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Crime In China: BS Upon BS

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

The Modern Lei Fang blog just did a post, entitled, Crime in China (Alternative Title: I call Bullshit!)" excoriating the Associated Press for "piling it on against China." Lei Fang is angry at an AP article, "Foreigners Grapple With Crime in China," which he rightfully considers fear mongering. Lei Fang complains about how the article takes a few anecdotes and then ascribes them with a Chinese crime wave. Lei Fang is right on all counts, but he misses the really big issue here: what is the media supposed to do when there are no accurate statistics? I wrote a post on this about a year ago, entitled, "China Crime By The Numbers And By The Anecdotes," where I registered this same complaint. As an employer, I am in favor of nearly full disclosure regarding firm finances, hirings, etc. My view is that the rumors are nearly always worse than the facts. I agree that this AP article is (as my kids would say) a bit off, but I also believe at least half the blame for this falls on the Chinese government. And though I sort of promised not to talk again about the big issue going on in China's West, I have been wondering a lot if much of the PR problem China is facing on that issue would not go away if the media were simply allowed in to report on the facts, rather than forcing us to work off rumor. Stan Abrams, over at the excoriation proof China Hearsay, did a nice post on this as well.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).