JEFF BEZOS WAS RIGHT to sack a large number of Washington Post staff last night, I’m sorry to say. By Nury Vittachi. JEFF BEZOS 昨晚解僱《華盛頓郵報》大量員工，其實是對的，我很遺憾地這麼說. 作者：Nury Vittachi

The paper yesterday booted out more than 300 staff in a mass culling of jobs.

Now before I am torn to shreds by my counterparts in the profession, let me add that I offer deep sympathy, on a personal level, for every individual who lost their jobs. I mean that. It’s a tough industry (I’ve been sacked from news outlets several times) and it always hurts to be shown the door.

REDUCTIVE AND SHALLOW

But something else MUST be said specifically about the people in the section of Washington Post coverage that I am familiar with—the ones who produce reductive, hostile, nuance-free coverage of mainland China and Hong Kong. Their work has been extremely harmful to all sides, and it is very, very good thing for everyone that it may be over.

The sackings of these people give the world a chance to rise above the shallow anti-China narrative that has been used to trigger an arms race, and instead move towards a world characterized by healthy geopolitical relationships based on trade and mutual respect: in other words, peace and understanding.

You want evidence? I have evidence. Look at the coverage for yourself.

‘TENTACLE WRITING’

For example, China correspondent Katrina Northrop was sacked by the Washington Post yesterday.

For the readers of the Washington Post, she took the huge, complex, richly cultured, beautifully complex Chinese nation, and reduced it to a malevolent force in Beijing that could do nothing except reach out, tighten its grip, and create crackdowns on everything.

• Her story on finance: “What does Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong mean for the world’s most valuable stock exchange?”
• Her story on the tragic Hong Kong tower blocks fire: “First came the fire. Then came the political crackdown.”
• Her story on the Chinese beauty industry: “Amid Botched procedures, Beijing is cracking down on cosmetic surgery”.
• Her story on politics in Taiwan: “On today’s Washington Post front page, our investigation into the murky mix of organized crime and politics allowing Beijing to extend its reach into Taiwan.”
• Her story on China’s amazing rise in AI: “How China is Using AI to Extend Censorship and Surveillance”.

Get the message? Everything is in the language of tentacles – Beijing reaching out, gripping, tightening, cracking down.

But let’s not be unfair to Ms Northrop, who may be a very nice person, and who writes very well. She was simply following the over-arching “west-good-China-bad” narrative of her industry, like her colleagues.

AN AGGRESSIVE HOTEL?

Also sacked was Mike E Miller. In August last year, Miller lead-wrote an article in the Washington Post that reported that both China and the US were spending money on the island of Palau.

But he notably failed to highlight the fact that they were not doing the same thing at all. Chinese people were building a hotel to boost Palau’s tourism industry and employ locals. The US was building special harbors for warships for America’s planned war on China.

Incredibly, Miller’s article painted the Chinese as the aggressive ones! “China, which has the world’s largest navy, has been aggressively increasing its influence across the South China Sea and into the Western Pacific, seeking to becoming the predominant maritime power in a region the U.S. has long considered its domain,” he wrote.

How is a hotel designed to employ locals worse than a warship base? The Chinese-built tourist hotel, Mr Miller wrote, may be used to look at the US war preparations, he explained.

The cringeworthy level of bias was so transparent that a child could see through it. But he may be a nice person, just following orders.

FALSE VISION OF HONG KONG

Also sacked was Shibani Mahtani, who wrote wildly negative articles about Hong Kong. Residents of the city know that their home is one of the richest, safest places in the world, and literally the healthiest city on earth, with a longevity level that beats Japan.

But in her hands, it came across as a nightmarish place where awful things happened to the innocent.

To take just one example, Jimmy Lai was kept in solitary confinement, she told the world, omitting the rather crucial fact that he requested it.

Her writing gave the impression that Lai’s trial was about free speech, as she chose to downplay the crucial fact that the heart of it was foreign collusion—and a huge amount of hard evidence of this was shown during the trial. I mean, Mike Pompeo’s office literally talked to Lai as the US passed laws and sanctions that did incredible harm to the innocent people of Hong Kong. Why not report that?

Lai printed a positive portrayal of the terrifying Dragon Slayers Brigade, who went on to gather terrorist-grade bombs and firearms to try to mass-murder innocent people in Wan Chai.

How do these things make Lai a hero, Ms Mahtani?

Again, she may be a nice person, just following orders. But I’m blessed with a large number of friends in Hong Kong, of all political leanings, and I don’t know a single one who is not horrified by the deeply unfair coverage of their city and their country by foreign correspondents working for the west against China.

SHORTAGE OF JOURNALISTS

As for the journalists out of a job in this region, I have a suggestion.

The world has a massive shortage of journalists who can rise above Tentacle Writing (“crackdown”, “grip”, “tightening hold” “Beijing’s reach”) and write intelligently and even-handedly about East Asia, with insight and nuance and balance and fairness and honesty, even to the Chinese. I refer to people who can create bridges instead of walls.

Why not try being one of those? The world needs you.

