China Digital Times

CHINA NEWS SECTION: CDT Highlights

• Yang Guobin: “Green Dam” as a Case of Online Activism in China (With Videos)

  

  Yang Guobin, associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern cultures of Barnard College writes on the Columbia University blog:

  The Green Dam policy indicates that there is still a surprising degree of bluntness in the exercise of state control over the Internet. In recent years, the Chinese government has demonstrated new levels of sophistication in affairs of Internet governance. One sign is the adoption since 2004 of a soft-management approach, which emphasizes self-discipline, civic responsibility, and the use of legal rather than administrative power to contain harmful contents. Part of the reason why the Green Dam policy met with such strong resistance is that it represented an unbearably heavy-handed approach to Internet control.

  The case further reveals an ambivalent and complex relationship between government and Internet businesses. It shows that private businesses can be recruited for the control of the Internet. Indeed, many Chinese netizens see the Green Dam more as a sweet business deal for the software company than an effective control measure. This kind of outsourcing and privatization of control had long caused concern, and the Green Dam controversy brought the issue back into the public limelight, raised concerns about future state-market collusion.

  The Green Dam case, however, is much more revealing about online activism than about Internet control. It shows that control almost always encounters opposition, and such opposition—a new form of online activism—can be powerful enough to seriously undermine control efforts.

  Also from BBC: Anger in China over web censorship:

  Internet censorship has been one of the most widely discussed subjects in blogs, message forums and social media networks in China over the past month.

  Web policing was tightened up around the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown on 4 June, resulting in the temporary blocking of Twitter and other websites.

  Before things could settle down, China announced plans for a new filtering software to be introduced on new PCs from 1 July. The Green Dam Youth Escort software was created to stop people viewing “offensive” content such as pornographic or violent websites.

  While the blocking of websites around the 4 June was not unexpected, or unprecedented, the new software has created quite a stir in the blogosphere.

  The Green Dam fast became one of the top topics on Twitter. One Twitterer observed: “Chinese netizens are tolerant of censorship in the clouds, but Green Dam crosses the line and becomes surveillance of personal space. The government has miscalculated.”

  Here are some recent visual examples of netizens’ resistance to the Internet censor:

  Global Voices Online translated the “2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens” last week:

  In reaction to a series of internet censorship policy, in particular the introduction of Green Dam, a declaration has been circulated on the net in the past two days calling netizens to express and protect their rights to anonymity on July 1st. Below are the declaration posters and English translation of the declaration (all by anonymous netizens via google.doc)

  2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens

  To the Internet censors of China,

  We are the Anonymous Netizens. We have seen your moves on the Internet. You have deprived your netizens of the freedom of speech. You have come to see technology as your mortal enemy. You have clouded and distorted the truth in collaboration with Party mouthpieces. You have hired commentators to create the “public opinion” you wanted to see. All these are etched into our collective memory. More recently, you forced the installation of Green Dam on the entire population and smothered Google with vicious slander. It is now clear as day: what you want is the complete control and censorship of the Internet. We hereby declare that we, the Anonymous Netizens, are going to launch our attack worldwide on your censorship system starting on July 1st, 2009.

  For the freedom of the Internet, for the advancement of Internetization, and for our rights, we are going to acquaint your censorship machine with systematic sabotage and show you just how weak the claws of your censorship really are. We are going to mark you as the First Enemy of the Internet. This is not a single battle; it is but the beginning of a war. Play with your artificial public opinion to your heart’s content, for you will soon be submerged in the sea of warring netizens. Your archaic means of propaganda, your epithets borrowed straight from the Cultural Revolution era, your utter ignorance of the Internet itself - these are the tolls of your death bell. You cannot evade us, for we are everywhere. Violence of the state cannot save you - for every one of us that falls, another ten rises. We are familiar with your intrigues. You label some of us as the “vicious few” and dismiss the rest of us as unknowing accomplices; that way you can divide and rule. Go ahead and do that. In fact, we encourage you to do that; the more accustomed you are to viewing your netizens this way, the deeper your self-deception.

  You are trying in vain to halt the wheels of history. Even with your technocratic reinforcements, you will not understand the Internet in the foreseeable future. We congratulate you on your adherence to your Cultural-Revolution style conspiracy theories in your dealings with dissent; for we too get nostalgic at times. We toast to your attempts to erect a Great Wall among your netizens, for such epic folly adds spice to any historical narrative. Still, there’s something we feel obliged to tell you.

  Please click here to see the slideshow presentation of the 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens.

  The following video spoof (in Chinese), entitled “The Fuhrer’s Fury at the Green Dam,” superimposes satirical Chinese subtitles over a mash-up of several movie clips, one featuring Hitler berating his subordinates about the failings of the Green Dam, and another of a heroic man who is able to jump over walls.

  The next music video is called “Song of the Green Dam Lady.”

  And the one below is entitled: Green Dam Lady: Harmonize Your Whole Family!

  After Gmail and other Google services were disrupted last week, this T-shirt went on sale in some Chinese online stores.

  The following image has also been popular in the Chinese blogosphere. The caption reads:
  “Last time I was not able to stop you. Now you will not be able to stop me!”

  

  » Read more
  • July 1, 2009 4:54 AM

• Josie Liu: Some Thoughts on China’s Environment

  

  I ran into a friend on Facebook the other day and chatted with him online. He is from Texas and his family of seven moved to Kunming, Yunnan last year as he was hired as a teacher at an international school there. He told me during the short chat that he and his wife went to see the “green paint” in Dianchi Lake, which was its greenish water. It was pollution, I told him. It was terrible and very sad, he wrote, the lake was a beautiful place. I swam in that lake when I was a little girl, but today nobody dares to touch the water. A huge amount of money has been spent to clean the lake up, but the damage is probably irreversible. The lake, once dubbed the “pearl of the plateau” (Yunnan resides on a major plateau in China), is now but a stinky sore on the landscape.

