Tong Zhu, now a Princeton Global Scholar, together with research partners at Peking University Health Science Center and the University of Texas at Austin, recently published results of a 10-year investigation of severe birth defects in one of China’s most polluted regions: coal-rich and coal-darkened Shanxi province. Specifically, the team was investigating the alarming frequency of congenital neural tube defects, in which portions of an infant’s brain, skull, or spine are missing or do not connect properly. Most babies born with this condition live only a few weeks.

In the U.S., for every 10,000 live births, there are 7.5 infants with neural tube defects. In Shanxi province, that number is 18 times higher: 140 infants. “We wanted to understand what’s really behind the problem,” says Tong, who previously worked at Peking University in Beijing. “We wanted to find out what chemicals caused this.”

Over a 10-year period, the researchers gathered placentas from 80 stillborn or newborn infants in Shanxi with the disorder. Based on their analysis, they confirmed that those infants had been exposed in utero to significant levels of pesticides, industrial solvents, and especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are released into the air when fossil fuels are burned. In Shanxi, abundant coal is used for power plants as well as for home cooking and heating. “We found higher concentrations [of the chemicals] in the placentas of infants with the birth defects” than in other infants, explains Tong, who says there is a “clear association” between the environment the mother is exposed to and birth outcomes. Their findings (pdf)appeared in the Aug. 2, 2011, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

See more on pollution via CDT, including how bureaucratic infighting is complicating the government’s ability to form policy to tackle the problem.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, birth defects, infant health, pollution, Shanxi, smog
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The top of an irrigation water duct at the Quting Reservoir in northern China’s Shanxi Province has caved in. This led to the partial collapse of its dam walls, causing some flooding, and parts of a national highway to be shut down.

Officials say residents near the reservoir have been evacuated. And no casualties have been reported. The Ministry of Water Resources has sent a work team to deal with the flooding.

PLA troops and paramilitary police have also been dispatched to help with rescue work.The No.108 national highway is still blocked due to silt on the road surface.

According to The South China Morning Post, it is unclear how many residents were affected:

Officials said the irrigation duct was built in 1959 and attributed its collapse to its age.

A China News Service report said train services through the county had been suspended at Linfen , which administers Hongtong. A video clip circulating on the internet shows hundreds of passengers queuing at Linfen railway station to have their tickets refunded.

“The train stopped in Linfen for several hours because of an emergency at a dam in Hongtong. Some passengers have started insulting train conductors,” Sina microblogger Yang Jie Zai Long Shang wrote yesterday.

Three hours later he wrote: “The train started again and will take another route for passengers travelling to Taiyuan . Other passengers are getting off the train and taking the bus.”

Xinhua reports reconstruction of the dam has already started:

Repair work started Sunday on part of a reservoir dam that collapsed in north China’s Shanxi Province, the state-run news service Xinhua reported local authorities as saying.

Flooding had forced the relocations of more than 10,000 residents and resulted in the death of one elderly man from Nanyangxie Village, witnesses told the state-run news service Xinhua.

By Sunday night, sludge had been cleared, allowing both railway and highway traffic to resume, sources with the emergency communications headquarters said.

Some residents have returned home, while others remain in temporary shelters, the state-run news service Xinhua reported the source as saying.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dam, floods, Shanxi
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Chinese officials are fond of grandiose engineering projects. After more than a decade of toil, one of the biggest since the construction of the Great Wall is close to achieving what they like to call a “decisive victory”. In coming months, canals and pipelines hundreds of kilometres long will bring water from the Yangzi River basin to the parched north. But growing demand is forcing officials to look for other sources. A promising one, they believe, is the sea.

[…] In its first five-year plan for the industry, in December, the government insisted that desalination was “of benefit to sustainable development”. It was better, it argued, than sucking more water out of the north’s fast-diminishing aquifers. That is surely right. Yet desalinating water uses enormous amounts of energy, which comes mainly from highly polluting coal (though Beijiang’s advanced technology is more efficient than that found in standard power plants). And diverting water from the river basin could exacerbate the impact of droughts in the south. No wonder that environmentalists complain that the government is relying on costly remedies, and doing too little to encourage conservation.

Historian Kenneth Pomeranz suggested in 2011 “that if you put anything like the cost of the South-North water diversion project into fixing a million leaky faucets, lining a million unlined irrigation ditches […] etc., etc., you could do more to alleviate the problem (and more safely) than the diversion project will do.”

In fact, “China is becoming a global hub of environmental experimentation” in water conservation, according to environmental economist Michael Bennett. But these innovative measures are limited in scope and forced to compete with the official penchant for Pharaonic engineering. At chinadialogue last month, Olivia Boyd examined China’s “split personality”:

One pressing question is whether the elements of government pushing for a continued emphasis on heavy engineering can be tamed. As impressive as China’s efforts to preserve its water resources may be, recent history holds a litany of controversial water-management schemes: the Three Gorges Dam, the South-North water transfer scheme and even an idea to pump sea water from the Bohai Gulf to Inner Mongolia to feed thirsty coal plants.

