Jake Xu wrote today on the Guardian’s Comment is Free about his email exchange with Swedish Red Cross Youth about their human rights campaign’s misuse of photos. Jake Xu is an active member of LKCN Chinese Forum.

Overstretching credibility on China
Jake Xu

This summer, Swedish Red Cross Youth (RKUF) launched a global campaign to encourage people to discuss China’s human rights record. (Note that, in July, the campaign was pulled by the Red Cross HQ in Geneva.) For the campaign, RKUF chose five photographs apparently showing Chinese police attacking protestors. Each picture was then marked with a pictogram representing an Olympic sport. The ads carried the line: “Arranging the Olympic games is not a human right. Continue the discussion at RKUF.se.”

Simon Brouwers, head of communications at RKUF, said in a statement: “Right now when China is hosting the Olympic games with one hand, and shutting down protests in Tibet with the other, it was a perfect time to highlight the topic … “

Let’s leave for another day for the discussion of whether a supposedly non-partisan organisation such as the Red Cross should stick its nose into politics. I want to talk about the credibility lost after the fundamental error that RKUF made on this campaign.

The pictures used apparently showed human rights abuses by the Chinese government and its military force. However, three of the pictures were, in fact, taken in Nepal, and the soldiers in blue uniforms were Nepalese, not Chinese as the ads implied. What about the other two photographs, you ask? Well, they were indeed taken in China, but not at any protest, unrest or “crackdown”. They were actually taken at an anti-terrorist drill and an anti-illegal stowaway mission carried out by the Chinese military, in the run-up to the Olympics.

I got in touch with the RKUF, and pointed out this error to Brouwers – remember he’s the head of communications. He replied with this explanation:

The picture is from Tibet. It was taken at an anti-China demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Lhasa, where the Tibetan police attacked the protestors with riot sticks.

I am still appalled by the lack of basic knowledge on the issue that he and his team were supposed to be campaigning about. He doesn’t even know that there isn’t a “Chinese embassy in Lhasa”. It makes me wonder if he even knows where Lhasa is.

After a few rounds of emails between myself, Brouwers and the head of RKUF, they admitted that they had made an error and apologised. However, they chose to stick to their guns and keep running the campaign as if nothing had happened. RKUF insisted that this campaign is not anti-China, but pro-human rights. Come on, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. By referring directly to the Beijing Olympics and choosing these pictures, the campaign is obviously pointing a finger at China. If RKUF’s intention was to stimulate a debate on human rights issues around the globe, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to use a wider range of photographs, including images, for example, of the abuse of Guantánamo Bay prisoners?

I am the first to admit that human rights records, along with many other issues in China, need to be addressed and improved. However, the irresponsible and ignorant approach that the RKUF took is only going to dampen the efforts. Recently, there has been a wave of unprecedented nationalism from the Chinese all over the world, condemning western-biased views of China and its policies. The Chinese are asking the question: “Why the hatred?” People marching down San Francisco’s streets chanting “free Tibet” can’t even point out where Tibet is on a world map; the Olympics’ torch protection squad sent by Beijing and authorised by the IOC were labeled “thugs” by the chairman of the London organising committee for the Olympic games – I didn’t hear anyone calling the French “thugs” when they showed up in their military uniforms during last year’s Tour de France for the same peacekeeping purposes? Why the hatred? Why are so many people in the west, the Chinese ask, so eager to jump on this moral bandwagon and punch China in the face without the basic understanding of the country, its culture or its people?

I admire people’s desire to do something for a good cause, and to have a belief, but ask yourself how much you know about the matter first: educate yourselves before lecturing other people.

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