If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.

国宝 (guóbǎo): national treasure

In online political discourse, “national treasure” is a code word for the homonym 国保, is an abbreviation for the Domestic Security Department (国内安全保卫支队, DSD). The DSD is a branch of the police force within the Ministry of Public Security specializing in intelligence, infiltration, and dealing with political dissidents, human rights activists, petitioners, religious groups, as well as “subversive” activities in the cultural, educational, and economic domains. It is a massive, secretive, and omnipotent security apparatus within the giant police machine of the P.R.C.

Sometimes “panda” (熊猫 xióngmāo) is used as a code word for the DSD, since the panda is China’s national treasure.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DSD, national treasure, word of the week
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While the world bites its nails over China’s military growth, China itself has more internal concerns. 2012 marks the second year since national spending on “public security” has surpassed that of the military. This year’s budget for jails, courts, police and various security and para-military forces is 701.8 billion yuan (US$110 bn), an 11.5% increase from 2011. By contrast, military spending went up 11.2% to 670 billion yuan (US$105 bn).

Disaster relief and border patrol are just part of public security’s purview. Police and para-military are often called in to control “mass incidents,” public gatherings and protests. Armed police were dispatched to Lhasa after two monks self-immolated on May 27. Others have gone to the scene of riots in Zhongshan and Zuotan, Guangdong.

The star of this year’s China Police Expo at the Beijing International Convention Center was a 7.62 mm Gatling machine gun built by the Chongqing Jianshe Industry Group (pictured above). It can fire anywhere from 2500 to 6000 rounds per minute. To some Chinese netizens, it’s a terrifying icon of public security. “This is a f***ing policeman’s machine gun,” writes the blog Fantastic Record. Weibo user WildhouseNEWS asks, “Who are the police going to mow down with this gun? The American imperialists or the Japanese devils? Who are they selling this thing to?”

It’s not clear which foreign police forces put their money on this gun, but netizens suspect it gets plenty of use at home. It looks like China is at war with itself.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DSD, military spending, public security
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• Signing 08 Charter (the document for which Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 10 years in jail);
• Attending, or expressing interest in, Jasmine gatherings;
• Signing online appeals, in one case, for improving prison management; in another, against the detention of a Uighur scholar;
• Intent to attend events organized by Ai Weiwei (this was before Ai Weiwei was detained and held for 86 days last year);
• Attending the memorial of a woman who self-immolated to protest against violent demolition;
• Writing blogs or articles on the themes of democracy and freedom, about June 4th, Tibet or Xinjiang;
• Twitter expressions;
• Sending a bouquet to the Norwegian Hall of Shanghai Expo in connection to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Liu Xiaobo;

Cao’s second post describes the typical content of a tea-drinking session, and the spectrum of invitees’ reactions, from defiance to fear or sadness:

Hecha, it appeared, doesn’t involve beating or sustained verbal abuse. That’s because it is the “low end” of the government intimidation and persecution, and depending on how big a threat you are in their perception, things can become much worse ….

Some people dealt with their hecha sessions with composure and even playfulness, others left useful advice, such as “be firm and you have done nothing wrong ….”

One way or the other, it is hard to exaggerate the kind of fear hecha can strike into ordinary people. It lays bare the fact that the state has every power over you, is prepared to use it in the most wanton way, while you no power, no rights, and there is nothing you can do to protect yourself.

See more on tea-drinking at CDT, including the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon’s entry on the term, translations of several first-hand accounts, and some tongue-in-cheek advice for tea-drinkers.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, drinking tea, DSD, interrogation, June 4th, Liu Xiaobo, Tibet, Twitter, Xinjiang
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A Reply Letter to the Domestic Security Department:

Although the weather cooled for a day, hot, muggy weather has returned to Xi’an. After the serious high speed rail accident, I believe every conscientious Internet user will also continue to feel stifled. As a teacher, I have no way of cheering up either. This morning I discovered a few unbelievable messages in my inbox. Of course, some were recovered from my junk mail. After reading the mail, I was shocked and then angered. I eventually cooled off and decided to openly publish this essay. I invite everyone to comment on whether what I’m saying is true.

The first letter
xxxxxxandpeople@163.com, July 29, 2011, 4:57 p.m.

You’re Zhang Xiang from the Xi’an University of Technology, right? Someone has reported that you teach how to get around the firewall during class. Please stop teaching this immediately or else we will report you to the Ministry of Education. We will also report you to your university. Please tell us your mobile phone number. We will give you a call. We hope you understand. Let’s let bygones be bygones.

The second letter

Hello Zhang Xiang. We monitored some information you put online the other day. We hope you can explain your behavior to us and delete your posts on Twitter.
Best

First of all, judging by the hollow, childish wording, I thought it was a student or former classmate playing a practical joke on me. Of course it could also be that someone who had taken a disliking to me was trying to scare me intentionally. On second thought, this kind of email looks a lot like a spammer trying to scam me.

And then, I can’t help but think about those Domestic Security Department officers who are busy to the point of death. Because my students have posted my lectures on Baidu Documents, the authorities have my various email addresses. So in the end, with all the factors considered, I think there’s a 60 percent chance it’s from the Domestic Security Department, a 20 percent chance it’s from a scam artist and a 20 percent chance that it’s a practical joke.

I invite my friends to analyze and probe what’s really going on.

1. I’m a Communist Party member, as well as a civilian instructor. I’ve always gone about my business in a proper manner. There’s a picture of me receiving an award on the official Xi’an University of Technology news website on the news section for undergraduate education. I welcome you to take a look.

When I joined this school, the Xi’an University of Technology was among the top in the nation in granting doctoral, masters and bachelors degrees. Although a lack of funding has seen it fall in the rankings during the past ten to fifteen years, the teaching staff has maintained its moral backbone. Many have observed the fruits of these years of grueling work. While employment promotion has had an effect on our school and while recruitment for our web engineering major is sluggish, yet the web engineering department at the Computer Science Institute at which I work is responsible for both majors in web engineering and the “Internet of things.” Here, the integral power of the Computer Science Institute is concentrated. It is the most tightly bound collective. The students trained here go into positions on par with Qinghua and Peking University students.

People must purport themselves righteously. If the emails are from a scam artist or were sent as a practical joke. I implore you to do the right thing. To live isn’t easy; don’t live perfunctorily. Assuming the email was from a Domestic Security Department officer: you shouldn’t use a personal email address to send me a message, nor should you ask me to use my personal mobile phone to contact you. This is what the scam artists are doing now. If you truly are from the Domestic Security Department then handle the matter openly; credible people don’t operate in secrecy. Use an official email account to send me information. Tell me your real name and give me your office number. Of course, in the short term I welcome you to use personal phones and email addresses to tell me what’s going on here. Of course, the email addresses are very likely not from the actual sender. Forging a sender’s email address is something a scam artist with a middle-school diploma can manage. I’ve hidden the address on the emails to avoid harming the innocent.

If this really was the Domestic Security Department, then all of my accounts are already being monitored. By responding publicly to your email, you will certainly see it.

2. I’d like to commend the [author of the] second letter that was sent to me for knowing how to use Gmail. The wording is polite. I’m grateful for that. I don’t hold an official post. I do not pervert the law. I wholeheartedly engage in instruction to educate people. The tax return I received last year proves I paid 394.40 yuan in taxes. To pay for family expenses, I began this year doing a bit of hourly work for others after completing my teaching duties in full. My student who are graduating this year will earn three times my salary. Those who have worked for five years earn five times my salary; ten years, seven times.

I don’t have an advanced degree, nor am I academically corrupt. I simply want to devote myself to answering academic questions and to provide mutually beneficial instruction. I want to teach the students the most advanced knowledge, making myself worthy to both student and parent. The greatest title bestowed upon me is that of teacher. My desire is to see my students fill the world.

3. Relatively speaking, the second letter understood basic human kindness. It showed me basic respect, so I will respond to it first.

Assuming you really are from the Domestic Security Department, I’ll I can say is you must be tired. As someone from within the system, I understand the tough spot you’re in. In respect to your request for me to erase my Twitter post, please pardon me for being unable to comply. First, as a matter of character, once I’ve made a comment, there is no way of taking it back. I use my real name and so I take responsibility for what I’ve said. Secondly, the constitution and the law stipulates that every person enjoys freedom of speech. The party constitution requires party members to be resolute in making criticism and self-criticism. Please tell me first, which sentence of mine violated the law? And please provide me with the corresponding legal provision.