The South-North project currently tops the list. This Mao-era dream to divert water north from the Yangtze River, now under construction, has been criticised by economists and environmentalists for its expense, impacts on agriculture and mass relocations of communities, among other issues. Many, including Bennett, argue the government would do better to reform water pricing so that downtown hotels in parched Beijing no longer gush water from grand fountains, or golf courses guzzle resources keeping their courses green.

“The government has multiple personalities and one of them is obviously this pour more cement, create more infrastructure to solve water problems kind of approach,” says Bennett. “But there’s definitely a growing voice that says no, we need to price water accordingly, we need to invest proactively in improving the efficiency of how we use water.”

A Greenpeace investigation following a chemical spill in Shanxi in December highlighted the scale of the challenge. From Didi Kirsten Tatlow at IHT Rendezvous:

[…] Greenpeace found that the fast pace of water consumption by coal and chemical industries in the area is drying up all water resources further downstream. In fact, by 2015, water consumption by coal and chemical industry in China’s dry, western areas is set to use up a whopping quarter of the water flowing annually in the nearby Yellow River, which forms much of the border of Shanxi Province and is popularly known as China’s “Mother River,” wrote chinadialogue.

As chinadialogue wrote, citing Greenpeace, “Even more worrying than the chemical leak is the high water consumption of the coal and chemical industries in the area.”

[…] None of this may be news to hardened followers of China’s crumpling environment, but the scale of the water consumption in the water-scarce area is nonetheless shocking: The Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group, which caused the spill, consumes water equivalent to the consumption of about 300,000 people per year, chinadialogue wrote, citing the Greenpeace investigation.

The Yellow and other rivers now carry so much pollution and so little water to the Bohai—from which the Beijiang desalination plant in the Economist article draws its water—that the sea is in danger of ecological collapse.

See more on water shortages and the South-North Water Diversion project on CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bohai, desalination, greenpeace, Shanxi, south-to-north water diversion project, Three Gorges Dam, Tianjin, water shortage, Yangtze River, Yellow River
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A widening discontent was evident this month in the anticensorship street protests in the southern city of Guangzhou and in the online outrage that exploded over an extraordinary surge in air pollution in the north. Anger has also reached a boil over fears concerning hazardous tap water and over a factory spill of 39 tons of a toxic chemical in Shanxi Province that has led to panic in nearby cities.

For years, many China observers have asserted that the party’s authoritarian system endures because ordinary Chinese buy into a grand bargain: the party guarantees economic growth, and in exchange the people do not question the way the party rules. Now, many whose lives improved under the boom are reneging on their end of the deal, and in ways more vocal than ever before. Their ranks include billionaires and students, movie stars and homemakers.

Few are advocating an overthrow of the party. Many just want the system to provide a more secure life. But in doing so, they are demanding something that challenges the very nature of the party-controlled state: transparency.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, CCP, censorship, economic growth, freedom of speech, Guangzhou, middle class, new york times, Shanxi, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, transparency, water pollution
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As the “airpocalyptic” pollution blanketing Beijing over the weekend inspires comparisons from various quarters with the devastating London smog of 1952, Dan Fagin writes at the International Herald Tribune about the Handan incident’s Western precursors.

For me, reading about Handan prompted a sick feeling of déjà vu. For the last five years I have been writing a history of the chemical industry’s egregious 60-year involvement in the New Jersey shore town of Toms River, which gained unwanted notoriety in the late 1990s thanks to a remarkably well-documented cluster of childhood cancer cases and a long history of often hidden industrial pollution.

[…] The reality of 21st-century globalism […] is that none of us can pretend that by pushing the chemical industry out of our communities we have stopped enabling its dangerous practices. The industry jobs that started in Basel, and then migrated to Cincinnati and Toms River, are now in Shanxi Province and other coal-rich areas of China. BASF alone now owns or invests in 45 Chinese ventures. Meanwhile, hundreds of smaller companies like the Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group, whose Changzhi factory was the source of last week’s leak, are busy turning coal into aniline and a host of other chemical products.

Business is booming. If you don’t believe me, head over to the Ocean County Mall in Toms River, where you can get a pair of jeans dyed just the right shade of faded blue, thanks to aniline-based indigo dye. They’re made in China, and they’re cheap — if you don’t count the long-term cost.

From Tea Leaf Nation’s Yi Lu:

The price, however, is already being paid. According to Caixin, the chemical spill in Changzhi on December 31 was the latest in a series of 18 major water pollution accidents in the span of just eight years⁠. From Jiling to Guangdong, Jiangsu to Yunnan, industrial centers across China have been embroiled in a spate of water calamities whose damage and frequency are staggering. For ordinary people who depend on these water sources, however, the crisis last week — and the hasty cover-up that ensued — only revived their misgivings about government accountability. Suppression of news from the source, a common practice of local officials, was arguably more deadly than the contamination itself.

