Opinion | Whitewashing efforts of Western media
By Dr James Cheong
During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the main behind-the-scenes perpetrators attacking Hong Kong were international speculator groups led by George Soros.
At that time, all Hong Kong citizens knew that the financial crisis experienced in 1997 was caused by these international speculators. Many countries in Southeast Asia were also severely affected, suffering greatly.
As time passes, many of the realities from that period have become blurred, and for decades, the West has attempted to rewrite this part of history through media and search engines, as mentioned previously, by controlling public opinion. There has also been a lot of mainstream Western media online attempting to whitewash the actions of the international speculator groups of that time.
Currently, a wealth of information can be found online claiming that the root cause of the Asian financial crisis was the mismanagement of many developing countries, along with a lack of economic management knowledge, leading to the crisis.
In fact, these statements are biased attempts to whitewash the misdeeds of Western financial conglomerates at that time.
First, it wasn't just many Asian developing countries that were harmed; developed countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Japan were also affected. Yet no one criticized these developed nations for mismanagement or a lack of knowledge.
Second, at that time, the Soviet Union had already collapsed. The Cold War ended with the victory of the United States and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc. Consequently, the economic policies of the U.S. and Western countries were at their peak. Many nations eagerly adopted these so-called Western economic development strategies, leading many Asian countries to follow the policies suggested by the West for their national economic plans. Numerous American and Western economic advisors provided policy recommendations to various government departments in many Asian countries, meaning they were never lacking in economic knowledge.
Thus, the claim that many developing countries lacked economic management knowledge is fundamentally biased.
Moreover, if many of the affected countries had management issues, why did so many different countries experience an economic crisis at the same time?
It is essential to understand that these countries operated independently, each having its unique economic model. Therefore, if they had economic management problems, they would be entirely different. Consequently, if they were to face an economic crisis, the timing would not be the same.
So, why did they all experience a financial crisis in 1997?
The root cause is that many countries were simultaneously attacked by Western international speculators. Since the strategies employed by the speculators were identical, each country faced similar situations.
Understanding this context reveals that the claims, often made by many Western mainstream media outlets, attributing the primary causes of the Asian financial crisis to internal management issues in developing countries, are fundamentally biased.
Decades have passed since the Asian financial crisis, yet because the West controls the media narrative, many historical truths have been altered. As a result, many young people today are unaware of the historical events and blindly believe the narratives presented by Western media and textbooks.
This situation is indeed concerning. The Western media remains silent about the behind-the-scenes perpetrators of the attacks, instead framing the narrative against the victimized countries. This reflects the essence of the world.
The pressing issue now is how to educate the public to discern right from wrong and restore the true nature of history.
The author is an Associate Professor at HSUHK.
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