Finally, as a fair-minded scholar who has researched internet safety and cyber attack detection, as someone who is in the same field of studies as President Fang Binxing at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, I can tell you with full confidence that even I could never expect to be able to delete what’s been said online. The truth will certainly be reposted in every nook and cranny of the internet. It will enter into the hearts of everyone who sees it. There’s a saying that words are like splashed water; they do not disappear into the air but sink deeply into the earth.

The truth will never be extinguished. It will circulate and be endlessly reborn.

4. The second letter says “We monitored some information you put online.” All I can say is you must be tired. Perpetual monitoring is without a doubt tiring and tedious. What’s more is you’re using outdated technology.

For millennia, in China and abroad, common scholars have produced much of our scientific technology. Academia in China is corrupt to an extreme degree today. Do you think President Fang and others at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication – with all the scheming and purloining of our nation’s scientific research funds – have the mental vigor to research advanced technology?

President Fang at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication, this bureaucratic, beastly, authoritarian official, has used public authority to block a great amount of technology websites. He has seriously impeded the proliferation of scientific technology. Many working in academia can’t see other countries’ progress in advanced research, but can only operate blindly, making poor quality imitations. The continuation of such trends can seriously delay the nation and its people’s future. Of course those like President Fang are afraid of others knowing that they are using outdated technology and products to swindle the country because it would prevent them from taking research money for themselves.

I say you’re tired because your workload is ever increasing. More and more people know about the internet. More and more people understand that if someone doesn’t say something, then corruption will become more and more severe. And so the keywords on your list continue to grow, as do the number of websites you must monitor. The number of people selected for monitoring is also increasing. With this busy, boring work and outdated technology and equipment, someday you will work yourself to death. Please make your decision sooner rather than later.

5. The first letter takes an illegal matter, a matter that should never see the light of day, and phrases it in such strong, justifiable words. It sounds like it was written by someone in the mafia. It’s not often one sees such an extreme level of shamelessness. Of course, perhaps you were forced into doing it, but even if you are working within the system, you should learn from the author of the second letter. You’re also a person. Only after respecting others will others respect you.

The writer said: “Someone has reported that you teach your students in class how to get around the firewall.” Please don’t pull my students into this. My students range from freshmen to those in their final year of master’s research to doctoral degrees. I have received them equally and have honestly bestowed them with scientific knowledge regardless of their scores or family background. Even though most young teachers [in my school] don’t dare give their students failing grades because they are afraid it will affect their evaluations, my students rank me in the top 10 percent even though the number of students who fail my class is around 15% or higher. Justice calms the heart. I am not afraid. So please do not slanderously portray my students as those who don’t know the difference between right and wrong.

Of course there are members of the 50 cent party and informants among my students. During school closures, every instructor has taken part in exercises in which we consider our students. The teachers are already aware of their identities. If people didn’t know, then they are blind. I can’t believe that because of this matter someone would report me. I have taught each student individually according to their capacities, so of course I understand them.

6. Supporting my belief that it was the Domestic Security Department is the intimidating language used in connection with the phrase “scaling the firewall.”

As someone who has worked within the system, and as an old party member, I have friends and student in the military, Domestic Security Department, police, government and [related] work units. Of course I know what the Domestic Security Department fears the most. But I can tell you that I don’t practice Qi Gong [i.e., I am not a member of Falun Gong] so you can relax.

As a teacher who leads by example, I only give my students tools that lose their effectiveness within a short period of time. I lead them to the door and then emphasize the use of many different kinds of open-sourced software for long-term, uninhibited internet use. Furthermore, I warn them, if they see anything that makes them uncomfortable, they can always watch a week’s worth of network news to recover.

Scaling the firewall

I can confidently say that it is completely necessary to teach this content to computer science majors. Yet many students majoring in computer sciences, web engineering, software engineering, and “the Internet of things” don’t take classes from teachers with such professional training. Plus, there aren’t too many diligent teachers. So it creates [a situation] in which knowledge of how to scale the wall is passed on orally by a small group of students. So this lack of guidance causes students to either wallow around on porn [websites] or to be tricked and cheated.

Everyone can figure it out by looking at the low graduation rate of computing majors at the country’s best schools. Look at the number of automation and auto-control majors who are making software and stealing the rice bowls of the computing majors.

Think for a moment about all the websites in the world. On the mainland, we can’t visit 80 percent of them. At the same time, there are also many technology blogs that are restricted. There’s no way to view a large number of teaching videos. How can we study the latest culture and knowledge? Most teachers are not of a high level, nor are they serious about teaching. Few students have good self-study skills. They spend their days idly, submersed in computer games or causing trouble outside. If you’re from the Domestic Security Department, if you have children, do you think things can continue like this?

7. Let me clarify that today the phrase “scaling the firewall” has already become positive. This behavior is already a simple matter. Generally speaking, nearly half the people who get online know about getting past restrictions on internet use—restrictions such as: legal restrictions imposed by employers; restrictions used by universities in order to save money; Green Dam software used by elementary and middle schools; various restrictions used by internet cafes, and of course the illegal filtering that is enforced using public power. Breaking boundaries in search of freedom is part of everyone’s nature. I trust that, as [as a member] of the Domestic Security Department, you also feel this way. It’s just that you can only sit stifled in silence.

Narrowly speaking, I’m talking about breaking through the illegal “Great Firewall” on which President Fang and his gang at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication have squandered the country’s financial resources and ignored the country’s laws. I already said above, the technology they are using is extremely outdated. It’s nothing more than pulling the wool over uncultured bureaucrats’ eyes. While [those who filter the internet] can scale the wall whenever they want, and have access to advanced technology, there are still quite likely some who have not lost their consciences, and who do not savor their demeaning lackey work.

Many university students can scale the firewall; it’s merely a questions of when. Just look at the shoe that was thrown at President Fang and you’ll know how much the students hate him. They hope to see him brought to justice. While he’s illegally controlling everyone in China, he himself enjoys uninhibited access to the internet. What a case of split personality disorder.

8. Let me make another appraisal of techniques to scale the wall. It’s really such a simple matter. Unless the whole country is cut off and isolated from the internet, there’s no technology that can block the internet. Try to understand this. Regardless of their major, most men who have been to university have no trouble with this. Many women can do it too.

One reason why the internet can’t be blocked is technical. It’s fundamentally impossible. It’s impossible for the same reason that thousands of miles of great wall could not protect the second Qin emperor from being killed. Another reason is that President Fang and his followers aren’t even in the industry. The technology they use to fool people is substandard. Finally, no matter where you go, you will find good people. There are people inside the system that passively let things slip and refuse to cooperate with [government] authority. Although they are forced to aim, their conscience [compels them to miss the target by] lifting the barrel of their gun a few centimeters.

Besides this, in the IT industry, some corporations that help manufacture web monitoring equipment are staffed with people whose backgrounds are in government. Their management is chaotic; their companies’ prospects dim. It’s difficult to retain anyone with real technical talent. Furthermore, those [with real technical talent] will often, in addition to working from within the company, also work outside the company developing new tools for getting around the firewall.

So climbing the wall is simple. Any fuss over the matter is expressed only by the ignorant.

9. Lastly, I’ll discuss what made me think it was a scammer. The first letter stated: “Please stop teaching this immediately or else we will report you to the Ministry of Education. We will also report you to your university. Please tell us your mobile phone number. We will give you a call. We hope you understand. Let’s let bygones be bygones.” These words closely resemble the language used by internet scammers. Community police have gone around posting warnings to prevent people from being tricked [by similar scams]. As soon as one receives threatening mail or text messages, they should report it to community police immediately.

If it really was the Domestic Security Department, do you think the Xi’an University of Technology has worked so hard all these years and no one with a guiding sense of right and wrong is left? Do you really think the education department is just going to take your words and punish an ordinary instructor? If so, then how many teachers would be left in this country? That would set off a stampede. Open your eyes wide and look. Those people whose careers took a hit some twenty years ago, now they are living more comfortably than the people on the inside.

In regard to these threatening words, I can only speak as an old party member for more than a decade; I will not be intimidated; don’t give me any more of this mafia bullsh*t.

Because I’m committed to teaching and educating people, I have endured at least ten years of poverty. I won’t abandon teaching in the future.

I’m going to make a bet as to what extent education will decline, as to how long this society will go on disrespecting knowledge and instruction. Let’s see how long this mob can continue to run amuck and flagrantly disregard the law.

