China Digital Times

China news tagged with: crackdown (15)

• China Cracks Down Ahead of Sensitive Anniversaries

  

  Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor reports on recent crackdowns and the tightening of government control in China:

  Chinese political reformers, who had hoped for a more relaxed atmosphere after the 2008 Olympic Games went well, have been disappointed.

  “Things are going backwards,” complains Hu Xingdou, the economics professor whose website was closed last month because local Internet censors in the city of Suzhou, near Shanghai, suddenly objected to articles that had been up on the site for more than a year without causing a stir.

  “I hope that what’s been happening is related to 2009, and that we won’t continue to slide backwards in the future,” he adds.

  » Read more
  • April 8, 2009 5:19 PM

• China Detains 81 People in Tibet Crackdown (Update 1)

  

  The Associated Press reports on the latest crackdown in Tibet:

  At least 81 people in Tibet have been detained for suspected criminal activity amid a security sweep in the Himalayan region, including two who are being held for having “reactionary music” on their mobile phones, state media reported.

  Tibet independence advocates said Wednesday the anti-crime crackdown appeared to be aimed at intimidating Tibetans ahead of sensitive anniversaries in coming weeks, including the 50th anniversary of a crushed independence uprising.

  China has been preparing for the possibility of more unrest in Tibet since deadly rioting in the capital Lhasa on March 14 last year sparked the biggest anti-government protests among Tibetans in decades — and a major military crackdown.

  Update: Maureen Fan of the Washington Post writes more on the campaign:

  Chinese authorities carrying out a “strike hard” campaign in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa have raided thousands of homes and businesses, run checks on 5,766 suspects and detained at least 81 people, including two for having reactionary music on their cellphones, according to official reports and news accounts.

  The state-controlled Tibetan Daily, in a Sunday report, and the Lhasa Evening News last week said the campaign targets criminal activity such as burglary, prostitution and theft, and is needed to uphold the city’s social order. But experts and activists who support greater autonomy for Tibet said the motive behind the campaign, which began Jan. 18, is to detain those involved in last spring’s riots and warn off others who support Tibetan independence.

  [...]Lhasa’s entire investigative police force mobilized more than 600 people and 160 vehicles to check 2,922 rented apartments or houses, 14 hotels and guesthouses, 18 bars and 3 Internet cafes, the Lhasa Evening News said, according to a translation e-mailed by the International Campaign for Tibet, which advocates for more autonomy for the Himalayan region. The police push follows 10 months of tight security after rioting broke out March 14 last year, leading to the deaths of at least 18 civilians and one police officer and sparking anti-government protests and a massive government crackdown.

  » Read more
  • January 28, 2009 12:59 AM

• Netizen Comments and Opinions on the Longnan Riots

  

  Oiwan Lam at GlobalVoices has posted translations of the results of a search of Chinese cyberspace for information on the Longnan riots. The violent clash between protesters and police was reportedly triggered by municipal government plans to demolish and relocate Longnan’s city center.  Many if not all of these translated posts have vanished from the Web.  Excerpts below:

  Land acquisition and city relocation

  [...]“2008年11月17 日上午9时30分开始，甘肃省陇南市武都区东江镇30多名拆迁户再次集体到陇南市委上访，要求对陇南市行政中心搬迁后他们面临的住房、土地和今后的生活等 问题做出答复。11月17日下午，大批群众和居民在陇南市委门前集体上访，陇南市委和相关部门的干部及时进行了接访，但未与上访人员意见达成一致。当晚， 聚集和围观群众陆续增加，围堵至凌晨，未见到主要领导。由于未知原因，人群冲入市委院内，打碎玻璃，砸毁汽车，烧毁部分办公室，引发了这次次的严重冲突。”

  At 9:30am of Nov 17, more than 30 petitioners from Dongjiang town, Wudu district, Lungnan City paid the petition visit to the city committee. Because of the land acquisition, people are homeless and landless, now that the city is to relocated to another district, they demand the city committee to explain the situation and whether the government have any relief plan for them. In the afternoon, more people gathered in front of the city committee. Although the city officials had arranged a meeting with the petitioners, there was no consensus. More and more people gathered outside the city committee in the evening until midnight expecting to see city leader. For some unknown reason, some people rushed into the courtyard of city committee, broke the windows and vehicles and set fire on part of the office. Such action leaded to this serious confrontation.
  