[…] Even as toxins seeped in, altering the fate of residents who depended on it, Zhuo Zhang River continued its normal flow — slow, steady, as if nothing had changed. The human lives that it traversed, however, changed course suddenly, though the full impact of spill on human health and the environment will take years, if not decades, to reveal. In the meantime, however, some have chosen to decisively shape the flow of events that follow: On January 9, @吴喆华, a journalist of Radio China, reported on his Weibo account that the Winter Swimming Association of Handan had decided to sue Tianji Coal Chemical — the first civil litigation after the crisis. More, he suggested, will follow.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, cancer, chemical spill, coal, Handan, hebei, industrial pollution, Li Xiaopeng, river pollution, Shanxi, smog, water contamination, water pollution, water supply
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A statement by the city government said the cut-off was caused by an accident in the neighboring Shanxi Province where industrial pollutants poured into the upper reaches of the Zhanghe River.

The statement did not provide details about the accident, or how many households have been affected.

The city cut off its water supply from Yuecheng Reservoir located on the river and switched to another underground water source, according to the statement.

Residents in several parts of Handan told Xinhua reporters that the water supply had not resumed on Saturday evening.

Although the number of households affected was not included in the statement, the population of the city and the surrounding rural areas is about 9 million, AP reports:

Xinhua News Agency said Sunday that a loose drainage valve in a chemical plant was to blame for the leaking of nearly 9 tons of the chemical aniline into the river. It said another 30 tons of aniline have been contained in a disused reservoir.

Aniline, used in manufacturing polyurethane, can be toxic to humans.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the initial accident occurred in Changzhi, Shanxi Province:

Ma Jun, director of the nonprofit Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in Beijing, described the incident in an interview as “serious” due to both the amount of pollutants involved and the toxicity of the substance. But he said the broader problem was the delay in making it public. “The government should do a thorough investigation,” Mr. Ma said.

Changzhi, the upriver city in Shanxi province where the initial accident occurred, illustrates the challenges China faces in protecting its natural resources. In a marketing video, historic Changzhi bills itself as the nation’s “attractive city” in the cradle of Chinese civilization, with plentiful clean water that runs through a rugged mountain range with Grand Canyon-like vistas. Yet Changzhi in the video also boasts an industrial backbone of coal mining, chemical production and steel manufacturing.

Users of Sina Corp.’s SINA -0.02% Twitter-like Weibo microblog service posted photos from Handan of store shelves emptied of bottled water and criticized the time it took for authorities to report the leak. Chinese bloggers also reposted a report from the national broadcaster China Central Television that included a photo of the Tianji plant’s ruptured pipeline.

Water pollution is a serious problem in China, with garbage blamed for clogging dams, refineries for damaging marine life and fertilizers for ruining aquifers. Acute shortages of water through much of the country have been worsened by industrial accidents and often slow reporting by polluters. Still, it isn’t clear whether the Changzhi incident shows a worsening of the situation or greater public attention to it.

This incident comes amid the recent Qidong paper plant protests and another incident of a chemical leak in Guangxi last year. Another Xinhua article says the response to the chemical leak was just as troubling as the leak itself:

The Changzhi municipal government clearly failed the crisis management test — a failure that has endangered millions of people and aquatic life.

Had the information been disclosed earlier, the pollutants could have been contained within a much smaller area of water and damage to public health could have been minimized.

It is time for authorities and businesses to realize that the costs of trying to hide a crisis are much higher than handling it in a timely manner.

They also need to see that revealing information themselves would help to curb the spread of rumors, which often exaggerate the facts and make accidents seem much worse.

See also “Protecting China’s Natual Habitat Feels Like a Game,” via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environment, Handan, industrial pollution, Shanxi, water pollution
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Hu Chunhua has been appointed secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), replacing Wang Yang, the CPC Central Committee announced Tuesday.

Wang Jun will replace Hu as secretary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC, according to the announcement.

Hu, born in April 1963, is currently a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Wang Yang is also a Political Bureau member.

Hu previously served as deputy secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC, first secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Youth League of China Central Committee and governor of north China’s Hebei Province.

At the South China Morning Post, Mimi Lau described a range of views on Hu’s appointment and prospects:

Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a labour rights NGO in Shenzhen, said Hu lacked the track record of outstanding political achievements necessary to impress Guangdong officials.

“After spending extensive time in remote inland areas, Hu might find it hard to fit in at first in Guangdong, especially when dealing with vested interests,” Liu said. “I’m not very sure about officials from remote regions because they often appear very conservative and arrogant, but Hu might be different because he’s young.”

[…] Dr Peng Peng, a researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said Hu would have to hunker down after arriving in Guangdong because it was unlike any other mainland region.