10. As an educator, I invite everyone to critique the education system. I invite everyone to oppose corruption. We’re all sitting in a high-speed rail car; it takes effort from everyone if we don’t want to run off the track. I recommend that everyone watch the famous German movie “The Lives of Others.” I invite everyone to look inside and ask yourselves, what kind of person am I?

The movie, “The Lives of Others” describes what happens after the Berlin wall came down. Just copy this downloading link into Xunlei.com, Flashget, eMule or other downloading tools and you can download it. Sharing ed2k files cannot be blocked—even people like President Fang Binxing at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications cannot block this with their outdated technology—the authorities lacks the ability.

11. The Xi’an University of Technology is a research university. It does its utmost to train the backbone of the country. Not many of our students leave the country and many employers have praised our university. I urge employers to ask Xi’an University of Technology Computer Science Institute web engineering and “internet of things” graduates if they can get around the firewall. I can tell you with certainty, those who can’t were not good students.

For students of computer sciences, a field that severely lacks a clear teaching emphasis, and for software engineering majors, who can only receive instruction on par with vocational schools, you can be a bit softer. Please ask them if they know what getting around the firewall means and reject those who don’t know.

12. Finally, I will discuss my lesson plans. Only after some students posted my lesson plans in Baidu Documents were these two letters, ostensibly from the Domestic Security Department, able to reach the mailbox I use for receiving homework, answering questions and other official uses.

In the future, I ask my students not to post my lesson plans online. They are intentionally made imperfect. Within them, there are a few intentional mistakes that will mislead those who did not attend my class. Although students have always given me a poor mark on my lesson preparation and this has always lowered my overall score, it is worth doing. Although I have no chance of being judged as excellent, my students’ eyes are still keen. I always get above a 90 percent approval rating. For education, it is worth it. My purpose in doing this is:

I don’t want to let myself depend on the lesson plan and fail to teach in a lively manner. You have to suspect that teachers with perfect lesson plans didn’t write them themselves. These years, there are more and more teachers who do it like this. Every year I have to turn down teachers who ask me to complete their lesson plans for them. The fact that a lesson that I made in 2003 is still widely used is great proof of this.

Lots of the things I teach in class won’t appear in my lesson plans. This is to avoid having students who come to class but don’t listen, then study the lesson plan before the test. If you didn’t listen in class, you will certainly fail.

Let it be known among my students, you don’t need to print out the lesson plan. Most of the information is in the book. A bit of it I emphasized in the lecture and you should write it in your notebooks. When you’ve finished taking exams you can throw out any Chinese textbooks. Go to the library and read some foreign textbooks, or a few of you can get together and buy some classic foreign textbooks. Even if it was a textbook I edited, throw it out. I know it is incredibly lacking compared to the foreign books.

A grave reminder: the tools themselves are innocent. Use Google properly. Obey they law. Building a society ruled by law requires everyone’s participation. Uprooting corruption requires everyone to act.

Read more about the Domestic Security Department, via CDT.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: academic censorship, DSD, Fang Binxing, Great Firewall, Internet censorship
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Magic City | Celestial Empire. [Shanghai, China] Following me on Twitter is no big deal, because I only pay attention to what I want to, and just post what I want without thinking about how it’ll be received. Developer at Chubao| Political Incorrectness Party| excel at irreverence | use a second hand Android QVGA phone

http://www.google.com/profiles/stonyw

Listen, I want to talk about my tea-drinking experience in the wake of 2/20.

I felt from the start that 2/20 itself was a joke, but that the officials wouldn’t find it funny, so my goal when I left home that day was very clear; watch the proceedings from the sidelines, without having anything to do with Jasmine.

Because they couldn’t catch any of the secret masterminds, the situation after 2/20 is still brewing. This week, a lot of people were taken for tea, including myself. If anyone thinks that I’m preparing to stage a performance, here are a couple of pictures.

I think that the people who are “missing”, of whose circumstances nothing is known and who cannot be contacted, have probably been made scapegoats in this in order to appease the higher-ups. After all, with such broad involvement and so many participants, they definitely had to produce results.

Let me come back to the details of my own tea-drinking. Because my company is based in Xuhui District, a pair of uniformed policemen found it immediately and, demanding the staff roster, looked through it to find my name; of course, the English one. My boss was a bit nervous, afraid of what might happen. As for me and my tweeting, the police were bound to want to take me for tea sooner or later. It’s not that my political opinions are very unorthodox, but the point of investigating content is to get you to shut up, so you’re always going to strike a nerve one day.

At first there were two relatively serious men with very rigid attitudes, who first asked me to confirm my Twitter ID, and then asked what trouble hotspots I’d been involved in lately, constantly twisting my words. I said that since they were unwilling to tell me what sensitive phrase they’d come across, I wasn’t going to say either. There are a lot of these hotspots, and I’d been on Twitter for years, and posted tens of thousands of tweets: which of these was the issue now? Actually, I was laughing to myself that these three characters [茉莉花—Jasmine] had them so scared that they didn’t dare say them in front of me.

And then, twisting, twisting, twisting, winding me up tighter and tighter and tighter, until we reached stalemate … :S I followed what they were saying exactly: the country needs management, and the Internet also needs management in accordance with the law, so I personally had to be willing to accept a certain degree of scrutiny. Now that you’ve come and found me, I said, I’m certain that something I said must have been untrue; if you’ll just point to it specifically, I’ll take another look, and if I’ve made a mistake, I’ll admit it, apologise, and delete it, and that’ll be that, right?

But throughout this winding, they just wouldn’t say which was the offending phrase. In fact, their aim in coming here was quite clear: it was to intimidate me into keeping my mouth shut. From my point of view, though, this was a good opportunity for me to observe the police in the aftermath of 2/20.

As for the tricks through which they tried to talk me around, we’ve all grown familiar with them: the foreign website (in this case, Twitter) is a tool of the US government, and I should be careful not to be exploited. Even if I had no ill intentions myself, I was being exploited to further those of the enemy, and in the end the blame would fall on me; it wasn’t worth it. In a country this big, if everyone stressed their own freedom, that couldn’t help but affect the freedom of others, so we still needed managing, or else there’d be chaos.

As for management of the web, it was entirely legitimate, they said, including the blocking of websites like FLG. They could have me in court within a day, if I’d done something to deserve it; they wouldn’t need any further excuse.

This talk deadlocked us for a while, until my boss came in to break it. He gave them a business card, and said a few words.

One of the other two told me that everyone has their own point of view, and he wouldn’t try to talk me around to his. At the same time, though, he wanted to help me see where the line was drawn. On the Internet, you can look, you can listen, you can selectively reproduce things, but you can’t post on controlled websites and be exploited.

I understood the point he was making, and felt that things here in Shanghai were relatively relaxed: at least I was allowed to look. :S

After this, my attitude, which had remained consistently the same since the first day I’d tweeted, became slightly more cooperative; I wanted them to realise that I’m a positive and motivated young man who loves his country, his people, his life. Perhaps in their eyes my ideology was a little extreme (as if shifting my allegiance towards the Party isn’t extreme!), but overall there’d been a major shift in my attitude, and we started to talk about lighter matters.

For example, they suggested that I post on the home-grown Sina Weibo instead, or play games. He could even try to help me find a girlfriend, a female police officer who are in their public security system. I laughed inwardly: in the end, this was just an attempt to install someone in a position where they could reshape my thinking. They were still trying to coax me into their control.

Afterwards, the atmosphere was more relaxed, and I was soon able to work out what was going on. The ones who’d come to pick me up this time weren’t from the Domestic Security Department, but from the Public Security Bureau; the ones in charge of net security, to be precise. Because this assignment had come down from above, there was no guarantee that the DSD would be able to come and get me over the same business.

I don’t want to give too much away regarding the identities of these two policemen. Some technical details are discussed below.

How did they find me? They said they’d tracked me through my company’s IP address, but there’s a problem with that: all the 2/20-related tweets I’d sent, without exception, had been from home, not from work. At work, obviously, I used firewall circumvention techniques to tweet, but I hadn’t used one of the more popular pieces of circumvention software, so there was no chance that I’d been caught in a honeypot).

All I can say is that finding me online would be relatively easy: by comparing certain overlapping pieces of information, you could quickly get a fix on the company, and even a particular person, and then go asking after a guy with an English name. If that’s what they’d done, although it does makes sense, the net monitors shouldn’t have enough time on their hands to go about this kind of comparison.

