The Land of the Clueless – The Chinese Peace Plan and Its Reflection in the Media
- Bernd Liske
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
The Nature of Democracy: The Dialectic of Freedom of the Press
– the freedom of journalists to write what they want,
yet everyone writes the same thing – and freedom of expression
– everyone can express themselves, but not everyone is allowed to hear it.
Since March of last year, I have regarded the media as the sixth branch of the armed forces in the current war between the US and Russia. With their media barrage, they are paving the way for sanctions, arms deliveries, and Germany's political orientation in general by replacing journalism with Russophobic propaganda, which is successfully leading to the monocultural dumbing down of the population. If, in the days of the GDR, areas such as Saxony were referred to as the valley of the clueless because Western television could not be received there, we can now speak of Germany as the land of the clueless, because the media orientation goes hand in hand with manifold efforts to eradicate any remaining weeds from the media landscape or to discredit their content as toxic.
Many may find such a description of the situation suspicious, given that the freedom of the press enshrined in it is one of the narratives of democracy. However, in a world where appearance increasingly determines reality, it makes sense to take a close look at how postulated values are lived out. A current opportunity to do so is provided by China's peace initiative of February 24—the day on which, one year ago, efforts to force Russia to choose between plague and cholera were successful in that Russia unfortunately chose plague.
Let's take a look at the media response to the Chinese initiative in the German media. The Tagesschau news program believes that it is "by no means a comprehensive peace plan" and that China is supporting Russia's position. On ZDF's heute journal, Marietta Slomka provides Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock with the template for her one-sided interpretation of the conflict by referring to a "so-called peace plan" that would be met with great skepticism in the West and Ukraine. DER SPIEGEL speaks of a "useless plan" and a "mauve document" that shows "that the Chinese government is completely useless as a mediator in the Ukraine conflict." ZEIT ONLINE considers China to be an accomplice of the aggressor and says it is "not a credible peacemaker." The Süddeutsche Zeitung informs its readers that Beijing is not concerned with peace in Ukraine, "but with its own desired supremacy" – and expresses concern that some might fall for the plan. The FAZ sees a "dry peace paper" that serves to polish China's image and "contains China's well-known positions and platitudes." What all the articles have in common is that they polemicize against the initiative without dealing with the concrete proposals in a journalistic manner – i.e., objectively, concisely, and precisely. The WELT is an exception. It links to the peace plan, but with the headline "China's twelve-point plan for Ukraine in detail," it suggests to the reader that readers can spare themselves the trouble of examining it because it will be discussed in detail – only to then use a few phrases taken from the paper to support the claim that China is merely representing Russia's position: which, if one considers that Russia is striving for a comprehensive assessment of the situation, would certainly not be entirely wrong.
Let us now turn to the essential aspects of the 12-point paper, and I suggest putting the paper aside. When the first point calls for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries to be effectively preserved, this cannot be understood as a unilateral message to Russia, because Ukraine's unchecked armament over many years and its planned membership of NATO pose a threat to Russia. This is made clear not least by the inclusion of the second point, which states that the security of one country should not be guaranteed at the expense of another and that confrontation between the various blocs should be avoided.
When the third point recommends avoiding anything that could further exacerbate tensions, the West may feel directly addressed with its arms deliveries. The reference to the need to prevent the crisis from spiraling out of control suggests that China reserves the right to support Russia with arms deliveries, because otherwise there is a risk that it could be forced to use nuclear weapons at a certain point. In general, it can be assumed that China is concerned about a lasting weakening in the conflict with the US if the intention, as rumored in the West, that Ukraine must win this war is successful. In my New Year's wishes at the beginning of 2022, I already stated:
While the world is facing its greatest challenge since World War II—with over 5.3 million deaths to date—Western democracies are being focused by the US on tripping up Russia in Ukraine.
If we view this as a game of chess, in which the capture of the black king means world domination and all observers assume that the black queen (China) will be attacked, White is asymmetrically focused on weakening a black bishop (Russia) by breaking through its already weak defense with a pawn (Ukraine). By weakening this bishop, White also wants to weaken the two knights in passing: Germany and Europe.
