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Agam's Gecko
Monday, March 31, 2008
 
CCP'S MEDIA MANIPULATION
Undercover
This man was identified by a tourist as a police plant. Times Online reports that he appears as "Number 52" on China's most wanted Tibetans list.
Photo: supplied by Chinese embassies to foreign media
T

he saga of the Chinese government's media manipulation continues. The Chinese language exile media outlet, Epoch Times has more on the story reported here last Tuesday, including these photographic proofs of the government's apparent realisation that it had been caught.

Briefly to recap: An ethnic Chinese woman from Thailand (who wishes not to be identified, with good reason) was studying in Lhasa when the riots broke out on March 14. She happened to be friends with a policeman in Lhasa, and was at the police station on March 14. There she saw a man walk in with a long knife in his hand and wearing Tibetan clothes, along with some Tibetans who had been arrested. The man later changed out of the Tibetan clothes, and back into his police uniform.

Full scene before outing
The photo as seen worldwide, immediately following the riot on March 14.
Photo: supplied by Chinese embassies to foreign media
The next day, the Thai woman was expelled from Lhasa along with other foreigners. When she arrived in India, she noticed a BBC broadcast report showing the man's picture, and she recognised him from the police station. She then contacted a Tibetan organisation in India to tell them what she had seen. On March 17, a rally was held in Dharamsala (rallies have continued there every day since March 10), at which the photo -- provided to the media by the Chinese Embassy in Delhi -- was shown, identifying him as a undercover policeman.

Full scene before outing
The photo as distributed by Chinese authorities after the March 17 Dharamsala rally, when he was publicly outed.
Photo: from Chinese language CCP-friendly websites, and Xinhua
After this rally in Dharamsala, the man disappeared from photos of the riots. Video which showed him threatening people with his knife, was no longer broadcast on CCTV. The same photograph was distributed, but he had vanished from it. The photos are identical, except for the missing man.

The overseas Chinese broadcaster NTDTV has covered the reports of Chinese agents provocateurs involved in the riots, said to originate from the British monitoring service GCHQ (which we mentioned here on March 22). NTDTV broadcasts to Chinese communites around the world, and into China via free-to-air satellite signal.
The G2 Bulletin has just published an important update on the situation in Tibet. Britain's GCHQ monitors half the world from space. They have confirmed the Dalai Lama's claim that CCP agents are posed as monks, and triggered riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the Beijing leadership is behind the large riots as a way to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region.

The same has been confirmed by British intelligence officers in Beijing.

Satellites orbiting the earth closely monitored the situation. The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation the CCP used agent provocateurs to start riots.
Unfortunately, the G2 Bulletin is a subscription-only security briefing service. Any G2 subscribers want to spill the beans?

Click for full size
Soldiers appear to have been issued with monks' robes.
Photo: source currently unknown
And then we have this strange photograph, which is making the rounds over the past few days. I am informed by kind commenter Dava, that this image appeared on the back cover of TCHRD's annual report for 2003. This reproduction of the photo on a Buddhism-oriented website is given a caption to that very effect. However the downloadable pdf's of TCHRD annual reports (available for the past 12 years) do not include cover art (although the front covers are shown on the index).

The CCP's media manipulation can take many forms, as in this humorous revelation from the Tibetan government in exile. It seems that a Chinese website with links to the PRC government has reported an anti-Tibetan demonstration by Chinese students outside Tibet House in London. The problem is, no one saw anything!
The Office of Tibet, London, would like to categorically state that we are not aware of any such demonstration. If we had seen any Chinese demonstrators, instead of threatening them, we would have invited them for a cup of tea to discuss their grievances, in line with His Holiness the Dalai Lama's emphasis on dialogue and non-violence.
No staff of the Office of Tibet in London, nor anyone at the Kailash Centre (same location) saw any sign of demonstrations at the time in question (March 22). As demonstrators need a permit in London, checks were made at the local police station, just two blocks away from Tibet House. No such application was submitted. No protest took place as reported on the Chinese website, which claimed the students "held placards demanding fair media coverage of events in Tibet and stood their ground in the face of threats from the separatists".

