China Digital Times

China news tagged with: censorship (172)

• NBA Playoffs Disappear from TV in China

  

  From International Herald Tribune:

  NBA playoff games have been dropped by CCTV. The network’s sports channel director, Jiang Heping, explains that “Since the May 12 earthquake, we’re careful about the way we broadcast the NBA and the content must match the whole atmosphere.”

  NBA playoff games have mysteriously disappeared from Chinese television.

  Entertainment programs on Chinese television were suspended last week during a three-day period of mourning for victims of the deadly Sichuan earthquake, including NBA playoff games.

  When the mourning period ended, the NBA returned as the state-run national broadcaster CCTV showed the Western Conference final between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. However, subsequent games have not been shown.

  Chinese athletes and sports organizations were among some of the first to donate to earthquake victims. On May 14th, Xinhua News reported that track and field athlete, Liu Xiang and his coach donated 500,000 RMB (about 71,000 U.S. dollars). Houston Rockets player Yao Ming initially donated 500,000 RMB and later increased that amount to 2 million. The Milwaukee Bucks forward, Yi Jianlian reportedly donated 100,000 RMB.

  Follow this link to see pictures of athletes making contributions at a donation ceremony attended by Chinese national team athletes who are in Beijing to train.

  

  Olympic men’s hurdles champion Liu Xiang (L) and his cocah Sun Haiping attend a donation ceremony attended by all the Chinese national team athletes who are training in Beijing for the Beijing Olympic Games, Wednesday, May 14.
  

  Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian donates 100,000 Yuan
  

  China’s national table tennis team donate 980,000 Yuan
  » Read more
  • May 28, 2008 8:41 AM

• China’s Holistic Censorship Regime

  

  While the government’s surprising openness to the media over the Sichuan earthquake is being noted in the foreign press, an unidentified author in the Far Eastern Economic Review writes about a well-entrenched censorship regime that may not be so easily uprooted:

  The events in Tibet have brought into high relief the form of public theater that can only loosely be termed censorship, for China is the one major country in the world for which censorship is not merely, or even principally, a matter of suppressing undesired messages. Instead, Beijing has created a fact-value fusion: There are no facts that exist independently of their significance in the social contract.

  Thus, residence in China is not unlike working at a strongly cultured company, e.g., a Disney or Starbucks. Residents agree to support the “brand values” defined for China by the CCP. They are rewarded for doing so, penalized for abstaining from the general effort and punished severely for actively taking a contrary stance.

  In demanding this sort of fealty from its residents, China insists that both individuals and organizations conflate their social, economic and political roles, creating significant inefficiencies and distortions for businesses. Meanwhile, the mingling of positive official messages, suppression of alternative narratives and amplification of approved reactions make it almost impossible to understand what the average Chinese person might “really” think.

  » Read more
  • May 18, 2008 10:12 PM

• Nobel Group Drops Broadcaster After China Censorship

  

  From the Reuters:

  The Nobel Foundation on Friday dropped TV4 as carrier for its annual prize ceremony, saying the Swedish broadcaster had let Chinese television censor a speech on freedom of expression, a Swedish newspaper said.

  Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter said TV4, which has the rights to broadcast the annual ceremony, had allowed Chinese television stations to censor Nobel Foundation Chairman Marcus Storch’s words at last year’s ceremony extolling liberty of speech and the media.

  “Censorship is against our values. We cannot accept that,” Michael Sohlman, Nobel Foundation managing director, told the newspaper.

  » Read more
  • April 26, 2008 5:11 PM

• Chinese Internet Wages War on Its Own Liberal Media

  

  An excellent summary from Joel Martinsen at Danwei of the battle raging online between Chinese nationalists and Chinese advocates of free speech, launched a couple weeks ago when Southern Metropolis editor Chang Ping wrote a blog post advocating press freedom as the best way to get to the bottom of the Tibet riots.

