Rose colored, or rose wood glasses?

I am rarely surprised by the state-run media apparatus here in China. Working in the 'happy fun sunshine factory' myself, I get a first-hand look at the hypocrisy on a daily basis. However, today takes the cake when it comes to the coverage of Dr. Margaret Chan's China visit. The good doctor, a Hong Kong native, has graced China's presence to -- among other things -- talk about the state of China's rural health care. What is delightfully interesting today is the interpretation of her comments yesterday. Here is how Xinhua, via China Daily, interpreted her chat:

WHO chief lauds China's efforts to improve health services
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-01 21:25

BEIJING -- World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan praised Chinese government's efforts to improve public medical and health care services on Thursday. She said she had noticed that the six tasks on improving people's well-being in the report by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China included the basic medical insurance systems for urban workers and dwellers and a new type of cooperative medical care system in rural areas. "The public health service should put the stress on social equality and fairness," she said at a forum on China's rural health care services, organized jointly by the WHO and the Chinese Ministry of Health. She appreciated the Chinese government's efforts and plans to build medical systems for all people, saying "when fair and accessible public health services become the clear targets of a country's public health policy, people's health will be improved". Chen Zhu, Chinese Health Minister, said the Chinese government stressed harmonious development and valued the fairness of public health services. He said the Chinese government will continue to improve health services in rural areas aiming to enable rural residents to enjoy the benefits of China's reform and development. "The Chinese government will commit to build a fair public heath system in line with social and economic development," he said. He said "China has made remarkable achievements in the improvement of public health care services", but also admitted "there are still many challenges for the health care services in rural areas such as inadequate medical resources". China started the medical service reform in the early 1990s to abolish the system in which governments and state-run enterprises covered most medical expenses of urban Chinese. However, rural people found it rather hard to get access to medical care. Now medical insurance has been introduced and promoted in urban areas, and cooperative medical care has been experimented in the countryside. In this sense, all Chinese people will be able to enjoy an affordable medical service. The cooperative medical care system in rural areas, initiated in 2003 to offer farmers basic health care, covered 720 million rural residents, or 82.8 percent of the country's rural population, by the end of June this year.

Sounds like China's gettin' the job done. Way to go!!! So let's go get some confirmation about China's wonderful efforts in the rural health care sector from the foreign media who attended the same event:

Health in rural China worsening, costs rising-WHO

Thu Nov 1, 2007 12:56am EDT

BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Health in parts of rural China is deteriorating despite rising incomes, and commercialised care has ratcheted up costs for those who can least afford them, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.
Hong Kong-born Margaret Chan said the cost of health care in China was outstripping income growth and that poor health was a major cause of poverty among China's hundreds of millions of rural residents.
"The payment of providers and fees charged for services has commercialised health care, compelling providers of care to focus on profit rather than the most efficient health services," she told a conference in Beijing.
"Health education and preventive services are neglected. Why? Because these activities do not guarantee income. As a result, simple conditions are often treated at very high cost."
The costs of seeing a doctor or staying in hospital are out of reach for many in the world's fourth-largest economy, and the lack of access combined with corruption has made the issue a source of social unrest.
China has pledged to provide its population with basic medical care by 2020, but Chan said the government was receiving little return in the form of better health for its investment in the sector.
"When ability to pay determines access, many rural residents will not seek care until a disease has reached an advanced stage when treatment is more complex and costly, if not impossible," she said.
"In short, the health system in rural areas has been given multiple incentives to operate with great inefficiency."
That could undermine China's efforts to expand care through its Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, a plan under which subscribers are funded at a level of 50 yuan per person -- 20 yuan from the central government, 20 from the local government and a 10 yuan contribution from the individual.
Chinese Vice-Minister of Health Chen Xiaohong said nearly 85 percent of counties in China were participating in the plan but the funding level paled to that of wealthy coastal cities.
China was also facing new pressures in the health sector, from an ageing population and environmental risk factors, as well as the challenge of drawing doctors to practise in its rural interior.

Now, I have no qualms about talking about the positive aspects of any given subject. As a journalist, you are trained to see all sides of the equation. And I know for a fact that journalists working for Xinhua are also trained in the same fashion as western journalists, as I have come to know a couple of journalism teachers here in China who have illustrious backgrounds in western journalism. However, for reasons that are becoming far too obvious and convenient in the media world in China, the state-run organs are sucking the life out of young and aspiring journalists, who otherwise would probably have a solid career in a non-state run environment. News, like everything, has an interpretation. Fox News has its view. CNN has its view. However, a journalist is supposed to see things from all sides, good and bad. Any event that one covers is supposed to be looked at from every angle, and reported as such. Now, I will admit that I was not in attendance at Dr. Chan's speech. And I don't doubt that what Xinhua is reporting is accurate, as far as the single quote (she's cited twice, but you can tell it came from the same sentence) of Dr. Chan is concerned. (though I can't vouch for the context of which the quote was gleaned) But I can, without a shred of doubt, tell you that the Reuters interpretation of her talk was just slightly closer to the mark than what Xinhua pulled out of it, given the vast amount of direct quotes from her! As a former journalism instructor myself, I really feel bad for the reporter who carved out the Xinhua story. Thankfully for him or her, there is no by-line.

The longer the state-run media continues to screw up its propaganda, the longer this country is going to suffer in the eyes of the rest of the world.