Cooking Oil Fuels Fight Over News in Beijing
Cooking Oil Fuels Fight Over News in Beijing:
"Cooking oil, an otherwise innocuous kitchen item, lies at center of a fiery spat between China’s top economic planners and an aggressive local newspaper.
China Business News wasn’t the only media outlet to report the stoppages–it wasn’t even the main focus of the NRDC’s criticisms–but it distinguished itself with the strength of its rebuttal. In a statement issued Tuesday (in Chinese), the paper insisted its report was backed by “data, documents and recordings,” adding: “As a responsible paper, we have issues with what the commission is saying.”
The tussle, standard fare by Western media standards, is unusual in China. Media outlets rarely take open issue with government criticism of their reporting, not least when it comes from one of the highest policy-making bodies in the country and involves an issue of central policy importance.
Two weeks ago, the government sought to put a lid on rapidly rising cooking oil costs, telling key producers not to raise prices until the Lunar New Year—-a time when families typically gather at home for large meals–is over.
So what was the paper thinking?
China Business News, regarded by financial industry watchers as a must-read paper, is arguably influential enough to take more risks than many other media outlets. On the same day it reported the cooking oil stoppage, the newspaper also broke a story on the People’s Bank of China extending a special, higher lending requirement on banks–a report widely picked up by global wire services.
On the cooking oil issue, the newspaper may also have sensed a political winner. Food production is an issue that quickly finds a mark with public angst, and one where a showdown with the government is likely to find the common householder on the newspaper’s side.
The NDRC has so far declined to defend itself against the China Business News rebuttal. If it does, it will be under even greater pressure to ensure cooking oil prices don’t rise in the coming months–and that the product stays widely available–lest it further fuel the paper’s audacity.
–Chuin-Wei Yap
European Pressphoto Agency
- Shoppers look at cooking oil on display in a supermarket in Shanghai, China, Dec. 12, 2010. China’s inflation jumped to a 28-month high to 5.1 percent in November, officials said on 11 December, despite government efforts to rein in prices.
China Business News wasn’t the only media outlet to report the stoppages–it wasn’t even the main focus of the NRDC’s criticisms–but it distinguished itself with the strength of its rebuttal. In a statement issued Tuesday (in Chinese), the paper insisted its report was backed by “data, documents and recordings,” adding: “As a responsible paper, we have issues with what the commission is saying.”
The tussle, standard fare by Western media standards, is unusual in China. Media outlets rarely take open issue with government criticism of their reporting, not least when it comes from one of the highest policy-making bodies in the country and involves an issue of central policy importance.
Two weeks ago, the government sought to put a lid on rapidly rising cooking oil costs, telling key producers not to raise prices until the Lunar New Year—-a time when families typically gather at home for large meals–is over.
So what was the paper thinking?
China Business News, regarded by financial industry watchers as a must-read paper, is arguably influential enough to take more risks than many other media outlets. On the same day it reported the cooking oil stoppage, the newspaper also broke a story on the People’s Bank of China extending a special, higher lending requirement on banks–a report widely picked up by global wire services.
On the cooking oil issue, the newspaper may also have sensed a political winner. Food production is an issue that quickly finds a mark with public angst, and one where a showdown with the government is likely to find the common householder on the newspaper’s side.
The NDRC has so far declined to defend itself against the China Business News rebuttal. If it does, it will be under even greater pressure to ensure cooking oil prices don’t rise in the coming months–and that the product stays widely available–lest it further fuel the paper’s audacity.
–Chuin-Wei Yap
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