  Dianchi is just one of the many, many heartbreaking stories of China’s environment. A few days ago, another American friend posted on Facebook that “Mongolia was amazing” and that he was heading to Beijing. My first impulse was that he was talking about Inner Mongolia in China, and I was blissful to hear him calling it “amazing,” because that would mean that (Inner) Mongolia was still a beautiful place despite the fact that the grasslands there have been overgrazed. So maybe things are not that bad, I thought. But I was still suspicious, because, honestly, I have little confidence in China’s environmental situation. So I left a comment: “Inner Mongolia or the Republic of Mongolia?” “The republic of…” he replied. Of course…I doubt that had my friend visited Inner Mongolia, he would still call it “amazing.”

  It is just sad that Chinese people are seeing their lands, lakes, forests—that is, the physical body of the country— destroyed piece by piece due to relentless industrial development, lack of environmental regulation and blind pursuit of profit.

  And it’s not just about the environment or even people’s quality of life or health. I remember reading in my middle school textbooks many articles appraising the beauty of the motherland–the spectacular Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, the roaring Yellow River, the endless, green grasslands in Inner Mongolia, to name just a few–which was the foundation for teaching students to love the country. I don’t know how teachers in today’s China are going to educate children. The breath-taking scenery of the Three Gorges is gone for good. The Yellow River has suffered water deficit for years and sometimes simply dries out for miles. And the massive grasslands in northern China are gradually turning into massive deserts…

  People around the world praise the beauty of their motherland as the common reason they themselves, and others, love their country. Sadly, it seems that Chinese people are running out of beautiful places to boast about and appreciate.

  I once talked with a Chinese scholar who taught in the US. He told me that he loved going back to China to visit but would not live there. “Everything is great back in the country, only the environment is too bad,” he said. I’m sure he is not the only overseas-educated and successful Chinese who would rather stay overseas to stay away from the dirty air, water and landscape in the homeland. On the other hand, had the environment been well-preserved and cleaned-up in China, the country could have attracted more talent to live and work there. Not to mention that, after all, the country needs rich lands, clean water and air, as well as its natural beauty, simply to survive as the habitat for a billion people.

  » Read more
  • June 30, 2009 12:56 PM

• Blogger: Google’s Recent Troubles

  

  In response to the recent uproar over escalating Internet controls in China, and in particular the blocking of various Google services, Chinese bloggers are sending around the following spoof of the Google logos:

  Everyone in the world knows Google…
  地球人都知道Google……

  

  Google says “doing no evil” is in their DNA….
  Google说它不作恶是它的DNA……

  

  Google is just a platform, the contents are produced by users….
  Google只是平台，内容是用户生成的……

  

  But Big Brother is always watching…..
  老大哥其实一直在盯着……

  

  Actually, Google.cn was self-censored a long time ago
  其实，Google.cn早已经“嫣然”……

  

  But they still don’t want to let Google go, even though they are in the midst of a whirlpool….
  可他们还是不想放过Google，哪怕它早已在漩涡之中……

  

  They accuse Google of pornography…
  他们控诉Google涉黄……

  

  Some people say, porn is porn, just use protection [homonym for Web proxy Tor]…
  有人建议说，黄就黄吧，带套（tor）就行……

  

  But early on the detectives discovered that Google had been framed….
  其实早有侦探发现Google是被诬陷……

  

  Soon the rogues were running wild….
  一时间群魔乱舞……

  

  But rumor had it that one company in particular was especially pleased…
  坊间传言说有一家公司特别高兴……

  

  Suddenly one night Google and Google Books disappeared…
  突然有一天晚上Google不见啦，Google Book也没了……

  

  Not long after Google came back, but people were still very scared….
  没一会儿Google就又回来了，可是人们还是非常害怕……

  

  One day, will we need to use Morse Code to read Google?
  难道有一天我们要用摩斯码看Google？

  

  Or Braille?
  还是我们要用布雷码？

  

  Oh, I know, we can all become frogs, and leap over the wall….
  哦，想起来了，其实我们早就变成了青蛙，会翻墙……

  

  Is this really the end for Google?
  难道Google真的在沦陷？

  

  Sooner or later will it just leave its remains?
  还是早晚只剩下尸骨残骸？

  

  Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream and so do I…
  马丁路德金有的我也有……

  

  That when I get old, I’ll still be able to use Google….
  到我老的时候还是能用Google……

  

  And we will always be able to see what we want to see…
  我们总是或者总会能看到我们想看到的……

  

  » Read more
  • June 26, 2009 11:31 AM

• Iran’s Chinese Lessons, and China’s Iran Lessons

  

  As events continue to unfold in Tehran, observers continue to draw comparisons between the situation there and Tiananmen Square in 1989. In a commentary in the New York Times, Philip Bowring points out some lessons from the protests that Beijing is likely taking to heart:

  For the Chinese leadership, the problems of the regime in Tehran demonstrate two principles. First, the critical importance of avoiding open splits among the ruling elite. Such a split in China, between hard-liners around Deng Xiaoping and those around Zhao Ziyang accepting the need for gradual political change, helped create the crisis that led to the bloodbath. In Iran the elite has likewise allowed itself to be divided, both by policies and personal power plays. For China, that shows the critical importance of the Communist Party as an institution which ultimately over-rides factionalism. The Iranian system lacks an equivalent party structure.

