'The Hypocritical Superpower' reveals US discourse hegemony

The Hypocritical Superpower [Photo/Xinhua]

A book revealing the discourse hegemony of the United States has recently received widespread attention. In his new book titled "The Hypocritical Superpower," well-known German writer Michael Lueders analyzed many news patterns, noting that many western media reports are often framed and filtered by interest groups in the United States.

A recent example is the U.S. media campaign promoting conspiracy theories of coronavirus lab leaks in China, and intentionally calling it the "Wuhan virus," Lueders said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency earlier this month.

"They need a scapegoat because it was quite a failure to see how (Donald) Trump's administration dealt with corona(virus), and then came up with the idea of the ‘Wuhan virus' and ‘China virus' and so on," he said. "The idea is to create a negative image."

At a regular press conference on May 11, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying recommended the book when answering a question about The New York Times accusing China of cracking down on foreign correspondents.

"The book reveals the relationship between Western media, governments and capital," Hua said. "You will find it a good read."

"By abusing discourse hegemony, the U.S. has launched a disinformation attack on China under the pretext of media freedom. In the meantime, the U.S. is letting ideology override the principles of objectivity and authenticity and justifying its political manipulation of cracking down on Chinese media through denigration," Hua said.

Actually, the accusation against China by The New York Times is another example of the U.S. discourse hegemony.

Hua said that the accusation is a complete distortion of the facts. "Since 2018, the U.S. has indefinitely delayed or denied visa approval for 20 Chinese journalists. The country designated U.S.-based Chinese media as ‘foreign agents' and ‘foreign missions,' expelled 60 Chinese journalists in all but name, and limited visas for Chinese journalists to a maximum 90-day stay," she said.

Hua explained that China has had no other choice but to make necessary and legitimate responses to the wanton U.S. suppression. "We exercised the utmost restraint and have not yet retaliated against the U.S. measure to slash Chinese journalists' visa stay to a maximum of 90 days," she said. "After the outbreak of COVID-19, we did what we could to overcome difficulties and help China-based American journalists and their families stranded overseas to return to China."

"Even though the U.S. refuses to grant Chinese journalists visa extensions, we still offer support and assistance to American journalists working in China like all foreign journalists. Their reporting here has not been affected at all," she added.