Police told the Office of Tibet staff to contact them straight away if they had any problems. Their statement on the matter concludes thusly:
In the light of the above facts, we feel sorry for all those Chinese students who have been compelled to involve themselves in this so-called demonstrations. Such acts only expose to what length the official Chinese machinery would go to fabricate the truth about Tibet. Indulgence in such acts and lies will further tarnish the international image of China and the Chinese people.

We would therefore like to urge the Chinese authorities to put more effort to resolve the Tibet issue and to seek truth from facts rather then wasting resources in such gimmicks.
UPDATE: There is a slightly more innocent explanation for that last photo. I'm informed by the creator of the Buddhism website (link above) that during a film shoot, the monks of a monastery refused to perform as actors. The PLA then sent a bunch of soldiers to perform as monks!

Art imitating life?

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- posted by Agam @ 5:09 PM 12 comments

12 Comments:

You said, "I am informed by kind commenter Dava, that this image appeared on the back cover of TCHRD's annual report for 2003. This reproduction of the photo on a Buddhism-oriented website is given a caption to that very effect."

Just to be exactly accurate, my only source of information on where the photo was previously published was that same kalacakra.net website. As far as I know they initiated the picture release. But it's very important to realize that the publication by the TCHRD of this photo in 2003 has not itself been verified to the best of my knowledge. I've asked people who should have it, or have access to it, but so far no answer. I think Tibet supporters should not be circulating this picture until at least the 2003 publication of it can be verified. Of course, there is the further question, which is being much discussed on some websites, that this and other photos may have been PhotoShopped. PhotoShopping can be detected by the experts with ease, as indeed happened in the case of the picture of the Tibet train with happily stampeding antelopes (chiru) composited by a Chinese journalist, a very well-known story to all I'm sure. The Tibet issue should not be left to hinge on this photograph. Photos & videos, too, may require verification in the 21st century.

I'd certainly like to hear more on this issue, and I'd like Tibet supporters to be rigorously honest as well as very certain of the information they are passing around. Truth and truthfulness are about the only things we've really going for us in what has become, in some large part, a war of information being waged by people just like us.

I've seen so many times that people who saw the picture together with the story by Gordon Thomas (as found in Kalachakranet.org) assume that the picture illustrates the story, and that the photo they are seeing must have been part of the evidence found by the British intelligence people. Not so, not so. Read more carefully people. The picture caption very plainly reads: "This is not an uncommon 'tactical move' from the Chinese government as could be seen on the back-cover of the 2003 annual TCHRD Report."

Personally, I wouldn't take anything Gordon Thomas said as truth without some serious outside verification on each point. He writes spy books, 40 so far, including an upcoming one on British intelligence, so what more is there to say? The source is a little hinky, to say the least, since so-called intelligence agencies often use the spreading and manipulation of information as part of their political programs...

It's pretty common knowledge that phony monks are used at scenic monasteries to get money from tourists (including mainland PRC tourists).* So the idea of using phony monks is not out of the question. Still, that only goes so far in arguing for the truth of this picture.

Yours truly!
Dava

*Xiaofei Kang of St. Mary's College of Maryland
entitled "Two Temples, Three Religions, and a Tourist Attraction: Contesting the Sacred Space on the Sino-Tibetan Border," a paper given at the AAR in 2005.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 31 March, 2008 18:53  

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Thanks for clarifying that, Dava. I wasn't sure if the kalachakra.net publisher informed you of the picture's origin, or if you informed him. I just couldn't recall whether the TCHRD info was there the first time I saw his page.

I've also asked around, but that publisher was the first to respond. It would be a little misleading if the TCHRD info wasn't there originally (I'm not sure about that), to use that picture with that story. And silly people thinking it could have been taken from space, I mean come on!