  Police’s trap

  A secondary school youth from Wudu gave more background on this confrontation in the comment section:

  “原因是搬迁之事政府在很早以前就出来辟谣，告诉群众不要相信谣言，况且还为此逮捕了６名所谓的传谣者．更重要的是自从王义 来武都做市委书记以后，拆了很多的民房，尤其是武都东江镇，毫不夸张的说一个很大的镇子被移为平地，数万人没了自己的家，王义给群众的答案是要把东江建成 陇南新城，群众没有说什么他们相信政府，东江镇的居民全部住进了临时安置房，没有人抱怨，因为他们相信党会让他们过的更好！可是王义要一走了之，要那么多 人永远无家可归，大家说人们能不愤怒吗？．５１２武都人民都没有被吓倒，１１月１７日武都人真的愤怒了，他们自发聚集在市委抗议，武都人是很文明的，开始 只喊喊口号＂反对搬迁＂没人那么过激，然而在１７日夜群众愤怒了．在１７日夜有几个维持执安的成县武警把几个群众抓到市委大楼拳打脚踢，致使重伤，群众忍 无可忍冲进大楼只是想救出群众，抓出打人者，可是没等人走近又是一阵警棒石块，这才越闹越大．到目前已有上百人被捕，很多人受了伤，生命垂危，更可气的 是，调来的军车上竟写着＂反恐精英＂在抗震救灾在中人民解放军树立的深厚情谊被王义在一夜之间瓦解了！”

  The government had been preaching to the people not to believe in rumor and they had arrested 6 so-called rumor makers. Since Wang Yi became the secretary of city committee, a lot of residential buildings had been demolished, especially in Wudu Dongjiang town. It is not exaggerating to say that the whole town had been demolished and thousands of people lost their home. Wang Yi explained to the people that Dongjiang would become Lungnan new city center. People believed the government and willingly moved into temporary housing. No one complained because they believed in the party’s good will to improve their life. However, now that Wang Yi decided to move away and left behind so many homeless people. How can they not be angry? During the 5.12 earthquake, people wasn’t panicking. In Nov 17, people were really angry, they protested in front of the city committee spontaneously. People in Wudu are very civilized, at first they just shout slogan: “no relocation”. However, later at night, some police from Cheng County pushed a number of protesters into the city committee building and beat them hard. People couldn’t stand anymore, they rushed in to rescue their fellow and tried to get hold of the attackers. However, the police insiders received them with rods and stones. Then the situation became out of control. More than a hundred people had been arrested now, many were injured, some are fatal. It is more agitating that the military vehicles moving in carry a slogan “counter terrorist force”. The image of earthquake rescuing team has vanished over night.
  

  Information blocked

  Another comment urges people to help spreading the news:

  “到11月18日，至少已经有数十名无辜群众遭暴打致死。消息都封锁了，很多更真实的照片都发不出来。而在这个帖子里，竟然 是政府的御用笔杆在那里乱打官腔，群众的感情他们根本就是在当做垃圾,而百姓的言论遭到大量的封锁，只能发布在少数冷门论坛里，根本无法引起外界重视。我 们死了很多同胞，至少我们不希望他们死的太冤，在死后还要被冠以“暴民”的帽子。市委书记拆完了，招商了，引资了，要调离拍屁股走人了，很难不能让人相信 他背后的动作。甘肃省委不明真相，封锁消息，这种大事连四百公里外的省会兰州都没有多少人知道！天理何在？我们的意见，我们的冤屈难道就这样被强权和官僚 们压制！？无奈之下，只能希望大家口口相传，让更多的人知道真相。希望能够引起关注。就在刚才，大街上防暴警察还在向群众释放催泪瓦斯，官逼民反，民不得 不反。天理何在，希望大家了解真相，让更多的人都了解真相，大家都转帮忙传一下。谢谢。”

  In Nov 18, tens of protesters had been beaten to death. Information had been blocked and photos could not be released. However, this post (translator note: from another forum) has adopted the official stand – they disregarded people’s emotion and much of their opinions had been blocked. Their voices could only appear in a small number of forum with very few visitors. They couldn’t attract public attention. We have lost a number of fellows and we hope that their deaths deserve some respect, not to be called as “rioters”. The secretary of the city committee had done with the demolition, had done with contracting out project and business, had done with attracting capital, now he is ready to go and leave people behind. He have lost his credibility. The Gansu province committee doesn’t know the truth and blocks the information. Such big incident was not even reported in Lanzhou. Where is our justice? Should our opinion and our sufferings be repressed by the bureaucrats like that? We can only depends on people to pass on the information and raise concern. Just now, the riot police are still firing tear gas to the people. The people have to resist. I wish you will understand the truth and let it known to others. Please pass on the information, thank you.