What gave the company trouble afterwards is that, on the basis of this incident, they were ordered to give everyone in the company a fixed IP address, and install inspection and control equipment at the gateway to our network.

When they were taking notes, they asked how I’d been circumventing the firewall, and I said I’d used a VPN. One of them asked, wasn’t I afraid that they’d set up a honeypot? I said no, I wasn’t: I wasn’t doing anything bad, so if they provided a convenient way to get over the wall, I’d use it.

@GoogolMo Happy Birthday!

To summarise the above: at least in Shanghai, you can use Twitter, circumvent the Great Firewall, post everyday complaints, read other peoples’ news, and selectively repost it; but you may not express political opinions, and should avoid grumbling at sensitive times. Sometimes, cultivate other interests: chase girls, go on Sina Weibo, immerse yourself in games. That’s what they were hoping I’d do.

Since last week, a lot of noobs have appeared [literally “egg heads”, because of the default avatar on Twitter, an egg icon], obviously as part of a reinforcement of monitoring on Twitter, through which they were able to track me down on Tuesday afternoon. Digging through my new followers on Monday, I’d already found at least one possible monitor account. But my tweets are public, and one of my explanatory posts had been widely retweeted, so it was hard to avoid being spotted.

That’s all the interesting stuff. Whether you can use any of it to protect yourselves, you can judge for yourself. I’ve waited till today to tell it out of consideration for the face of those two police officers. They know that what they were doing shouldn’t be made public, so I kept quiet for 48 hours. As we got along well while we were talking, I’ve published the highlights of our chat, but protected their specific identities to they won’t suffer criticism if their supervisors see this.

The remaining tweets are aimed at the 50 Centers and net security police. To get on Twitter, you have to circumvent the GFW, which isn’t easy. Monitoring it requires considerable manpower, and the work is very laborious. We both know perfectly well whether or not Twitter is controlled by the US government, and I’ve been exploited. So your thinking is just very old-fashioned, and gives me a real intellectual superiority complex. Sorry about that.

Ultimately, how was I exploited? As I said to a 50 Center on Monday, now you think I’ve been exploited, you come along to exploit me as well. I don’t mind being exploited by both sides; it upgrades me from an everyday joe to a double agent. It’s more Hollywood than Hollywood! I’m keen to be “exploited”.

I knew that this content I’d posted would be seen by the net supervisors, and that there’d probably be some who’d want to find me to drink tea. To tell the truth, I didn’t really mind chatting to you, having a good heart-to-heart even to the point of making friends, so next time there’s no need to be mean: you call it “tea drinking”, but you didn’t offer me any. PS: I really hate plain-clothes police. If DSD dressed in plain clothes come and find me, I can’t stay polite, and treat them like any other thugs.

Generally, whether you’re a 50 Center newbie, DSD or net security, your whole thinking and bag of tricks is dated, a generation behind. Most people on Twitter are relatively thoughtful, so your unwavering dogmatism can’t achieve the desired result, and when you talk to me in a deceitful and uncivilised way, I can’t be bothered to retort.

In this respect, you really need to look at your supposed enemy — the US government has learned well how to use the internet to propagate its value system, and it’s not by means of the irrelevant sophistry of Foreign Ministry spokespeople who talk and talk without saying anything, with the media falling over themselves to praise the embarrassing show the next day.

On the whole, I welcome you all to contact me about this, unless it’s to tell me to shut up.

See also “Drinking Tea and Discussing the Jasmine Revolution: A Twitter Report” translated by CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drinking tea, DSD, jasmine revolution, tweets
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Today I got picked up by the National Treasures (Domestic Security Department) again to go and talk to them for a while, because I’d written something online celebrating the victory of the Egyptian people. “Does this have a double meaning?” they’d thought. “What does these other people’s victory have to do with you?” They dragged me to the law firm’s meeting room to talk; I said I didn’t know who they were, and called the police. The police took me to the local station, and soon afterwards the DSD arrived to make me talk to them. I’d forgotten that the police station was part of their world, and that the police would cooperate with them.

The police said that if I wrote that sort of thing again they’d go after my family, and my boyfriend might lose his job. “If you don’t let us get on with our work in peace,” they said, “we won’t let you get on with anything. No, don’t argue; this is the Communist Party’s China.” It was really awful.

At the law firm’s offices, when they’d taken me, they wanted to grab my phone so I couldn’t call the police; I told the police that I’d been robbed. The DSD hadn’t actually acted like thugs, but once the police had taken me to the station with the DSD hurrying after, I was like a chick caught in an eagle’s talons. I hadn’t planned this. Ah, so stupid of me to leave the law firm; it was too dangerous at the police station, and they were in their element. I won’t be so foolish again.

I was scared when I talked to the DSD, who were ruthless. To attack me, they told me I was ugly, that what I’d written was worthless; I replied that only very insecure men liked beautiful women, and that their wives must be gorgeous. I asked them if it was attractive of them to grab pretty girls like this all the time; whether it was attractive that Chinese people had to live in fear. I said that the essence of people like me is much greater than their own, and that we could be called the conscience of China, the backbone of China … did they have conscience, or backbone? Their time is running out. I felt really sorry for them, I said; How about if I don’t write anything but just repost others’ articles?  At this, I stopped, and the police, greatly moved with joy, were anxious to embrace me to show their gratitude for this revelation. Ah, they’re so barbaric, I do feel a little sorry for them. They said they really didn’t want to see me, that every time they bashfully came to find me, they felt wretched, because I scolded them so severely each time. I think the DSD fear the foreign media’s influence. They’re performers, I think, playing a part they don’t understand.

At the law firm, with several lawyers present, they roughed me up a bit. The head of the firm was there, too. I said, “look! The police dare to act unlawfully, even at a law firm!” The head of the police said, without looking at me, “I’m sorry. We’re all civilians. We can’t protect you.” I said I understood. After what I’d been through today, I felt I understood society more clearly. I’d been picked on, oppressed, half beaten. But it was as if I still hadn’t seen my real enemy in the flesh. The police seemed as if they were as unfortunate in this as I was; just making a living.

When the police beat me, my colleagues—Shanghainese who want for nothing—were all there, and nobody said a word. Actually, I’m pleasantly surprised that none of them taunted me. They’re not bad, those lovely colleagues and boss of mine.

Today I see clearly that we’re living on our knees. You want to stand up? To speak freely? The state apparatus will immediately put you in your place. Are we alive? No, we’re at least half dead. We’re all zombies; living like lower animals, unable to think or speak. We can only live a subhuman life, like imbeciles. It doesn’t matter how you dress it up: it’s no use, we’re all zombies, just the same.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drinking tea, DSD, jasmine revolution
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Zhejiang Province Public Security Bureau Work Protocols on Controlling the Movements of Critical Persons (Trial Version)

Time: March 2, 2010, 7:39 a.m. Source: Zhejiang Province Anti-drug Force

Editor’s note: Departments of the public security bureau at all levels must be united and practical in their approach to collecting and recording ground level information from local hotels, temporary residences, internet cafes, and motorized vehicles. [They must] closely monitor internet systems that gather tips and control [people’s actions]. [They must be practical and united in their approach to] disseminating police information, [their approach to] handling things, analyzing and reporting findings from feedback on situations, and establishing appropriate assessment mechanisms. Those work units that excel in their work of collecting and recording ground level information in a timely manner; receiving, controlling [critical persons]; and providing feedback, etc., will be praised by way of reports. Those [work units] that do not collect and record ground level information in a timely and accurate manner and those that lag behind in receiving, controlling [critical persons] and providing feedback will be criticized by way of report. Those that manufacture information making it impossible to timely evaluate and control [critical persons], and those that perform their duties of receiving, controlling [critical persons], and providing feedback in a perfunctory manner, thus hindering battle operations, will be sternly pursued.

Chapter One: General Provisions

Article 1: In order to thoroughly implement the establishment of integrated intelligence platforms at the department, provincial and city levels; [in order to] implement the work of controlling the movements of critical persons including those involved in terrorism, those involved in [creating social] instability, those involved in drug [trafficking], those who are fleeing [the government], those who have committed serious crimes in the past, mentally ill people who cause disturbances and disasters, and critical persons who petition higher levels of government (hereinafter, the “Seven Categories of Critical Persons”); [in order to] “report to the police when they come, trace their path when they move, know their location when they depart, and control them during their entire journey;” [in order to] increase prevention, strike at illegal criminal behavior and protect the ability to [have] a stable society; this regulation is hereby promulgated.

