Tobacco, Milk Powder, and Excited Reporters
During the Two Sessions, Chen Guangbiao, an observer, made the controversial suggestion that "everyone should only eat two meals a day." This sparked excitement among three Xinhua News Agency reporters, and their interview notes about meeting a celebrity quickly spread online. The statement by Ling Chengxing, the director of the National Tobacco Administration, about "the tobacco bureau must strive to serve the health of the people" shocked everyone, while Shandong Province Governor Guo Shuqing's promise that "Shandong people will not go to Hong Kong to buy milk powder" felt like a wave crashing down, leaving people dizzy.
Every year during the Two Sessions, there are always "thunderous" statements. I thought this year might be an exception, but I still ended up drenched.
The director of the tobacco monopoly bureau, holding a cigarette brand in one hand and an anti-smoking stick in the other, is like a person holding a spear in the right hand while poking a shield with the left. He said, "I just mentioned three points: first, the tobacco bureau must strive to serve the health of the people; second, strive to increase fiscal revenue; third, strive to meet social demand. Because some people smoke, the tobacco bureau must meet their needs."
The meaning of these three statements is to sell good cigarettes and sell more cigarettes, so the government can earn more money to serve the health of the people.
Most people believe that if Director Ling's logic was not taught by a physical education teacher, it was probably taught by a music teacher. In fact, this underestimates the intelligence of the head of a national department. This can be glimpsed in Director Ling's quick thinking when responding to the statement that smoking is more harmful than breathing smog. He said, "I think this makes sense. It is widely recognized that smoking is harmful to health, and the tobacco bureau recognizes this as well, but no one compares smoking to PM2.5; there is no scientific conclusion on this."
When talking about the harm of smoking, he said it is "widely recognized," without discussing science. When talking about PM2.5, he does not mention recognition but speaks of scientific conclusions. The duality of official statements is vividly reflected in the special identity of officials in the tobacco monopoly bureau. It is not surprising that a country hands over both the gun of anti-smoking and the target of selling tobacco to the same department, and whatever absurd statements Director Ling makes are not unusual.
Even more bizarre than Director Ling's absurd statements is Shandong Province Governor Guo Shuqing, who could not stop the inertia of representatives. On the afternoon of the 7th, during the media open day of the Shandong delegation, Governor Guo promised on behalf of over 98 million Shandong people that they would not bring significant pressure to Hong Kong during their free travel and would not go to Hong Kong to buy milk powder.
Whether Governor Guo's promise can be fulfilled is itself a huge question mark. If administrative power is used, for example, to limit the number of people from the province traveling to Hong Kong, this could be done. However, the law does not seem to grant government departments such power. Therefore, whether Governor Guo consulted the opinions of the people of Shandong Province makes his statement even more prominent.
Current indications show that Shandong has not provided milk powder that is satisfactory enough for its people to buy with confidence and drink safely, which is better than imported products. The same goes for the entire country. As a provincial leader, the first priority should be to ensure that the people of Shandong have access to quality milk powder. However, Governor Guo's first thought was to restrict the public's travel to Hong Kong and to publicly state that the people of Shandong would not buy milk powder from Hong Kong, without considering whether the people of Shandong agreed or were willing to be represented. This kind of promise is inherently discordant with this democratic conference. Therefore, it is understandable that people from other provinces express sympathy for the people of Shandong being represented in this way.
If the milk powder promise is a kind of inertia in role conversion, representing the 98 million people of Shandong inadvertently, then an article from Xinhua that excited reporters titled "Chen Daoming Sat on the Ground to Personally Revise My Draft" and another article titled "Encounter with Fu Ying" made people feel the media's star-struck admiration and fear during the Two Sessions. In these two hot articles, you cannot see the equality and objectivity that the media should have, nor the balance of being close yet distant; instead, you only see the media's role shifting in front of celebrities and important figures.
A draft revised by an interviewee is certainly "safe." That aside, the key point is that after Chen Daoming revised a reporter's draft, this reporter could not sleep at night, which became news. The reporter who encountered Fu Ying was able to write about their brief encounter, saying, "We were both quite excited for a while," and could think, "If we had asked another question, the 'goddess' would probably not have refused," such news reflects not only the immaturity of journalistic practice but also the ignorance of not placing roles correctly. #p#分页标题#e#
Thunderous voices, indeed. When will our roles no longer be confused, so that such voices can gradually disappear in the political arena of the Two Sessions?
