The AP Becomes Retiring Chinese Official's Biggest Fan

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Man, after reading this AP report on the retiring of a Chinese official, you'd think that the folks at the Associated Press were star struck by this communist oppressor. I mean, I've seen less adulation on a Britney Spears fan site! You wouldn't expect to see more slobbering, sycophancy from a 12-year-old waiting in line to see the latest boy band to appear. Their adulation of vice premier Miss Wu Yi ranges from calling her a "master problem solver," to saying she has "charm," and an "unusual degree of personal warmth." You'd think that the AP is ready to cast her as the new Aunt Bee in a remake of The Andy Griffith Show. Starting out with obvious marvel at Yi's indispensability for those lucky Chinese, AP seems to totally forget that she is part of an oppressive communist regime that kills people daily, oppresses all manner of religious sects, and withholds the basic freedoms from their people.

For the past decade, when Chinese leaders had a mission of national importance, they gave it to one woman.

Can't you just feel them sighing with infatuation as they write? And the AP is duly impressed with her list of recent duties.

Wu Yi oversaw negotiations in the 1990s on China's entry to the World Trade Organization, winning a reputation as tough but personable. She directed the fight against the SARS pneumonia outbreak in 2003 and has represented Beijing in a dialogue to ease trade friction with Washington. In August, the government put her in charge of whipping product-safety enforcement into shape and restoring China's battered international image.

The sad thing is that the AP doesn't realize she actually did nothing about any of these things for her job was to cover up and spin China's way out of the aforementioned troubles. She solved nothing. She just covered for it all. Her job wasn't to arrive at had fought solutions, but to create PR to cover for it just like any other communist official. And then AP laments:

But now Wu, who turns 69 next month, is retiring, leaving Beijing to find a new top problem-solver for challenges ranging from improving drug safety to stabilizing unruly financial markets.

Gosh, is the AP getting chocked up there? And AP seemed excited that Yi ranks as a powerful woman.

Forbes magazine this year listed her as the world's second-most powerful woman, behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

But, power can be used for good and used for evil. Can anyone imagine that the naked power used for communist oppression ranks equal to the power wielded in a democratic society as used by Merkel and Rice? Yet, after all the adulation, even AP realizes her leaving Chinese government is practically meaningless.

Her departure is unlikely to affect policy in a system where key decisions are made by more senior party leaders.

Eh? If she is so "powerful," so important, why would her leaving be so unlikely to affect Chinese policy? Face it, AP. Yi is just another evil communist oppressor and there are dozens just like her standing in line to take her meaningless PR job. But the life of Wu Yi is not the most interesting part of this report. The love and reverence for a Chinese oppressor as evinced by the AP is far more interesting here. But, should anyone be surprised that the AP would be so star struck by a dictatorial Chinese government official?