The Virginia Tech shootings in the United States caused waves in the blogosphere of the Chinese diaspora, particularly when one of the first reports on the massacre alleged that the perpetrator of 32 murders was a Chinese national studying in the U.S. on a student visa. Right away, the eager eyes of journalists and bloggers turned towards the Chinese media and its response to the allegations—and this is where the story gets interesting.

History shows that almost 12 hours after the shootings occurred, an American news source reported official confirmations that US-Green Card holder and Korean national Cho Seung-Hui was the mass-murderer. However, during the brief period in which it appeared “highly likely” that a Chinese student was responsible, a range of responses were seen in the China-blogosphere, with the strongest and most indignant rightly being that of the reporting of the shooter's incorrect nationality by Chicago-based journalist Michael Sneed.

While BBS sites across China lit up with comments, the most interesting development that caught the eye of many Chinese bloggers was the non-reportage of the nationality of the alleged gunman by China's official news services until after a Korean was identified as the shooter. What happened during this time? Did China's media hold its collective breath while it figured out what to do?

Bloggers immediately drew their eyes towards the most interesting and knowledgeable journalism blogs in China: Roland Soong’s East South West North, Chris O'Brien's Beijing Newspeak, James Fallows' personal blog and the Danwei media group blog.

The strongest issue arising from this collection of Western journalists was the pondering of non-reportage, and the Chinese media’s apparent display of ostrich syndrome.

Danwei posted an excellent early report on Chinese reactions to the Virginia Tech shootings, which included the below translation of a CCTV journalist’s blog entry concerning the conundrum on reporting the apparently Chinese perpetrator of the shootings:

Instinct at the time was: not doing it would be unacceptable and a dereliction of duty. However, to do it might run into temporary restrictions, and it might even be killed before being born. ... Originally, the thought was to come up with a plan as quickly as possible and let the leaders pass a verdict on it, but something unexpected came up: the leaders quickly "became aware of the serious nature of the issue" and "stopped up a hole that could be problematic for propaganda."

As the investigation into the shootings later revealed the true identity of the murderer, Chris O'Brien writes about his first-hand account of the reactions at state media outlet Xinhua:

There was a flurry of activity to work out how to report the nationality of the gunman.

In the end, we will never know how they planned to approach it but suffice to say the senior editors were delighted when “South Korea” was read out at the press conference. Back-slapping and congratulations ensued—one editor said that it would have been a inconceivable loss of face if the gunman had been Chinese. ... To think a potential loss of face dwarfed a sense of responsibility to report such a tragic world news event.

More or less, this was a common theme running amongst the blogs originating from China. This position appeared convincing. However, a flip-side to the coin was proffered by a series of commenters providing eloquent, logical and centering repartee that highlighted the issue of the Western media's agenda with Chinese media's reportage. One great example of this can be found by commenter SWB in response to Chris O'Brien's post:

I love the moral hypocrisy oozing from Chris O'Brien and this post in general.

In effect, he turns the issue of how the American media “misreported” the nationality of the Virginia shooting into a self-righteous diatribe about Chinese media and censorship. ...

... O'Brien also ignores the reality that this (mis)reporting of the Virginia shooter's nationality simply reflects how the American media will often use the race/ethnicity of a criminal suspect in order to tacitly demonize that person's race, ethnicity, or country of origin in general ...

The real beauty of blogging is on display here. While the Chinese media allegedly remained “mum” on this issue, China’s vibrant blogoshpere once again offered bloggers and newshounds an expansive forum to discuss what was foremost on their minds.