Joseph Mahoney: Why the West blames China for its own problems

By Wu Xinru

(ECNS) – "The convenient answer for a society incapable of solving its own problems is to blame someone else. Thus we have the proliferation of narratives that China is somehow responsible for Western problems," said Joseph Gregory Mahoney, professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University during a thematic forum on international communication held in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday.

Themed "Telling Well the Stories of the Chinese Modernization: Better Methods for Greater Effectiveness," the forum is part of the 8th Understanding China Conference that is taking place in Guangzhou, which brings together global experts to explore China's development path and its global impact.

Speaking of the current international situation, he pointed out that the West is living through its own declines, both relative and absolute, in real time. And this is the reason why they tend to blame China for its own incapability.

Mahoney observed that Western people are inclined to believe that while things are bad in the U.S., they are even worse in China. For them, "our society is not the only one filled with problems."

The digital age has changed the way information is acquired and disseminated. And the Internet has brought convenience for people to acquire information, leading the torrent of information to occupy every corner of people's lives.

However, Mahoney believes that it's a little bit misleading to say that we live in an information age insomuch as we increasingly live in a disinformation age. This is not an entirely new phenomenon, he said at the forum.

He noted that the U.S. government and media companies have powerful new tools for creating and disseminating fake news to cover up their own direct or indirect misdeeds. And yet, whenever these truths are revealed, it viciously attacks the leakers, and distracts the audience by sanctimoniously wagging a finger at someone else.

In this new era, America is increasingly revealing its true colors, said Mahoney, citing Eric Hobsbawm's description of the country as "shucking off the velvet glove of cultural hegemony to reveal the imperial fist within."

China should show the world its position of strength and real value, seeking truth from facts and telling those truths with frankness, suggested Mahoney.

He stressed that China's achievements are indeed marvelous, and must be presented well so as to win the information war in the age of disinformation.