Why Is the Chinese Government So Good at Censoring?

Because it works like a charm.

And this column by John Kamm, founder and executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group, presents devastating evidence in this respect.

Kamm uses an international poll by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Survey to prove that when it comes to world perception of their country, the Chinese live in a fantasy land.

Three in four Chinese think the world likes China, while only one in 10 thinks foreigners don't like the country. More than 80 percent believe China takes other countries' interests into account when formulating foreign policy. Just 3 percent think China's economic growth has a negative effect on other countries. Only 1 percent knew a lot about the recall of Chinese products for quality and safety reasons.

This overwhelming optimism about their country's reputation shines in stark contrast with the opinions of the rest of the world. Kamm, quoting the same poll, writes:

Excluding results from China, the mean "favorable" rating for China in 21 countries for which tracking data are available is 46 percent, and in 15 of these countries China's favorability rating declined this year from last. Also in 15 countries, more people believe that China exerts a bad influence on their country than think it exerts a good influence. Across all countries in the poll, only 30 percent believe China takes the interests of other countries into account. Knowledge of problems with Chinese products is widespread.

Kamm rightly concludes that “this isn't a gap; it's a chasm,”and lies the blame squarely on the “information bubble” Chinese censors have built around 1.3 billion people.

Consider the Chinese reaction to the Olympic torch protests this spring. More shock than anger, the sentiment underlying the people's responses was clear: How could foreigners behave so badly toward a country as loved and respected as China? An official from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs mournfully told me after the London and Paris protests in April: "China is smiling at the world, but the world is not smiling back." She stressed how hurt the feelings of the Chinese people were by protests of Beijing's human rights practices and its policy toward Tibet. Yet polling before the protests found widespread disapproval of Chinese policies toward Tibet in countries as diverse as India, South Korea, the United States and Germany.

It's no wonder the Chinese are shocked at the world's response to the repression of the Tibetan uprising or the regime's endless human rights violations. The world's most sophisticated censorship apparatus has done a marvelous job at indoctrinating the world's most populous nation.

The Chinese people, it seems, are among the most satisfied on Earth. More than 80 percent told the Pew Research Center that they are satisfied with the country's economy and overall direction, and 65 percent think the government is doing a good job. Ninety-six percent think the Olympics will be a success, and 93 percent believe the Games will improve the country's image. Three-quarters think China will win the most gold medals. Even accounting for distortions that arise in polling in authoritarian states, the numbers are impressive: China is brimming with optimism.

That's why, Kamm agues, it's so hard to persuade the regime to improve their human rights record, because the Chinese people are convinced that the world loves them.

But most striking to the average Chinese may be the widely held view that their government does not respect personal freedoms. Majorities in 12 of 23 countries (including all of the top medal winners in the Athens Games except Russia) believe the Chinese government does not respect individual rights. In 10 countries, at least two-thirds hold that opinion. Only in four countries do a majority think the Chinese government respects personal freedoms.

It is not known whether the Chinese people think their government respects human rights: Pew wasn't allowed to ask this question in China.

Kamm's column reminds us all that the hallmark of a very successful dictatorship is a populace utterly uninformed about the realities of the world and of their own country. The Chinese regime passes this test with flying colors.