Social Studies 2003 O Levels Source-Based Questions 1(a) Why do you think the artist drew this cartoon?

Explain your answer. [5m] Question type: Advanced Inference Purpose + Audience: The American cartoonist is trying to convince his readers/Americans that the Chinese are the unreasonable ones in the plane collision Desired Outcome He hoped that people can empathise the American point of view by implying that China should be blamed for the collision instead OR He hoped to influence his readers to support US and go against China by portraying the Chinese as the culprits and the American as the victims Evidence The Chinese are portrayed as brats who caused the damage in the house and yet demand for an apology He wants to portray the Chinese blaming the Americans even though they are at fault as the newspaper headlines in the cartoon says China wants US to apologise for plane incident

(b) Study sources B and C. These 2 sources differ in their accounts of the collision. Does that mean that 1 of them must be wrong? Explain your answer. [6m] Sources B and C are differ in their accounts of the collision. Source C may be wrong because the speaker who is an American military officer who felt that the Chinese was responsible for the US-China plane collision. He only described what happen based on reports that he had and he did not witnessed the entire incident. He tried to lead his audience into believing that the Chinese pilots should have avoided the American plane. The US Admiral in source C is blaming the Chinese to protect his countrys image. The evidence is " they had become more aggressive, endangering Chinese and American aircraft it is pretty obvious who bumped into whom." (can be summarized shorter) Source C may be biased because he may be pro-America. He was a military officer who will definitely support the American pilots and he would never openly admit that the Americans pilots were responsible for plane collision. He tended to stand on the side of the Americans and claimed that the plane collision was due to the errors of the Chinese pilots. He has indirectly suggested that the Chinese were responsible for plane collision instead. Source B may be less reliable because he only described what the American pilots have done by swerving and hit the plane of the other Chinese pilot. This is mainly a one-sided account of the second Chinese pilot. His account suggested that the Americans were responsible for the plane collision. The Chinese pilot may be lying to cover up any mistake made in flight. The evidence is "The US plane suddenly swerved at a wide angle towards us and its nose and left wing hit the tail surface if pilot Wangs plane." Source B may be biased as he may be pro-China. The speaker is a Chinese fighter jet pilot and he had witnessed the accident. He would definitely support China and would never claim that the Chinese pilots were responsible for the plane collision. His account only focused the wrong doings of the American pilots and he did not provide any much information on how he and his first Chinese fighter jet pilot reacted towards the American surveillance plane. Neither did he explain the reason for the Chinese pilots mission and purpose of tracking the American plane over the South China Sea.

(c) Source D just gives the opinion of 2 Americans who were not involved in the event. Does this make it useless as evidence about the US-China plane collision? Explain your answer. Source D is useful to a certain extent as evidence about the US-China plane collision It provides us with information that US has been rather aggressive on the surveillance of the South China Sea and this might have sparked off the conflict between the 2 countries. The evidence is "President Bushs government has clearly taken a confrontational attitude towards China this is bound to lead to tense situations" Cross Referencing By cross-referencing to source A, source A tells me that China is the aggressive party and unreasonable party on the US-China plane collision. The evidence is the cartoon portrays China as the children who were responsible for breaking the furniture and yet demand for an apology from US who were represented by the parents. Since source A contradicts what source D says about US being responsible for plane collision, source A shows me that source D is not reliable and not useful. By cross-referencing to source B, source B tells me that US planes were the one that changed their course of flight and collided with the Chinese plane. It says that US was responsible for the US-China plane collision. The evidence is "the US plane suddenly swerved at a wide angle towards us and its nose and left wing hit the tail surface of pilot Wangs plane" Since source B supports what source D says about US being responsible for plane collision, source B shows me that source D is reliable and useful. Although source D may be less reliable as evidence about the US-China plane collision, it is still useful in showing us the opinions of the other Americans on this incident. Source D shows me the other Americans could understand the position of the Chinese and the reasons for the fighter jets being sent off to track the American planes. Source D shows me that the Americans do not approve of the way the America handle this issue.

(d) Does this source prove that the US was not to be blame for the collision? Explain your answer. Source E proves that the US was to be blame for the collision to a certain extent. It is a comment made by a neutral party, a British news report. It says that the US planes were heavier and more stable were unlikely to swerve suddenly and collided with the Chinese plane. Hence, it implied that China was responsible for the collision. Evidence from source E "the US plane was unlikely to veer suddenly to the left, as claimed by Beijing it is a big and heavy plane that the smaller and quicker Chinese jets should have been able to avoid" Source E may be biased as he may be pro-America. This is a comment on the report of the US-China plane collision. The speaker did not specifically state who was responsible for the plane collision but indirectly suggested that it was the Chinese who caused the plane collision. Cross Referencing By cross-referencing to source B, source B tells me that US planes were the one that changed their course of flight and collided with the Chinese plane. It says that US was responsible for the US-China plane collision. The evidence is "the US plane suddenly

swerved at a wide angle towards us and its nose and left wing hit the tail surface of pilot Wangs plane" Since source B contradicts what source E says about US being responsible for plane collision, source B shows that source E is NOT reliable. By cross-referencing to source C, source C says that the Chinese airplanes were becoming more aggressive as a response to the surveillance of US planes at the South China Sea. It also says that the Chinese airplanes were responsible for the collision as they had collided into the wing of the US airplane. It says that the Chinese airplanes were smaller and able to avoid the collision. The evidence is " they had become more aggressive one of the Chinese fighter jets bumped into the wing of our plane the Chinese fighter jets is smaller and quicker " Since source C supports what source E says about US is responsible for plane collision, source C shows that source E is reliable.