to where they belong,” wrote a Sina Weibo user (http://weibo.com/1441588635/yjiLbcvn7) posting under the handle Wenfeng Qingluo, one of many who complained that the China had become a destination for people with poor prospects in their home countries.
Others made an explicit connection between the clean-up campaign and the Briton in the video, with many posting screenshots of the suspect standing over the woman.
To be sure, there were some skeptical voices, including one user posting under the name Big Two Hundred, who quipped (http://weibo.com/1674225831/yjhYEyGBU) that as soon as illegal foreigners are chased out, “there will be more opportunities for Chinese thugs.”
Still, the majority of commenters appeared to be behind the campaign, with some suggesting the sweep be extended to include Uighurs (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/), a Muslim minority from China’s northwest, and others dragging in China’s territorial spat with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal – a topic much in the headlines lately (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304192704577401861069925448.html).
“Beijing has started cleaning out illegal foreigners,” wrote Wang Tao (http://weibo.com/2189687293/yjiw04N5q), general manger of Beijing-based consulting firm Capital View Research. “Will Filipinos be the first to be cleaned out?”
China has long been a relatively easy place for foreigners to live and work, with a small but robust industry built around finding loopholes in the visa application process for those without the proper paperwork. That, combined with the country’s huge demand for English teachers, has turned the country into a haven of sorts for those unable to find work back home.
Beijing has conducted one city-wide sweep of illegal foreigners before, just ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Prior to that, Beijing police have been known to crack down on a district level.
“The online reaction is a little scary, but what the police are doing isn’t particularly new,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the Chinese media-tracking website Danwei and a resident of Beijing since 1995, adding that he thought the crackdown was most likely a response to the controversy over the video.
“I do think the free pass we’ve had in past years to misbehave has been taken away, but I don’t think this necessarily reflects any general rise in anti-foreigner sentiment,” he said.
A report in the state-run English-language China Daily said police will stop foreigners to make sure they are complying with regulations that require them to carry their passports and residential registration documents at all times. “We will enforce the rule and make sure every foreigner knows that,” Jin Song, the police officer in charge of the campaign told the China Daily.
Police plan to focus their efforts on areas popular with foreigners, including the Sanlitun bar district and Haidian, where many of the city’s universities are located, the report said.
http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/
by David Wertime (http://tealeafnation.com/author/oolong/) on May 15, 2012
Chinese Netizens Say Time To “Clean Up” Foreign “Trash” (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/)
Foreigners, watch out. Beijing police have sent a shot across the bow of the city’s estimated 120,000 non-Chinese residents, some of whom are in the country illegally. After a video of a British man apparently sexually assaulting a Chinese woman caught fire (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/todays-most-viral-image-the-horrible-foreigner/) on Weibo, Beijing police have announced a campaign to “clean up” (清理) unwelcome outsiders (Chinese) (http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-05-14/183824414088.shtml).
http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Foreigners1.jpg (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/foreigners-2/)Beijing police want to see more of these
Specifically, the police have announced they will go after foreign nationals who are 1) in the country illegally, 2) remaining illegally, or 3) working illegally. They call such foreigners “san fei” foreigners, or 三非外国人, meaning “three illegals.”
Clouds on the horizon
Reading through a small sample of the 114,000 comments to the recent news, Tea Leaf Nation found netizens roundly and angrily supportive of the measure. Many argued this step was “overdue” and “better late than never” (亡羊补牢). Many from other cities chimed in to call for similar measures in Dalian, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
The overall tone of discussion will surely be deeply troubling to anyone who has ever had to be an “outsider.” @魚魚桑 (http://weibo.com/bluelittlefish) honed in on, and lauded, the dangerous semantics employed by Beijing police: “‘Clean up’…This is really the right word to use. I feel like it’s cleaning up trash from the street.”