  As part of his post on the topic, Martinsen translates an op-ed on China.com, written by one Wen Feng, that labeled Chang Ping a traitor and set off a flurry of mutual recriminations:

  A man named Southern Metropolis Chang Ping, who recently ran afoul of a group of netizens, might want to make another argument for free speech in the belief that the netizens have stripped that right from him. I do not usually concern myself with online forums, but the netizens’ broadsides were so fierce this time that I took a look at the so-called speech of this Southern Metropolis Chang Ping. I noticed immediately that this individual had brought “free speech” to an appalling or even “terrifying” degree. The heart of the matter for which he was criticized was this: “Free speech intrinsically includes the freedom of mistaken speech and particularly the freedom to question authority. More frightening than rumors is the removal of free speech.” And he openly held this up as a universal value. According to his logic, “free speech” means that you can muddy the truth, fabricate facts, indiscriminately distort history, speak irresponsibly, “freely” rumor-monger, “freely” smear, “freely” toss about labels. Just like the western media’s hysterical performance on the issue of China’s Tıbet. Was that free speech? That was violent speech. I have never seen the western media enjoy that kind of freedom of speech in their own country, because that would be an infringement on the rights of others, and it would trample social justice and betray fundamental ethical principles. If this is the “universal value” that Southern Metropolis Chang Ping wants to protect, then honor is the price he pays in return.

  In a similar vein, Global Voices’ John Kennedy examines the frightening case of a Chinese student at Duke University who became the subject of a “human search engine” witch hunt after she was seen talking to pro-Tibet protesters.

  » Read more
  • April 14, 2008 1:57 AM

• China Arrests Nine Monks for Bomb Attack in Tibet

  

  In more of what Michael Manning of The Opposite End of China has taken to calling “breaking old news,” Chinese authorities have announced they arrested nine monks for bombing a government building in Tibet last month. From the Guardian:

  The state-run Xinhua news agency alleged that the monks from the Tongxia monastery - around 850 miles east of Lhasa - fled after their homemade bomb exploded in Gyanbe township but later confessed to planting it. There was no mention of casualties or damage.

  An official with the local Public Security Bureau told the Associated Press that six monks had been detained for allegedly planting the bomb on March 23 and three for shielding the suspects and covering up their crimes.

  No other concrete details are available.

  » Read more
  • April 14, 2008 12:43 AM

• China Blocks Reporting in Tibetan Areas

  

  The access for foreigners to reach Tibet from neighboring provinces such as Sichuan has been blocked. From AP:

  It was just after nightfall when three journalists were stopped at a police checkpoint on a winding, rutted road in Sichuan province - territory that has become out of bounds for the foreigners…

  The de facto ban on news coverage is at odds with the mainland’s revised rules that are supposed to allow foreign journalists freedom to report throughout the Olympics…

  Some officials said they doubted the area would be open again until the Olympics were over. “Wait until September,” one foreign-affairs official in Aba said cheerfully as his car carried two journalists away from a checkpoint late last Monday.

  Please read also a post on Chinabeat blog: Tibet, 228, and Ta-pa-ni: Some lessons for us all.

  As we struggle to make sense of the maelstrom of violent resistance and its suppression, not to mention cope with our own feelings as concerned observers, it might be useful to consider the following:

  *Such outbreaks are invariably sparked by a complex combination of socioeconomic, ethnic, and religious factors.

  *The violence is never a case of black and white; it is simply red, with aggressors and their victims far outnumbering any heroes. When tensions boil over, the initial targets tend to be symbols of authority (policemen, officials), but can also include men and women who are stigmatized and persecuted as scapegoats. However, when the empire strikes back, it uses violence on a much larger and more systematic scale, with those who end up being punished including not only the original aggressors but many innocent victims as well.

  » Read more
  • April 6, 2008 10:17 PM

• IOC in China: Pleased on Censorship, Pressured on Human Rights.

  

  Members of the IOC’s Coordination Committee have just wrapped up their final major round of talks with Chinese officials before the Olympics launch in August. The results? Decidedly mixed. The head of the coordination committee, Hein Verbruggen, pronounced China capable of a “gold medal performance” as host of the Games. Yet Tibet, jailed activist Hu Jia and a number of other issues loomed large.

  First, on the good news side of things, the BBC reports IOC officials were pleased with Chinese assurances on the free flow of information during the game, in particular a promise to allow genuine live broadcasting:

  China routinely delays pictures on state television by up to a minute to allow greater control over what is shown.