Gordon Thomas may or may not be "hinky" as you say, but he actually isn't the source. He's recounting only in infuriatingly sketchy detail, a report on the security briefing site G2 Bulletin. I don't know how reliable that is either, but I can't even read it. People pay for it, like Stratfor or something.

And we are in complete agreement that accuracy is paramount. I'd love to interview the Thai lady who recognised the policeman. She may be laying low now, unfortunately.

But it almost seems as if you didn't quite read all the way to the bottom. As I said, the publisher of kalachakra.net contacted me just before I posted. Again, I'm not sure if he has the TCHRD report in his hands, and a picture caption told him this or what. But he says the picture was from the time of a big film shoot (I vaguely remember the story from a few years ago). The monks would not act for them, so the PLA sent some men to fill the roles. See, you can't get Tibetans to impersonate monks. But the army will do it. It has no bearing on the current unrest, except to say the PLA has some experience at it.

Also don't forget other historical examples of this. A Chinese journalist wrote a book ("Events in Lhasa March 2-10, 1989", Tang Daxian) after that rebellion. It says the authorities sent out many agents and police dressed as civilians and monks. They ransacked certain grain stores and shops, and helped inspire looters. After that, the crackdown. That was 19 years ago.

I don't know who would be telling us this, if not Epoch Times. Check the article, it has more on the earlier incident too, quotes from Tang's book. This is very damning circumstantial evidence.

Also (last one), as reported here on Mar. 22, reports received by TGIE (from "a very reliable source within the PSB"), say that at least four military units are involved in dressing as monks, at least since Mar. 19. They do a few different things while undercover.

Lots to think about. Sure would be nice if real journalists could investigate.

By Blogger Agam, at 31 March, 2008 21:45  

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I'm not sure what to add on the phony monk issue. But you did raise another question that I've been wondering about. I'm thinking that there are very many things in common between the 1987 and 1989 demonstrations in Lhasa that were followed by martial law and the recent one in Lhasa. If I'm not mistaken, the rioting broke out in both '89 and '08 when lay people saw monks being attacked by police (in both cases near to Ramoche, Isn't that correct?) and the news of it spread. The supposed 'looting' then and now was, wasn't it, more like a ritual destruction of commercial goods in bonfires in the streets. (If Tibetans caught Tibetans looting something in '89, they'd make them throw it on the fire. Otherwise, they said, the Chinese gov't would say it was all about stealing...) We should think more along these lines since I think in many respects we're seeing a 'ritual' repetition of history. Does Hu think he was successful 20 years ago? Does he think it has to be handled in the same way? So are we supposed to expect 20 more years of quiet until the next eruption? I'm full of questions today.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 31 March, 2008 22:36  

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PS And you're right, I did miss the final coda. But I'm not sure why I should believe that theory either. Does your source at Kalachakranet feel justified in some way for spreading it? And if so, why did he post the picture in a misleading context? Did he spread the story knowing it was bound to be misinterpreted, even while knowing the 'real' (?) reason the picture exists?

I remember a story of Russians making a movie about Genghis Khan in Buriatia having the same problem. So they dressed the red army guys in monk robes and filmed them carrying the Kanjur volumes around the fields. When the scene was finished they just tossed the holy books in the ditch.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 31 March, 2008 22:41  

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This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Blogger bobby fletcher, at 02 April, 2008 05:02  

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Agam, I will suggest you read the article at http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080330_1.htm. It exams the picture in question in details.

By the way, Epoch Times is known for inaccurate information. For example, according to their count, the number of people who dropped out of CCP will soon be more than the current CCP member total. Their story is even much less reliable than the official media in China.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 02 April, 2008 10:09  

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"Bobby Fletcher" believes the massacre at Tienanmen Square is a myth. Tap on his name and see his blogs on this and other subjects including Falun Gong. But all that is beside the point, he also shows his bias against His Holiness the Dalai Lama by using the polemical PRC "Dalai" which simply oozes disrespect and contempt. I refuse to hear it.

