Photo: A screenshot from the website of the Chinese Embassy in the US

Chinese netizens blast US media for being deaf toward a "fireside chat" interview with the Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang that was held six days ago, with some question whether the US media has double standards in news reporting.

Some netizens said the weird silence from the US media on reporting the Chinese ambassador's views on China-US relations - which were considered to be "real, rational and reasonable" - reflects deep misunderstandings from the US toward China-related topics, mirroring its hypocrisy in advocating "press freedom." Some others pay sympathy toward American public for living in lies crafted by the media.

According to the Chinese Embassy in the US, Qin took a joint interview with chief editors and senior correspondents of major American media outlets on December 20. It was held by Bloomberg New Economy Forum and conducted in English.

It took the form of a "fireside chat," and the entire interview was on the record and also served as a background briefing, the embassy said on Friday. 

However, essentially no mainstream US media outlets covered the joint interview that gives a broad picture of China-US ties, six days after the event was held. It remains unknown whether these media outlet will cover the story later at all. 

Qin said it has been nearly five months since he was in Washington, DC but the fact that "China is being treated like a kid being scolded by his or her parents every day: You are wrong. You need do this… China is misunderstood, misperceived and misrepresented in the US" surprised him.

Qin also said he could not agree the US' defining the US-China relations as competition because it will raise the risk of confrontation and conflict. In an analogy, Qin said it is just like a hypertensive patient. If his blood pressure keeps rising, it may cause a heart attack or a stroke which will endanger his life. If a hypertensive patient goes to see a doctor, the first thing to do is to lower this pressure and not wait until there is a heart attack or a stroke. ?

The Chinese ambassador also answered questions relating to Xinjiang, saying that everybody can go there without any presumption, and there are no concentration camps. There are only vocational education and training centers which serve to help some people get rid of extremist ideologies and live normal lives.

"Peace, or no war is the biggest consensus between China and the US. We hope that the United States will come to realize that 'Taiwan independence' is the biggest threat," Qin said when speaking of affairs relating to island of Taiwan.

"Every one of the words from the ambassador is reasonable but the US viewed it as a slap in the face. Their guilty conscience is the reason why the US media opted for silence," a Chinese netizen posted online, interpreting why the US media opted to be deaf when the ambassador talked about bilateral ties honestly.

Another netizen wrote online that "Qin's response well interpreted China-US relations. It did not shy away contradictions and his speaking was eloquent and rational. His response defended the dignity of the motherland."

It is pathetic to see the US media did not pick any message when the ambassador used such a direct and easy-to-understood language to interpret China voices, Li Haidong, a professor from China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

It also reflects there are misunderstandings from US public opinion toward China-related topics, and demonstrates its hypocrisy in so-called press freedom as the US media pretending to be deaf to Chinese voices goes against the basic principle of freedom, openness and democracy that they propagate, Li said.

Shen Yi, a professor from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Sunday that the US media came to the interview with a preset viewpoint and they choose what they needed to report and neglected those not satisfying their demands. 

This is where you can see that the American public lives in the lies crafted by the US media and also the severe situation of the US domestic political environment, Shen noted.