Article 2: [The work of] controlling the movement of critical persons can divided between routine control and provisional control.

Article 3: The information needed to control the movements of critical persons includes foundational information and information on movements. Foundational information concerns information concerning the identity of critical persons and related background information. Information on movement follows the path of critical persons’ influence in social activities.

Chapter Two: Routine Control

Article 4: Routine control refers to the public security bureau on the national, provincial and city levels providing an intelligence platform to discover, throughout the nation, the precise location of people who belong to the “Seven Categories of Critical Persons,” controlling their movements, investigating their background and experiences, judging the lawfulness of their activities, and other such ordinary measures for controlling the movements [of people].

Article 5: The basic classification of the “Seven Categories of Critical Persons:”

Persons involved in terrorism are classified as to whether they are international terrorists or whether they are Chinese critical persons involved in terrorism.

Persons involved in [creating social] instability are classified as to whether they are Domestic Security Department critical persons, critical persons involved with “Falun Gong” and other evil cults, critical persons involved in Xinjiang independence, Tibetan independence, or Taiwanese independence, or those critical persons involved in [anti-] Japanese activities or whether they are any manner of critical persons involved in “rights defense” [on behalf of] interested groups, etc.

Persons involved in drug [trafficking] are divided between those who use illegal drugs and those who have a history of manufacturing and selling illegal drugs. Based on the practical needs of our province, drug users are subdivided into two groups; category one drug users and other drug users. Category one drug users include: those who have undergone community drug rehabilitation programs but have not reported this during the designated time, those who are currently in community drug rehabilitation programs, those who have been placed in compulsory drug treatment programs (compulsory rehabilitation or rehabilitation conducted through reeducation by physical labor) and who do not continue to be monitored or controlled, and other drug users who have a history of using drugs within the last three years.

Persons who are fleeing [the government].

Persons who have committed serious crimes in the past can be categorized as; those who have committed serious violent crimes such as; murderers, robbers, rapists, kidnappers, arsonists, those who detonate explosives, and hijackers; those who are involved in criminal gangs; those who have a record of involvement with weapons and explosives; those have a record of trafficking women and children; those released from prison after completing their sentence for seriously harming someone; those who have committed crimes in other jurisdictions and those who conspire with others who have committed property crimes on at least two occasions; those who have a record of committing fraud via text messages and via the internet; those who have a record of committing economic crimes that affect the public such as pyramid marketing schemes and illegal diversion of public funds; those who have a record of committing financial fraud, money counterfeiting, and other serious economic crimes.

Mentally ill persons who cause disturbances and disasters are divided between mentally ill persons who cause disturbances and disasters, mentally ill persons who stir up small amounts of trouble, and mentally ill persons who have latent violent tendencies.

Critical persons who petition higher levels of government are divided between those who petition higher levels of government even after the incident is over, unusual petitioners, petitioners who have grave issues, petitioners who have infectious diseases, petitioners who are mentally ill, petitioners who belong to Falun Gong and other evil cults, petitioners who go to Beijing, and petitioners who petition in groups.

Article 6: Routine control is conducted through the Public Security Bureau on the national, provincial and city levels. These three intelligence platforms continually and automatically coordinate and crosscheck ground level information that has been compiled on critical persons. [This process] produces warning signals which are conveyed to the responsible local public security agency which will take appropriate measures to deal with [the situation].

Article 7: The intelligence platform of the Ministry of Public Security will crosscheck information concerning the Seven Categories of Critical Persons’ interactions with the nation’s banks, airports, and borders. Based upon the different classifications of the critical persons, [this information] will be conveyed separately to provincial public security agencies where the critical person has their domicile, court jurisdiction, [police] jurisdiction, or residence. The Internet System for Gathering Tips and Controlling [People’s Actions] (hereinafter, “Internet Tips and Control System”) of the Zhejiang Public Security Bureau Synthesized Applied Information Resource Platform will crosscheck and disseminate information concerning the Seven Categories of Critical Persons’ interactions with hotels, temporary populations and internet cafes.

Article 8: After the provincial level [Public Security Bureau] receives urgent police information from the intelligence platform of the Ministry of Public Security, the provincial level [Public Security Bureau] will use the “Internet Tips and Control System” to directly distribute this information down to the relevant city, county/district Public Security Bureau Command Center and the airport Public Security Bureau Command Center. [Using this information,] the command centers will, based upon jurisdiction and proximity, deploy ground level police stations or other responsible police unit to take care [of the situation]. The police unit that handles the situation will, in a specified time period, use the Internet Tips and Control System to record how the situation was handled. The provincial level [Public Security Bureau] will use this interface to timely report this information up to the Ministry of Public Security’s intelligence platform.

Information compiled from the “Internet Tips and Control System” will be directly disseminated to the relevant city, county (city, district) Public Security Bureau Control Center and Airport Public Security Bureau Control Center. [Using this information,] the command centers will, based upon jurisdiction and proximity, deploy ground level police stations or other responsible police unit to take care [of the situation].

The police unit that handles the situation will, in a specified time period, use the Internet Tips and Control System to record how the situation was handled. The provincial level [Public Security Bureau] will use this interface to timely report a summary of the situation that has been corroborated and handled to the Ministry of Public Security’s intelligence platform.

Article 9: Information about critical persons is classified as a “red warning,” “orange warning” or a “blue warning.”

Red warnings indicate a high level of danger, the nature of which is extremely urgent.

Orange warnings indicate a degree of danger, the nature of which is urgent.

Blue warnings indicate a typical degree [of danger].

Article 10: the color distinctions provide a foundation for classifying the dangerousness of critical persons and determining the degree of urgency needed in controlling [critical persons]. [The color distinctions] summarize and synthesize the actual situations of critical persons, and their temporal and physical locations.

Red warnings primarily apply to persons involved in terrorism and persons fleeing [the government].

Orange warnings primarily apply to people involved in [creating social] instability, to category one drug users, and to those who have a history of manufacturing and selling illegal drugs.

Blue warnings primarily apply to other drug users, those who have a criminal record of major crimes, mentally ill persons who cause disturbances and disasters, and critical persons who petition higher levels of government.

During major events, major holidays, sensitive dates, and other special [occasions] it may be necessary to at times raise the warning level as it applies to certain groups.

Article 11: In all locations, the deadline for receiving information concerning critical persons shall be: 15 minutes for [persons classified under a] red warning, 30 minutes [for persons classified under an] orange warning and 2 hours for [persons classified under] a blue warning. The deadline for first providing feedback on how the situation was handled shall be: 24 hours for [persons classified under a] red warning, 48 hours [for persons classified under an] orange warning and 72 hours for [persons classified under] a blue warning. After this period, upon discovering goals [of the critical persons] or other clues, [police units] must timely provide continued feedback.

Article 12: The basic content of feedback concerning critical persons should include; [date of] receiving the [information], what means were taken, and how the situation was handled.

Article 13: The unit responsible for dealing with critical persons should, based upon the various classifications of critical persons and apply such means as arresting, controlling, managing and verifying.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defending rights, DSD, petitioners, PSB, surveillance, Zhejiang
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A Student’s Experience of Being Invited to “Drink Tea”

Author: Caomin (1)

Starting yesterday (May 10th), my current advisor repeatedly started calling me. Because I was out on the road, I missed a lot of her calls; finally I picked up. She said that there were some details that I hadn’t attended to which may affect my receiving a diploma. She asked if I could rush back. So I ended up taking a bus from a long ways away back to school. My advisor again called me several times. Finally, she informed me that I was to come to her office today in the afternoon (May 11th). I had never felt that she was so “concerned” for me before. This out-of-blue “care and concern” made me feel a bit uneasy but also caused me to be quite polite in response. However, I didn’t have any other sort of misgivings.

In the afternoon (of May 11), I hurried over to her office at the appointed time. I knocked, and as the door opened, there was no sign of my advisor. From the uniforms they were wearing I could tell that those waiting for me were from the Domestic Security Department (DSD) (2). I instantly felt as one does when confronting a bad omen. Even though I had known that this day would come sooner or later, I still wondered if the time wasn’t still a bit too early. I had a complicated emotion as two distinct feelings intermingled—a sense of bitterness, and the feeling of an unsettled conscience.