  At the end of its 10th and final official meeting, the head of the IOC’s Coordination Committee said he was confident that the organising committee in Beijing would live up to its promises.

  These include making sure foreign news websites are unblocked and live television pictures are beamed around the world without any delay.

  As the Washington Post reports, however, the tenor of the IOC press conference was not entirely happy. Responding to questions over a litany of recent China human rights issues, Verbruggen shot back a bit testily:

  “It’s not the first time that I’m saying this. It’s not up to us to comment on those cases,” he said. “It’s a matter of Chinese law, and it’s not a matter of sport nor a matter for the Olympic Games or the IOC. . . . We are not a political organization.”

  In noting that candidates to host the 2016 Summer Olympics include Madrid and Chicago, Verbruggen asked, “Would the IOC be forced or obliged to speak out because Madrid is a candidate, on the requests of the Pays Basque to be independent from Spain? Or would the IOC, because Chicago is a candidate, have to speak out on Guantanamo or Iraq?”

  New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the IOC this week of operating in a “moral void” and asked it to explain what standards compatible with respecting human rights should be used in guiding the Olympic movement.

  “The question isn’t whether the IOC is a human rights organization,” Sophie Richardson, the group’s Asia advocacy director, said in a statement. “It’s whether the Olympic movement respects human rights.”

  The Washington Post also quoted Wang Wei, a top Beijing Olympic Committee official, as saying “some control” over the Internet would still be required during the Games to protect impressionable teenagers.

  » Read more
  • April 4, 2008 12:23 AM

• China Reproaches Foreign Media Over Tibet Coverage

  

  The International Herald Tribune reports that given China’s view that foreign media coverage of the Tibetans protests is unfair, Beijing has blocked access to journalists to affected regions as well as internet and television broadcasts of the situation.

  China has sharply criticized foreign reporters here over their coverage of the riots in Tibet, accusing them of biased reporting and preventing them from traveling to Tibet or neighboring provinces to report on the unrest.

  The campaign is the clearest sign of China’s concerns that the Tibet unrest, as well as anti-government protests over Darfur, could disrupt the Olympic Games this summer.

  The government has issued no official statement criticizing the foreign media. But in recent days state-controlled newspapers, television stations and Web sites have been carrying articles and commentary with a common theme: foreign media distortions.

  » Read more
  • March 24, 2008 5:02 PM

• Tudou Survives with a Spanking

  

  “To live or to die?” The Chinese version of Youtube, Tudou（土豆） had its first brush with mortality after being officially listed as “slightly unhealthy” web. From RConversation:

  Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei reports that China’s State Administration for Radio Film and Television (SARFT) has included Chinese YouTube clone Tudou on list of 35 “slightly unhealthy” a websites that will be punished and fined. He points out: “None of Tudou’s real competitors like Youku.com or 56.com are on the list: the rest of the websites mentioned are small and unknown players.” SARFT has also published a list of 25 “extremely unhealthy” websites ordered to be shut down. He observes: “all the websites in the list seem to be fly by night video downloading BBS and small, relatively unknown video sites. Many of them have names that imitate other, more popular websites, e.g. Xunleicn.com whose name is ripped off from the popular Xunlei.com.”

  » Read more
  • March 20, 2008 9:37 PM

• YouTube Access Blocked in China after Tibet Clips Appear

  

  AFP reports on Youtube being blocked in China for broadcasting Lhasa riots:

  Access to YouTube in China was denied on Sunday after footage of recent deadly protests in Tibet appeared on the video posting site.

  Attempts to call up the site met with a blank screen and an error message saying the web page could not be displayed…

  China, which strictly controls access to information, has kept a tight lid on news out of Lhasa, with foreign journalists being denied access and foreign tourists ordered out of the city.

  See also ReConversation blogs on Tibet… is discussion possible?

  For those living in the West who didn’t realize that there’s little sympathy for Tibet independence among ethnic Chinese in the PRC, this blog post on Global Voices will be a shocker. John Kennedy has translated chatter from Chinese blogs and chatrooms that generally runs along the lines of: those ungrateful minorities, we give them modern conveniences and look how they thank us… where have we heard this before? Reuters has a roundup on the Washington Post that begins: “a look at Chinese blogs reveals a vitriolic outpouring of anger and nationalism directed against Tibetans and the West.”

