The recent emergence of purported email correspondence between ThoughtWorks founder Neville Roy Singham and NewsClick Editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha among other comrades has revealed a sinister toolkit on how the nexus was allegedly working in tandem and using Chinese propaganda films and content to peddle pro-Chinese narrative in India and world over.
In a series of purported email exchanges, the pro-Chinese handlers are seen deliberating at great length on how to get ‘English Subtitles’ for the Chinese Propaganda film, ‘The Secret of China’, seemingly in an attempt to peddle a pro-Chinese narrative to audiences outside China.
Chapter 1 – English Subtitles for Film produced by the Propaganda arm of CCP
The to-and-fro exchanges of purported emails started on 26 January 2020 when Neville Roy Singham writes to several individuals stating, “Hello everyone. China has recently made a full-length feature film of Red Star over China – The Secret of China.”
He then goes on to ask, “Can we find a way to see if they plan to release an English subtitles or dubbed version of the film? I would be happy to find ways to make this happen. Carol & Candice: Can we write to Emei Film Group?”
Interestingly, the film is produced by the Propaganda Department of the CPC (Communist Party of China), the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, and the Propaganda Department of CPC Shaanxi among others.
The pressing thing about this purported email exchange is its recipient members. The recipient of the email includes Newsclick Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha, and another Indian named Vijay Prashad, nephew of CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat.
Apparently, Vijay Prashad is one of the contributors at People’s Dispatch and the Executive Director at Neville Roy Singham’s Tricontinental. Prashad also has close ties with Urban Naxal P Sainath, whose propaganda portal PARI recently removed references to Singham after his connection with the Chinese propaganda arm had come to the arm.
Going ahead, responding to the fact that the team have found someone that could translate the film, Singham replied saying, “Excellent News…I am interested in how the owners receive funds for the film today… How could we take this internationally?”
In the email reply, Singham further said, “Also would be good to improve the translation of the 1961 Red Detachment. In the current version of both Red Detachment and the 60th-anniversary film, the sync is off. I am happy to pay for both of these films to be updated. I would think the 1971 film is public domain.”
In the subsequent email exchanges, the recipients are giving important details about Chinese copyright laws. Apart from attaching the laws of the communist regime, Julie informs Roy that the producers of the film would only show interest if they could create large quantities of clicks, that is, peddle their narrative, otherwise, they may lose interest.
To read more about the other email exchanges that highlight how Prabir Purkayastha and the NewsClick team were introduced to Chinese handlers by Neville Roy Singham for defending China’s handling of COVID-19, click here.
Chapter 2 – Show CPC as the Paragon of Progress and Prosperity
During the centennial year of the establishment of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Indian leftist propaganda portal Newsclick carried an article piece praising the transformation of China as a world power under the communist regime.
Strangely, the article opens up with advice to read Edgar Snow’s book, ‘Red Star Over China’, describing it as “the classic work on the birth of the communist movement in China.”
According to China Daily, which is owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the CPC, Red Star Over China, is one of the most influential books written with a Western understanding and “sympathy” for the CPC in the 1930s.
The Newsclick article then goes on to heap several praises on the Communist Party of China and avoiding the authoritative nature of the party. It goes a notch higher and claims that the CPC represents the great inclusiveness of Chinese society and it has no parallel whatsoever throughout the world. Clearly, the repressive measures adopted by CPC against Tibetans, Uigyur Muslims, non-Han Chinese, or anyone who dare to speak their mind, as Jack Maa did sometime back, have been completely overlooked to present a hagiographic portrayal of the CPC.
The PR piece states that the CPC’s centennial marks a historic breakthrough for China by far exceeding the predictions of most foreign observers. It argues that the CPC has achieved the twin collective goals. First, it has gotten rid of poverty. Second, by standing up to bullying by foreigners, how exactly – by becoming a bigger bully?
Going overboard in praising the CPC, the article claims that the communist party presents uniqueness in its attributes and can’t be compared to any other political party in history.
It describes the CPC as a super political force that defines China’s institutional and state form. To present the red devil as the paragon of goodness, the article portrays the Western narrative and US hegemony as the root cause of the problem behind the negative perspective of China. Partly, it is true that the US hegemony has to share the blame for many things but to give China an easy pass for all its criminality and rogue attitude against the world, dispels doubt, if any, about the tone and tenure of the PR piece.
Contrasting it with the West, the leftist portal states that the CPC has exceeded the cognitive framework provided by Western political knowledge and experience.
As if the pleasantries were not enough, the leftist portal goes on to include an excerpt from a propaganda piece from People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Central Committee of the CPC. It asserts that in the last hundred years, Marxism has profoundly changed China and China has also greatly enriched Marxism.
As more and more details exposing the Chinese web and its handlers in India are coming out, the muck seems to be far scarier than it looks at the outset.