Reference News Network January 13 report: Brazil's 247 website published an article titled "The Real China Begins Where Stereotypes End" on January 11, authored by Brazilian geopolitical scholar Washington Araújo. The article is translated as follows:
For half a century, a considerable portion of Westerners have developed a "convenient" habit: talking about China without ever studying it. "Threat," "plagiarism," "sheeple," "lack of transparency in the system"... a fixed set of rhetoric has thus been formed. Politicians, columnists and commentators use these words as catchphrases, but few take the time to research related data, history and the real situation of people's lives.
This is no accidental ignorance, but a systematic intellectual laziness. This laziness packages prejudice into opinions and disguises stereotypes as analysis. Reducing 1.4 billion people to a single stereotyped "them" not only opens the door for moral condescension, but also abandons the rigorous pursuit of facts.
Under this discourse system, all actions of China are pre-emptively labeled as suspicious. Its development is a "threat," its innovation is "plagiarism," and its planning is a "conspiracy." This argument is not depicting the real China, but rather exposing the user's lack of analytical ability.
However, data does not change with slogans. According to the World Bank, between the late 1970s and 2020, nearly 800 million people in China were lifted out of poverty, accounting for about 75% of the global poverty reduction during that period. In 2023, the average life expectancy of Chinese residents reached 78.6 years. If one insists on denouncing these achievements as "propaganda," they are actually denying the facts.
The same applies to infrastructure construction. In just a few decades, China built the world's largest high-speed railway network. Super projects such as the Dan-Kun (Danyang-Kunshan) Special Bridge, which is 164 kilometers long, and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, a 55-kilometer sea-crossing bridge-tunnel combination, are not "showy acts," but grand engineering masterpieces on a continental scale. To dismiss them as "excessive construction" before even understanding their logistics functions is another form of condescension disguised as criticism.
Additionally, the stereotype that "China only copies" is completely shattered by the facts of scientific innovation. Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that in 2023, Chinese applicants submitted approximately 1.64 million patent applications, more than 40% of the global total.
In the field of technology, China has also broken long-standing dependence on foreign countries. In basic services such as satellite positioning and data synchronization, which are vital to national livelihoods, China no longer depends on other countries' systems. This is genuine technological sovereignty, not some "propaganda gimmick."
The core issue is simple yet unsettling: the stereotypes about China are less about the truth of China and more about the projection of Western anxiety. For decades, these stereotypes have served as intellectual "crutches," helping users avoid comparison, evade self-reflection, and ignore data. However, crutches can never help someone go further.
Those who insist on examining China through the "broken mirrors" of stereotypes are neither doing news reporting nor objective analysis, nor rational criticism. They are merely defending their stubborn stance of refusing to learn, building a series of hollow monuments to their own ignorance. (Translated by Han Chao)
Tian Tan (Xinhua News Agency)
Original source: toutiao.com/article/7594655175097287195/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author."