In testimony to Congress last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the existence of an ongoing "information war" that the United States is losing. In addition to saying that "Al Jazeera is winning," Clinton pointed to the major investments in international broadcasting being made by China and Russia.
The Chinese effort is of particular importance. As Secretary Clinton said, "We are in a competition for influence with China; let's put aside the moral, humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in, and let's just talk straight realpolitik."
China has designed a significant part of its public diplomacy as a means of courting countries that are sources of natural resources that China needs. Secretary Clinton pointed to Papua New Guinea, with its great reserves of oil and natural gas, as one of these targets.
International broadcasting projects, along with programs such as the Confucius Institutes, are at the heart of China's strategic courtship campaign. Unlike the United States, China takes these matters seriously and has designed an approach to public diplomacy that is well-funded, imaginative, and fully integrated within its overall foreign policy. As a recent report from Senator Richard Lugar and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee illustrated, the gap between U.S. and Chinese public diplomacy capabilities is widening, with China steadily pulling farther ahead [pdf].
Clinton's remarks were particularly welcome as a note of realism from a State Department that often is primarily interested in self-congratulation rather than adapting to the verities of power politics in a media-centric world. Information dissemination is a matter of national security, and it is time the U.S. government treated it as such.
Congress should heed Secretary Clinton's warning and not relegate U.S. public diplomacy to a nickel-and-dime sideshow. In budgeters' worldview, public diplomacy might not be as sexy as weapons systems, but it is absolutely essential if the information war and the larger battle for influence are to be won.
We must fisrt start by ending military aid to Israel, because, Israel is the largest transit point for the illegal transfer of US military technology to China.
"Israel and China began extensive military cooperation as early as the 1980s, even though no formal diplomatic relations existed.[6][7][8][9] Some estimate that Israel sold arms worth USD 4 billion to China in this period.[6][8] China has looked to Israel for the arms and technology it wants but cannot acquire from both the United States and Russia. Israel has now become China's second-largest supplier of arms (following Russia).[6] China has purchased a wide array of military equipment and technology, including communications satellites.[6] The building of military cooperation and trade has softened China's historic anti-Israeli policy over Palestine and Middle East issues.[6] China has become a vital market for Israel's extensive military industries and arms manufacturers.
Israel's increasing defense cooperation with China has caused concern in the United States, which is the largest foreign supplier of military equipment to Israel. Owing to strategic rivalry and concerns over the security of Taiwan, the U.S. has pressured Israel against selling sophisticated equipment and technology to China."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_China_%E2%80%93_Israel_relations
Yes, both Russia and China have multi language international news, where they do have a certain bias, yet, Like Al jazeera, they bring news forward that the US would like to cover up.
In addition, both pakistan and Indai media make a lot of noise, so we gat to see how a really "free" press operates. we have nothing like that here in the US.
Recently we saw several news persons, reporters, journalists, columnists fired from their jobs due to expressing unpopular opinions. We call for the death of Jullian Assange, investigation of the New York Times for espionage, and have Bradley manning, who leaked a US Military video showing a US Helicopter deliberately killing obviously unarmed civilians in solitary confinement for overr 10 months, and he is now required to stand naked for roll call! Than, Hillary calls for freedom on the internet.
She, and we, are literally incredible.
The real difference between the "Free Press" and "The people's Right To Know," is one can make things up, while the other is devoted to uncovering the truth.
The Information War Hillary is talking about is putting out the US Gov point of view as "news," while others are busy "harming" the US, and "helping the enemy" by puting out a truth filled report.
In addition, anti-CNN, created by Chinese netizens, expose western anti China propaganda news stories and their faked photos.
So the shiny image of 'champion of human rights' is tarnished by the coverage of human rights violations that the US supports, or keeps quiet on, the 'champion of democracy' is shown to be quite willing to support dictatorships and suppress democracy when it is in their interests, and the 'champion of justice' is seen swinging its sword to keep the sword of justice from hitting certain targets.
And once someone is exposed as a hypocrit, or a propagandist, it is hard to hide behind one's reputation.
The truth has a huge advantage before lies, because the truth speaks for itself.
Clinton's comment that the U.S. is engaged in an informational war means, that the American point of view is no truer than the Chinese one.
I really, fairly do not care whose lies win.