I was a bit nervous. I worried that I would be carried off in a police car. I had this sort of feeling like the heavens were crashing down. They seemed to read the nervous expression written on my face and tried to comfort me, telling me not to be nervous. They showed a lot of “care and concern” towards me. The school’s Party committee secretary was constantly pouring tea for me to drink. In a country so blinded by greed and in a country that treats people so indifferently, I’ve always been treated with disdain and overbearing bossiness by the powerful and self-righteous. After I was given such “special treatment” by someone with power I felt a bit overwhelmed. It was like in terms of character and dignity they were treating me as their “equals.” “Don’t be nervous. We’re basically just here today to have a conversation with you.” And this is how our “conversation” began. At the time it seemed extremely likely that this might be my “final class” at the school and perhaps in my academic career.

DSD: Where do you write your blog? Isn’t it true that you’ve written articles about the World Expo? What kind of articles?

Me: I write my blog on Sina.com. I wrote about the World Expo’s Ten Great Sins. Maybe it’s because I’m not famous like Han Han (3) that you’ve sought me out. I’ve actually been pretty influenced by Han Han and have read a lot of his novels (the National Treasure [pun for DSD] interrupted and said, “like Triple Door”). Yes, and his other novels and blog posts. I’ve always liked him, which is probably not a good thing for me today.

DSD: Well, Han Han is Han Han. What are your views about the World Expo?

Me: I’m not against the Expo itself. What I am against is the politicization of the Expo. The World Expo as a cultural and technological exhibition held in China can enlighten and broaden the horizons of those who visit. It also provides a platform to promote understanding and mutual interaction between the countries of the world. However, there is no need for the wide-scale propaganda spin that is being produced and there is no need for the excessive rules governing the lives of those who live in the city. It shouldn’t be approached as some sort of political mission. Last year when Chicago applied to host the 2016 Olympics, the proportion of those who were supportive was quite low. Other than this, Chicago from a number of perspectives was the best [place to host the Olympics]. However, I didn’t see because of this, US government agencies going out and trying to “educate” Chicago residents or threatening them if they didn’t support the city’s bid for the Olympics. I also have not seen the Shanghai Expo’s much touted slogans actually put into practice, slogans such as, “low-carbon Expo,” “going green,” “host the Expo with thrift,” “host the Expo with clean government,” and “harmonious Expo,” etc.

I’ve also been to Pudong [the area of Shanghai where the Expo is held]. It is not like how in Japan and other countries where the World Expo was held in the suburbs near forested areas (4). Furthermore, the fireworks set off on both sides of the Huangpu River were more than were set off during the Beijing Olympics. Right now in a lot of countries, the World Expo is just chicken ribs [something of little value]. At a time when people don’t even have any basic health care safeguards and when there is no unemployment aid, I simply don’t know how meaningful it is to ordinary people to have all this money spent on this kind of a thing,especially for the many people whose homes were forcibly demolished to make way for the Expo and who received very little compensation. Most of them decided to just swallow their anger but some of them chose to take the course of rights defense [weiquan]. However, those who chose this course were beaten down at every turn. Some are now destitute and homeless. Shouldn’t the government have some responsibility here? Once the World Expo comes to a close, the government is going to sell the land and make money. For many people [whose homes were taken] this an additional sort of exploitation.

DSD: The World Expo is a huge sign of our country’s rise. It should make us proud. How do you know about all these things that you just spoke of?

Me: I guess from the overseas media like BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation], VOA [Voice of America], RFI [Radio France International], DW [Duowei, Chinese Media Net], RFA [Radio Free Asia], and The New York Times. Also from Chinese websites that can be opened from within the country like the Singapore zaobao.com. I’ve never trusted the domestic media. After all, at least the Western media is independent and this can ensure their credibility. This is also an important reason why the Western media has become the global media for many people.

DSD: So your English is pretty good then? I also frequently read several overseas news websites. A lot of things they write are not very credible, and they seem to really like to report on negative things that are going on in China. We should really read more things about how our country is powerful and dynamic.

Me: My English is only average. I can only say that if I’m familiar with the basic background of the article that I can only understand from the English the basic idea of the article. News media should naturally be independent. Its purpose is to monitor what goes on in society. It shouldn’t be like how it is in China where the media is used as a propaganda tool. Our society needs to progress. In order to progress it must reveal and face squarely the negative aspects of our society and should not try to hide them or manufacture some kind of phony “harmonious-ness.” Of course the Western media is more objective. At times they also praise China, like how they praised the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. This is also something that the Chinese government is happy to hear.

DSD: Their media also has its own positions on issues which are not very objective.

Me: Everyone has their own positions and values in relation to certain issues; however, this does not mean that they can’t be objective. I think that enough free speech can guarantee the objectivity of the news media.

DSD: Our country also has free speech; however, it is not an absolute freedom of speech. You cannot defame others, you cannot interfere with others’ freedoms, you cannot leak state secrets (5).

Me: I’ve never thought that there is such a thing as absolute freedom. Freedom refers to the freedom that underlies the system of constitutional governance. Of course you can’t interfere with other peoples’ freedom, or attack or insult entities capable of having a personality and capable of acting. However, a government or a president are not such entities. In other words, I can stand in front of the White House and loudly curse the American government, I can get on television and openly criticize the government. Nonetheless, even if my attacks on the government are not truthful, I should still not have to shoulder any legal responsibility. As for the leaking of state secrets, unless I belong to a work unit where I have signed an agreement to keep information secret, then only in that circumstance should I have to bear legal responsibility for leaking state secrets. There should be a firm procedure for [prosecuting cases of] leaking state secrets. It is not an extremely broad concept. Ordinary citizens have no way of knowing national secrets. Even if they were to know, it would be because the government or a person or work unit which had signed a secrecy agreement had first leaked the secret. In that case those who had signed the secrecy agreement should be the ones held responsible. The government should be responsible to the people for these lapses; ordinary citizens do not have the so-called duty to protect state secrets. It is even more inappropriate for this [so-called duty] to be used as a method of inflicting unnecessary repression upon ordinary citizens.

DSD: Haven’t you noticed how much [freedom of] speech has improved these last years? Compared with ten years ago, there are a lot of things that the media can write about; for example, the forcible evictions that you mentioned. The Internet is also open.

Me: The reason the media can now write about these things to a large degree is because of competition from the Internet. There are also some responsible media companies who are testing the waters to see what the [government’s] bottom line is. Employees [of media companies] have to consider the market because people don’t like to hear too many things that are just fluff. It’s only because a number of things are first exposed on the Internet that the traditional media covers these things so as to “guide public opinion.” Compared with before, this can be considered a type of progress, albeit involuntary. The government cannot completely close off the Internet because it must also consider commercial interests. The government cannot completely shut people up and at the same take care of its commercial interests—it cannot accomplish both. The Google incident is a great example of this.

DSD: Tell me more about the Google incident.

Me: It’s because they couldn’t stand dealing China’s Byzantine and opaque Internet censorship system. The last straw was that the Gmail accounts of various people active in rights defense work were hacked into, and Google’s password system was violated. Google.cn stood in contradiction to Google’s values.

DSD: What you said are things that Google has claimed. How can you just believe what they said is true?

Me: I feel that some facts are just laid out before one’s eyes. There’s also no way I can go out and investigate this. Compared with some domestic internet companies, I’ve always been more inclined to trust Google. I admire the service it provides. Without a strong reputation there’s no way it could have become such a global company.

DSD: Did you know that the US Department of Homeland Security monitors the telephone calls and Internet activities [of people] within the entire country? Americans are actually not free. You’ve never been to America; there’s no way you could have sensed this. A lot of things [in America] are in conflict with the Constitution.

Me: I’m really not sure about this. Even though I’ve seen some domestic news media reports to this effect, how reliable really is the domestic news media? From other news media I have never heard that Americans’ entire lives are monitored. People in China who have been to America have never said this kind of thing. America is an open, rule-of-law country. Even if there is monitoring that occurs, I believe that it only occurs in such a way that it does not violate citizen’s legal rights; for example [it may be used] in the case of terrorists.

DSD: Have you heard about the recent Square bomb attack incident? How did they detect that?

Me: I’ve heard about this. In Times Square there was a peddler who discovered a suspicious vehicle and reported it to the police.

DSD: So how was America able to arrest the guy so quickly? America has about 200 million people (I interjected, “300 million”). American’s information is all controlled by the state.

