Published on January 10, 2020.
This article introduces a discussion from the “Media Insider Report Card” column in the monthly magazine Sound Argument, focusing on the Uyghur issue as covered by BS Nippon TV’s “Shinso NEWS.”
It criticizes the Chinese scholar’s defense of so-called “vocational retraining centers,” the anguish of Uyghurs living in Japan, the failure of Japanese television stations to challenge Beijing’s propaganda, and the silence of both the Japanese media and the Diet over the planned state visit of Xi Jinping.

January 10, 2020
Whenever some trouble arises between Japan and China, he goes from one television station to another, carrying out the role of transmitting Beijing’s claims over Japan’s airwaves.
He is one of those well-known Chinese scholars.
The following is from “Media Insider Report Card” in the currently available issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument.
China Must Answer Sincerely the Questions Asked of It as a Human Matter!
Teacher:
On December 5, BS Nippon TV took up the issue of the Uyghurs.
Let us begin with that today.
On “Shinso NEWS,” anchored by Jiro Shinbo, Ahmet Letep, a Uyghur living in Japan, and Ling Xingguang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and professor emeritus at Fukui Prefectural University, appeared and “confronted” each other.
It was quite worth watching.
Did you see it?
Lady:
I saw it, I saw it.
The critic Sekihei and Kunihiko Miyake, Research Director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies, were also there, but Mr. Ling was battered from beginning to end, wasn’t he?
Editor:
Even when he was shown photographs of the “concentration camps” where large numbers of Uyghurs are being detained, Mr. Ling said, “They are vocational retraining centers.”
He said it with a cool face, but even Mr. Shinbo pressed him, saying, “No matter how you look at it, this is a prison!” and he was flustered.
At first, Mr. Ling behaved as though the words “I am Beijing’s agent!” were written all over his face, but under the “fierce attacks” from those around him, he was sunk again and again, and at last he said, “There are also areas that should be improved.”
I wanted to retort, “It’s not a matter of improvement, you have to stop it!”
Lady:
Mr. Ling, too, probably has to show on television that he is properly behaving as an “agent”; otherwise, when he returns to China, danger may approach him personally.
No matter how brazenly false it looks, he probably has no choice but to behave that way.
Teacher:
He belongs to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, so he is, rather, an “official,” and close to being a party concerned.
This is not limited to this problem, but whenever some trouble arises between Japan and China, he goes from one television station to another, carrying out the role of transmitting Beijing’s claims over Japan’s airwaves.
He is one of those well-known Chinese scholars.
The problem, I think, is the lack of discernment of television stations that shamelessly broadcast his lies as they are.
“Shinso NEWS” was still making an effort, so that is all right, but there are also stations where he simply appears, develops his own argument endlessly, and that is the end of it.
Editor:
In other words, by simply broadcasting the other side’s claims as they are, they are helping a foreign power.
Teacher:
Exactly.
He is, so to speak, the “customary person,” the “go-to figure” for television stations.
Though he is not the only one.
Zhu Jianrong, professor at Toyo Gakuen University, is also like that.
In his case, there was even an incident in which he was detained when he returned to China, wasn’t there?
Lady:
Even what they are doing in the “concentration camps” — no, in the “vocational retraining centers” — he openly says is “first, studying Chinese; second, studying the law; and third, vocational training, removing extremist ideology in three stages.”
Isn’t that practically admitting, “We are carrying out thought control and ideological remolding”?
The same goes for “removing extremist ideology through vocational training.”
What kind of vocational training is that supposed to be?
It makes no sense at all.
Even just the content of what he says is bad enough, and it is completely unacceptable.
Why can he keep such a calm face, as though he has successfully deceived everyone?
It is incomprehensible.
Teacher:
On the other hand, the anguished cry of the Uyghur living in Japan was heartbreaking.
In the first place, he pressed the point that his father was an elderly man of seventy who had farmed while raising his children, so why on earth would he now need “vocational training”?
Since Ling could not explain it, by the end he looked as if he was about to cry.
Lady:
But this is exactly the kind of program that should be broadcast much more on terrestrial television.
NHK did take up the manga by the cartoonist Tomomi Shimizu, which Sound Argument had also covered, depicting the suffering of the Uyghurs.
But that was on radio.
Are they planning not to touch “things inconvenient to China” on terrestrial television?
Editor:
Speaking of Ms. Shimizu’s manga, Nippon TV’s “Sukkiri!” covered it, and Ms. Shimizu also notified people concerned and was looking forward to the broadcast, but on the day itself it was scrapped.
Well, it was a live program, and it cannot be helped that programming changes from moment to moment, but it was a story that was not at all “sukkiri,” not at all clear or satisfying.
Lady:
In the past, there were even more blatant examples of consideration toward China.
TBS’s “Tetsuya Chikushi’s NEWS23,” for example, once introduced the film “Seven Years in Tibet” as “a film depicting the expansion of Tibet’s autonomy by the Chinese government.”
The actual film depicts China’s invasion of Tibet, but they probably did not want to use the word “invasion.”
That is deference taken to an extreme.
Unlike today, the Internet had not yet developed, so there was no online uproar with people pointing it out.
But today, deference and consideration toward China spread instantly across the Internet, don’t they?
The attitude of the media remains the same, but perhaps the situation has improved a little.
Teacher:
I wonder about that.
In the film “Aircraft Carrier Ibuki,” the original story was that in the year 20XX, Chinese agents land on the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, the situation escalates, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army occupies the Sakishima Islands, and an armed clash between Japan and China occurs.
In the film, however, it was changed into a completely different story.
Sponsors tend to dislike stories that are harsh toward China, and that apparently influenced the result.
I certainly do not think the situation has improved.
Editor:
It is true that a human rights violation so outrageous that it will remain in human history is now taking place in real time, and yet the media are not particularly stirred up.
There is not even a condemnation resolution in the Diet.
On the contrary, they are going to invite the head of state of China, the country carrying out the repression, as a state guest, aren’t they?
Professor:
Yes.
They are not facing it seriously, and they are pretending not to see it.
It is an extremely grave situation.
The atmosphere of watching China’s mood is becoming more and more dominant, and from now on, as China’s hegemony grows stronger, the space for speech will become even more suffocating.
I have that unpleasant premonition.
Editor:
The manga by Ms. Shimizu that came up earlier was also distributed by Kyodo News, and that did spread quite widely.
But as for the other major media, well.
At Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s press conference, the only ones who questioned him about inviting Xi Jinping as a state guest were, unbelievably, foreign media, weren’t they?
The Prime Minister’s answer was clearly insufficient, yet no one pressed him further.
It is a miserable situation.
Teacher:
When it is a state guest, it becomes a matter in which His Majesty the Emperor bows his head.
After the Tiananmen Square Incident, His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus visited China, and there is the bitter experience that this was exploited by China.
Are those people who usually cry “human rights, human rights” planning to ignore this overwhelming violation of human rights now?
It is suspicious and disreputable.
This article continues.