Posted on 09/12/2001 10:46:05 AM PDT by super175
Just after the two planes ploughed into the World Trade Centre, the shocked reaction spread the mainland from the China Central Television coverage. Word quickly spread via telephones, mobile phones, and e-mail to friends and family members across China.
Many Chinese had to turn to non-governmental sources to get more information. In Guangdong, people with access to Hong Kong's television stations could watch the tragedy unfolding through live coverage from two SAR channels. Many more could view the horror and carnage immediately afterwards on Phoenix TV, which carried Fox TV footage with Chinese voice-over.
Many people without access to overseas television stations or news networks logged on to the Internet, where major Chinese Web sites like Sina, Sohu and Netease were carrying special reports with a large number of pictures.
The Chinese government response was fairly muted at first and comparatively late in coming this morning, but ordinary people were already giving almost instantaneous responses and opinions on the Internet. Many chose Strong China Forum, a BBS of the Party newspaper People's Daily, to voice their opinions. The bulletin board is famous for addressing serious political issues that supposedly have an impact on China's strategic interests.
Unlike the usual reaction to other major issues, in this case Chinese Web site users showed a range of opinions about the attack that occurred late evening Beijing time. Some were excited and showed their approval with words like "wow", "great", or "cool".
The more sobre-minded said that it was sad but was obviously the result of a ''one-sided US policy''. They coupled this with talk about the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia and the suffering of the Palestinian people and about how there should ''not be double standards in human lives''.
Others wrote that such a terrorist attack on civilians was ''absolutely intolerable'' and pointed out that ''there might very well be many Chinese working in the twin towers that collapsed''.
As the discussions moved on past midnight the rhetoric began heating up with participants cursing anyone who held opposing views, calling them "traitors," "hypocrites", or more than often "crazy". The Web masters had to intervene to delete the most outrageous or foul language. That move in turn resulted in online protests of "censorship".
Mainland scholars echoed the government's statements criticising terrorism, but they also said that ''the US government needed to change its behaviour if it wanted to avoid further such attacks in the future''.
During one discussion on Sina.com's chat room this morning, Jin Canrong, of the Chinese Social Science Academy's American Research Institute, said "the US government is also responsible for the attack" and urged the US government to get away from its ''one-sidedness''.
"The American people must take a close look at just why such a tragedy took place in their country," was the comment on the same instant online forum of Qiao Liang, a military strategist.
Mr Qiao is the author of "Unlimited Warfare", which discusses a number of extraordinary ways in which smaller less-powerful countries might realistically attack a superpower. The work enjoyed a period of popularity when it appeared just after the Kosovo War.
"It is sad that the US still can not figure out who was responsible for the World Trade Centre attack," Mr Qiao said on the forum this morning, "But they just create too many enemies in the world."
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Wednesday, September 12, 2001
US UNDER ATTACK Shocked China steps up security at US embassy
REUTERS in BEIJING
China increased security around US diplomatic buildings on Wednesday as state-run media and ordinary Chinese reeled with shock at the aircraft attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
At least one Chinese national was injured in the terror attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the fate of roughly 30 others was unknown on Wednesday morning, China's Foreign Trade Ministry said.
China had 14 companies with offices in the building at the heart of the global financial centre which was hit by two aircraft on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
Chinese paramilitary police blocked off the road past the US embassy in Beijing to all but American embassy cars and personnel and doubled the number of guards to about 30, said one police lieutenant.
''We are here to protect the safety of embassy personnel and US citizens,'' said the lieutenant, who declined to be indentified. ''China is utterly opposed to terrorist activities.''
Chinese newspapers delayed their morning issues by at least an hour to change their front pages, journalists said.
Most carried front-page pictures of the World Trade Center billowing smoke into the sky over Manhattan. ''Terrorists Attack the United States!'' screamed the main headline in the popular Beijing Youth Daily, one of the first to hit the streets.
Ordinary Chinese scrambled for more information, with many trying to access foreign news web sites, which are mostly blocked in China.
Many condemned the attacks, first reported on the main state channel China Central Television around midnight on Tuesday, three hours after the event.
''I think no matter what, if you play with people's lives, it is too tragic,'' said Chen Xiao, who works for a Beijing publishing firm, as she bought a morning newspaper.
''It doesn't matter who did it or what they were upset about, but taking that many innocent lives is a price that's barbaric.''
But some said the United States had brought the attacks on itself.
Anti-US sentiment has been riding high in China since the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, which killed three Chinese journalists, and this year's April 1 collision between a US spy plane and Chinese fighter, whose pilot died.
''My initial reaction is they deserve it because the US is just bad,'' said a middle-aged taxi driver in Shanghai who declined to be identified.
''Their economy is too developed, so it's bound to arouse the envy and hatred of others.'' Said a traffic warden in Beijing, who gave her last name as Wu: ''Some things America has done are a little bit extreme. Extreme for any country. We read the papers every day...like hitting our aeroplane.''
''America has attacked other countries. It bombed the Chinese embassy. China would not bomb any country and is peaceful with every country.''
China's normally insulated stocks markets dropped sharply at the open on Wednesday, with Shanghai B shares down more than six per cent.
Chinese investors, who routinely ignore everything from US Fed rate cuts to tumbling Asian bourses, would be unable to shrug off the attacks, brokers and analysts said.
The official Xinhua news agency said all four flights scheduled from China to the United States on Wednesday had been cancelled.
Air China flight CA985 to San Francisco and China Eastern flight MU583 to Los Angeles were both diverted to Vancouver on Tuesday night and China Eastern cargo flight MU5787 was diverted to an American military airport in Anchorage, Alaska, Xinhua said.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a message of sympathy to US President George W. Bush within hours of the attacks.
Mr Jiang also expressed condolences to the family members of the victims of the attacks and ''grave concern'' for the safety of tens of thousands of Chinese in the United States.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement the Chinese people were ''deeply shocked'' by the attacks.
''The Chinese government has consistently condemned and opposed all manner of terrorist violence,'' Mr Zhu said.
Anything to destroy the Americans is ok with the Chinese. They just want America out and their dictatorship left alone.
China falls on the other side of this equation, the side opposite from the USA.
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