Me: That Pakistani-American man was arrested at the airport as he was going through security to catch a flight to Dubai. This illustrates the high level of effectiveness of America’s executive and judicial branches. Just because American’s information is recorded does not mean that American’s privacy is violated. This embodies American’s [respect for] human dignity. The state has a duty to protect confidentiality; [national] security is similarly important. America expresses ample respect to criminal suspects.

DSD: America is so developed because America is pluralistic. But you just look at things from the overseas’ perspective, choosing to hear the worst. As we’ve been talking, there have been times when you’ve interrupted us. It’s as though you don’t like listening to others’ opinions. You’re too narrow-minded. However, our country has a big population; this is one of the realities of our country.

Me: It’s true that the reason America is so developed is because it has a pluralistic system. However, China has a monolithic system—that’s the reason why I’m here today. I’m not narrow-minded. I have my own basic sense of right and wrong; it’s China that often lacks a sense of right and wrong. I hope that any problem can be discussed openly. I have a lot of respect for everyone’s rights to express themselves no matter what position they hold or what ideas or opinions they have. The information I get is also pluralistic. It’s not like I only hear voices of criticism. I’m actually pretty fond of Wen Jiabao, but I don’t really like Hu Jintao.

DSD: So you also like Premier Wen?

Me: I think that within the Communist Party Wen Jiabao is an exception. He does not form cliques and he quotes a lot of wise things that inspired people have said. Let’s not talk about his family now (6); in the world of the Communist Party, there’s already enough of this.

DSD: You should know that many of the comments made online are untrue. Not long ago there was this rumor on the Internet that East Lake (Donghu) in Wuhan was going to be partially filled in to create a hotel. This thing kept on spreading and had a really negative effect.

Me: I heard about this. If that’s the case, then doesn’t the government have a big responsibility here? The government is used to working in darkness. Without an open government then of course there will be occasional rumors. If there were an open government then it could easily dispel any rumors that might be spread.

DSD: Are there many people you associate with who think the way you do?

Me: Almost no one. Maybe it’s because everyone has received this kind of education growing up where there’s only one right answer, where your essays are required to show “correct thinking,” and things like that. [This style of education] strangles peoples’ ability to think and independently analyze things. I really oppose China’s current educational system. I hope that [people] can have real civic education classes and not this system of Party style curriculum where the university administration controls everything.

DSD: You just mentioned Civic Education. You should see that the key [to our Civic Education curriculum] is our good political system. This is something that cannot be changed.

Me: I actually feel like a lot of China’s problems are directly caused by this political system. I know that America also has corruption issues.This is because of human nature. But, America’s corruption is a lot different than China’s corruption. America has a system that limits corruption, whereas in China almost all officials are corrupt; the numbers are enormous.

DSD: Let’s not talk about this corruption issue. You should notice how our country is continually getting stronger, but instead your thinking is too murky; you only focus on the negative, choosing to hear the worst. You should spend more time focusing on the general direction the country is heading.

Me: I think that what I have noticed is part of the general direction the country is heading. Our publications and our media are filled with this syrupy, effusive praise for the government. This society needs more voices of criticism to spur society into progressing. I hope that our nation can be a free and open nation like America, one that can accommodate all kinds of different voices.

DSD: In these recent years our country has continually been improving—this is the general direction. Have you sensed the progress the nation has made these recent years?

Me: I haven’t really had this sense. I get the sense more that things are going backwards.

DSD: Then where do think the problems are?

Me: In recent years there has been a series of violent eviction cases. The government, in order to make money by selling property, uses its power, in coordination with the mafia, to steal people’s homes. There is very little compensation given. [As a result], many people petition higher levels of government (shangfang) but end up themselves in prison for their efforts. Also, environmental pollution problems and all kinds of [food and product] safety issues have become more and more serious. Basic social guarantees are lacking; a lot of people get sick and die while waiting [for medical care]. Laborers’ rights are not protected. There is rapid inflation, but incomes are not rising. There is cronyism between business and government which squeezes out privately owned enterprises. Finally businesses transfer these pressures to labor. In other words, the country is improving while the lives of the people are getting worse. There are a lot, a lot of problems.

DSD: These things you’ve talked about are problems faced by the people. These problems really do exist, but aren’t we also improving? For example, this problem of forcible evictions is being addressed by new laws that will prevent violent evictions.

Me: I don’t believe that this problem can be solved by new legislation. As long as the nature of the government remains the same, then this type of problem will be difficult to resolve.

DSD: Well then tell us, in which ways has our country made progress?

Me: I guess there has been progress: for example, China gained the right to host the Olympics and the World Expo, Beijing’s air quality has improved, the economy is continually expanding, also internationally China has established all those Confucius Institutes that are engaging in cultural exchanges. In sum, there have been some improvements economically and culturally. (I’m not really sure if this counts as “progress;” they asked so this is how I answered.)

DSD: What you have said is not fully complete. More of our progress has had to do with the fact that our nation’s political system is more and more refined. The Party and the nation have resolved a number of problems. We have received more and more praise from the international community; our position has become higher.

Me: I really don’t have this same strong feeling about this that you do. Maybe it’s because I’m just a lower level member of society that’s floating outside the system and am not like you, who live inside the system and can personally experience this kind of “progress.” Of course I know that you’ve been sent here by your superiors.

DSD: This isn’t an issue about being inside or outside the system. You look at things in too dim a light. You should look at problems more objectively and rationally.

Me: I feel like I’ve always been objective and rational. I don’t make things up just for the sake of having something to criticize. I’m really passionate about the truth. But maybe in the future I should be even more objective and rational.

DSD: I have three requests for you that I hope you’ll remember. 1) Don’t write these kinds of articles again. 2) When looking at issues you must be objective, rational, accurate and comprehensive. 3) We hope that you will find a good job. Now you should worry about making a living; there are some things that you don’t need to worry about.

Me: I’ll remember.

DSD: When you enter society you’ll discover that there are a lot of problems that need to be resolved. Your way of thinking will slowly change and mature.

Me: When I enter society I’m sure I’ll discover that Chinese society is much darker than what I have seen on campus. I suppose as far as maturity goes, I’ll become more worldly. I don’t know if I’ll be able to persist in my principles and values.

DSD: I’ve also experienced the same stage you’re going through. At the time I was even more radical than you. It’s just like how when you grow up and look back at some things you did as a kid, you think how immature those things were. Don’t always carry around the flag of democracy and human rights thinking that you occupy some kind of [moral] high ground, but all the time are unwilling to hear what other people have to say.

Me: Everyone’s experiences and values are different. I don’t have this same strong feeling. Maybe I’ll change, but I always hope our society can be more and more free and open. I hope that I can make some contribution here. I hope even more that as an individual I can receive an equal measure of respect.

DSD: If you have any problems later you can always visit with this [Party] secretary here.

Me: I don’t have much longer at this school. It’s probably not necessary.

DSD: Remember what we’ve said. You can go now.

Me: Thanks.

(1) Caomin means “common person.”

(2) The DSD（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. Read more about the DSD via CDT here.

(3) Han Han is China’s most widely read blogger. He was recently voted as one of Time Magazines 100 most Influential People of 2010.

(4) The area where the Expo is held in Shanghai, along both sides of the Huangpu River, is not far from the center of the city and not far from the Bund, the main tourist attraction in Shanghai. Because the Expo site is along the river and near the heart of the city, the real estate is extremely valuable.

(5) China’s state secrets law has been criticized for the number of things classified as state secrets (for example, the total number of laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises; data on water and solid waste pollution, etc) and because the state secrets law can be used as a pretext for punishing people for other behavior. Zhao Yan, a muckraking journalist employed as a researcher for the New York Times, was initially charged under the state secrets law for disclosing the fact that Jiang Zemin was to retire.

(6) This reference to Wen Jiabao’s family probably refers to allegations that his wife, son, and son-in-law have prospered greatly from Premier Wen’s official position. See, for example, here, or here (Chinese).

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The following document includes a report from a DSD branch in Inner Mongolia and provides details about how the DSD offices operate on the local level. Part 1 can be read here. Translated by CDT:

(4) (Inner Mongolia) Noteworthy Deeds of the Public Security Bureau Domestic Security Department (DSD) Corps Captain

…one person whom the Deputy Minister of the State Ministry of Public Security mentioned specifically to be provided with police bodyguards is named ***. He is forty-six years old, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and is currently the Captain of the *** Region Public Security Bureau (PSB) Domestic Security Department (DSD).