“The press here is outspoken and the public can often complain directly to leaders,” Peng said. “In order to do a good job in Guangdong, Hu needs to be even more open-minded than Wang Yang.

“Wang Yang laid a solid foundation. Hu is much younger than Wang. I’m guessing Hu is more likely to flow with the open atmosphere in Guangdong.”

But at The Diplomat, David Cohen sounded a cautious note on the prospects for bold reform:

A Guangdong posting will give “Little Hu” a chance to burnish his reformist credentials, like Wang Yang before him. If Xi follows through on his talk of reform, that may prove to be a valuable skill. Guangdong is China’s most liberal province and frequently given to experimentation — if Xi is looking for models for national reform the leader of Guangdong may get some chances to influence the direction of national policy with some inventive provincial initiatives, such as Wang Yang’s much-ballyhooed “Wukan model.”

This trend should also give us some pause before rooting for Wang or Hu as reformers — neither of their records shows particularly bold action before traveling to Guangdong, so to some extent Wang’s liberal policies in the southern province may simply reflect institutional momentum. In fact, besides his time in Tibet, Little Hu initiated a harsh crackdown at the first signs of protests in Inner Mongolia in the spring of 2011. Some felt Hu had overreacted but he did not shirk from his decision, recently telling the Financial Times, “When we deal with mass incidents, there is no question we will take compulsory measures . . . We will be tough when we need to be tough, and we will be soft when we need to be soft.”

Reuters’ Sui-Lee Wee outlined Hu’s earlier career:

In Inner Mongolia, Hu Chunhua, also known as “Little Hu”, has been referred to as a future president. While there, Hu Chunhua oversaw rapid economic growth and dealt successfully with protests last year by ethnic Mongols.

Hu Chunhua came to Inner Mongolia following a brief stint in Hebei, the arid province which surrounds Beijing, where he was rapidly moved after a scandal over tainted milk in which at least six children died and thousands became ill.

Hu Chunhua remains something of an enigma, even in China. He has given few clues about his deeper policy beliefs. One of the best known things about him is that he does not appear to dye his hair jet black like many politicians.

In meetings with the public, Hu Chunhua comes across as low key and self effacing, in line with an image of a loyal, humble Communist Party member. People who have met him describe him as relaxed, easy-going and spontaneous, unlike stiffer party leaders.

Hu and newly appointed Chongqing Party chief Sun Zhengcai were both elevated to the Politburo last month, and are likely to rise further to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2017 and the presidency and premiership in 2022. (See Cheng Li’s profiles of the two men at the Brookings Institution.) None of this can be taken for granted, however: neither of their predecessors, Wang Yang and Bo Xilai, has followed the trajectory widely anticipated even at the start of this year. The Associated Press’ Didi Tang focused on Wang Yang, Guangdong’s previous Party chief, whose next assignment has not yet been revealed:

Xinhua gave no indication of Wang’s next job, but China watchers said he is likely to be named a vice premier when China’s legislature meets in the spring.

Wang, 57, is seen as a politically liberal figure. He failed to win a seat on the party’s ruling seven-member Standing Committee when new leaders were installed last month but was named to the lower-ranking Politburo.

[…] Wang was seen at Xi’s side when the general secretary visited Guangdong in early December. Li Cheng, an expert on China’s elite politics at Washington-based think tank Brookings Institute, said the appearance of the two together was to show the solidarity of the party leadership, because Wang is not considered to be in Xi’s camp in China’s factional politics.

“It’s a symbol of unity,” Li said.

Hu’s replacement in Inner Mongolia, Wang Jun, has extensive experience related to the autonomous region’s heavy mining industry. Wang was appointed governor of coal-rich Shanxi province following an accident which claimed more than 270 lives at an iron mine in 2008, and had previously headed the national work safety agency. His acting replacement in Shanxi is Li Xiaopeng, son of former premier Li Peng. New Party chiefs for Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Jilin were also announced on Tuesday, with appointments for Fujian and Guangxi following the next day. The blizzard of new posts sent a “subtle message”, according to a Global Times editorial, which hailed the new provincial leaders as offering the public a fresh start.

The Party secretary is the very top leader in a province. The prominence of this position differs from Western systems and is the key to ensuring that the Party rules the country’s political system.

[…] The population and economic scale of many provinces exceed those of middle-sized countries. As China is undergoing rapid development and social conflicts, the difficulties in managing a province can be much greater than managing a global power.

[…] Party secretaries should make efforts to improve communication with the public. We are looking forward to those who are outspoken and can interact with the public.