  Second, the dangers of admitting that any form of democratic choice is necessary or desirable. Iran’s limited democracy may have been shown to be a sham, but the unmasking of the pretence has left the whole system in disarray. Democracy inevitably leads to personal power struggles becoming public issues. It is as incompatible with China’s concept of leadership by one party as it is with the Iranian theocratic concept of ultimate power residing in the supreme leader and the rule of Islamic jurists.

  The comparison with Tiananmen leads to another question being asked in Asia. Assuming that Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hold onto power, can they restore the appearance of legitimacy of the system via the rapid economic growth and national advancement achieved by China after Tiananmen Square?

  On Useless Tree, Sam Crane is continuing his series on Teheran and Tiananmen. Both Andrei Codrescu on NPR and Dan Rather argue that the two situations, and the period of time in which they occurred, are actually very different. And, belatedly, we link to a post from Andrew Leonard in Salon in which he wrote (on June 19th): “And so, the tweets from Tehran are breaking my heart. Because who can doubt that Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad have the same iron resolve to maintain power as Deng Xiaoping did in 1989?”

  In the Atlantic, James Fallow looks at Chinese media coverage of Iran and writes about why Chinese citizens are not paying more attention to events there:

  » Read more
  • June 24, 2009 7:35 AM

• Video: Riots in Shishou, Central China over Death (Updated)

  

  Violent riots are being reported in Shishou, Hubei Province. Reuters reports:

  Police in central China’s Hubei province have been called in to quash protests over the mysterious death of a man in a government-owned hotel, eyewitnesses told Reuters on Saturday.

  “There are still a lot of armed police around,” a local resident surnamed Chen told Reuters. “But they haven’t convinced (the protestors) to go home yet.”

  On June 17, Xu Yuangao, a 24-year-old chef, was found dead at the Yonglong Hotel in the city of Shishou, and while the police say they found a suicide note, Xu’s family continue to allege foul play.

  And from AFP:

  “There were at least 10,000 people gathered near the hotel yesterday (Friday). Police were being chased away by residents, who were hitting the police,” a woman employee at a nearby hotel told AFP by phone.

  The woman, who would not give her name, said she also saw police vehicles that were damaged or overturned.

  She added that large crowds were still present on Saturday near the Yonglong hotel where the man was a chef.

  The official Xinhua news agency reported that more than one thousand people crowded outside the hotel at 5pm (0900 GMT) Saturday, with hotel walls “blackened by fire,” it said.

  See also a Xinhua report. The following photos are from this blog, although it is currently inaccessible.
  

  Amateur video of the incident is up on YouTube:
  
  
  

  Update: Reuters reports on Sunday that calm has been restored to Shishou:

  Crowds that clashed with paramilitary police in a small town in central China on Saturday have dispersed, leaving police in control, local residents and state media said on Sunday.

  Unusually, the protestors in Shishou, Hubei province, appear to have included local government employees, showing the depth of dissatisfaction in the city of 620,000.

  Crowds set fire to the Yonglong Hotel on Friday night after the death of 24-year-old chef Tu Yuangao. The man’s family had refused to accept the hotel management’s explanation that Tu had committed suicide by jumping out a window.

  By Saturday, the confrontation had escalated into one of the most serious “mass incidents” in China since the alleged rape of a teenage girl found dead in Weng’an, Guizhou province, sparked riots last year involving 30,000 angry locals.

  More photos of the protests can be found here and on ESWN.

  » Read more
  • June 20, 2009 6:42 PM

• Regulators Target Google for Pornographic Content, CCTV Airs Fake Interview, Netizens React

  

  As previously reported on CDT, Chinese government regulators have ordered Google to suspend some of its search functions due to the pornographic content available through its search engine.  More details from the New York Times:

  The Chinese government disabled some search functions on the Chinese-language Web site of Google on Friday, saying the site was linking too often to pornographic and vulgar content.

  Government officials met with managers of the Chinese operations of Google on Thursday afternoon to warn them that the company would be punished if it did not remove the offending material from the Web site, according to a report on Friday by Xinhua, the state news agency.

  [...]On Friday evening, the associative-word feature of the Web site appeared to have been disabled. That is the function that displays a drop-down menu of words related to a search word that is typed into the search engine. The previous evening, reporters on China Central Television, the state television network, showed how typing in the Chinese word for son, erzi, could pull up associated terms that have lewd connotations.

  Additionally, the government has ordered Google to block links to foreign websites from search results on its China Google page.  From the Dow Jones Newswires via Total Telecom:

  Chinese regulators have ordered Google Inc. to suspend search services for foreign Web sites via its Chinese Web site, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday, a day after the company was warned over pornographic content available through its search engine.

  It wasn’t immediately clear if the order applies to all foreign Web sites or just certain sites. Currently, foreign Web sites are still searchable and accessible from Google’s Chinese home page.

  Google was also ordered to suspend searches for certain key words when summoned by unspecified regulators Thursday afternoon, the report said.

  On June 18, CCTV aired a report on Google’s pornographic content which has drawn swift criticism from Chinese netizens, particularly for a false interview with a supposed ‘college student’ named Gao Ye.  (Watch the full CCTV segment, including the Gao Ye interview, on Sina.com.)  EastSouthNorthWest translates a post by Xiao Tian at Oxn.in (Chinese) summarizing netizen skepticism:

  On the same day, netizens began to question quickly.  Search engines frequently offer likely search terms because these are popular with other users.  As such, the search engines are not responsible because they are only reporting what users are “voting” on with their searches.  Thus, when Google.cn proposes certain relevant search terms, they are merely informing you what other netizens are most commonly searching for.  They are reflecting the facts of life, and it shows that Google.cn is being fair and objective.  Rather than blaming the search engines, we should be blaming people for wanting to look up pornography which proliferate on the Chinese Internet.