  » Read more
  • March 16, 2008 8:48 PM

• Chinese Seethe on Web Over Rare Riots in Tibet

  

  From Shanghai-based blogger Chow, translated by CDT:

  The riot scenes on the evening news attracted my attention. But the news only had those one-sided words from the government. I came back home in the night, got online and hoped to experience the power of the Internet. Unfortunately, I only experienced the power of the government controlling the internet.

  I have known this all along: Real domestic news must be gotten from the foreign media. I just discovered that all internet posts about the Lhasa riot are already censored. It is impossible to know any more details other than the official reports. All major Internet forums do not dare to touch this sensitive topic. This is the year of the Beijing Olympics, stocks are falling, riots on the streets of Lhasa, things going on in Taiwan, but we can only read these wonderful posts after censor’s careful permission.

  Yet not all voices online have been silenced. Authorities seem to be selective about which Internet posts are allowed to survive intact. Reuters reports that the Chinese blogosphere is erupting in anti-Tibet, nationalistic anger over the riots and deaths in Lhasa:

  On Saturday, a rash of angry blog posts appeared after China confirmed deaths in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and U.S. actor Richard Gere called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics should the authorities mishandle the protests.

  “Westerners think they know all about China, telling us that this, that and the other is bad,” wrote one blogger, who listed historical reasons justifying Tibet’s inclusion as part of China.

  “Most foreigners have been brainwashed as far as this issue is concerned,” assented another user.

  Other blogs were virulently nationalistic.

  Meanwhile, the Danish centrist morning paper “Politiken” has been in phone contact with (most likely) a Dane in Lhasa. His/her account was in Saturday’s issue of “Politiken”, published in Copenhagen:

  “Monks and quite young men around 15-16 are hammering the Chinese shops, kicking in doors and windows, setting fire to the shops and severely beating up Chinese in the area. I have seen some very serious attacks. At least two that I saw were carried away on stretchers - as far as I could tell they were beaten to death. …It looks like a war-zone here. Almost all Chinese shops on the main thoroughfare and up to the Dalai Lama’s winter palace have been set afire…” The violent disturbances commenced earlier in the day, when monks and young men attacked Chinese in the vicinity. In the beginning the police were very passive, the eyewitness says. Enraged monks and youths had a free hand over the Chinese. It was only when they got near to the Winter palace, that police and military moved forward in numbers, including armored cars. He was himself attacked by the demonstrators and also held by the police twice. “I was caught between the police and the demonstrators. Everything around us was in flames. Police cars, fire engines and almost all Chinese shops were burning. The situation is still out of control. The attacks on Chinese and their shops continue”. He goes on to say that one of the demonstrators told him that the large disturbances express a refutation of Dalai Lama’s dictum of non-violence - because the people have no freedom.

  [Photo source: AFP, via epochtimes，tycool.com, Wenxue City and forum.kaiyuan.de.]

  Please read also John Kennedy’s translation of Chinese blog posts on the Global Voices.

  For more photos, click on Mobile phone pictures depict intensity of demonstration in Amdo Labrang.

  » Read more
  • March 15, 2008 4:23 PM

• Reporting Terrorism in China

  

  Following Telegraph correspondent Richard Spencer’s blog post about difficulties in reporting the alleged Olympic terrorism plot in Xinjiang, Southern Weekend reporter Ding Bu provides an interesting inside look at the newspaper’s rush to report the story (since suppressed) of a Uighur woman alleged to have secreted a bottle of gasoline onto a China Southern Airlines flight with the apparent intention of bringing the plane down. Translated by ESWN:

  …I called that number immediately. The voice over there was hesitant: “How did you find my number? It is not appropriate for me to speak. The relevant authorities will disclose the information. It is not appropriate for me to speak …” I tried emotional and rational appeals for more than ten minutes. This passenger was steel-willed and refused to talk. I hung up the telephone in extreme disappointment.

  It was 12:11pm. Half a day had gone by already. Suddenly an unfamiliar telephone number appeared on my mobile telephone. But the person hung up after one ring.