JEFF BEZOS 昨晚解僱《華盛頓郵報》大量員工，其實是對的，我很遺憾地這麼說. 作者：Nury Vittachi

該報昨日進行大規模裁員，超過300名員工被解僱。

在我被同行撕碎之前，必須補充一句：就個人層面而言，我對每一位失去工作的人都深表同情。我是認真的。這是一個艱難的行業（我自己也曾多次被新聞機構解僱），被掃地出門永遠都很痛。

膚淺又簡化的報導

但有些話必須說，尤其是針對我所熟悉的《華盛頓郵報》某一類報導人員——那些製作出對中國大陸與香港充滿敵意、去脈絡化、毫無細膩度的報導的人。他們的作品對各方都造成了極大的傷害，而這種情況可能就此結束，對所有人來說都是一件非常、非常好的事。

這些人的離開，給了世界一個機會，讓我們能夠超越那種膚淺的反華敘事——這種敘事曾被用來引爆軍備競賽——轉而走向一個以貿易與相互尊重為基礎、建立健康地緣政治關係的世界。換句話說，就是和平與理解。

你要證據嗎？我有。請你自己看看這些報導。

「觸手式寫作」

例如，《華盛頓郵報》的中國記者 Katrina Northrop 昨天被解僱。

對《華盛頓郵報》的讀者而言，她把一個龐大、複雜、文化深厚、層次豐富的中國，簡化成北京的一個邪惡力量 – 除了伸出觸手、收緊控制、對一切進行打壓之外，什麼都不會做。
• 她關於金融的報導：「北京對香港日益收緊的控制，對全球最有價值的股票交易所意味著什麼？」
• 她關於香港高樓火災悲劇的報導：「先是大火，接著是政治打壓。」
• 她關於中國美容產業的報導：「在整形失誤頻傳之際，北京正在打壓醫美手術。」
• 她關於台灣政治的報導：「《華盛頓郵報》今日頭版：我們調查了有組織犯罪與政治之間的黑暗勾結，如何讓北京把觸角伸向台灣。」
• 她關於中國 AI 崛起的報導：「中國如何利用 AI 擴大審查與監控。」

看出模式了嗎？一切都充滿「觸手」語言——北京伸手、攫取、收緊、打壓。

但我們也別對 Northrop 女士不公平。她或許是一個很好的人，文筆也相當不錯。她只是和同業一樣，遵循著整個行業的總體敘事——「西方是好的，中國是壞的」。

侵略性的飯店？

另一位被解僱的是 Mike E Miller。去年八月，Miller 主筆了一篇文章，報導中國與美國都在帛琉投資。

但他刻意沒有強調一個關鍵事實：雙方做的事情完全不一樣。

中國人在興建飯店，以促進帛琉的觀光產業並僱用當地人；而美國則是在建造軍艦專用港口，為其計畫中的對華戰爭做準備。

令人難以置信的是，Miller 的文章竟把中國描寫成侵略者！他寫道：「中國擁有世界上最大的海軍，正積極擴大其在南海及西太平洋的影響力，試圖成為該地區的主導海上強權，而該地區長期以來一直被美國視為其勢力範圍。」

一間用來僱用當地人的飯店，怎麼會比一個軍艦基地更具威脅性？Miller 還寫道，中國興建的觀光飯店可能被用來觀察美國的戰爭準備。

這種令人尷尬的偏見程度，連小孩都看得出來。不過，他或許也是個好人，只是在奉命行事。

對香港的錯誤想像

同樣被解僱的，還有 Shibani Mahtani，她撰寫了大量極度負面的香港報導。

香港居民都知道，這座城市是全球最富裕、最安全的地方之一，甚至是世界上最健康的城市，人均壽命超越日本。

但在她筆下，香港卻成了一個對無辜者充滿恐怖事件的噩夢之地。

只舉一例：她告訴全世界黎智英被單獨監禁，卻省略了一個關鍵事實——那是他自己要求的。

她的報導讓人以為黎智英的審判是關於言論自由，卻刻意淡化案件的核心——外國勢力勾結，而且審判中展示了大量確鑿證據。我是說，蓬佩奧的辦公室在美國通過對香港無辜民眾造成巨大傷害的法律與制裁時，確實與黎智英保持聯繫。為什麼不報導這一點？

黎智英還曾美化極其可怕的「屠龍小隊」，而該組織後來收集了恐怖分子等級的炸彈與槍械，企圖在灣仔大規模屠殺無辜民眾。

這些事情，怎麼會讓黎智英成為英雄，Mahtani 女士？

再說一次，她或許是個好人，只是在照指示做事。但我在香港有許多朋友，政治立場各異，而我不認識任何一個不對西方記者針對他們城市與國家所做的極度不公報導感到震驚的人。

記者的真正短缺

至於這個地區失業的記者們，我有一個建議。

這個世界極度缺乏能夠超越「觸手式寫作」（「打壓」、「控制」、「收緊」、「北京的觸角」）的記者——能夠以洞見、細膩、平衡、公正與誠實，智慧而中立地書寫東亞，甚至對中國也保持公平的人。我指的是那些能夠搭建橋樑，而不是築牆的人。

何不試著成為那樣的記者？

世界需要你們。