And he is totally unaware that Tibetan monks everywhere wear yellow colored 'vests' beneath their red colored robes. The robes you see in the picture correspond perfectly with those Tibetan-style Buddhist monks actually wear in their folded form.

So let's turn to someone else for our expertise on this issue, OK?

My word-verification code is rmpchri, which I believe is Rinpoche, lacking only the 'o', which has been replaced by a second 'r'.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 02 April, 2008 16:34  

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Dava,

Your last comment on "bobby fletcher" tweaked something in my memory, that I read during the past few days. When I tapped his name and saw his blogs, it confirmed he is the same person I'd just recently read an article about.

I must have read it on a friend's computer, as I can't find it in my history here. I'll find it later tonight - it's amusing.

This is Charles Liu, famous CCP tool extraordinaire!

But thanks for the name of the film, Charles.

By Blogger Agam, at 02 April, 2008 19:11  

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Dear Agam, or is this his wall lizard?

Um, wow. This is like way so interesting that at least one of the PRC mind-game creeps crawling the internet and posting like crazy all that stuff can be identified. I'm impressed. The rest of you look here and cringe:

http://www.rosenblog.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1555

Your Dava

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 02 April, 2008 21:43  

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Dava,

The "jing-jok" (house gecko) is still around, but he hasn't felt like dancing on the keyboard for a couple of years now.

Yes, that's the fellow - good find! You can find megabytes of his stuff at Google Newsgroups, in the archives of talk.politics.tibet.

Agam

By Blogger Agam, at 02 April, 2008 21:57  

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Dear Ag,

If you could just post on uTube a video of that lizard playing the piano, I'll bet it would get more views than that now infamous anti-Tibetan propaganda vid. Meanwhile, I wonder if you could remove the link in Chas' post. I'm afraid it might be designed to spread spy ware. Could just be my paranoia, but with somebody that spooky you never can be too careful. You probably know that the United Front approach is usually this: to appear to be on your side. At first. They're like guys with sex on their minds. First they make friends. Then they immediately proceed to... (I almost used that nasty word all those pro-PRC guys are over-using) you. That's why you see that guy promoting Olympic boycotts at one point, because those are just the people he wants to get to. It's been suggested that the cultural revolution, which has rather strangely survived with no letup in Tibet until now, has been in some ways revived, at least in its language, in the PRC coastal heartlands as well (you know: Death to the imperialists! &c). I'm almost ready to go a little further. Unleashing all that youthful anger is a new "red guard" tactic to keep the people from stepping off the unswerving straight line. Once more playing politics with devastating consequences for people's lives, and I'm afraid this time the plan could be to really let Tibetans have it. An easy target, a 'spot on the wall' as one put it so dreadfully and, for him, aptly. I think most people can hardly see that tying our minds in knots is just what these people plan to do. As far as I'm concerned, it seems to be working pretty well recently. I need to go meditate awhile. But you keep up the good work. Be fearless about the truth.

Dava

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 02 April, 2008 23:18  

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I couldn't figure out how to edit others' comments (I know some bloggers do it, and some overdo it, but I can't do it at all) - just to remove the url from CL's post. It looks like just a vendor site, but yeah. Better safe than sorry.

I didn't like having a link on this blog to all of his various projects. So it's gone - but thanks again for the name of the film bf/cl !

I've been telling others that we need to be careful out there. Careful about facts, and careful about security. Many of the support groups and exile orgs have been attacked with trojan-embedded emails, cleverly designed. It has caused real problems for some. It's obvious in YouTube comments, the cyber-troops have been rallied. cl's getting overtime.

And who was it that called (Tibetans?) a 'spot on the wall'? The flashbacks of cultural revolutionary jargon is very worrying.

Agam

By Blogger Agam, at 03 April, 2008 00:29  

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