A new political style has been showcased by the Party’s top leadership. These new provincial leaders are expected to emulate it in solving local problems.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, Chongqing, Communist Youth League, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, hebei, Hu Chunhua, Hu Jintao, Inner Mongolia, jilin, Politburo, Politburo Standing Committee, Shaanxi, Shanxi, tainted food, Tibet, Wang Yang, Wukan, Xi Jinping, Zhejiang
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The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

10 August 2006, 9:09, Chai Yue

Today at 9:30 in the morning, Guangming Net will broadcast the Expert Forum on Preventing Online “Wrongdoing” Becoming Common Practice, all websites are requested to link to corresponding reporting of Guangming Net on the front page of websites, please use the content of this Forum to replace the article on “Rubbish Short Message Reporting Hotline” in the important news section of the front page of the news section.

10 August 2006, 14:00, Chai Yue

All search engines are requested to direct all search results including the three characters of “baby soup” to news websites, and manually delete harmful content in search results.

10 August 2006, 16:17, Chai Yue

“Clash Between Shanxi Taiyuan Railway Bureau and Commissioned Selling Points – 2 Yuan to Be Received Per Ticket” is false information, all websites are requested to delete this article.

10 August 2006, 17:52, Chai Yue

Recently, media reporting on the excessively high income in some monopoly sectors has been relatively concentrated, netizen discussion has been extremely ardent. After inspection, some reports and discussions do not completely conform to facts, and furthermore, continued reporting and hot discussion brings a certain influence on social stability. Against this, all websites are requested to achieve the following few points:

I. On reports and articles concerning excessively high income in monopoly sectors, only transmit Xinhua and People’s Daily articles, no longer transmit copy from other sources.

II. Do not actively guide netizen discussion in forums, do not conduct themed discussion, also, do not organize VIP interviews concerning this issue.

III. Existing reports, articles and forum posts online are to be pushed to the backstage without exception.

IV. Rumors, incitement as well as harmful information attacking the Party and the government must be timely blocked and deleted.

11 August 2006, 14:09, Chai Yue

All websites and forums are requested to make “selected works” into a keyword for screening.

11 August 2006, 17:30, Chai Yue

It is reported that the Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi is preparing to visit the Yasukuni Shrine again within the next few days. Concerning this visit, all websites are requested to achieve the following few points when reprinting or reporting: (1) Timely reprint the consistent position of our country’s government in opposing the visit of Koizumi and facing up to historical issues. In the near future, information related to Japan is not to be put in headers, do not make special subjects, do not open trackers, do not issue mobile short messages; (2) Timely reprint relevant comments from Xinhua, People’s Daily, Global Times and the China Youth Daily; (3) Public opinion is only to be directed at Koizumi individually, persons other than Koizumi or successors may not be involved, and the talks or writing of the Japanese Emperor may not be involved; (4) Strengthen effective supervision and control over forums, blogs, news trackers and other interactive columns. Discussions that incite troublemaking, successive name-signing, rumor-mongering, abuse and other extreme discussions must be timely deleted and blocked.

At the end of August, the president of Venezuela, Chavez, will conduct the 4th State Visit to our country, all websites shall stress the objective reporting of the visit activities itself when they reprint or report this. The anti-American discourse of Chavez may be appropriately and objectively reported, but it may not be excessively played up, do not comment on it, do not link it up with formulations of the sort of “Great Anti-America Link-Up.” All websites must, at the same time as timely reprinting copy form main central news work units, strengthen management over forums, news trackers, blogs and other interactive columns, timely block and delete all sorts of harmful information that do not conform to the above requirements.

11 August 2006, 22:03, Chen Hua

Everyone, posts related to “secret of Lin Biao’s diaries and files uncovered” are to be deleted, and it is to be made into a keyword for screening; concerning the matter of achengguancadre in Haidian, Beijing being stabbed, no reports are to be made without exception. This has already been sent to online service platforms, please receive this and deal with it.

12 August 2006, 11:20, Huang Jing

Recently, a few overseas media reported some information concerning the Beijing Municipal Grain Bureau purchasing 290,000 tons of old grain, and selling it again in 2006. The Beijing Municipal Grain Bureau news spokesperson pointed out: this information is gravely inconsistent with the facts. All websites are required to timely investigate whether or not rumors with corresponding information are present on their sites, and timely delete it. Keywords include “Beijing Municipality,” “Grain Bureau,” “old grain,” “Lu Hao,” etc.

12 August 2006, 12:00, Huang Jing

Everyone, please immediately begin to clean up classifieds concerning illegal installation of household satellite television in your websites, forums and blogs. All search engines will make “Beijing household satellite television installation” and “household satellite television installation” into keywords for screening.

13 August 2006, 12:50, Chai Yue

Everyone, please speedily clean up rumors concerning Vice-Mayor Lu Hao purchasing old grain according to propaganda requirements, at present, large amounts of rumour articles can still be searched for on many websites, please use keywords to screen for this in searches, naturally keywords cannot only be “old grain,” the propaganda requirements for platforms have been written clearly, these are also “Beijing Municipal Grain Bureau” and “Lu Hao.” Deal with discussions related to Lang Xianping, etc.

