Monday, November 9, 2009

Important Omission from China's Official Reports of Berlin Wall Anniversary

In the English-language web site for Xinhua, China's official news agency, the report about today's 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a nice overview of the celebrations today, a bit of information about the wall's founding, and a note of some of the leaders in Berlin for the celebration.

There is even this interesting paragraph:

The Berlin Wall was erected during the night between August 12-13 of 1961 to divide the Berlin city as well as East Germany and West Germany. The wall is the symbol of so-call Iron Curtain for the Cold War. 

What's missing from that paragraph and in fact from the entire article? How about the single word communist or its relative communism? That China's communist leaders wouldn't want to note the fact that the wall's fall was a mass rejection of a failed communist party, ideology, and police state isn't surprising. What's worrisome is that many people will probably read Xinhua's article and not even notice the omission.

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