  Similarly, other search engines such as Baidu and Bing contain the same kinds of pornographic information, but CCTV completely ignores them.  Netizens made screen captures to show that Baidu is no less vulgar than Google.cn …

  

  Soon after this CCTV segment aired, the Southern Metropolis Daily (Chinese) reported that the interviewed university student Gao Ye was in fact a CCTV intern.  Netizens have launched the human flesh search engine.  Again translated by EastSouthNorthWest:

  Yesterday morning, a netizen discovered that there was a user named “Gao Ye” at the social networking site Xiaonei.  Based upon the photos, this is the same Gao Ye who appeared the day before on <Focus Interview>.  According to a conversation with a friend on June 17, Gao Ye is presently an intern with the CCTV program <Focus Interview>.  Also, other netizens found Gao Ye and his friends’ Sina.com blogs which said that he was going to become an intern at CCTV.  This information was later posted at Cat898 Forum, Tianya Form and other websites.  The reporter confirmed with a worker at CCTV’s <Focus Interview> program group that Gao Ye is indeed an intern there.

  The human flesh search quickly located and published Gao Ye’s school, QQ number, mobile phone number and other personal information.  His Xiaonei page was flooded with scornful comments.  Not satisfied with direct personal attacks, some netizens began a human flesh search on his girlfriend.  Her blog, Xiaonei page, QQ number and other information were published.  Her photos with Gao Ye were posted all over the place alongside personal attacks.

  Faced with the pressure from the powerful human flesh search, Gao Ye and his girlfriend deleted their blogs.  Gao Ye’s Xiaonei space now only has the message: “Account canceled by the user.”

  ChinaSMACK has translations of netizen reactions to the CCTV report and also a translation of a sarcastic letter to the ‘university student’ Gao Ye from Hudong Baike (Chinese):

  A Letter To Gao Ye

  Schoolmate Gao Ye, hello: You probably do not know me, but I know you from Focus Interview. I attentively listened to you talk about the “Google China using yellow pictures [pornography] and vulgar content to poison your schoolmate” thing, and was deeply touched and learned a lot. Whether or not that schoolmate is really yourself is not important, but I hope to give you some sincere advice.

  One, you must not look at pornography and vulgar content too much, Schoolmate Gao Ye. I do not know if you with your schoolmate have reached pornography and vulgar content through links on Google China, but as a big brother who has matured from youth, let me say to you that normally you must not watch too much A片 and avoid vulgar content. These are bad for your skin. These past two days, did you stay up all night going online to find 毛片 ["hand films", pornography films] look at pornography doing your homework in preparation for the CCTV interview? Look at yourself, just two days and you no longer look human: slackened eyes; wrinkles on your forward; gaping mouth. That’s why big brother is offering you a piece of advice: look at less porn and go outside more, wouldn’t that be good? Another thing, there are always at least a few girls in your classes, right? Occasionally molesting them a little is definitely more exciting than porn.

  Two, you must not accept interviews from CCTV about vulgar content, Schoolmate Gao Ye. It is not that I am jealous of you getting on CCTV, really. It is because after 60 years of studying CCTV’s programs I have discovered that every schoolmate that has gone on CCTV to interview about vulgar content always eventually has a bad fate. Let us use schoolmate Zhang Shufan from the year before last as an example. Just days before Teacher Edison Chen’s photo exhibition, CCTV’s “Xin Wen Lian Bo” broadcast “Schoolmate Zhang Shufan’s interview about pornography and vulgar content”. At the time, Schoolmate Zhang Shufan only said “very yellow, very violent” these few words, but do you know what happened to her? There were even more wretched/perverted pictures but I will not post them here. You as a good young lad currently studying in university should know what accepting this kind of interview will do for your future prospects.

  » Read more
  • June 20, 2009 2:31 PM

• Xinhua: Improving Our Ability to React to Mass Incidents (2/2)

  

  The following article is from Xinhuanet.com. Translated by E. Shih. This is Part II. Part I is here.

  如何把握群体性事件的处理分寸
  黄豁：前几年，地方政府对群体性事件普遍表现出“不适应症”，判断失误、处置失当的例子比比皆是。但从近期的群体性事件来看，地方政府处置水平比过去有所提高，无论是处置思路、处置方式都有一定变化，体现了一定的“学习能力”。

  » Read more
  • June 16, 2009 8:49 PM

• Blogger: The Adventures of a Petty City Dweller, June 4th, 2009 (Updated with Photos)

  

  The following Kafkaesque story about a visit to Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 2009, has been widely circulated in the Chinese blogosphere, written by a blogger using the name 十七只猫和鱼 (Seventeen Cats and Fish), who codes key phrases (”something something square,” etc) in order to bypass censors. Translated by E. Shih:

  What day was yesterday—what day was yesterday? I’ve forgotten. My memory has been shot lately. But no matter what day it was yesterday, I don’t think I will ever be able to forget the freak incident I experienced in the three hours from five to eight pm.

  The June weather in Beijing is like the face of a child with Down’s syndrome: It changes in the flash of an eye. Just like that, at a few minutes past 4:30 pm, the unidentifiable grey clouds morphed into a mass of gale and dust that enveloped all of Beijing. The rain gave no relief, but was humid, repressed like a sad, angry drunk, and it carried the stench of blood.

  I, a petty city dweller, was walking along a non-vehicle path, thinking to myself whether I should go get a bowl of soy-sauce stew outside the Xuanwu gate or go get some Yanji cold noodles at the mouth of Xin Street. Just across from the noodle place there was a place that sold discount socks. Oh, but if I went for the soy-sauce stew, I could go check out the demolished South Gate…etc. In other words, just mundane thoughts of a mundane person.

