Singapore’s top Chinese newspaper strongly refutes ‘biased comments and unfair statements’ in Washington Post article

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Chinese language media Lianhe Zaobao has stressed that it takes its mission of delivering information seriously and remains committed to neutrality.

The comments by Zaobao’s editor Goh Sin Teck came a day after the Washington Post put up its story “In Singapore, loud echoes of Beijing’s positions generate anxiety” on July 24.

Goh said the American newspaper had looked at the issue with its own pre-established perspective and agenda. It selectively left out some facts while intentionally highlighting others to paint a negative image of Zaobao, he said, “which is regrettable but not surprising to us”.

“We had earlier provided comprehensive responses to the questions raised by the Washington Post, which were not adequately reflected in their reporting,” he added.

This is what Zaobao had told the Washington Post:

On columnists: How are they picked and are they paid? The Post had also asked for confirmation that two regular columnists, Ding Song Quan and Deng Qingbo, are both Communist Party officials and asked why they are described as China affairs commentators.

Zaobao’s official position is only carried in its editorials. We aim to feature a broad spectrum of views in the Forum Opinion section, including those approving of the Chinese approach and articles criticising it. The contributors of these articles include academics and experts from the United States and Japan, as well as those from China; we do not want to discard certain views out of hand solely based on the columnist’s background. These pieces do not represent Lianhe Zaobao’s views.

Given that China is the largest trading partner of most countries in this region, understanding the thinking of the authorities in Beijing has its value. In the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “whole nation” system, so-called private agencies or individuals may often have an official background – this is well-known among observers of modern China. The Washington Post has also published interviews of academics reflecting the official position, also without indicating their partisanship.

As far as possible, Zaobao verifies the background of all writers, while respecting how they wish to describe themselves. We also publish writers from China who prefer to publish anonymously, or under a pseudonym, due to their contradictory positions on sensitive issues from the Chinese government. There is a modest fee for published articles, which is the practice for Chinese-language newspapers in Singapore.

On whether the practice is to have more neutral/balanced reporting on issues core to Singapore, while letting Beijing’s narrative run on other topics

All our journalists and editors working on China reporting are proficient in both English and Chinese languages, and we obtain our information from a great variety of sources. As a result, besides Chinese sources, we also cite or quote a lot from international news agencies and Western mainstream media reports on mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When we report on China or any location, official local data and information is the primary source. Reports on Taiwan are usually filed by our correspondents based there; when quoting from other media, we do not intentionally select the sources according to their political leanings.

When we report on China, the principle is to concurrently report what China and other countries are saying, on the premise that the information sources are reliable, or that we have first-hand interviews. The narrative we are after is not the Western narrative or Beijing’s narrative, but a Singapore media’s narrative. And for that, we have also been strongly criticised by pro-China or anti-China readers. But this will not deter us from our fundamental intentions.

On links between Zaobao and the Chinese Ambassador in Singapore

Quite a number of ambassadors have been engaging us, including China’s Ambassador. We interviewed them and published articles contributed by them. The latest was from the Japanese Ambassador. Last November, China’s Ambassador Sun Haiyan sent one in response to our editor-in-chief’s column. We published that by our guiding principle of giving the right of reply.

On whether Zaobao factors its access in China when making editorial decisions in Singapore

Based on the definitions of some Western media platforms, if you’re not anti-China, you must be pro-China. And in their eyes, you’re not only pro-China, but pro-CCP. Such perceptions and definitions are too simplistic and even malicious. We cover China news as we would other news – being objective, neutral, fact-based and without critique or preconceived notions. Indeed, we may not be dancing to the West’s tune when we report on certain topics. But to categorise us as a pro-CCP media because of this seems to be overly rash and arbitrary.

We have millions of readers in China who visit our digital platforms because the perspective and interpretation of our reports are different from that of the local Chinese media outlets. We cherish these readers because to them, we are an important window for them to connect to the outside world. And we have never taken the fact that they are able to access our platform for granted.

The reason why Lianhe Zaobao reports or does not report news is not dependent on whether we will be blocked in China. We also do not exist to oppose or support China, nor to oppose or support any country. Our mission is to bring informative and quality information to our readers, and to provide a broad spectrum of views.

The objective fact is that there are instances where our users in mainland China cannot access particular reports, or any report for that matter, but we maintain our usual stance. Amid intensifying China-US rivalry, we stick to the principle of not taking sides and refuse to be forced into taking sides under pressure.

On Zaobao’s partnership with (AI firm) SenseTime, which has been sanctioned by the US government because of alleged complicity in human rights abuses against the Uighur minority

The one-year non-binding arrangement between Lianhe Zaobao and SenseTime International is designed to explore ways of using AI technology to improve visual content presentation and user experience. This is part of our digitalisation journey where we develop digital innovations with a broad range of content, media and technology partners. Lianhe Zaobao has no wish to be embroiled in US-China contests. – The Straits Tims/Asia News Network