'China isn't awaiting Western salvation'

Dorian Malovic attends a countryside wedding in Hunan province. Provided to China Daily

It's all about making a spectacle

Product placement deal transforms into dispute

French journalist Dorian Malovic has covered China for the past three decades, during which he has witnessed rapid social and economic progress in the country.

But still, he says, "age-old prejudices and stereotypes" about China linger on, at least in a section of the Western media.

Malovic, who has visited China numerous times since his days as chief editor of the Asia desk at French daily La Croix (The Cross) in Paris, says that some media outlets "feel obliged to falsely portray China as a mystical land awaiting Western salvation."

Many of his fellow European journalists accuse him of being "naive" in his reporting on China, he says, adding that his critics themselves do not provide balanced reports on the country.

"Despite its progress in urbanization and the economy, among other areas, many European journalists still choose to focus on China's problems, typically poverty, pollution and corruption," Malovic says.

To him, China is probably the only country of its size and with as many people, to have emerged so quickly as a global economic powerhouse. He urges those European journalists who perhaps understand China better than their peers to "fight against Western media portrayals" that tend to label the country as an "empire" or "regime."