  However, a number 46 bus making a stop at the side of the road changed my mundane thoughts, because there came drifting from it the most beautiful melody in the world:

  “Something, something red flag (I can’t remember exactly), I am proud of you, I cheer for you and wish you well; your name is worth more than my life!”

  » Read more

  • June 12, 2009 1:53 PM

• Personal History: A June Deserter

  

  In the run-up to last’s week’s 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, the following essay quietly circulated in the Chinese blogosphere, written by an anonymous author calling himself Deserter. Via bullogger.com, translated by CDT’s Paulina Hartono:

  It was in June of that year. I was working at one of the three big media corporations in America. That was an eventful spring. At the beginning of the year, the former president George Bush visited China, and then a former CCP leader passed away … Finally, by the time one evening in early June came around, that eventful spring was marked by an exclamation point, and then an even bigger question mark.

  At the time, I was still a Chinese citizen. The next morning, I hastened to find my boss: It was a worrisome situation [in Beijing], I could not stay. I wanted to resign, to get out, to leave.

  I didn’t imagine that my boss was also looking for me. He said that our Australian cameraman and his English recording assistant were in the Beijing Hotel, and they had just filmed some extremely important material. My boss told me that I should personally go and get the material, rather than send my 20 broadcasting school interns. This, to me, was a dilemma. I had originally wanted to resign, but now was sent on assignment, and clearly an important one at that: Before this, I had never been personally sent to go pick something up from a place.

  I was young and easily excitable at that time. The [media] company was really good to me: In 1980s China, they paid $200 USD in cash a day. I kept thinking to myself that it wouldn’t be right to drop the ball on them now, so I just promised to go. However, I immediately regretted it after because my boss said, “I’ve heard that it’s safe out there.” But I could tell from the way he spoke that he shouldn’t have said that. It was obviously not that safe out there.

  I went from work at the Palace Hotel and walked over to the Beijing Hotel. It was past 10 in the morning, but there was no one in the streets. Occasionally, I would hear the clear, crisp sound of firecrackers around me. At the corners of Chang’An, I would see some Beijing residents beating their chests and stomping their feet, swearing under their breath. One elderly resident was supported on both sides by several youth, and immediately took off for Peking Union Medical College Hospital. It was said that one side of his mouth had been struck by a bullet that came out the other side. The old man had his head down, his body was leaning to one side. The man was undeniably suffering.

  Once I had arrived at the entrance to the Beijing Hotel, I only saw one row of closed glass doors. There was only one half-open door in the middle, letting just one person at a time enter sideways. Flanking the sides, inside and out, were at least a dozen plain-clothed people performing some duties.

  I braced myself and approached them.

  I had put a new, unsealed videotape into my backpack as an exchange for the material I wanted to pick up. As I faced these fellow citizens of mine carrying out their duties, I tried my utmost to calm down, telling myself that I had nothing on me, and that this tape had nothing on it, either.

  I kept thinking and went through their pat-down, finally walking into the hall. However, I felt as if many eyes kept staring at me from behind. But I got into the elevator, saw the elevator’s doors close, and finally, no one called for me to stop.

  When I had reached the 14th floor, I found our filming group’s room, and knocked on the door. I heard some rustling for a while, and then the door was finally opened after a long wait. Turns out the two foreigners thought I had come to arrest them, so they brought their camera equipment from the balcony and hid it under the bed. After that, they even changed their pajamas and looked just like a gay couple. It was pretty funny! As soon as they recognized me, they let out a sigh and immediately put the equipment back on the balcony. The cameraman put my tape in the machine and the recording assistant delivered the tape I had come to get.

  I rode the elevator down and walked to the front. This time, the tape I had in my backpack had content on it. There was a backlight as I was approaching the entrance, and though I thought that people’s shadows were shifting in and out the door, no one was moving. It was clear that they were staring at me as I moved towards them. Those steps I took were the heaviest and longest steps of my life.

  Once I reached the entrance, I could finally make out their faces. I could feel a silent pressure, an … anger. But they did not obstruct my way, and instead let me pass.

  I quickly left the Beijing Hotel for the Palace Hotel. As soon as I arrived, the editor took the recording and began to make a copy of it. I intended to get out of the way; I did not want to know what was on the tape. By doing so, I could remain utterly ignorant and deny any responsibility. Of course, this was my subjective preference, or perhaps self-deception.

  Just as I was considering speaking to my boss about the resignation situation, my boss again sent me with the tape, this time to the airport, to “release the carrier pigeon.” I did not pull back; I had to go to the airport. I still reassured myself that I had no idea what the tape’s contents were.

  “Release the carrier pigeon” is American television jargon meaning that one has to go to an airport or some location to hand over material to a passenger who looks reliable, give him/her some remuneration, and trust him/her to carry it to the intended flight destination. In the past, this was an old, common method of satellite broadcasting. However, at this time, Beijing’s satellite delivery had already been cut off, so this was now the only recourse.

  The Beijing Capital Airport was brimming with people, with everyone there foreign and frantically wanting to leave Beijing. Aside from the large number of people, there was another thing that made my hair stand on end: in the airport’s large hall, there were countless people lined up and moving through the crowds, but none of them were speaking; their faces were solemn. Now, compared to the usual clamor and chaos, there was quiet — the atmosphere was unexpectedly frozen, and eerie. From time to time, someone would softly speak, but oddly, would be cautious about it. It was as if they didn’t want others to hear what was said.

  I was in a line with people heading for Hong Kong and found an American businessman-looking type, not quite 40-years-old. I got the copy in my bag ready with the $100 USD cash I intended to give to him. I explained that I was from the such and such American TV corporation, and then asked if he would be our carrier pigeon, told him that I hoped he would tell me his name, that I would have to return to the office to send a fax to Hong Kong so that when he landed, he could hand the tape over to our people there waiting for him … At the time, 1997 [Hong Kong's return to China] was still far off, so naturally, Hong Kong’s satellite broadcasting system had not been cut off.

