IP: Beijing produces videos glorifying terrorist attacks on 'arrogant' US

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Beijing produces videos glorifying terrorist attacks on 'arrogant' US
>
> By Damien McElroy
>
> (Filed: 04/11/2001)
>
> THE Chinese state-run propaganda machine is cashing in on the terror
> attacks in New York and Washington, producing books, films and video games
> glorifying the strikes as a humbling blow against an arrogant nation.
>
> Video discs filled with lurid images along with dramatic opera music and
> even the theme from Jaws have flooded the nation's markets in the wake of
> the attacks.
>
> Disc after disc bear the imprimatur of the Communist Party-controlled
> media. The most popular DVDs have been produced by the Xinhua information
> agency, Beijing Television and China Central Television.
>
> Communist Party officials say President Jiang Zemin has obsessively watched
> and re-watched pictures of the aircraft crashing into the World Trade
> Centre. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, workers at Beijing
> Television worked round-the-clock to produce a documentary they called
> Attack America.
>
> Scenes from Hollywood films have been spliced between shots of the events
> of September 11, including footage from the 1998 remake of Godzilla, in
> which a monster destroys New York buildings.
>
> As rescue workers pick through the rubble of the twin towers, the
> commentator proclaims that the city had reaped the consequences of decades
> of American bullying of weaker nations.
>
> He said: "This is the America the whole world has wanted to see. Blood
> debts have been repaid in blood. America has bombed other countries and
> used its hegemony to deny the natural rights of others without paying the
> price. Who until now has dared to avenge the hurts inflicted by
> unaccountable Americans."
>
> Officials at Beijing Television defended the video as an educational film
> that will meet market demand. A producer said: "There's this need for more
> information on world terrorism in the market, so we've got to meet it."
>
> At the country's most respected bookstore, Xinhua Book Shop on Beijing's
> busiest shopping street, Wanfujing, crowds jockeyed around a table to buy
> discs. According to staff, thousands of copies of the video have been sold
> in the past month.
>
> The shop assistant said: "Before people were interested in the movies but
> this is more compelling. What happened in New York could have happened in a
> movie but this is real life. It's better."
>
> The many shops that stock pirated DVDs compiled in China and Hong Kong
> report that their most popular products are similar productions that use
> video graphics to show the United States suffering other damaging attacks
> on its tallest buildings and military installations.
>
> On the unofficial films the commentary is even more callous: "Look at the
> panic in their faces as they wipe off the dust and crawl out of their
> strong buildings - now just a heap of rubble. We will never fear these
> people again, they have been shown to be soft-bellied paper tigers."
>
> Elsewhere music shops are selling out of a bootleg version of the summer's
> top pop hit. The amended song implies that America deserves to suffer for
> its disregard for the point of view of countries weaker than itself.
>
> The refrain says: "We guys are all Americans, our government is used to
> bullying people. We guys always have our hands on too much, this time our
> own people got hurt."

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