Paul Denlinger, CEO, China Business Strategy and tech blogger behind China Vortex responds to the Economist's "Angry China" article.

Paul's article Whats Wrong With The Economist's Angry China Article seemed to resonate strongly with many of the people living and working in China and prompted Christine Lu to gather a bit more insight from him.

CHRISTINE: What prompted you to write your article rebutting the Economist's "Angry China" article?

PAUL: Because there is such a disconnect between what the writer wrote, and the facts on the ground. Many western journalists see everything about China through the lens of "authoritarian government" and "human rights" and "politics", and cannot see that there are legitimate grounds for anger at the way Chinese see how China and Chinese are covered in the western media.

CHRISTINE: Why does there appear to be such a disconnect between those who write about China and those who are on the ground in China?

PAUL: I think it's because most of them don't speak Chinese. This prevents them from really understanding Chinese as individuals well. As a result, they are not able to break through the usual western stereotypes about China and Chinese. (Top-down society, nationalistic, authoritarian, etc.) Chinese naturally moderate their views when they speak English, instead of presenting how they really feel. Maybe Chinese feel that they cannot express themselves well in English so they just shut up.

CHRISTINE: What actions can those on the ground in China take to provide more balance to the way western media is reporting about China?

PAUL: Point out how little some of those who claim to know all about about China in the western media, and claim to be "China experts" really know. China is changing so fast that all information dates so quickly. Besides, is it too much to ask a China expert if they at least speak Chinese? How much would you trust an expert on America who had not been there for a few years and did not speak English?

Paul's in depth rebuttal to the Economist can be found at his China Vortex blog post titled Whats Wrong With The Economist's Angry China Article

About Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger's life reads like a Who Is Who of business in China. As a senior manager he worked in the past two decades both Chinese and Western companies with sounding names like Shanda, Unilever, Philips, TSMC, Acer, Walt Disney, McDonald's, BMW and even the state-owned newswire Xinhua is on his reference list.

Telecom and information technology have been at the core of his activities in China, working with companies like Nokia, Asiainfo, Intel, Microsoft and Lenovo.

A true polyglot, he has held management positions in marketing, advertising, TV production, and information technology. In addition, he has taught in university. He holds an MA degree in linguistics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

While working at Ogilvy & Mather Taiwan, he also served as an evangelist for its in-house computing initiative, driving adoption in the creative department.

He has also taught at the university level at Soochow University in Taiwan, where he set up the first the computer-assisted instruction for curriculum for the College of Liberal Arts.

In addition, he established his own corporate video company, On Cue, to service corporate clients. He served as senior producer and writer at the company.

Paul has developed a versatile, action-oriented and pragmatic approach to problem-solving. He has earned a reputation for his ability to tackle a wide range of problems, and engages exceptionally well with people from the boardroom to the plant floor, in English and Chinese.

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Angry China China Vortex Paul Denlinger The Economist