The DSD was formerly called the Political Security Police. Its main work responsibility is to protect national security, strike down evil cults, search out and understand information relating to [forces] that oppose the government and [oppose] society, and provide leaders at every level with the basis upon which to make well-informed decisions, so as to protect social and political stability.

In 1982, Comrade *** began participating in the PSB Political Security Police. In April 1999, because of his solid work and strong professional and organizational abilities, *** was appointed as Corps Captain when the *** Region PSB organized the Domestic Security Department Corps. From the time he became Corps Captain, he led the DSD Corps Police in conducting a thorough investigation of evil cultists that existed throughout the region.

In order to stay on the offensive at all times in the battle against the enemy, he drafted and established the *** Region PSB Intelligence Information Work System, organized a village, county, and region three-tiered intelligence network, established a corps of over 400 informants, expanded the channels of receiving intelligence, and increased the timeliness and usefulness of information received.

In only three months, [his] investigation was able to provide a detailed grasp of the number of evil cultists within the region, their distribution and their activities. [This investigation] provided a great foundation upon which to base the subsequent work of severely striking down and punishing the evil cults. In the last several years, the DSD Corps has altogether discovered and reported 3,800 items of information concerning [forces that] oppose the government and society. Of these, 2,500 have been used by relevant departments within the central government, all levels of Party committees, the government, and higher level PSB organs.

The intelligence work of [*** Region’s DSD] has for the last seven consecutive years been the best in the entire city. With regard to the work of [gathering] intelligence and performing investigation and research, he creatively proposed the work model known as “The Three Extensions.” This work model gained the full approval of relevant leaders within the provincial level PSB and has been spread throughout the entire [Inner Mongolia Autonomous] Region. Since 1999, their intelligence work, striking down of evil cults, and establishment of archives have all been amply developed. For seven consecutive years they achieved “zero errors” in their handling of cases, and therefore for seven consecutive years the City PSB has awarded them a group third-degree merit citation.

During these seven years, [the *** Region DSD] uncovered 415 cases of evil cults, arrested 628 people involved, destroyed 265 organizations such as “The Disciple’s Society,” and “Eastern Lightning,” blocked the dissemination of evil cults, eliminated 102 secret meeting places, and destroyed 32 gangs. Moreover, [the *** Region DSD] solved over ten relatively influential cases involving evil cults such as the May 26th case and the August 25th case. [In so doing, the *** Region DSD] protected social stability by vigorously striking down all manner of evil cult organizations and illegal criminal activities.

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The following documents include reports from three DSD branches at local PSBs in Yunnan and Sichuan and provides details about how the DSD offices operate on the local level. Translated by CDT:

(1) (Yunnan Province) Domestic Security Department (DSD) Intensifies its “Large Interview Program” to Diligently Detect and Eliminate Factors that Influence Social and Political Stability in Our Area
Updated on: February 11, 2010 at 11:31 PM
Search Number: 533300-015-
Title: Domestic Security Department (DSD) Intensifies its “Large Interview Program” to Diligently Detect and Eliminate Factors that Influence Social and Political Stability in Our Area

Since January, Nujiangzhou Public Security Bureau Domestic Security Department (DSD) conducted interviews with a total of three companies and over one hundred people from among the masses. [The DSD] detected and eliminated eleven hot button issues that affected our region’s social and political stability. These issues involved 2,694 people. (Specifically, there were three incidents involving thirty people that dealt with the late payment of migrant workers’ wages, one incident involving 130 people that dealt with environmental pollution, and three incidents involving 50 people that dealt with disputes over forests, land, and grazing land. The other four incidents involved 2,484 people.)

In order to detect and eliminate hot button issues, two early warning systems were created, eight observers were established, eight contact people were established, and fourteen informants were established. There were seven issues that were settled, and there are four issues that the relevant departments are currently working to resolve (including three forestland issues and one environmental pollution issue).

(2) (Yunnan Province) Wenshan County Public Security Bureau Domestic Security Department Achieves Initial Successes
Search Number: 532621-010689-20091231-0002
Promulgating Agency: Wenshan County Public Security Bureau (PSB)
Date of Release: December 31, 2009
Title: Wenshan County Public Security Bureau Domestic Security Department Achieves Initial Successes

The year 2009 was the first year in which the Wenshan County Public Security Bureau (PSB) comprehensively carried out the work of having police stations participate in Domestic Security Department (DSD) work.

In this first year, each police station [under the] Wenshan County PSB achieved initial success in their involvement with domestic security work and achieved definite results by following the deployment arrangements of the PSB. [These initial successes were also achieved] through the combined efforts of the DSD and each police station, as well as through the efforts of DSD full-time cadres and branch station leaders, the correct guidance of the County Party Committee, and the guiding help of higher ranking DSD departments.

So far this year, the DSD has actively organized and gathered eighteen full-time DSD cadres from eighteen police stations as well as police station and branch station DSD leaders to attend unified professional DSD training. In addition, the town’s DSD captain and the leader of the County DSD personally presented lectures [at the training].

Concurrently, the “Handbook on Wenshan County Public Security Bureau Police Station Domestic Security Department Work” was edited and published. The book was disseminated to each police station and each DSD full-time cadre within the entire Bureau. The publication and dissemination of the “Handbook” resolved ground level police departments’ and DSD full-time cadres’ questions concerning DSD work such as the following: how to perform the work, in what way should the work be done, and what kind of work should be done. [The “Handbook”] further standardized the approach of police stations within the entire county towards the tasks of accounting, information gathering and reporting, and controlling critical people and situations.

In 2009, the entire county’s eighteen police stations altogether collected and reported 207 items of DSD intelligence. Forty-eight items were selected to be reported up, 120 items were specially reported, thirty-six people were listed to be monitored as DSD critical people and thirteen situations were listed to be monitored as DSD critical situations. In addition, eighty-nine DSD informants and ninety contact people were established.

(3) (Sichuan) Meishan City, Dongpu District Public Security Branch Office

1. Put Domestic Security Department (DSD) Work First in Protecting National Security and Social Stability

The multi-channeled, multi-layered intelligence network that provides complete coverage of intelligence information is made up of the following: a first-rate DSD intelligence station created by a 70,000 RMB investment, a system of nearly one thousand informants, contact people and special intelligence personnel all organized around the motto “special intelligence personnel are the mainstay, informants and contact people are the support.” This intelligence network has had a major positive influence in protecting Dongpo’s social stability.

In 2008 [Dongpo’s DSD] received first place in the citywide DSD professional tournament. It was ranked by the provincial level [DSD] as an all-province, level one Public Security DSD Corps.

[to be continued]

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Following is a summary of the DSD documents at Dezhou University in Shandong, followed by CDT’s translations of the documents:

According to disclosures in official documents of the Security Department of Shandong’s Dezhou University, the University has, beginning in 2005, recruited Domestic Security Department (DSD) informants from among the University’s teachers and students.
(...)
Read the rest of DSD Police Recruit and Maintain Informant Networks Among University Students (1,857 words)

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Post tags: drinking tea, DSD, Internet control, June 4th, police conversation, students, tencent
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The Domestic Security Department (DSD) Intelligence Processing System in Tianba Township Promotes a Harmonious and Stable Society

Posted by: xwtbwgy
Posted on: November 7, 2009
Number of hits: 146

(...)
Read the rest of New Details of Chinese Secret Police Local Informants Paying System Revealed (729 words)

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Post tags: DSD, informants, spy, Tianba, Yunnan
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Experts said the number of spies in China’s major cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and in more restive regions, such as Tibet and Xinjiang, was likely to be far higher. The number of spies in Kailu County, extrapolated nationwide, suggests China has at least 39 million informants, around three per cent of its population. By comparison, around 2.5 per cent of East Germans spied for the Stasi secret police under Communism.

It is unclear whether all the informants in Kailu County were kept on the government payroll, but other Chinese cities have adopted a rewards system. More than 200,000 yuan (£18,730) was awarded in a single month in the southern city of Shenzhen to informants who offered 2,000 tips on criminal activity.

Meanwhile, researchers at China Digital Times have translated leaked internal documents that spell out the role of China’s Domestic Security Department (DSD), the huge security operation that is dedicated to “preserving public harmony”.

See also “How the Chinese state oppresses: a local police chief explains” from the Economist blog.

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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.

(...)
Read the rest of Liu Xingchen (刘兴臣), County Police Chief: The “Three Ones” Model of Intelligence Gathering (846 words)

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Post tags: DSD, informants, local power, petitioners, police, surveillance
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