Their trust in the authorities shaken by refusal to verify authenticity of photo
Sim Chi Yin, Straits Times 5 Dec 07;
BEIJING - PUBLIC anger is mounting over a fiasco involving a photograph of an endangered South China tiger that could possibly be fake.
The spat - fought in cyberspace and the media - has been cast as a test of Beijing's credibility.
But state forestry officials only made more Chinese see red yesterday when they refused at an eagerly anticipated press conference to verify the authenticity of the photo - even after experts declared it a fake in recent days.
The seemingly simple question of whether the image is real or not has snowballed over the past two months into a battle pitting the people against the authorities.
As one netizen put it in the flood of online postings yesterday: 'How the authorities explain the authenticity of the photo has become far more important than whether the tiger still exists or not.'
More than 90 per cent of over 71,000 users polled on a local news website yesterday said they were 'dissatisfied' with the authorities' handling of the debacle.
In October, forestry officials in north-western Shaanxi province released the photograph in question, said to have been shot by farmer Zhou Zhenglong in the wilderness of Zhenping county.
It immediately stirred much interest in the Chinese and international media, but has since been relentlessly questioned, with netizens and experts saying it is fake - and possibly copied off a calendar poster.
The Shaanxi authorities have stuck to their guns.
Dodging pointed questions from local journalists yesterday, Mr Cao Qingyao, spokesman for the State Forestry Administration (SFA), said the agency would not 'exceed its administrative scope' to authenticate the picture.
Instead, it will focus on an ongoing study by a team of 10 experts dispatched to Shaanxi to check on possible sightings of the tiger and other wildlife.
'Whether the tiger in the picture is fake or a living animal, it is not helpful for evaluating the situation of the wild South China tiger in that area,' he said.
Similarly playing down the debate over the photo, SFA deputy director Zhu Lieke drew a parallel to the legendary Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
'The museum there does not know if its pictures are real either. The question everyone is concerned about is whether the monster exists,' he said.
Beijing's fence-sitting is 'irresponsible' and simply deepens its credibility problem, said Professor Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at the People's University.
'This incident has become a test of society's trust in the authorities,' he said, adding that Beijing's humming and hawing further convinces people that the picture is very likely a fake.
To avoid the embarrassment of going against the Shaanxi government's account, Beijing is probably hoping the debate will just dissipate, Prof Zhou said.
The online debate does not look likely to die down soon, with netizens charging Beijing with 'participating in a cover-up'.
One posting yesterday read: 'There is only one solution now. If the government still does not give us a verdict on the authenticity of the tiger photo, the people should hold an online referendum on the government's trustworthiness.'
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