  That American looked at me, and then looked at the tape I held in my hand. Then, he nodded his head, with almost no expression registering on his face. I jotted down his name. Robert. Robert told me something absolutely unforgettable. However, please allow me to recount [his words] a little further on.

  When I left the airport, I had some suspicions and felt as if someone was following me from behind. My primary comfort was still that I was completely ignorant about the contents of that tape.

  After getting back to the office, I did not dare to delay — I immediately went to look for my boss and told him that I was completely finished with the assignment, and that I was sorry that I was a deserter. At this point, I had no choice but to resign. My boss seemed to finally understand that he and I were not the same; I held a Chinese passport. After some consideration, he said that he understood, gave me my pay, and let me go.

  Some time passed since that incident, and I was very slowly beginning to forget. Until one day, I saw a picture, one that became the 20th century’s most compelling image.

  My memory was revived.

  On June 5th of 1989, a little past 10 AM, a bare-fisted young man in a white shirt stood erect in front of a tank motorcade and faced death, unafraid. A group comprising us and a few other foreign news agencies were at the top of the Beijing Hotel, which was at the side of Chang’An where he had obstructed the tanks. We were able to take some shots of his image.

  A few minutes later, before I had even been able to voice my resignation, I was directed by my boss to personally go over to the Beijing Hotel and retrieve the tape. After I had retrieved it, I was again sent with extreme urgency to the airport to “release the carrier pigeon” …

  Judging from the time, location, and level of importance, I — this deserter — then totally unwilling in the circumstances and perpetually attempting to comfort myself with “I don’t know what the contents of this tape are,” was unaware that I was sending the entire world, within its first moments, images of the last man in a generation of Chinese who would ever assent to becoming a deserter.

  Here, I want to say a few words: it was not that I did not get any help and support from others in this process. Today, I recall that scene and want to technically thank [those at] the Beijing Hotel entrance, those plain-clothed fellow citizens performing their duties. Given their positioning, their grasp of information, and technology available, it is absolutely impossible that they did not know there was a video crew taping on the 14th floor. To say that they did not know I was riding up to the 14th floor to receive the tape is even more unlikely. However, as I said, they did watch me; their eyes were full of anger. I, someone who wholeheartedly felt like deserting, regarded their anger as being directed towards me. But I overlooked something. These people, after work, were also regular Beijing folk. Surely, bullets would not avoid their family, friends, and neighbors just because of their day jobs. Today, I understand one thing, and can say why they let me pass through the entrance and why they willingly let me leave. It’s because whether they acted as individuals or a collective, the decision they made was not without dangerous consequences. They let the world see the images of this awe-inspiring, righteous fellow citizen and his courage.

  Lastly, let me tell you what the American Robert said at the airport.

  “I feel so, so guilty and ashamed. At the time when the Chinese people most need my help, I can’t do anything but choose to flee, and more than that, flee from this privilege. I can’t take this money. Although I don’t know what’s on this tape, rest assured, I will do my utmost to protect it and send it to where it needs to go. It’s my small individual effort for China.”

  Today, as I remember those words, my first regret is that Robert and I were deserters. Perhaps, on our path of flight, we would have never learned what we unknowingly did for the world.

  

  Image source: New York Times blog.

  

  » Read more
  • June 11, 2009 2:54 AM

• Original Government Document Ordering “Green Dam” Software Installation

  

  On her blog, Rebecca MacKinnon summarizes the key stipulations of the government order requiring computer manufacturers to install filtering software on all computers made in or imported into China:

  1. Domestic PC manufacturers are required to pre-install the latest version of “Green Dam Youth Escort” and imported PC’s sold in China must also have the latest version of the software pre-installed.
  2. “Green Dam Youth Escort” should be included on a partition in the PC’s hard drive or in an accompanying CD so that it can be re-installed when the computer’s drive needs to be restored.
  3. The providers of “Green Dam Youth Escort” should enthusiastically work to support this work of installing their software.
  4. Installation work should be completed by the end of June and as of July 1st PC’s should be sold with the software pre-installed.
  5. In 2009 PC manufacturers and the providers of “Green Dam Youth Escort” should provide monthly reports to MIIT about sales figures, the number of copies of the software installed, and comments on this work. From 2010 they should provide annual reports by the end of February.

  The original Chinese document is here.

  » Read more
  • June 8, 2009 7:55 AM

• Q&A with Reps. Pelosi and Markey (Updated with Chinese Transcript)

  

  U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chair of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee Ed Markey sat down for an exclusive Q&A with CDT during their eight-day trip to China this month. We will post a full Chinese transcript of the interview shortly.

  Q&A with Reps. Pelosi and Markey in China from China Digital Times on Vimeo.

  The Chinese transcript of the Q&A follows (translated by Shilin Jia):

  » Read more
  • June 5, 2009 3:00 AM

• Rebuilding China’s Moral Foundation by Telling the Truth About Tiananmen

  

  I cross-posted this essay on the Huffington Post today:

  Rebuilding China’s Moral Foundation by Telling the Truth About Tiananmen

  by Xiao Qiang

  Twenty years ago, the world watched as Chinese people stood up for freedom, and the People’s Liberation Army responded by sending in tanks and guns.

  Millions of Chinese took to the streets in 1989 because they wanted a say in the future of their own country. But their dreams were dashed on the night of June 3rd-4th and have never recovered. Today, young Chinese are quoted as saying they know and care little about events in 1989. This lack of interest is the result of a deliberate effort by the Chinese government to erase memories of June 4th from the public consciousness through a combination of censorship, propaganda, repression and violence.

