A US media tracker has listed "the rise of China" as the most read news story of this decade, a development that Chinese experts say is the latest attempt by the Western media to tout China for their own good.
The ascent of China as an economic superpower has attracted the widest coverage since 2000, surpassing the Iraq War and Sept 11 attack on the US, according to an analysis by the Global Language Monitor.
"It is with little surprise that its China's ongoing transformation has topped all other news stories in a decade bespotted by war, economic catastrophe and natural disasters," Reuters quoted Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, as having said.
Payack said the ranking was based on the number of citations on the Internet and the blogosphere, including social media, as well as the top 50,000 print and electronic media sites.
But Pang Zhongying, a professor of international studies at Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said the move was partly aimed at trumpeting the so-called China threat.
"The list is the latest sign of the US media's change from China bashing to China flattery," he said.
Late last month, US broadcasting giant ABC ranked Premier Wen Jiabao as one of the 10 most influential people on the US economy in the past decade.
Although the moves show the US media has come to accept China's economic success, they put China in a disadvantageous position, said Fan Ying, a professor at Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University.
The recent rise in the level of "China flattery" appears to push the world's third largest economy - but which has 16 million poor people - to shoulder greater responsibility amid the global financial crisis and climate change talks, she said.
Questions:
1. What two other world events did China’s rise surpass?
2. How many print and electronic media sites were used for the ranking?
3. Who did ABC rank last month as one of the 10 most influential people on the US economy in the past decade?
Answers:
1. Sept 11 and Iraq War.
2. 50,000.
3. Wen Jiabao.
(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑0
About the broadcaster:
Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.