White has been preparing this move for a long time, so the attack on the black queen could take a while – especially since one pawn appears to be neutralized (Hong Kong) and another, Chinese Cuba, still needs to be developed. It would be going too far at this point to explain the effort that has been put into strengthening a single white pawn (@Die_Gruenen), and it is of course important to see the development of another pawn (Ukraine): from the – supposedly – first move to its further development through weapons, maneuvers, and sanctions. The latter serve to legitimize one's own game and block the opponent's. Appropriate to this is the image by Theo Sommer in @ZEITonline on December 7: Ukraine as the Americans' unsinkable aircraft carrier – a few hundred miles from Moscow. Ukraine as Russia's Cuba.
The fifth point is about humanitarian missions, which should follow the principles of neutrality and impartiality. Humanitarian issues shouldn't be politicized—which is something I don't really know much about. The reference in the sixth point to the parties to the conflict adhering to international humanitarian law and respecting the fundamental rights of prisoners of war can be seen as a response to reports of the mistreatment and shooting of prisoners of war by Ukraine. Similarly, Ukraine is likely to be referred to in the seventh point when China expresses its rejection of attacks on nuclear power plants. The mass reports of Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia since March 2022, prompted me to post a few tweets under @BerndLiske stupid Russians.
The eighth point is likely to be of particular interest to the US, as the reference to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons can be seen as a response to President Zelensky's speech at last year's Munich Security Conference, in which he mused about withdrawing from the Budapest Memorandum, and the reference to China would reject the research, development, and use of chemical and biological weapons leads straight to the US bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine.
The next two points also indicate that China is following the conflict very closely. The ninth point concerns the grain agreement signed by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Nations. In this regard, it calls for "full" implementation of the agreement. The grandiose claims that Russia is using hunger as a weapon and that the agreement will make a significant contribution to combating hunger in the world have now been reduced to absurdity, not only because most of the deliveries are going to Europe: What is serious is the West's torpedoing of aspects of the agreement, with the result that Russia, the much larger grain exporter, is largely failing to combat hunger. In the tenth point, China calls for a general end to unilateral sanctions because they would only create new problems. In particular, it rejects sanctions that have not been approved by the UN Security Council.
Let us summarize: China's peace plan takes into account the nature of this war and its specific characteristics. It is well suited to working toward peace in line with the ideas of Albert Schweitzer and Pope Francis, and I could imagine that countries such as India and Brazil would find their ideas reflected in the paper. However, there are undoubtedly two major problems: through its media and political interpretation of this war, the West ( ) has maneuvered itself into such a position that it will be difficult to get it out of there without significant loss of face and, moreover, to ensure that it does not endanger world peace and even the demise of humanity with further adventures. Added to this, particularly in connection with the latter, is Russia's trust in coordination with the West, which has been destroyed by this war at the latest – and to which former Chancellor Angela Merkel has dealt a final blow.
Let us now turn to the differences in content between my interpretation of the 12-point paper and the media response. I think they are striking, but this article stands out in another respect – with the exception of Die Welt: unlike the articles mentioned, it includes a link to the original paper – as is often said: I love links – and every reader can critically examine the sense and nonsense of my interpretation. This is also advisable, as the question of how objectively and substantively I view this paper can only be clarified through concrete examination, and the additional look at the original provides further food for thought.
Since the "turning point" at the latest, freedom of the press has been seen as intellectual freedom to indulge only in propagandistic goals and is, in effect, a form of bondage. However, a separate market has now formed in which countless Russia experts abuse their intelligence to interpret the prescribed Russophobic tone in a wide variety of ways, so that the average citizen in one of the most educated countries in the world is largely unaware of the uniformity of what they are being served. The result is an increasing lack of cognitive diversity, which certainly has an impact on other areas of Germany as a business and technology location. This article is therefore a further effort to strengthen the weeds in Germany despite the increasingly poor climatic conditions, so that they can hopefully still unfold their healing effect on the country and I don't have to say at some point: Germany's tragedy.
