On the 61st anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China, at exactly the beginning of CCTV Evening News (7 pm, Beijing time, this 30-min news program used to be China's only nationwide news program. Today, it is still the most-widely-received and most-viewed TV program, at least TV news program in the nation.), China launched its "Appolo 2". This timing showed again that the Chinese Communist Party has gradually fashioned its propaganda machine.
This will undoubtedly stir a new wave of nationalistic pride. I can still remember when the frightening patriotic fervor aroused by "Chang'e I" I felt from various media channels and through video-chatting across the Pacific. The unfortunate thing is, for the general public, and even for many highly-educated leftists, the priceless national pride, seems also costless.
People dismissed the astronomical budget of the 2008 Olympics the same way they dismiss the cost of the moon mission now. The most ironic thing about Chinese leftists is that they will put a price tag on human life, say tens of thousands of miners' lives, and say "it still pays to 'DEVELOP", but they turn a blind eye, willfully, on the price tag of the national pride.
To make things worse, the government fools the general public. There is an article saying that the project only cost $2-3 billion RMB so far, "merely several kilometers of newly-built subway in Beijing". Nonsense. The Appolo Project of U.S. was back in 1960-1970s. The total nominal expenditure amounts to $19,408,134,000. Using the CPI in 1972, the year of the last moon landing, the "cost" is at least $99,000,000,000, which translates to $650,000,000,000 RMB. Appolo has 17 missions. China's "Chang'e" now has two. How come the "cost" is merely 2-3b RMB?! Is the whole thing only a film??
0 comments:
Post a Comment