13 August 2006, 13:03, Chai Yue

1. All websites are requested to change “Hunan Provincial Committee Collects the Popular Will from the Entire World” into “CCP Hunan Provincial Committee Collects the Popular Will Broadly from the People in the Entire Province.”

2. Concerning the matter of a chengguan cadre being stabbed in Haidian, Beijing, please strictly control posts, the orientation absolutely must be to condemn the murderer, fingers may not be pointed at urban management cadres.

13 August 2006, 15:50, Chai Yue

“Private Reception of Foreign Television in Beijing May Be Subject to Criminal Liability”

Please control negative comments on trackers concerning this news item.

14 August 2006, 16:34, Network Management Office

All websites are required to pay attention: please do not transmit reports concerning ticketing issues during the Beijing Olympics Period; if ticketing issues are touched upon in reports concerning the Olympics, please only transmit them after deleting the part concerning the issue of ticketing; where it cannot be deleted, do not reprint the said report with the part involving ticketing issues.

15 August 2006, 8:30, Network Management Office

All websites are requested to publish this article on the top of the domestic news section of the main page of the news centre, and manage posts well. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2006-08-14/14009745137s.shtml, Beijing Municipal Party Committee Secretary Liu Qi visits the relatives of chengguan personnel who died in the line of duty.

15 August 2006, 9:01, Network Management Office

All websites are requested to put the two articles “Koizumi Visits Yasukuni Shrine Again Today” and “Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Protests Strongly” on the main page of websites and a large header in the news centre. Only use Xinhua and People’s Daily copy. Manage trackers well.

15 August 2006, 11:23, Network Management Office

All websites are requested to add the following keywords again: large dish receiver, large dish, large satellite dish, television reception dish, television dish, non-dish receiver, non-dish satellite receiver, satellite dish, little ear satellite aerial, satellite antenna installation, please ensure that there are no search results for all keywords that require to be screened.

18 August 2006, 9:14, Network Management Office

Information concerning Jung Chang’s book Mao: The Unknown Story is to be deleted without exception!

18 August 2006, 17:23, Network Management Office

Please search for and delete the post “Statement Concerning the Demand to Immediately Cease the Detention of Doctor Xu Zhiyong” in forums.

18 August 2006, 19:58, Network Management Office

Matters related to the book The Spring of Weeping Blood of which the Beijing Municipal Ruibo Times Cultural Center organized the compilation, are not to be disseminated or reported, all search organs shall make “Beijing Municipal Ruibo Times Cultural Center” and “The Spring of Weeping Blood” into keywords for screening.

2006年8月北京网管办发出的禁令（二）
2006年8月10日09时08分 柴玥

今天上午9：30，光明网将直播“防止网上‘恶搞’成风专家座谈会”（http://www.gmw.cn/content/wseg.htm），请各网站在首页链接光明网的相关报道，并用此座谈会内容替代现新闻中心首页要闻区中“垃圾短信举报热线”一稿。
2006年8月10日14时00分 柴玥

请各搜索引擎将包含有“婴儿汤”三个字的所有搜索结果全部指向新闻网站，并手工删除现结果中的不良内容。
2006年8月10日16时17分 柴玥

《山西太原铁路局与代售点起冲突 每张票要收2元》为假消息，请各网删除此稿。
2006年8月10日17时52分 柴玥

近期以来，媒体对某些垄断行业收入过高问题报道比较集中，网民讨论十分热烈。经核实，有些报道和言论并不完全符合事实，而且，持续的报道和热议给社会稳定带来一定的影响。对此，请各网做到如下几点：

一、关于垄断行业收入过高之类的报道和文章，只转新华社和人民日报文章，不再转发其他来源稿件。

二、论坛中不主动引导网民讨论，不要进行点题讨论，也不组织有关此问题的嘉宾访谈。

三、网上现有有关报道文章和论坛帖文一律压至后台。

四、对造谣、煽动以及攻击党和政府的有害信息，要及时封堵和删除。
2006年8月11日14时09分 柴玥

请各网站论坛都把“文选”设为关键字屏蔽
2006年8月11日17时38分柴玥

●据悉，日本首相小泉准备于近日再次参拜靖国神社。对此次参拜请各网在转载报道时做到如下几方面：（一）及时转载我国政府反对小泉参拜、正视历史问 题的一贯立场和日本社会各界健康的声音。近期涉日消息不作头条、不作专题、不开跟帖、不发手机短信；（二）及时转载新华社、人民日报、环球时报、中国青年 报的有关评论；（三）舆论矛头只对准小泉个人，不要涉及小泉以外的人或继任者，不要涉及日本天皇谈话笔录等。（四）加强对论坛、博客、新闻跟帖等互动栏目 的有效监控。对煽动闹事、串联签名、造谣谩骂等过激言论要及时删除和封堵。