  The Chinese portions of these quotes were originally aggregated in a post by Chinese blogger Beifeng.  Beifeng’s post appears to have been deleted.  The link which Lam provides to Beifeng’s blog, hosted on Bullog.cn, leads to an error page:

  However, Beifeng’s original Chinese post has been reproduced on two other BBS forums.

  See CDT’s previous post on the Longnan riots.

  » Read more
  • November 20, 2008 12:14 AM

• Publish and be Damned

  

  Three more articles about the crackdown on Southern Metropolis News:

  Publish and Be Damned, from today’s Guardian;

  China Tries Again to Curb Independent Press in South, from yesterday’s New York Times;

  and a translation of an article from the Chinese magazine Caijing.

  » Read more
  • April 16, 2004 1:46 PM

• Legal experts challenge corruption charges against journalists

  

  Several high profile legal experts, lawyers, and journalists are mounting public criticism of the corruption charges used against journalists with the Southern Metropolis News (Nanfang Dushi Bao). These critics argue that the corruption charges violate new constitutional guarantees protecting private property. Several of their appeals (in Chinese) are posted online by the Open Constitution Initiative.

  Read an article by Agence France Presse here.

  CPJ today also wrote a letter to President Hu Jintao protesting the arrests of the journalists.

  » Read more
  • April 9, 2004 3:26 PM

• Jailing of tabloid managers a slap in Hu’s face (SCMP)

  

  According to today’s South China Morning Post:

  “A group of mainland legal and economic experts has called for a retrial of two managers of a popular Guangzhou tabloid who were jailed last month for corruption.

  They said the convictions by the Dongshan court were ‘a slap in the face’ for the central government’s pledge to uphold private property rights.”

  The full report is available on the Asia Pacific Media Network site.

  » Read more
  • April 7, 2004 5:08 PM

• Arrest of Journalists Seen as Payback for A Bold Voice in China (Washington Post)

  

  The Washington Post today reported on the crackdown at Southern Metropolis News.

  The article includes a quote from a speech by editor Cheng Yizhong, which he made before his arrest on March 19: “We are responsible for the news we report, no matter what the news is and no matter what the responsibilities are,” Cheng Yizhong declared in a talk to reporters and editors. “We probe to get to the bottom of the news. We are responsible for all the news we report, including political responsibility, economic responsibility, cultural responsibility and social responsibility.”

  The full report is here.

  
  From Washington Post

  » Read more
  • April 4, 2004 12:03 PM

• A Dismal Chapter in China’s Media History

  

  The Hong Kong-based, Chinese language Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly) magazine has published a lengthy article about the recent crackdown on Southern Metropolis News (Nanfang Dushi Bao), in which two employees of the newspaper were sentenced to lengthy terms for alleged corruption and the top editor was arrested and is awaiting trial. Chinese journalists have called these arrests the “darkest moment” in the past 20 years of media reform.

  Two Yazhou Zhoukan articles on the case are translated below. The translation was provided by editors at the magazine.

  Two additional articles about this case are available at: the Jamestown Foundation and The Guardian.

  » Read more
  • April 3, 2004 6:36 PM

• Provincial Politics and the Death of Free Media in China (Asia Media; Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief)

  

  By Arnold Zeitlin
  Posted: April 1, 2004

  Click here for full article

  Article reports that on March 19, the former editor-in-chief of the cutting-edge newspaper, Southern Metropolitan Daily, was arrested on charges of embezzlement. Two senior managers were also recently sentenced to long-term imprisonment for bribery and embezzlement. The report indicates that the government is cracking down on Southern Metropolitan for first reporting on the beating death of Sun Zhigang. Southern Metropolitan Daily is also the newspaper that first reported on the emergence of SARS last year.