  Even privately, most Chinese people no longer discuss what they saw and experienced in 1989; the psychological burden is too much for individuals to carry. People who do speak out, like the Tiananmen Mothers whose children were killed on June 4th, are imprisoned, exiled, threatened or otherwise silenced.

  Tiananmen remains a taboo both in the media and in China’s new vast cyberspace. Tens of thousands of government censors police the Internet, and webpages that carry any public discussion on this topic are blocked or deleted. Just yesterday, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, and a long list of other websites were blocked by the Chinese Great Firewall because of the authorities’ growing fear and anxiety over any public discussion of Tiananmen as the 20-year anniversary approaches.

  In this environment, a recent gathering in Beijing was truly significant. Organizing themselves only by word of mouth (without the use of cell phones or email to avoid government surveillance), nineteen scholars, editors and lawyers held a seminar discussing 20 years since Tiananmen. The seminar, which took place on May 10, Mother’s Day, started with a moment of silence, paying tribute to the Tiananmen Mothers.

  Cui Weiping (崔卫平), professor at the Beijing Film Academy, started her presentation by asking: “What kind of negative impact has it had on our society for us to keep silent and to conceal the event for two decades? How has it harmed the spirit and morality of this nation? What kind of losses have we suffered in our own work and life? Are we still intending to continue this silence?”

  The Chinese government has whitewashed the history of 1989 by turning the country’s attention to its rapid economic growth, improved living standards, and rising global status. The truth about Tiananmen has been replaced with deception, indifference and cynicism. As the history of the brutality of June 4th is more deeply repressed, society is becoming more violent. “If we do not change and put limits on such massive violence, how are we able to stop the subsequent lesser violence that takes place on every corner and at any time in the country?” Cui Weiping asked. “That kind of blatant violence once took place on this land of ours, and at the “heart” of this land. The beliefs and demands of innocent young people and a large number of the general public were brutally trampled on. And no justifiable assessment has been made of it so far.”

  Cui Weiping and the millions of others who witnessed 1989 and remember the power of both the protests and the massacre, know that Chinese society cannot progress to its full potential without claiming its past. The Mother’s Day gathering was just such an effort, to tell the truth about what happened and to seek ways to move forward. Other brave individuals have also breached the silence in recent years, including Xiao Han, a lecturer at Beijing’s University of Politics and Law who last year discussed his experiences in 1989 with his students in class and wrote about it on his blog. Ye Fu, a writer and successful commercial book publisher recently wrote a series of personal essays on his blog revealing the name of a prominent writer who betrayed him in 1989 and got him imprisoned for his activism. Bloggers and other netizens also increasingly use coded language, images, and other tactics to write about the topic under the radar of Internet censors.

  China’s future needs to be built on this piece of history. If the country is to rebuild its moral foundation, it will depend on people like the Tiananmen Mothers, Cui Weiping, Xiao Han and Ye Fu who have the courage to recount the truth of what happened on the night of June 4th. Others who experienced Tiananmen must recount their memories, share stories with friends and colleagues, talk to their children, and thus defeat their own fear, self-deception and cynicism. As Cui Weiping said, “We either have to endure the weakening and impairment of our spirit and soul caused by the awkward situation until we are atrophied and paralyzed, or we stand up, speak the truth, and take back our dignity as human beings.”

  Confronting the truth of history requires strength and courage. But the energy it unleashes will be powerful enough to make China a truly humane, just, and open society. Without a basic grounding in the truth about Tiananmen, there is no moral foundation for China’s rise. Today, even the United States and Europe seek help from China to resolve the economic crisis and global warming. But if a government cannot come to terms with its own history and make peace with its own people, how can the world trust the myth of its “peaceful rise“?

  » Read more
  • June 4, 2009 2:31 AM

• Xiao Qiang: The Roar of Dissent Online

  

  From the New York Times:

  Today, reports abound of young Chinese saying they don’t know or don’t care about events in 1989. Yet all one has to do is go online to the vast number of Chinese forums and blogs to know that the spirit of Tiananmen is still alive.

  With 300 million people — mostly young, urban and well-educated — online in the country, the Internet has provided Chinese citizens with an unprecedented capacity to express themselves, expose corrupt local officials and call for social justice, despite heavy government censorship.

  From efforts to uncover child slave labor to protests that halted the construction of a dangerous chemical plant, netizens are demanding accountability, transparency, and political reform from their government.

  Recently, artist and blogger Ai Weiwei drew international attention to the issue of bad school construction and the children killed in those schools during the Sichuan earthquake by his efforts to collect their names. He has received an outpouring of support from the online public, which is calling for systematic changes, including an end to official corruption and cover-ups.

  Such “public events” are increasing day by day, and reflect a rising rights consciousness among the Chinese. In 1989, the voices of those gathered on Tiananmen Square were heard on TV screens by millions around the world. Today, millions of voices express themselves on the Internet, carrying on the demand for democratic reforms that the Tiananmen protesters called for.

  » Read more
  • June 2, 2009 11:16 PM

• Chinese Censors Cut Off Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr (Updated)

  

  Jane Macartney reports in the Times from Beijing:

  Two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, China’s censors moved today to limit the access of the country’s increasingly tech-savvy population to vast swathes of the internet.

  The first victims were the rising population of tweeters, who use the micro-blogging service Twitter as a platform for humour — often scatological — and political comment.

  Then the popular photo-posting service Flickr disappeared, as did the Hotmail e-mail service and Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. The blocks did not stop there, however: MSN Spaces also disappeared

  The timing is scarcely a coincidence. Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the entry of the People’s Liberation Army into Beijing on June 4 1989 to crush seven weeks of student-led demonstrations centred in Tiananmen Square.

  Update:
  Those on Twitter who are not behind blocks, or who have found ways to circumvent them, are reacting to the cut-off via the hashtags (analogous to blog tags) #fuckgfw, and now, #caogfw. According to several tweets, Wikipedia has also been blocked. However, this has not been confirmed.

  Danwei is also noting which sites are getting blocked. Additionally, read their interview with Michael Anti, a Chinese journalist who came into international spotlight after his Spaces blog was deleted by Microsoft in 2005. In the interview from May 27, Anti predicts that Twitter would one day get blocked.

  Twitter is a new thing in China. The censors need time to figure out what it is. So enjoy the last happy days of twittering before the fate of Youtube descends on it one day.

  By the way, I want to point out that the Chinese Twitterland is funnier than the English one, for a Chinese tweet can have three times the volume of an English tweet, thanks to the high information intensity of the Chinese language. 140 Chinese characters can make up all the full elements of a news piece with the “5 Ws” (Who, What, Where, When and HoW). But the joy of the Chinese Twitterland is more fragile, and I hope that it will live longer in this country.

  Read ChinaGeeks to learn more about what is surprisingly being permitted in the Chinese press:

  What’s more interesting than the blocks (who didn’t see the death of twitter coming from miles away?) is what is actually being said inside China about the anniversary.

  See also CNReviews for a list of options to get around the Great Firewall.

  Update #2: According to CN Reviews’ update, Hotmail is now back.

  See also the New York Times story on the recent censorship.

  Chinese netizens’ response? Here are two examples.

  Beijing based blogger keso wrote:

  We will remember this date, June 2, 2009. Microsoft’s newly introduced Bing.com, along with Live.com, Twitter.com, Flickr.com, and a bunch of other great overseas websites, were simultaneously blocked by GFW. In China, that so-called “Internet” thing is becoming the world’s largest LAN(local area network).

  Nobody knows who ordered the blockage. Nobody knows what the basis of the blockage is. Nobody knows what kind of process is required for blocking a website. Nobody knows the next website that is going to be blocked. And furthermore, nobody knows how to appeal or how to release the blockage. GFW completely is a black box.

  This phrase “FuckGFW,” in a short span of one or two hours, reached second place on Twitter’s hottest topics. Chinese netizens hated nothing more than this GFW that is built by our hard-earned money to imprison ourselves. Please remember: We are very angry.

  We are not Meng Jiang Nu. We do not have that many tears to weep down this Great Wall. However, we will hold the grudge, just like those Jewish people hunting down escaped Nazis, holding the grudge.

  June 2, 2009, this date is so dark that I cannot breath. Fuck the GFW!

  And here is the national anthem of the People’s Republic of Grass-Mud Horse:

  起来，不願被GFW的人們！ 把我們的API、推倒我們新的 長城！ 中華民族到了最危險的時候、 每個人被迫著發 出最後的吼聲。 起來！起來！起來！ 我們萬眾一心、 冒著五毛的炮火、翻牆！ 冒著五毛的炮火、翻牆！ 翻 牆！翻牆！翻！

  Arise! All who refuse to be GFWed!
  Let our API push down our new Great Wall!
  As the Chinese nation faces its greatest peril,
  All forcefully expend their last cries.
  Arise! Arise! Arise!
  Our million hearts beat as one,
  Brave the Fifty Cent Party’s fire, Climb over the Wall!
  Brave the Fifty Cent Party’s fire, Climb over the Wall!
  Climb over the Wall! Climb over the Wall! Climb!

  » Read more
  • June 2, 2009 7:52 AM

• Ai Weiwei’s New Blog

  

  After having his blog shut down days before the Tiananmen anniversary, artist  Ai Weiwei is back with a new blog here. 

  56minus1 blog notes that he also has a Twitter and Fanfou account:

  Ai Weiwei (艾未未) is now on Twitter and Fanfou (a China-market Twitter clone), and has just launched a new blog. In order verify his identity to the netizen community, Ai Weiwei posted the below semi-nude / grotesque photographs of himself.

  (What’s in his left hand in the top photo? Click here to view larger image. Click here to see more examples.)

  

  See also ChinaGeek’s translation of Ai Weiwei’s posts on Deng Yujiao and one of his volunteers’ experience with the police.

  Also from the Guardian, titled “Our duty is to remember Sichuan,” Ai Weiwei speaks out about the Sichuan Earthquake, which his latest project is based on:

  It is just over a year since the­ ­Sichuan earthquake in southwestern China. The government has made it clear over and over since then that the crumpled schools and dead and injured students have nothing to do with shoddy construction. State agencies and the media, representing the authority and wisdom of the country, are trying to convince people that the earthquake was so strong that it was inevitable the schools would collapse and pupils die. Since it was fate, it seems, no one should be held responsible.

  Once again, the facts have been erased. Rather than value life, the state has issued a long list of abstract numbers. The “scientific investigation” carried out is nothing more than a trick in the game of bureaucracy. Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people who are barely treated as human. With the revolution’s 60th anniversary approaching, they still don’t have the right to vote, or freedom of speech.

  The Sichuan disaster is not the first, nor the most wrongful. But all the details of this tragedy will be forgotten; and once again it will be like nothing ever happened. Eventually all these disasters will together create a bizarre miracle called civilisation and evolution. This ancient game is simple and direct. It has longstanding rules. It encourages lies and alters memories. The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.

  I call on people to be “obsessed ­citizens”, forever questioning and ­asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.

  Read also Time’s China Blog on Ai Weiwei’s blog being shut down.

  Read more about Ai Weiwei and why he was censored here on CDT.

  See also here for more on the Grass Mud Horse in Ai Weiwei’s hand in the top photo.

  » Read more
  • June 1, 2009 1:48 PM

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