This is China! BLOG

The “Stench” of More Poor Reportage

I was recently annoyed yet again by the American journalist Maria Bartiromo in her China comment piece for the Financial Times entitled, “Protectionism and pollution, China’s Twin Pitfalls”.

First of all, she used the “S” word again: Stench. Now for those of you who read my last web log about her superficial reportage of China’s development during a talk show, you already know I was not impressed by her usage of the “S” word and the context in which she used it.

The rest of her Op Ed piece discusses China’s protectionist tendancies in identifying various sectors as in the security interest of the country or in which the country should have a major prescence. The drum she is beating is so worn and dented by now as to sound tinny to any half-informed ear. And, of course, she overlooks vital points such as the point that only about 20% of the American economy supports Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) while China’s is open to a whopping 30%, making China not only unique in the world as a developing economy for how open its markets have been, but also for how extaordinary the country is within Asia itself, which has always been historically closed to great inflows of foreign direct investment.

The Op Ed piece just strikes me as something as manufactured as her manicured television prescence, which has given her a kind of gravitas that is not deserved. She should stick to calling out the stock quotes … or she should actually come to China for more than just a couple days to sprawling megalopolises and take in the true impact and raison d’etre of the country’s development.

Or, she should just confess to being yet another “China Consultant.”

William Dodson
Suzhou, China