  I called back. The other party said: “I was on that airplane. I read your blog.”

  Oh my God! I had just published my blog post at 9:04am. In three hours, the person that I was looking for had found me. I was astonished by and grateful for the speed of modern communication methods.

  Ding then provides a transcript of “the other party’s” account:

  On March 7, the airplane was scheduled to depart at 10:30am. The airplane was delayed for about 10 minutes. At that time, everybody was already on board, so we must be waiting for the permission to take off. The flight was normal thereafter.

  After flying for about an hour, a passenger remarked that there was the smell of gasoline. The attendant also smelled it because it was too strong.

  We were flying on a Boeing 757 that day. The plane was not big, and the rest rooms were located between the first-class cabin and the economy cabin. There were more than 200 passengers. The airplane was not full, because there were two vacant rows of seats in the rear.

  I was seated towards the back, and I heard a quarrel. An Uyghur woman about 20 years old was on her feet. This Uyghur woman was seated towards the front to my right. She was probably in the fourth or fifth row of the economy-class cabin.

  A man went over there. My guess was that he was the security guard. He held the woman down and found a bottle. He removed the bottle and then escorted her to the restroom.

  We had no idea what was happening. There was no announcement. During the entire process, there was no chaos. It was very calm. At least I felt very calm. Someone in the rear slept through the whole thing without being aware at all.

  At past noon, we began to feel that the airplane was descending. An announcement came that there was an emergency situation and the airplane was going to land at Zhongchuan Airport in the city of Lanzhou. A few minutes after that announcement, the airplane touched ground.

  Du’s post continues on with a detailed chronicle of the reporting process, explaining at the end that the story “was aborted for reasons everybody knows about” (a phrase, as ESWN notes, commonly used to refer to black-out orders from Chinese propaganda authorities).

  See Du’s original post in Chinese here.

  » Read more
  • March 12, 2008 2:45 AM

• Tudou Shutdown Reports: What’s Going On?

  

  Speculation continues to swirl around the fate of Chinese YouTube copycat Tudou, which continues to function despite reportedly being slapped with a shut down order by the State Authority for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT; 国家广播电影电视总局). Chinese Internet expert and anti-censorship crusader Rebecca MacKinnon reviews the rumors and offers up one of the more reasoned theories we’ve heard so far:

  It smells as though some kind of substantial power struggle must be going on for control of online content, broadcast content, and beyond… resulting in all kinds of mixed signals. Don’t forget that some members of the Chinese media openly opposed the new SARFT regulations. Perhaps certain parts of the Chinese media are being used as proxies - or are maybe even taking sides - in this battle? If the shutdown order was indeed issued (which seems very likely) and Tudou is ignoring it, they must have some strong backing in the bureaucracy somewhere to push back against SARFT, no?

  “Backing in the bureaucracy” is among the most popular explanations for why certain high-powered journalists like Southern Metropolis Daily’s Chang Ping (长平) and Lu Yuegang of China Youth Daily are still allowed to publish despite having made very public statements opposing government press censorship.

  » Read more
  • March 10, 2008 2:41 AM

• Hack into Freedom City

  

  Thanks to a truly remarkable translation job by John Kennedy at Global Voices, we now have easy access to an equally remarkable document currently circulating through the Chinese blogger networks. Called ‘Hack into Freedom City,’ the document describes, in tremendous detail, a plan to break through the surveillance system set up around the apartment in Beijing’s BOBO Freedom City (BOBO 自由城) where Zeng Jinyan, blogger wife of imprisoned activist Hu Jia, currently resides under house arrest. The plan is a response to the failed attempt of a blogger to smuggle milk powder (Chinese) into the complex for Zeng and Hu’s child earlier this year. The plan comes complete with maps, surveillance photos and a wonderfully intricate account, of which the following is but a taste:

  Luckily, just prior to this I had finished reading The Gulag Archipelago, so I was mentally prepared for the conditions inside an institution. However, this was still not enough, so I did a crash course in learning some criminal procedure law and investigation and interrogation methodology. Aside from that, my head was full of the first-person shooters in Delta Force and Counter-Strike—so I was thinking of what was needed for a military operation.

