'He's Not Chinese'

Wednesday morning I got to work at 9 like I do every morning and settled into my chair. Just as my computer booted, my Chinese co-worker rolled back his chair and said to me, "He's not Chinese." I turned my head to find him smiling proudly. "Uh, who's not Chinese," I replied. I had no idea what he was talking about. His smile got bigger. "The shooter, he's not Chinese."

A collective sigh of relief passed through China late Tuesday when police identified the shooter who killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech University as a South Korean. Prior to the the identification of Cho Seung-Hui, it was believed that the gunman was a 24-year-old Chinese national who had obtained a student visa in Shanghai and arrived in America on August 7. The Chinese state media, with good reason, was slow to issue an official report regarding the killer's identity. Although the Chinese media was not the first to report on the identity of the killer, at least they got it right.

I can't say the same for U.S. journalists who, in a race to be the first to break the story of the gunman's identity, showed no regard for accuracy, sensitivity or responsibility. The report began with Michael Sneed, a female columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times who cited unidentifiable sources for her claim of the gunman's nationality. Her rumor spread quickly around the U.S. and found its way into news stories issued by FOX, NBC, ABC, Reuters and a number of independent Chinese news sites including Sina.com and Sohu.com. This is an excerpt from Chicago's NBC affiliate who used Sneed's erroneous report to tailor one of its own:

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reported Monday that the Virginia Tech shooter is a 24-year-old man from China. More than 30 people were killed Monday in the shooting rampage on Virginia Tech University’s campus. According to Sneed, the man came to the U.S. last year on a student visa issued in Shanghai. Police believe the same man may be responsible for threats on campus last week.

As of Thursday, neither Michael Sneed nor the Chicago Sun-Times has issued a correction or apology for the false report, the effects of which were felt around the world. Instead, the newspaper disposed of Sneed's original report and replaced it with a story titled "Update: Shooting Suspect Identified" that named the shooter and made no mention of the writer's previous story. And while I'm sure the Sun-Times thought this journalistic slight of the hand would save one of its own from public humiliation, thanks to Google, one can view Sneed's original article in cache.

Some blog reports in the U.S. took the China rumor even further and reported that the gunman was a Virginia Tech student from Shanghai named Jiang Wei'en. The Shanghainese student received death threats from the time of the murders Monday up until the moment that authorities announced Tuesday that Cho Seung-Hui was the gunman. Jiang told the media, "Everybody was talking about me as a criminal. I just want to prove my innocence. Yes, I am an Asian; I live in a school dorm; I am a student of Virginia Tech; I just broke up with my girlfriend and I love guns. But I am NOT the murderer." (We believe you Jiang, but maybe you should keep the gun talk to yourself.)

Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry publicly criticized the U.S. media for publishing "irresponsible reports." Spokesman Liu Jianchao called it a "violation of professional ethics" to identify the killer as Chinese without properly checking facts. Despite this public censure, on Wednesday Chinese President Hu Jintao offered his condolences to George Bush saying, "On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in the name of myself, I would like to express deep sympathy and sincere consolation to your Excellency, the U.S. government and people." His Excellency did not immediately issue a reply.

There are currently 900 Chinese students at Virginia Tech. The Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Virginia Tech (VT-ACSS) represents the largest international organization on campus. Of the 32 people killed on Monday, there were no Chinese victims.

It wasn't this fear of Chinese casualties though that worried people in China. It was the fear that the gunman would be identified as one of them, a Chinese national, and that China would, in Cho Seung-Hui's own words, have blood on its hands. This tragic event exposes America's horrible gun problem, and showcases to the world how Americans hold an entire group responsible for the misdeeds of one or two of its members. No country does the backlash like America.

China, a nation all about "face," trying desperately to earn a seat at the table of legitimate world powers, considered the irrational, yet plausible possibility that if the Virginia Tech gunman was a Chinese immigrant, then China might be the next nation on America's unofficial cultural blacklist. And when the word "Korean" replaced "Chinese" in the news headlines Tuesday night, all worries disappeared. The Virginia Tech shooting became just another story about America.

-David Flumenbaum

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