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The New York Times rampage against China

By Patrick Mattimore (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-10-22 12:57

The New York Times is perhaps America's best-known and most highly-respected newspaper. The Times website is also the first place many people go to read about what is happening in the world. Unfortunately, The Times seems to be adopting a hostile attitude towards China, both in its news coverage and on its opinion pages. As Exhibit A, take a look at the leading stories on the newspaper's website about China from Sunday, October 17.

There is a "news"story about a legal US resident, Huang Kexue, who worked for Dow Chemical Company. Dow's former employee is accused of economic espionage in that he obtained trade secrets which he allegedly shared with Chinese researchers. Mr. Huang is also accused of intending to aid China with China's assistance.

The news is not really about Mr. Huang though, since the purpose of the story is to suggest that a new type of spying is taking place involving countries stealing information from American businesses. While several countries are named as being potentially responsible, it's clear that China is the only country in the reporter's crosshairs.

The law under which Mr. Huang is being prosecuted has been invoked only seven times since it was passed fourteen years ago. There have been only three convictions of individuals dealing with China. However, the reporter suggests that cases like Mr. Huang's represent a new front in the battle for a global economic edge because China is seeking to broaden its efforts to obtain Western technology illegally.

Quoted in the story is the director of the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis in Washington, James Mulvenon, who said China is trying to woo back thousands of ethnic Chinese scientists who have trained or worked in the United States. The story's transparent implication is that China is involved in a pattern of economic espionage against the US

An op-ed in Sunday's Times by a US Senator repeats the familiar mantra that China is a currency manipulator and urges President Obama to impose tariffs on the Chinese.

A third item details the Obama Administration's inquiries into China's subsidies for clean energy and gratuitously suggests that both major American political parties are blaming China for America's slow economic recovery.

Finally, columnist Paul Krugman, writing about events concerning the Diaoyu Islands, ignores China's claims to the Islands and calls China "dangerously trigger-happy,"and a "rogue economic superpower."He says that China is violating international law by imposing sanctions on Japan. Interestingly, last month another Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, concluded that China had a better claim to the Islands than Japan.

The takeaway message from Sunday's New York Times is that China regularly commits economic espionage against the US, manipulates Chinese currency to gain economic advantages, provides its own companies with economic benefits in violation of World Trade Organization laws, and is an outlaw on the world economic stage. That's quite a mouthful to swallow, but then it's a lot more convenient for The Times to blame China for America's sputtering economy than to suggest that America ought to take a look at herself.

Patrick Mattimore is a fellow at the American-based Institute for Analytic Journalism and an adjunct professor at Tsinghua/Temple Law School LLM Program in Beijing.