  » Read more
  • April 2, 2004 8:22 PM

• Southern Metropolis News editors arrested

  

  In a further update to the story below, Southern Metropolis News (Nanfang Dushi Bao) editor Cheng Yizhong was arrested on March 19, and is being investigated on corruption charges. This appears to be another attempt to silence one of China’s most independent and outspoken newspapers.

  For more information on this case, see CPJ’s news alert issued today.

  » Read more
  • March 22, 2004 1:28 PM

• Chinese court jails paper staff (BBC)

  

  By Louisa Lim
  BBC correspondent in Beijing

  A Chinese court has sentenced the former general manager of an outspoken newspaper to 12 years in prison for bribery and corruption.

  In China’s tightly-controlled media market, the Southern Metropolis News was one of the most fearless papers.

  The newspaper has repeatedly embarrassed the authorities by exposing official wrongdoing.

  Click here to read the whole story at BBC News Web site

  In a further development to the story, blogger “News Insider” (in Chinese) at ChinaNewsman has reported that Cheng Yizhong, the charismatic Chief Editor of Southern Metropolis News, has been forced to resign from some of his posts within the newspaper group and is under investigation in relation to the same alleged corruption case.

  » Read more
  • March 21, 2004 12:55 AM

• Shuttered Blog Sites Back On

  

  After Blogdriver reopened on March 15, Blogcn and BlogBus also went back online yesterday, ending a week-long government purging campaign against “wayward” Blog content.

  BlogBus, after staying offline for eight days, pleaded with its customers “not to post any news about current events, sensitive content or political comments” in a message posted on its front page.

  » Read more
  • March 19, 2004 9:06 AM

• Update on the China Weblog crackdown

  

  I spoke with an executive working for a major Chinese blog service provider today, and learned that the reason authorities ordered the closure of four major blog Web sites was discussions about Dr. Jiang Yanyong’s letter in some personal blogs they hosted.

  Two blog service probiders Blogcn and Blogbus, remain offline with a message apologizing to their users. Two others, Blogdriver and ChinaNewsman have reopened after deleting all blog entries on the topic.

  From a purely business point of view, said the executive, the recent shakeup may not be a bad thing. It at least attracts more attention, including that of international venture capitalists, to the emerging blog scene in China and adds to the service providers’ bargain leverage when negotiating with potential investors.

  » Read more
  • March 16, 2004 5:09 PM

• China Cracks Down on Blog Service Providers

  

  Within a week four major Chinese blog host sites have been shut down. China Newsmen, who claims to be the country’s first primarily news blog site, has been shuttered twice and since reopened with a new URL. Blog Bus and Blogcn have apologized to their registered users saying they had to suspend service temporarily due to “illegal content in some blogs”. Another, BlogDriver, said it had closed for “maintenance and shake-up”.
  One blogger documents the clampdown in his personal Weblog.

  Some bloggers have speculated that the tightening of control may be related to the on-going People’s National Congress and People’s Political Consultative Conference annual plenum in capital Beijing. Dissident are usually hushed and “destablizing elements” suppressed during the two-week session in March each year. “It’s no surprise,” said on blogger, since function of Blogs as personal news agregators will inevitably cause the government headaches in online information control.

  » Read more
  • March 12, 2004 2:28 PM

• China mutes online news (Christian Science Monitor)

  

  “In the past year, Chinese websites have cautiously adopted an identity as an alternative information source – one used by an estimated 200 million people. Privately owned websites are seen by many young urban Chinese as a world of virtual semi-independence.

  Most sites focus on shopping, sports, and careers. But chat rooms, news groups, and spot polls have begun to gingerly open up sensitive issues including SARS, AIDS, police brutality, and legal reform.

  Now some Web services designed to stretch the boundaries of news content and opinion in China have been shut down – partly due to the Web’s own success. Central party authorities recently decided that Internet content was becoming too undisciplined. In late February, senior managers at China’s major Web portals, Sina.com, Sohu.com, Netease (163.com), and several smaller groups, were told to stop using live Web broadcasts, translating foreign news, and doing online interviews with scholars, artists, and professionals. News chat rooms were also closed or redirected. Instead, managers were instructed to rely on official state Xinhua news. ”

  The full report is here.

  » Read more
  • March 9, 2004 5:21 PM

CDT BOOKSHELF

China Digital Times is run by the Berkeley China Internet Project | Copyright © China Digital Times | Powered by WordPress.