Tips for China on how to handle the Western media

The Singapore senior minister, Lee Kuan Yew, has given some advice to China over how to handle the Western media

1. Give access to the Western reporters;

2. Don’t over-react to their negative coverage, just deal with them on their own terms, as businesses with bottom lines to protect;

3. Focus on building your reputation among the world’s decision makers, who will see things differently from the Western media. Over time, Singapore's experience shows, media coverage will get more nuanced and respectful.

This is what he says about Tibet

You take Tibet. Who started it? It was started by the Tibetans. The March incident, March 14. I was reading Jonathan Eyal who writes for our Straits Times. He was a commentator from London. He is from I think Chatham House, a very thoughtful man. He said if they had called in the newspapers right from the word go, and said, look, this is what happened. The Economist correspondent was in Lhasa when it happened and wrote about it. He was favorable to them. The rioters started killing people and they were not reacting. The orders were not to shoot, not to take on the rioters because they didn't want trouble. Had they engaged the west, all this would have turned out differently.

Via Sun Bin blog