●8月下旬，委内瑞拉总统查维斯将对我国进行第四次国事访问，各网在转载报道时应侧重对访问活动自身的客观报道。对查维斯的反美言论可作适当客观报 道，但不要过分渲染，不作评论，不与”反美大串联”之类说法挂钩。各网站在及时转载中央主要新闻单位稿件的同时，要加强对论坛、新闻跟帖、博客等互动栏目 的管理，及时封堵和删除与上述要求不符的各类有害信息。
2006年8月11日22时03分 陈华

各位，有关“林彪日记档案揭秘”相关贴文删除，各搜索设为关键词屏蔽; 有关今天北京海淀一城管干部被刺伤一事一律不报道。已发网上服务平台，请查收并办。
2006年8月12日11时20分 黄婧

近期,海外个别媒体报道了一些关于北京市粮食局采购29万吨陈化粮,又在2006年售出的消息.北京市粮食局新闻发言人指出:此消息与事实严重不符.请各网站及时清查本网站是否有相关内容的谣言,并及时删除.关键词有”北京市”\”粮食局”\”陈化粮”\”陆昊”等.
2006年8月12日12时00分 黄婧

各位，请马上开始清理各自己网站、论坛、博客中关于非法安装家用卫星电视的小广告。各搜索将“北京家用卫星电视安装”、“家用卫星电视安装”设为关键词屏蔽。
2006年8月13日12时50分 柴玥

各位，关于陆昊副市长购进陈化粮的谣言，请按照宣传要求迅速清理一下，目前多家网站还能搜索出大量谣言文章，请用关键词在搜索里屏蔽一下，当然关键字不只是陈化粮，平台的宣传要求写清楚了，还有北京市粮食局、陆昊。朗咸平的有关言论都处理一下。
2006年8月13日13时03分 柴玥

1．请各网将将《湖南省委向全球征集民意》改为《中共湖南省委面向全省民众广泛征集民意》。

2．有关北京海淀一城管干部被刺伤一事，请严格控制跟帖，导向一定要谴责凶手，不要把矛头指向城管干部。
2006年8月13日15时50分柴玥

北京私接境外电视可被追究刑事责任

这条新闻的跟帖请控制负面评论。
2006年8月14日16时35分 网管办

请各网注意：请不要转载有关北京奥运会期间票务问题的报道；如有关奥运会的报道中涉及票务问题，请删除关于票务问题的部分再转载；如无法删除，就不转载部分涉及票务问题的该篇报道。
2006年8月15日08时30分 网管办

请各网站将此稿发在新闻中心首页国内新闻上部，管好跟贴http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2006-08-14/14009745137s.shtml 北京市委书记刘淇看望殉职城管家属
2006年8月15日09时01分 网管办

请各网将《小泉今日再次参拜靖国神社》、《 中国外交部强烈抗议》两稿放在网站首页，新闻中心大头条。只用新华社、人民日报稿件。管理好跟帖。
2006年8月15日11时23分 网管办

请各网再添加以下关键词：大锅接收器 、大锅、 卫星大锅 、电视接收锅、 电视锅 、无锅接收器、 无锅卫星接收器、 卫星锅 、小耳朵卫星天线、 卫星天线安装，请将所有要求屏蔽的关键词做到搜索无结果。
2006年8月18日09时14分 网管办

关于张戎著《毛泽东不为人知的故事》的消息一律删除!
2006年8月18日17时23分 网管办

请在论坛内查并找删除〈关于要求立即解除对许志永博士羁押的声明〉的帖文。
2006年8月18日19时58分 网管办

有关北京市瑞博时代文化中心组织编写《泣血的春天》一书相关事宜不传播不报道，各搜索引擎将”北京市瑞博时代文化中心”、《泣血的春天》设关键词屏蔽

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on December 3, 2012 (here).

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008 Beijing Olympics, Beijing, Beijing Internet Instructions, CCP, censorship, Censorship Vault, Chai Yue, Chen Hua, chengguan, china youth daily, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Global Times, Haidian, Hugo Chavez, Hunan, Internet censorship, Japan, jung chang, Junichiro Koizumi, Lang Xianping, Lin Biao, Liu Qi, Lu Hao, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Truth, people's daily, satellite TV, Shanxi, venezuela, Xinhua, Xu Zhiyong, Yasukuni Shrine
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

21 June 2006, 8:59, Fan Tao

If the comment article “Changes in the Final Structure of the Allocation of Our National Income, Tilted Towards Government” from the Shanghai Securities Daily appears on any website, please speedily delete it! Please acknowledge receipt!

22 June 2006, 9:00, Chen Hua

Search for, comb out and shield “Summary of the Xishan Meeting” and corresponding content; concerning the matter of a female student being killed in a collision on the campus of Guangdong Agricultural University, do not report or discuss it.

22 June 2006, 11:32, Chen Hua

I:

(1) Concerning “Removing Officials and Bringing Down the Cabinet,” “The Nasty Case of the Son-In-Law of Chen Shui-bian” and other matters on Taiwan, only report it, do not comment or guess on it, it is not permitted to use foreign media commentary.