  As you are about to expend a significant effort in the invasion, the greater the return the better. So in addition to delivering the milk powder, relaying information is just as important. Preparations needed to be made:

  Several of that day’s newspaper, printouts regarding Zeng Jinyan’s blog tucked inside, and copies of those printouts saved on a memory card; prepare two digital camera memory cards, one with sensitive content to be kept hidden in your sock at all times; a mobile phone—buy a new number; do not carelessly leave fingerprints behind—wear gloves; food, water, sheets of paper, a felt marker, binoculars, mobile phone battery, batter recharger, money, toilet paper, batteries; no ID whatsoever must be carried; a topographical map and the SSP license plate numbers marked down in a notebook; a fake name—choose characters homophonic to your name (this may not be of use); check keychain for any identifying markers; last, milk powder. Carry all this in a backpack, although be sure to note the necessity of keeping the bag as separate from your person to the greatest extent possible (SSP will wonder: ‘what’s a resident doing toting around a backpack? What’s stored in there?’).

  To discover how the story ends, you’ll have to head over to Global Voices. A long read, but well worth it.

  To get a better idea of the conditions of Zeng’s confinement, see the video ‘Prisoner in Freedom City‘ (cited as a reference in the planning of the above operation.)

  » Read more
  • March 3, 2008 3:50 AM

• Pre-Parliamentary Round-Up: Security High, and a Hurdler Missing

  

  The opening of the annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC or Chinese parliament, for short) typically signals the start of speculation season for foreign media in Beijing. The first day of the session is nearly over now and already the political prognostications have started popping up all over the Internet. The top story so far, however, is a bit of hard news about Chinese megastar athlete Liu Xiang (刘翔), world record holder in the 110m hurdles, who has raised hackles by turning down delegate status in order to (gasp!) attend a track meet in Spain, from AFP:

  “Liu Xiang is one of the outstanding delegates from the sports world, he was made a delegate to the political conference after consultations and everyone supported this decision,” conference spokesman Wu Jianmin told the paper.

  “When the sports world has a delegate like him, it should not only be a responsibility, but also an honour.”

  Liu’s handlers however said that he must run in Valencia and other upcoming European indoor track meets to maintain his training push toward the August Beijing Olympics, where he is one of China’s top medal hopes.

  Both AFP and Reuters report tens of thousands of paramilitary police and other enforcers of social harmony had been posted around the city in advance of the meeting in what AFP described as “a dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games” complete with warnings to typical troublemakers to keep their mouths shut. For vox pop, the Reuters security story quotes a local merchant with the same name as the missing hurdler:

  Grocer Liu Xiang, 33, like many Chinese, can only guess at what the fuss is all about. “I suppose there’s some meeting between the leaders,” Liu said, weighing a bag of mandarins at a market a few blocks east of the square. “Who knows what they talk about? How would I know? I’m just a common person.”

  As for possible outcomes, Bloomberg cites CPPCC spokesman Wu Jianming as saying the party may try to appoint more non-communist ministers, while AP reports the possibility of major (but unspecified) changes to the family planning policy. Finally, while noting the heightened security environment, Reuters’ Chris Buckley finds reason to be optimistic about the possibility of political reform:

  China’s leaders have shown no appetite for radical change that would challenge one-party rule, and with Beijing preparing for its showcase Olympic Games in August, they will be especially wary of unrest, likely locking away or isolating many dissidents.

  But the Party Central Committee said after a meeting last week that some political reform was needed to cure misgovernance and social strains. And the national parliament is set to unify dozens of government ministries into several “super-ministries” and to promise parliament delegates a stronger say in policy.

  Democracy advocates said they hope the international spotlight on the Games, and then the December anniversary of the 1978 meeting celebrated as launching Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms, will open room for even bolder demands.

  “These voices (for political change) have never entirely stopped, but since early this year they have grown markedly stronger. They’ve been waiting for an opening,” said Liu Suli, owner of the All Sages bookstore in Beijing.

  Part of the reason for all the hype: This year’s CPPCC gathering marks the 30th anniversary of the “Reform and Opening” (改革开放) policy.

  » Read more
  • March 3, 2008 2:54 AM

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