Others piled on, in many cases disregarding the original distinction between illegal foreigners and legal foreigners. @Bob_慕小落 (http://weibo.com/u/2352454803) wrote, “Clean slowly, so that not a single one is left.” But @味同烂嚼 (http://weibo.com/u/1817206080) wanted speed: “We should thoroughly clean up, hurry up and clean up, I don’t want to see these disgusting people anymore.” @山哥SANGER (http://weibo.com/wlzq) opined, “White-skinned pigs [白皮猪], black devils [黑鬼], sticks [棒子, a slur referring to Koreans], devils [鬼子], Southeast Asian monkeys [东南亚猴子] and other kinds of foreign trash should all be swept out the door.”
http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Xinjianren-332x500.jpg (http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/chinese-netizens-say-time-to-clean-up-foreign-trash/xinjianren/)A man from Xinjiang. He can enter Beijing sans visa
Some netizens did not seem to know what “foreigner” actually meant. A number of users asked that people from Xinjiang, a (sometimes reluctant) Chinese border province, be expelled from the capital. As @阿琦爱ZHOULINBO (http://weibo.com/u/2564098960) wrote, “Xinjiang people are the scariest, I hate the Xinjiang [people] the most.” When one user challenged her view, she simply wrote, “I don’t need to explain.”
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/21/chinese-tv-star-tirade-against-foreign-trash
Chinese TV star launches tirade against 'foreign trash'
Presenter of English language chatshow calls al-Jazeera journalist a 'foreign *****' on Chinese equivalent of Twitter
Monday 21 May 2012 13.32 EDT http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/21/1337621471645/Melissa-Chan-008.jpg Melissa Chan, pictured, the recently expelled journalist for al-Jazeera television, was described as a 'foreign *****' by Chinese TV presenter Yang Rui. Photograph: al-Jazeera/EPA
A high-profile state television presenter who launched an online tirade against "foreign trash" has sought to temper his words after calls for overseas guests to boycott his show.
In the diatribe by Yang Rui, published on the popular Sina Weibo service, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he described a recently expelled journalist as a "foreign *****" and praised police for "clearing out foreign trash".
The attack by the host of the English language programme Dialogue, which says it seeks to promote cross-cultural debate, was initially viewed by some commentators as an attempt at satire. His programme is shown on CCTV-9, the channel regarded as part of China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china)'s soft power drive to present a more humane face to the outside world.
Melissa Chan, the al-Jazeera journalist expelled from China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/08/al-jazeera-closes-beijing-bureau) earlier this month, was the target of the "foreign *****" remarks by Yang. They followed an announcement by Beijing police of a 100-day crackdown on foreigners illegally living or working in the city (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/15/beijing-pledges-to-clean-out-illegal-foreigners/) and controversy over the behaviour of foreigners in China, including a man – said to be British – who was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a Chinese woman.
"Cut off the traffickers, unemployed Americans and Europeans who come to China to take money, and engage in human trafficking and illegal immigration. Identify foreign spies, who find a Chinese girl to live with while collecting intelligence, posing as tourists to get mapping and GPS data for Japan, South Korea, the United States and European countries," Yang wrote.
"We kicked out that foreign ***** and closed al-Jazeera's Beijing bureau. We should shut up and kick out those who demonise China."
Speaking to the Guardian, Yang said the remarks were a spontaneous response to the police crackdown: "The wording, I acknowledge, is very strong and incompatible with my image as host of a professional talk show and I can say for sure I am sorry for hurting those who respect my profession.
"I don't mean I am beating a retreat from the principles that may be implied in the initial posting. The crackdown on illegal foreigners is a must. Ninety-five to 98% are honest people, well educated and abide by our laws … I am only talking about the bad guys."
His post was still online on Monday evening and, despite coming under fire on Weibo, he has not tempered his comments. He said he initially accepted the translation of the term he used as "*****", but claimed it did not truly reflect his meaning. "It somehow carries an overtone of sexual discrimination," he said.
"I never meant to humiliate any woman. I respect women. In general terms, I feel China is not covered responsibly or fairly."
Yang has previously said he has to remind himself he speaks not just for himself, but for his country.
He said his Sina Weibo account was personal, but the comments were also carried on his microblog feed on the official CCTV website. A CCTV spokeswoman said: "His microblog is a personal account. It does not represent CCTV; it was a very personal post."
Yang said he believed any effect on guest bookings would be temporary. "If these guys refuse to appear, it's a reflection of cowardice," he said.
A Chinese campaign, going from the highest echelons of the state down to CCTV, lauding the persecution and exile of foreigners. They also exile journalists who expose embarrassing truths about state corruption and brutality. Some voices on the internet laud this, saying it should be extended to ethnic minorities. Is the CCP becoming the party of Han Fascism?
I wonder how the folks in the PSL and other leftist groups around the world who still actually work under the illusion that this is some kind of "Leftist regime" explain this one away. This is like the exemplification of some of the worst anti-immigrant bullshit you hear in the US and Europe. It is fucking despicable that it is actually encouraged by the government.