A response to readers' comments

My column in last week's issue of this newspaper triggered an intense response from readers, who posted their comments online. My sincere thanks go to them all, whether proponents or opponents, whose remarks enlightened me in different ways and on different levels.

Though I generally do not give my feedback to readers' comments, online or in print, I would like to go deeper into the topic of my last column with regard to some of my critics' points of view.

The critics' repudiation of my accusation of Western media's bias against China focused on three points: first, the media's role is not to applaud a government but to keep a watchful eye on it; second, Western media do not have the obligation to manage China's image abroad; third, the Chinese media is biased itself for it "only reports bad news from abroad".