Comments on: Sun to set on US role in APAC? http://apac2020.the-diplomat.com/feature/sun-to-set-on-us-role-in-apac/ A look into Asia in the year 2020 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:31:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Jason Munyan http://apac2020.the-diplomat.com/feature/sun-to-set-on-us-role-in-apac/#comment-151 Jason Munyan Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:28:01 +0000 http://apac2020.the-diplomat.com/?p=182#comment-151 Yapchongyee, there are major flaws with your "most obvious sign that the USA has already shrunk in world politics." What you say is that there is a difference in the size of the media community attending press conferences. Are you even familiar with how press conferences work in China? Everyone knows that the media in China is PAID to attend the press conferences. Anyone holding a press conference in China is expected to give all Chinese reporters attending a red envelope (hongbao) usually with 300 RMB. Those kinds of payments are completely unacceptable by Western journalism standards. Additionally much of the media in China is not independent. Some are arms of the government and all Chinese media faces government censorship. In Washington on the other hand, the media is not compensated to attend press conferences and most are from private industry and completely independent of the government; they attend because they think the conference may be in the interest of their viewers or readers. And they are free to write just about anything they want. Big differences. You of course are also free to "argue til the cows come home," but you had better find stronger "obvious signs" to support your view. Yapchongyee, there are major flaws with your “most obvious sign that the USA has already shrunk in world politics.” What you say is that there is a difference in the size of the media community attending press conferences. Are you even familiar with how press conferences work in China? Everyone knows that the media in China is PAID to attend the press conferences. Anyone holding a press conference in China is expected to give all Chinese reporters attending a red envelope (hongbao) usually with 300 RMB. Those kinds of payments are completely unacceptable by Western journalism standards.

Additionally much of the media in China is not independent. Some are arms of the government and all Chinese media faces government censorship.

In Washington on the other hand, the media is not compensated to attend press conferences and most are from private industry and completely independent of the government; they attend because they think the conference may be in the interest of their viewers or readers. And they are free to write just about anything they want.

Big differences. You of course are also free to “argue til the cows come home,” but you had better find stronger “obvious signs” to support your view.

]]> By: yapchongyee http://apac2020.the-diplomat.com/feature/sun-to-set-on-us-role-in-apac/#comment-60 yapchongyee Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:32:36 +0000 http://apac2020.the-diplomat.com/?p=182#comment-60 This article written by US scholar Robert Sutter is all self-serving and to be honest, is a natural reaction to all the opinions that are floating "out there" that the shift of power is already unstoppable from the West to the East and that the biggest loser of all is the USA because very soon the reserve currency of the world will be the Chinese yuan; and the USA will not be so free to print paper money! I say to all readers here that the the most obvious sign that the USA has already shrunk in world politics is the size of the media community attending press conferences at crucial points of the world. The size of media attendance at these conferences in Beijing is easily twice the number that are seen at media conferences in Washington. It used to be not more than one or two reporters attending these meets in Beijing and in Washington the numbers will be in the hundreds, but today that picture is in reverse. That picture is in and of itself says it all that the USA has already declined. You can argue til the cows come home, but one picture is more than equals a thousand words. This article written by US scholar Robert Sutter is all self-serving and to be honest, is a natural reaction to all the opinions that are floating “out there” that the shift of power is already unstoppable from the West to the East and that the biggest loser of all is the USA because very soon the reserve currency of the world will be the Chinese yuan; and the USA will not be so free to print paper money! I say to all readers here that the the most obvious sign that the USA has already shrunk in world politics is the size of the media community attending press conferences at crucial points of the world. The size of media attendance at these conferences in Beijing is easily twice the number that are seen at media conferences in Washington. It used to be not more than one or two reporters attending these meets in Beijing and in Washington the numbers will be in the hundreds, but today that picture is in reverse. That picture is in and of itself says it all that the USA has already declined.

You can argue til the cows come home, but one picture is more than equals a thousand words.

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