Chinese Newspaper Bullies Singapore

I came across this opinion piece on the South China Morning Post (a Hong Kong newspaper) today (through a friend's post on Facebook, of course!) A Singaporean writer talks about how Chinese state media bully other nations, especially the less powerful Southeast Asian nations like Singapore. This time, the point of contention is once again the South China Sea, with China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times criticizing Singapore for raising the issue of South China Sea in a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela. Global Times did not even send reporters to the summit, but published a report accusing Singapore of its anti-Chinese stance at the NAM summit. Singapore protested the biased reporting, but could do nothing to sway public opinion inside China or convince Beijing to back down.

I think this incident itself is almost unworthy to be mentioned, but the reason I'm sharing this article is that the author offers a clear and accurate analysis of the role of Chinese state media in imposing Beijing's narrative on its own citizens and projecting power and intimidation to Southeast Asian countries. Global Times stands for what the bureaucrats in Beijing think but cannot say out loud, and this attitude is the real problem straining the relationship between China and Southeast Asian countries, which are weary of Chinese influence but dependent on China in trade (quite a lot of countries in other parts of the world also face this dilemma when it comes to China.)