Li Pengyi (李朋義) was brimming with cheer as he ticked off the business done so far by Chinese publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s top marketplace for books and book rights.
“We’ve sold a large number of rights. We’ve signed up to buy hundreds of rights,” said Li, vice president of China Publishing Group Corporation (CPGC), the biggest Chinese book publisher.
The company is part of China’s official maxi-booth in pavilion 6 at the annual fair in Germany.
But when the conversation changed to the cultural diplomacy side of China’s presence in Frankfurt — China is this year’s guest of honor at the Book Fair — his face darkened.
“We don’t feel we’ve been hospitably treated,” he said. “China sent more than 2,000 people to Frankfurt. And now this barrage of criticism.”
The German media, intellectuals and politicians have been pummeling China all week, attacking it for jailing writers, for refusing to include dissident authors in the official party and for trying to paint a false image of Chinese harmony.
Free speech is a motto of the Book Fair. Special guests usually hail their great authors and mumble apologies to those discredited in the past. As guest a year ago, Turkey demonstrated inclusivity, adroitly claiming Jews and Armenians as part of its rich heritage.
But China did not do this.
The delegation from China, which arrived so proudly in Frankfurt, is clearly hurt by the hostile public reaction in Germany.
“We were not expecting to be treated like this,” said Zhao Haiyun, spokesman for the state-run General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).
Zhao said China had put on an impressive exhibition and arrived with a well-thought-out cultural program.
But instead of dwelling on Chinese literature, the German media had focused on human rights policy.
“The German media are very biased,” Zhao said.
GAPP is China’s principal censorship body, since it decides what may be published in China and what not. Zhao’s colleagues supervised the Chinese program at the fair.
Social critics such as the Beijing environmentalist Dai Qing (戴晴) and London-based voice of the downtrodden Ma Jian (馬健) were not invited, but they came to the fair anyway, at the expense of publishers and activist groups and have been widely quoted in the German media.
Unlike Book Fair officials, Zhao did not offer this as evidence of balance.
“I have no knowledge of the Book Fair offering a platform for opposition events,” he insisted.
The Book Fair has exposed a deep rift in perceptions between Chinese officialdom and the Western democrats.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry regularly denounces criticism of Tibetan policy and human rights practices as interference in Chinese internal affairs. Westerners believe they are duty-bound to remind the Chinese of these concerns, on behalf of those who have no voice.
“There should be no taboos in the debate, and I am sure there won’t be any,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech at the opening of the fair Tuesday evening in Frankfurt.
It was a clear riposte to listening Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), who had just uttered an appeal to the same audience for “understanding and respect” from the German hosts. Li, of publishing house CPGC, fumed about the remark.
“If Germany or Merkel had been playing the guest role in China, we would never dream of addressing them in such a way,” he said.
He said he detected considerable prejudice in the speeches of Merkel and Roland Koch, the premier of the German state of Hesse, who bluntly told the Chinese he had been concerned about Tibet for many years.
Li said he hoped the Book Fair still offered an opportunity to modify German views, but consoled himself with business prospects.
“Our business dealings have not been harmed by these misunderstandings,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS