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Liu Xiaobo: I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement
Writer Liu Xiaobo, one of the drafters of Charter 08, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, Christmas Day. On December 23, the day he was tried, Liu Xiaobo wrote a “final statement” which is being widely passed around online. CDT thanks David Kelly, Professor of China Studies, China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, for the translation (the original Chinese version can be found here):
Liu Xiaobo, I have no enemies: my final statement*
June 1989 was the major turning point in my 50 years on life’s road. Before that, I was a member of the first group of students after restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution (1977); my career was s smooth ride from undergraduate to grad student through to PhD. After graduation I stayed on as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University. On the podium, I was a popular teacher, well received by students. I was at the same time a public intellectual. In the 1980s I published articles and books that created an impact, was frequently invited to speak in various places, and was invited to go abroad to Europe and the US as a visiting scholar. What I required of myself was: both as a person and in my writing, I had to live with honesty, responsibility and dignity. Subsequently, because I had returned from the US to take part in the 1989 movement, I was imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to crime”, loding the platform which was my passion; I was never again allowed publish or speak in public in China. Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher loses his podium, a writer loses the right to publish, and a public intellectual loses the chance to speak publicly, which is a sad thing, both for myself as an individual, and for China after three decades of reform and opening up.
Thinking about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have all linked with courts; the two opportunities I had to speak in public have been provided by trials held in the People’s Intermediate Court in Beijing, one in January 1991 and one now. Although the charges on each occasion were different, they were in essence the same, both being crimes of expression.
Twenty years on, the innocent souls of June Fourth do not yet rest in peace, and I, who had been drawn into the path of dissidence by the passions of June Fourth, after leaving the Qincheng Prison in 1991, lost in the right to speak openly in my own country, and could only do so through overseas media, and hence was monitored for many years; placed under surveillance (May 1995- January 1996); educated through labour (October 1996 – October 1999s), and now once again am thrust into the dock by enemies in the regime. But I still want to tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom, I stand by the belief I expressed twenty years ago in my “June Second hunger strike declaration”— I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies. While I’m unable to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your professions and personalities, including Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing who act for the prosecution at present. I was aware of your respect and sincerity in your interrogation of me on 3 December.
For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.
As we all know, reform and opening up brought about development of the state and change in society. In my view, it began with abandoning “taking class struggle as the key link,” which had been the ruling principle of the Mao era. We committed ourselves instead to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the “philosophy of struggle” was one of gradually diluting the mentality of enmity, eliminating the psychology of hatred, and pressing out the “wolf’s milk” in which our humanity had been steeped. It was this process that provided a relaxed environment for the reform and opening up at home and abroad, for the restoration of mutual love between people, and soft humane soil for the peaceful coexistence of different values and different interests, and thus provided the explosion of popular creativity and the rehabilitation of warmheartedness with incentives consistent with human nature. Externally abandoning “anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism”, and internally, abandoning “class struggle” may be called the basic premise of the continuance of China’s reform and opening up to this day. The market orientation of the economy; the cultural trend toward diversity; and the gradual change of order to the rule of law, all benefited from the dilution of this mentality of enmity. Even in the political field, where progress is slowest, dilution of the mentality of enmity also made political power ever more tolerant of diversity in society, the intensity persecution of dissidents has declined substantially, and characterization of the 1989 movement has changed from an “instigated rebellion” to a “political upheaval.”
The dilution of the mentality of enmity made the political power gradually accept the universality of human rights. In 1998, the Chinese government promised the world it would sign the the two international human rights conventions of the UN, marking China’s recognition of universal human rights standards; in 2004, the National People’s Congress for the first time inscribed into the constitution that “the state respects and safeguards human rights”, signaling that human rights had become one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law. In the meantime, the present regime also proposed “putting people first” and “creating a harmonious society”, which signalled progress in the Party’s concept of rule.
This macro-level progress was discernible as well in my own experiences since being arrested.
While I insist on my innocence, and that the accusations against me are unconstitutional, in the year and more since I lost my freedom, I’ve experienced two places of detention, four pre-trial police officers, three prosecutors and two judges. In their handling of the case, there has been no lack of respect, no time overruns and no forced confessions. Their calm and rational attitude has over and again demonstrated goodwill. I was transferred on 23 June from the residential surveillance to Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Detention Center No. 1, known as “Beikan.” I saw progress in surveillance in the six months I spent there.
I spent time in the old Beikan (Banbuqiao) in 1996, and compared with the Beikan of a decade ago, there has been great improvement in the hardware of facilities and software of management.
In particular, Beikan’s innovative humane management based on respecting the rights and dignity of detainees, implementing more flexible management of the will be flexible to the detainees words and deeds, embodied in the Warm broadcast and Repentance, the music played before meals, and when waking up and going to sleep, gave detainees feelings of dignity and warmth, stimulating their consciousness of keeping order in their cells and opposing the warders sense of themselves as lords of the jail, detainees, providing not only a humanized living environment, but greatly improved the detainees’ environment and mindset for litigation, I had close contact with Liu Zhen, in charge of my cell. People feel warmed by his respect and care for detainees, reflected in the management of every detail, and permeating his every word and deed. Getting to know the sincere, honest, responsible, good-hearted Liu Zhen really was a piece of good luck for me in Beikan.
Political beliefs are based on such convictions and personal experiences; I firmly believe that China’s political progress will never stop, and I’m full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom. China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme. I’m also looking forward to such progress being reflected in the trial of this case, and look forward to the full court’s just verdict ——one that can stand the test of history.
Ask me what has been my most fortunate experience of the past two decades, and I’d say it was gaining the selfless love of my wife, Liu Xia. She cannot be present in the courtroom today, but I still want to tell you, sweetheart, that I’m confident that your love for me will be as always. Over the years, in my non-free life, our love has contained bitterness imposed by the external environment, but is boundless in afterthought. I am sentenced to a visible prison while you are waiting in an invisible one. Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning. But my love for you is full of guilt and regret, sometimes heavy enough hobble my steps. I am a hard stone in the wilderness, putting up with the pummeling of raging storms, and too cold for anyone to dare touch. But my love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes.
Given your love, sweetheart, I would face my forthcoming trial calmly, with no regrets about my choice and looking forward to tomorrow optimistically. I look forward to my country being a land of free expression, where all citizens’ speeches are treated the same; here, different values, ideas, beliefs, political views… both compete with each other and coexist peacefully; here, majority and minority opinions will be given equal guarantees, in particular, political views different from those in power will be fully respected and protected; here, all political views will be spread in the sunlight for the people to choose; all citizens will be able to express their political views without fear, and will never be politically persecuted for voicing dissent; I hope to be the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisition, and that after this no one else will ever be jailed for their speech.
Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth.
I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints. Thank you!
Liu Xiaobo (December 23, 2009)
Read more about Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 via CDT.
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- February 8, 2010 7:26 PM
Liu Xingchen (刘兴臣), County Police Chief: The “Three Ones” Model of Intelligence Gathering
A recent translation by CDT of an internal document by a local officer of the Domestic Security Department (DSD) revealed some of the working methods and mechanisms of China’s secret police work at the ground level. That document helped illustrate how extensive the human surveillance and intelligence-gathering networks and activities are throughout the Chinese society, developed and controlled by the government security agencies.
The following interview with a county police chief is another example that reveals critical details about government surveillance efforts. In particular, according to this Xinhua article, in a county of 400,000, there are 12,093 informants on the government payroll who are charged with gathering intelligence.
This Xinhua article is entitled: Interview with Comrade Liu Xingchen, Assistant to the County Head of
Kailu County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Party Committee Secretary of the Public Security Bureau, Director of the Public Security Bureau. Published on August 28, 2009, excerpts translated by CDT:
Interviewee: Comrade Liu Xingchen (刘兴臣), Assistant to the County Head of Kailu County, Party Committee Secretary of the Public Security Bureau, Bureau Chief of the Public Security Bureau.
Interviewer: Tang Jianquan (唐建权)
Xinhua reporter: Director Liu, Hello! Kailu County is a large county with a population of 400,000. Police activities in the countryside are especially important. The Public Security Bureau’s (PSB’s) police activities in the countryside are leading the way in our region [Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region], and [the PSB] has created a new model of carrying out police activities in the countryside; this model is being spread throughout the entire city and even throughout the entire region [Inner Mongolia]. So, please tell us, what are the characteristics and results of Kailu county’s new model of police activities; in what ways is this new model new?
Director Liu：In order to enhance capacity at the local level, and energize the ground level, our bureau has emphasized both to build larger and more powerful as well as more advanced and higher quality local police stations. Our bureau has reported to the County government and received a lot of support from the county Party Committee and government. We established a “financed by the government, managed by the Public Security Bureau” model, in which every village in the county has one police station, hires one assistant police staff, funded by the county government with an annual budget 1.4 million RMB. And this budget number is within the annual financial budget of the county government. So we have realized every village having a police station, and every village having an assistant police staff. Until now, we have established 283 police stations at the village level, and hired 289 assistant police staff.
… The policing model of our Bureau is innovative because of the extensiveness of its range. Every village has a police station, all together 277, and there are another six police stations in the capital town of Kailu County. So we have a very sensitive intelligence network. The 289 village assistant police staff members are all from local villages, so they have the strength of familiarity with the people, locations, and the local situation. They can timely and accurately discover all sorts of information that might destabilize the society, and can effectively maintain stability at the village level. This is also an effective solution to the problem of police manpower, and strengthening the capacity of Public Security agencies in handling the current complex situation.
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- February 7, 2010 11:02 PM
Liang Jing (梁京): From Ruling by Rhetoric to Ruling by Secret Police
Thanks to David Kelly, Professor of China Studies, China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, for translating the following opinion piece by political commentator Liang Jing:
Liang Jing, From ruling by rhetoric to ruling by secret police*
I was left rather shocked by the many stories in the current (21 January) issue of Nanfang Zhoumo [Southern Weekend] that reflect a prosperous China’s many long and short-term worries.
Coverage of the disaster in Haiti was accompanied not only by “Haiti’s sad history”, but also by stories of Chinese illegal immigrants to the US via Haiti, dubbed “human snakes.” The experiences of the Haitian people and Chinese illegal immigrants are thought-provoking and show how the man-made disasters of greed and evil are the real reasons bringing about a hell on earth.
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- February 5, 2010 9:44 PM
Han Han’s Speech At Xiamen University: “The So-called Grand Cultural Nation”
Author, race-car driver and blogger Han Han’s most recent speech at Xiamen University, translated on the EastSouthWestNorth blog:
This is my second time in Xiamen. The weather here is great. No wonder people like to go outside and stroll. Hmmm … I just heard Teacher Deng spoke about certain issues on nationalism. I was reminded of a couple of sayings which I came across them previously. They are other people’s words, not mine. The first saying is, “Nationalism is the last refuge of scoundrels.” The second saying is, “True patriotism is to protect this country so that it will not suffer any harm.”
For today’s talk, I have brought along a written speech in order to constrain myself. Mainly, I don’t want you to suffer any harm because I may stray all over the place. Let me begin.
Dear leaders, dear teachers, dear students, how are you doing?
Do you know why China cannot become a grand cultural nation? It is because most of the time when we speak, we say “Dear leaders” first and those leaders are uncultured. Not only that, for they are also afraid of culture, they censor culture and they control culture. So how can such a nation become a grand cultural nation? Dear leaders, what do you say?
Actually, China has tremendous potential of becoming a grand cultural nation. Let me tell you a story. I am the chief editor of a magazine which has yet to publish. The Constitution states that every citizen has the freedom to publish, but the law also says that the leaders has the freedom not to let you publish. This magazine has run into some problems during the review process. There is a cartoon drawing. In it, there is a man without clothes — of course, this is unacceptable because the law says that we cannot exhibit the private parts in a publicly available magazine. I agree with that and I don’t have a problem with it. Therefore, I intentionally created an extra-large magazine logo that was placed over the illegal spot of the cartoon. But unexpectedly, the publisher and the censor told us that this was unacceptable too — when you cover up the middle part of a person, you are referring to the “Party Central” (note: “party” is a homonym for “block/shield” and “central” is “middle”). My reaction was like yours — I was awed and shocked. I thought to myself, “Buddy, it would be so wonderful if you could put your awe-inspiring imagination into literary creation instead of literary censorship!”

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- February 4, 2010 12:58 PM
Charles Zhang (张朝阳)：Without Reform There is No Way Out
Charles Zhang (Zhang Chaoyang 张朝阳) is the Founder, Chairman and current CEO of Sohu, China’s second largest Internet portal and the first Chinese-language search engine. Widely recognized as one of China’s Internet pioneers, Zhang has been on the Forbes China Rich List and was named by Time Magazine as one of the 50 Cyber Elite. Born in Xi’an in 1964, Zhang received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before launching the Internet company ITC, which later developed Sohu.
Zhang recently delivered the keynote speech at a media forum in Beijing organized by Sohu. From Reuters:
China will never have its voice heard on the international stage unless the government loosens its tight grip over the media and film industry, the CEO of the country’s No. 2 Internet portal said Wednesday.
Charles Zhang, the often outspoken chief executive of Sohu.com Inc, told a forum in Beijing that plans to create global Chinese media giants were doomed to fail if the government did not relax controls.
CDT has translated portions of his talk below:
I was a student and scholar of physics before age 30. Until now, I have been to many countries, and have been part of many things. I have many thoughts on a lot of subjects. So please let me spend some time to talk about this today.
In Year 2049, many of us who are sitting here today will still be alive, and we will have many children and grandchildren. By that time, will all Chinese be able to live happily and with dignity, and have a lot of face in front of Americans? And will China be respected by the world? This has everything to do with now, with every person. Between now and the happy life in 2049 there are still a lot of barriers; whether we can arrive at the glorious shore critically depends on the choices we make today being wise or stupid. By that time, if the rise of China and wealth becomes a delusion, our descendants will point their fingers at us and say: What has your generation done? How can you be this stupid?
Chinese are the most hardworking people in the world. Confucian culture requires us to be practical, striving forward in life, always moving upstream. With a little opportunity we can make wealth; with few resources we can flourish. Chinese government officials are the most hardworking officials in the world. Chinese society has a much lower tolerance for corruption than Russia, Brazil and India. The thirty years of market reform have given hardworking Chinese opportunities; workers in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta have been working on production lines day and night with low salaries, and our Confucian leaders in every city and region also work day and night, under the competitive pressure of neighboring cities or regions and the pressure of being promoted, leading their subordinates, running on the road of accumulating wealth. The hardworking culture of the Chinese and the marketization of the manufacturing industry created the miracle of “Made in China.” The mid and lower stream of the world’s consumer product chain are almost monopolized by cheap Chinese products. This is the reason for our economic miracle over the last 30 years.
The accomplishment of the last 30 years is tremendous, and we are therefore overwhelmed by the celebratory feeling of this success, we even feel high. Now we cannot stop talking about the rise of the great nation, excitedly (such as the Global Times) collecting any piece of praise from westerners, whom we still worship as our superiors, as if the Middle Kingdom has returned to the ancient glorious order as the center of the world, worshipped by the surrounding countries. This is an illusion! Westerners still do not think too much of us!
In fact, we have only participated in the preliminary round of the economic games. Now we have entered the final game. Our opponent is the most powerful, most advanced country – the United States. If we still keep the current status, then the intellectual thesis is: hardworking Confucian spirit + incomplete market economy vs. individualism + fair and complete market economy. I think the answer is certain and depressing: We have no way to defeat America!
The problem comes from the incomplete market economy. Quality and excellence come from full competition. Innovation comes from fair competition. And the incomplete market economy is interrupting the competition every minute.
… In the field of media, newspapers and television stations within the Chinese system lack meaningful competition, and therefore have no credibility and respect. When the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times point to something, the whole world pays attention, and believes them. Because there is no respectable media organization, China’s global communication power is very weak. The national media team organized by the government to promote China’s brand globally is doomed to fail and has no competitive strength, because they are not a product of market competition.
You may ask, what should we do?
The answer is obvious. Continue the marketization reforms with determination. Without reform there is no way out! Without full and fair market competition, there will be no quality, no excellence, no employment opportunities, no stability, and no real rise of China.
How do we do this practically? The problem is complicated, but the fundamental point is to limit the power of the government and to thoroughly pursue fairness. Only by realizing maximum fairness, can those talented individuals and organizations emerge, and the society can be filled with energy and creativity. Otherwise what we have developed will not be a full market economy, but the power-elite capitalism. The government should drop those actions which take profits from the society, but spend its main energy to protect fair competition.
　　
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- February 4, 2010 12:38 AM
Yang Yao (姚洋): The End of the Beijing Consensus
In Foreign Affairs, Yang Yao, Deputy Dean of the National School of Development and the Director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, asks whether Beijing’s model of authoritarian growth, known as the Beijing Consensus, can survive:
Despite its absolute power and recent track record of delivering economic growth, the CCP has still periodically faced resistance from citizens. The Tiananmen incident of April 5, 1976, the first spontaneous democratic movement in PRC history, the June 4 movement of 1989, and numerous subsequent protests proved that the Chinese people are quite willing to stage organized resistance when their needs are not met by the state. International monitoring of China’s domestic affairs has also played an important role; now that it has emerged as a major global power, China is suddenly concerned about its legitimacy on the international stage.
The Chinese government generally tries to manage such popular discontent by providing various “pain relievers,” including programs that quickly address early signs of unrest in the population, such as reemployment centers for unemployed workers, migration programs aimed at lowering regional disparities, and the recent “new countryside movement” to improve infrastructure, health care, and education in rural areas.
Those measures, however, may be too weak to discourage the emergence of powerful interest groups seeking to influence the government. Although private businesses have long recognized the importance of cultivating the government for larger profits, they are not alone. The government itself, its cronies, and state-controlled enterprises are quickly forming strong and exclusive interest groups. In a sense, local governments in China behave like corporations: unlike in advanced democracies, where one of the key mandates of the government is to redistribute income to improve the average citizen’s welfare, local governments in China simply pursue economic gain.
More important, Beijing’s ongoing efforts to promote GDP growth will inevitably result in infringements on people’s economic and political rights. For example, arbitrary land acquisitions are still prevalent in some cities, the government closely monitors the Internet, labor unions are suppressed, and workers have to endure long hours and unsafe conditions. Chinese citizens will not remain silent in the face of these infringements, and their discontent will inevitably lead to periodic resistance. Before long, some form of explicit political transition that allows ordinary citizens to take part in the political process will be necessary.
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- February 3, 2010 10:31 PM
Feng Zhenghu (冯正虎) to End His Protest
There has been an update from our post yesterday about Feng Zhenghu, who has been living in Tokyo’s Narita Airport for almost three months since being refused entry to Shanghai, where he lives. On Twitter, Feng announced that he will end his airport protest on February 2, 2010.
From @fzhenghu’s twitter, translated by CDT:
Today is Jan.30, the 88th day of my sleeping outside the Japan customs.
6:30，I was still in “bed,” a female staff member I know came with a Singaporean flight attendant to say hello to me. The flight attendant gave me a package of four cakes.
Four cakes: http://flic.kr/p/7zpS63
9:30，a Japanese returning from Germany visited me. He was asked to by his colleague Ms. Chan, who works in Siemens company in Germany. She gave me a beautiful card and a package; inside the package are vitamin pills, fruit juice, dry veggies, a long-sleeve T-shirt, socks, NIVEA cream and other things. I do not know German so can only tell what the things are by their picture.
One side of the card was glued on a human rights postcard, published by the United Nations. It is one of a full set of cards and contains Article Thirteen of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ["Everyone has the right... to return to his country."]. On the other side of the card, Ms. Chan wrote: “Respectable Mr. Feng, you know there are many people who care about you and support you — hope you return home soon! Happy Spring Festival! *** Chan, Nuremberg Deutschland Jan 26, 2010. On the side there were also several signatures from her German colleagues.
Human rights postcard from Ms. Chan: http://flic.kr/p/7zm6Cn
1100，Mr. Du and Consular Zhao from the Chinese Embassy in Japan came to visit me again. Both sides communicate smoothly. As a matter of fact, returning to their country is a citizen’s right, there is no issue about who is negotiating with whom. Now the illegal barrier has been removed, so there is no need for negotiation. Officials from the Chinese embassy came to visit me several times to show their diplomatic concern, this is to their credit. I will respond with credibility as well.
13:45 to 15:00，I was taking a rest at the place with sunshine, I took a video of myself in the sunshine. This will be a wonderful memory in the future.
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- January 30, 2010 11:30 PM
Internal Document of the Domestic Security Department of the Public Security Bureau (Part III)
The Domestic Security Department （国内安全保护支队）is a branch of the police force within the Ministry of Public Security, specializing in collecting intelligence, infiltrating and dealing with political dissidents, human rights activists, petitioners, religious groups as well as “subversive” activities in the cultural, educational and economics domains. It is a massive, secretive and omnipotent security apparatus within the giant police machine of the PRC. [Read more about the Domestic Security Department, or DSD, here.]
The following internal document, a paper written by a local Domestic Security Officer from Shaoxing city, Zhejiang Province, was leaked into Chinese cyberspace recently, and reveals many details about how this secretive police force works day-to day at the local level to control Chinese society. The original passage is excerpted from a book entitled Collected Essays on Domestic Security that is circulated internally within the Domestic Security Department (DSD). CDT translated the selected text here; thanks to the translator who wishes to remain anonymous. [This is Part III of III. Part I and II are here and here.]
III. Using the “Three Improves” as a vehicle to expand the work with the masses
The present stage: Inadequate legal support (omitted)
A. By improving the ability of the leaders, refine the art of command and coordination
In the process of implementing ground level foundational work, we have evaluated our work by the standard of “Have we used a comprehensive approach in working with the masses?” A capable fellow at the county level DSD introduced the work standard of “Six Major Meetings.” (omitted)
三，以“三个提高”为载体，拓宽群众工作思路
现阶段，受法律支撑不足，（略）
（一）以提高领导能力为龙头，优化指挥协调艺术
在落实基层基础工作的过程中，我们以“是否会做全方位的群众工作”为评判标准，对县级国保大队“一把手”提出了“六个会”的要求：（略）
B. Improving gathering capabilities as a starting point to extend the intelligence information [gathering] apparatus
[We have] placed an emphasis on the type of intelligence information and the method of collecting intelligence information. This, along with a great amount of practical experience has allowed us to begin to form an intelligence gathering network that is close to the masses, forward-looking, able to detect and warn, and is able to meet the actual needs of the current conflict as well as the practical needs of our locality. As for the type of intelligence gathered, we have compiled the approaches of Shaoxing County, Shengzhou City, Yucheng district, etc. [We call this compiled approach] “Especially care for the masses, especially pay attention to the government, and especially be wary of our enemies.” [This approach involves] implementing proactive intelligence gathering directed towards areas, departments, regions, groups of people, and organizations that are of special interest. In the last three years, through the proactive intelligence gathering of two levels of the DSD within our city, we have received more than 270 pieces of intelligence on events that affect social and political stability and on large-scale mass incidents. Through early detection and punishment as well as through the functioning of mechanisms to work with the masses, 107 mass incidents were dissolved or stopped. As for the concrete types and methods of collecting intelligence information, we have built upon the foundation of the traditional methods in which police stations or secret forces would report information up, and embraced the “Four Diligents”—diligently visiting and interviewing, diligently examining, diligently looking into things, and diligently feeling things out. [We have] put the masses in their rightful role as the most important, the most direct and the most pure source of intelligence information. We have created “The Ten Methods” of getting intelligence directly from the people. The methods include; “gathering intelligence by visits and interviews, gathering intelligence by reading documents, gathering intelligence by drawing close [to people], gathering intelligence by exchange, gathering intelligence by fishing, gathering intelligence by hosting, gathering intelligence by using the media, gathering intelligence by using the internet, gathering intelligence by assignment, reverse intelligence gathering, etc.” These “Ten Methods” have greatly extended the DSD’s intelligence gathering apparatus and improved detection and warning. They have expanded the breadth and depth of intelligence information and provided effective channels.
（二）以提高收集能力为切入点，延伸情报信息触角
以情报信息收集的方向，方式为重点，通过大量的实践，初步形成了具有比较明显的群众性，前瞻性，预警性特征，并符合现实斗争形势和本地实际需要的情报信息网络格局。在收集的方向确定上，我们总结绍兴县，嵊州市，越城区等地的做法，把“群众高度关心的，政府高度关注的，敌人高度觊觎的”作为重点，在重点领域，重点部位，重点区域，重点人群，重点组织实施主动型的情报信息收集工作。近三年中，我市两级国保部门通过主动性的收集，掌握到影响社会政治稳定和大规模群体性事件的情报信息270多条，通过预警处置和群众工作机制的运行，消化和制止了群体性事件107起。在情报信息收集的具体方式方法上，在传统的基层派出所报送和秘密力量反映的基础上，以“勤走访，勤询问，勤查看，勤排摸”的“四勤”工作方法，把群众作为情报信息最主要，最直接，最原始的渠道来源，创建直接面向群众的“走访收集法，问卷收集法，贴靠收集法，交换收集法，钓鱼收集法，接待收集法，媒体收集法，网络收集法，布置收集法，逆向收集法”等“十法”体系，大大延伸了国保部门预警性情报信息收集的触角，为拓展情报信息的广度，深度提供了有效途径。
C. Building upon the foundation of improving police officer’s individual abilities, realize the effectiveness of working with the people.
The DSD departments, as the principal departments in charge of preserving social and political stability, need to, in their day-to-day work, establish intimate contacts with the masses, and engage in face to face work with the masses. The DSD police not only need to understand policy, law, and technical skills, they also need to possess a certain amount of public relations skills, as well as an ability to work with the masses. In the last several years, we have used a number of methods to actively encourage the ground level DSD police to boldly find solutions and innovate, use methods that are suited to local conditions, and explore and implement methods of working with the masses that are effective in practice. These concrete work methods are carried forth both by ground level DSD leaders who direct and coordinate the work, as well as by police officers in one-on-one settings. The scope of the work encompasses DSD surveillance, control, punishment, intelligence gathering, etc. For example, the heroic example of level two [official] Zhang Qingchao in building and using secret forces in which “Six Rules on Establishing Intelligence” and “Six Rules on Using Intelligence” were used; Shaoxing County DSD’s method of working with the masses directed at controlling key groups of people entitled “three dispersals, three inspections”; Zhuji city’s method of control which relies on the masses and is directed at people of interest entitled, “protect the line, surround the pieces, surround the village”; Shengzhou City’s work with the masses in controlling key strategic positions entitled, “Three Reliances, Six Interrogates,” etc., etc. Through training, mutual exchanges of information, live demonstrations, and other methods, we have continually condensed, improved, and vigorously pushed forward those methods which originate from the ground level, and come from the front line of working with the masses.
（三）以提高民警个体能力为基础，发挥群众工作效能
国保部门作为维护社会政治稳定的主要部门，在具体的工作中需要大量地接触群众并开展面对面的群众工作。国保民警不但要懂政策，懂法律，懂技术，也需要具备一定的公关能力和群众工作技巧。近年来，我们通过多种形式，积极鼓励基层国保民警大胆摸索创新，因地制宜，探索实施了一些行之有效的群众工作方法。这些具体工作方法既有基层国保大队领导指挥协调方面的，也有民警在一对一状态下的，范围涵盖了国保部门在侦查，控制，处置，收集等各个工作环节。如二级英模张庆超在物建，使用秘密力量上的“建情六条”和“用情六法”，绍兴县国保大队在重点人群控制中的“三疏三查”群众工作法，诸暨市依靠群众对重点人员实施的“保线，包片，包村”控制法，嵊州市在重点阵地控制中的“三靠六问”群众工作法，等等。对于这些源于基层，来自一线的群众工作方法，我们通过拜师带徒，相互交流，现场示范等多种方式不断予以总结提高和大力推广。

Image source: fjgat.gov.cn, DSD police officers in Hanjiang regional Public Security Bureau, Putian city, Fujian Province.
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- January 28, 2010 8:03 PM
Music Video: “The Whole World is Laughing at China Being Stupid” (全世界都在笑中国傻)
Increasingly, music videos in China are not only a form of entertainment but carry a political message – sometimes subtle, sometimes not – as well. See this CDT translation for an example. ChinaHush has also translated the lyrics of another pop song:
Recently this music video named “The whole world is laughing at China being stupid” (全世界都在笑中国傻) has been circulating on the Chinese internet. Initially this music video was “officially approved” by the Chinese government, however netizens strongly reacted to the bitter sarcasm of the lyrics which associated with China’s current situation. Soon after, Sina – the first website posted this video quickly removed the video content from its page. Subsequently, most of the major Chinese video sharing sites also have removed it.
The whole world is laughing at China being stupid
Selling rare earth minerals to foreigner at the same price as radishes
The whole world is laughing at China being stupid
The goods we deliver make the whole world praising us being so obedient
The whole world is laughing at China being stupid
The money we earn but store in someone else’s home
The whole world is laughing at China being stupid
The words we speak make the whole world praising us being so obedient
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- January 26, 2010 9:34 PM
Video: “网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction” (Updated)
DigiCha has posted links to YouTube videos, now with English subtitles, mocking government efforts to crackdown on gaming (Videos embedded below). DigiCha points out that episode 6 (of 7) has the most obvious discussion of Internet controls. This video has already had more than million visits inside of China. From their introduction:
It is an hour long video, “shot” almost entirely with in-game video from World of Warcraft, satirizing the government’s attempt to “harmonize” China’s Internet with forced installations of “Green Dam Youth Escort” and the travails of Chinese World of Warcraft players over the last several months.
…The film tracks the fight between The9 ($NCTY) and Netease ($NTES) over the renewal rights to Activision Blizzard’s ($ATVI) World of Warcraft, the requirement that skulls be removed from World of Warcraft (hence the Skull Party), the bureaucratic battles between GAPP and the Ministry of Culture over the re-approval of WoW in China, the money-obsessed Uncle Yang and his Internet addiction camps and electro-shock therapy (see this forthcoming Feb 2010 Wired article on China’s Internet addiction camps), and the attempts to impose “Green Dam Youth Escort” software on Chinese web users. The movie concludes with an impassioned speech calling for Chinese World of Warcraft players to end their silence and fight the attempts to keep them away from World of Warcraft, followed by an agreement between the warring bureaucracies-GAPP and MOC–to put aside their dispute and go after Netease for more money.
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- January 26, 2010 4:28 PM
BlogTD: Cartoons About Recent News Events
Guangzhou-based cartoonist Guaiguai is an extremely popular and prolific blogger. His work and name is all over Chinese cyberspace, as well as his brand name BlogTD. Here are some examples of his recent work:
Hillary Leading the People, a photo-shopped version of Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.
Man: Darling, my cell phone service was cut off because I did not pay the bill, really not because I sent out those dirty jokes.” (As part of the recent anti-vulgarity campaign, China Mobile stopped clients’ service if they sent out porn jokes by text message.)
Watch out! He is backing out!
“Are you saying this slogan is vulgar?” (The slogan reads “Building a Socialist Country with Chinese Characteristics!” The circled characters, “characteristics” (te se) sounds like “very pornographic.”)
Helping people in Haiti. (Chinese official media’s reporting of earthquake aid for Haiti carries a nationalistic, self-promotional tune.)
Google walked away. (TMD is an abbreviation for Tamade (他妈的) or “Fuck it!”)
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- January 21, 2010 9:49 PM
Nobel Laureate Recipient Gao Xingjian (高行健): ‘China Has Not Changed, Neither Have I’
Author and Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian was interviewed by the BBC on the occasion of a symposium in honor of his 70th birthday. Listen to the interview here (in Chinese):

Epoch Times has provided a translated summary of the interview:
Gao said that he has experienced three lives in 70 years. The first one was in China, the second one was in France, and the third one was experiencing a serious illness after receiving the Nobel Prize. He feels very lucky to be able to enjoy his third life.
He was born in China, grew up in China, and lived in China for 47 years. Nevertheless, the Chinese regime was very indifferent to his accomplishment when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000, and furthermore denounced the Nobel committee for having “ulterior political motives.”
Gao, however, said he did not feel disappointed, because his works were banned in China even before he was awarded the Nobel Prize, adding that, “It has been like that for several decades. China has not changed, neither have I.”
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- January 19, 2010 9:37 PM
CDT Launches Social Bookmarking Project to Track Blocked Websites
Currently in China, hundreds of thousands of websites are blocked by the Great Firewall (GFW). To provide a picture of what is blocked, CDT is launching a user-generated social bookmarking project, via del.icio.us, to categorize and provide links to banned sites. This project is a work in progress and will be refined and improved as we go. The results are not comprehensive but merely a sample of what sorts of sites are routinely blocked; some of these sites may have been made accessible again since they were first reported. So far, over 600 links have been reported and categorized, primarily by Internet users inside China. Categories, in both Chinese and English, include: News, personal websites, religion, technology, non-profit organizations, circumvention tools, video and image sharing, etc.
We welcome your participation in this project. If you know of a link that has been blocked by the Great Firewall, please tag it on del.icio.us with GFWlist or send us an email (cdt@chinadigitaltimes.net).
Below is the current tag cloud for this project:
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- January 19, 2010 1:42 PM
Music Video: “My Brother’s at the Bare Bottom” (我哥在光腚)
The Orwellian control efforts of Chinese Internet censors have not only generated an attention-getting pushback from Google, but on the heavily policed Chinese Internet, there are plenty of signs for resistance as well. The following music video parody shows that coded resistance from Chinese netizens is alive and well. In this bitter winter of the Chinese Internet, even the most self-censored Chinese search engine Baidu still can find over 29,000 copies of this song, including on one of the nation’s largest news and game portals, Netease. If you search the title of the song on Google? Over 830,000 webpages show up. (Lyrics translated by CDT’s E. Shih.)
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- January 18, 2010 10:10 PM
Han Han (韩寒) on Google, Internet and China: I am Just Speculating
Han Han has spoken out on the issue of Google. His latest blogpost: “I am Just Speculating” is on this very topic. Roland Soong has translated it into English. (The original has already been “password protected” on Han’s sina blog):
2016: The number of Internet users in China drops down to 1 million. All websites are merged into a single website. It does not matter what URL you enter because you will be sent to that website. The updates are based upon the People’s Daily. In the same year, the Internet industry disappears in China. This directly or indirectly causes 5 million people in Internet-related industries to lose their jobs. The disappearance of e-mail means that the previously closed but now revived Postal Office hires 100,000 of them. 4.9 million people still have no jobs. At the same time, almost 1 million Fifty-cent Gang members lose their jobs. The Fifty-cent Gang members complain that they worked like dogs for their whole lives and now they don’t even get pensions.
2016: The People’s Daily wrote: An industry was sacrificed in return for the stability of the nation, but it was worth it.
…
2016: The 1 million jobless Fifty-cent Gang members have no other skills and therefore could not find new jobs. They could not make feed themselves. Several tens of thousands of Fifty-cent Gang members gather in Beijing. During Children’s Day, 150,000 Fifty-cent Gang members sit down in front of the government building to conduct a silent hunger strike. They ask the government to arrange jobs for them, give them credit for their prior work, and grant them public service worker status retroactively. The People’s Daily writes that the government never had the job position of Internet commentator. Therefore, all those Fifty-cent Gang members wrote on their own. The Fifty-cent Gang members are unable to show any labor contact to prove that they had an employer-worker relationship with the government.
The spokesperson for the Fifty-cent Gang members say that they were underground agents who had done great work on behalf of national stability.
The government gives the Fifty-cent gang members three days to leave Beijing or face arrest. People’s Daily writes that if one praises the government, one should not apply pressure on the government. Praising the government cannot be a condition for obtaining money. Praises should be uncompensated.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang members continue the hunger strike. The citizens say that they support the hunger strike by the Fifty-cent Gang members fully. But they do not provide any food to them and they block all channels of bringing food. Also, they will make sure that the Fifty-cent Gang members continue on their hunger strike.
The next day, Minister of Culture Yu Qiuyu visits the scene of the hunger strike and reads the “Tearful advice to the Fifty-cent Gang.” The Fifty-cent Gang members say that Yu Qiuyu’s speech is too profound for them to understand.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang is accused of the crimes of illegal assembly, illegal march, illegal demonstration, attacking the government, violent resistance against the law, smearing the government, endangering public security, disrupting social order, spitting in public, etc. The organizers are arrested. But the government says that they will be lenient towards blind followers who don’t know the truth and offer them an opportunity to reinvigorate themselves: they give 50 cents to each of them to feed their hunger. comments on the scene: Fifty-cent Gang members see fifty cents and break out in tears.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang crisis is peacefully resolved, once again showing the ability of the Party and the government to maintain stability. The Fifty-cent Gang leader tells the CCTV reporter on camera: “I am so sorry about before.”
More articles about Han Han are here on CDT.
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- January 17, 2010 10:26 AM