(2) The development of the main reporting on the state of affairs, must be subject to quantity control of news reports in this regard, about 100 articles.

(3) Do not make netizens’ posts or blogged articles into official news for transmission, where forum, tracker or blog discussions become extreme, irrational or not beneficial to the grand scheme of achieving national unification, where discussions seize the opportunity to attack our policies towards Taiwan or attack our social system, or where there is unlawful or harmful information, this must be timely deleted.

(4) For reports concerning the situation on Taiwan, only reprint Xinhua copy, it is not permitted to edit and translate foreign media information.

(5) For major sudden incidents, propaganda discipline must be strictly obeyed, only transmit Xinhua copy, it is not permitted to gather or edit information by oneself, it is not permitted to publish comments without authorization, it is not permitted to edit and release foreign media information, articles or comments.

II: Some media reported that the “Pioneer” group president Liu Xiaoguang is under investigation of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee and that the Hong Kong traded company “Pioneer Enterprises” has been removed from the stock market in Hong Kong, on the basis of reports from the Beijing side, the above information does not conform to the facts, websites are not to reprint it without exception, existing information must be immediately removed, forums and blogs are also not to post this.

22 June 2006, 11:54, Wu Haihong

(On the basis of telephone content records, 1, 2 and 4 are titles, 3 is the corresponding event, there is no title.)

I: Female Student Dies on Some Guangdong University Campus After Being Hit by Military Vehicle

II: Power Outage at Some Sichuan University Incited Student Riot

III: Delete all reports concerning the student riot in Zhengzhou University (there is no title).

IV: Riots at Shanxi Zhongbei University Because of Dormitory Move.

22 June 2006, 12:48, Chen Hua

Urgent. Please rapidly screen out the matter of a large-scale student riot at Zhengzhou University Economy and Trade Faculty, rapidly screen out, search for and block this, do not report anything influences stability at Beijing higher education institutes, notify educational channels and blogs.

22 June 2006, 17:17, Fan Tao

Search for and delete non-Xinhua copy concerning the “incident of the Fujian Industry and Commerce Bureau Director Zhou Jinhui fleeing abroad” published on websites, strengthen supervision and control.

26 June 2006, 10:23, Fan Tao

Original notice text: All websites are to speedily delete “Female China International Economy and Trade Arbitration Commission Deputy Section Director Murdered.”

27 June 2006, 18:45, Network Management Office, Duty manager

(1) The special subject of the 85th anniversary of the Party’s founding is to be put in one line with running the web in a civilized manner and red memories, on a red background. When there are important remembrance activities and important speeches by central leaders, the World Cup special subject must make room at the large header position. Persist in preventing the playing up of negative news, and create a positive and upward online public opinion atmosphere for remembrance activities. Strengthen management over forums, blogs and news trackers, rumours, attacks, distortions and all other sorts of harmful information must be firmly and timely deleted.

(2) If there is information on “Chinese Navy Ship 774 Sinks after Collision” on forums, speedily delete it, and strengthen blocking.

(3) Concerning the matter of “CCTV Statement on Cancelling the Evening Broadcast of the National Anthem after Revision,” websites are no longer to reprint matters, report this or comment on this, existing news is to be pushed to the back stage, management over forums and blogs must be strengthened, timely delete attacks, abuses and other harmful information.

Please earnestly implement the above requirements!!

28 June 2006, 10:09, Network Management Office, Duty manager

Everyone, today in the afternoon, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Information Office convened the teleconference on “Soundly Move Running the Web in a Civilized Manner and Using the Web in a Civilized Manner Activities Forward, Deeply Launch the ‘Sunlight and Green Network Project,’” all websites are requested to transmit the conference press releases published on People’s Daily Net and Xinhua Net on the main page of their website in the important news section, as well as the speech of director Cai Wu and Minister Wang Xudong, and leave them there for 24 hours. Put it in the section on running the web in a civilized manner, replace the special subject with the title.

28 June 2006, 10:56, Network Management Office, Duty manager

All websites, close all trackers without exception for articles concerning the 85th anniversary of the Party. It is reiterated again that when there are large remembrance activities and speeches by central leaders, they must be put on the header of the main page of websites on a read background, and the header of the news center, the World Cup must make way. This must be implemented.

28 June 2006, 14:56, Network Management Office, Duty manager

All websites are requested to continue to delete content related to Chen Qiuhua (airplane crash expert).

28 June 2006, 18:38

All websites are requested to reprint the report about the teleconference convened today in the afternoon by the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Information Office on the main page of websites and the important news section of news centers.

The article link is: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-06/28/content_4762266.htm.

This article must be maintained on the main page for at least 24 hours.

28 June 2006, 18:40, Chen Hua

To report the gas explosion accident at the Wulong Colliery of the Liaoning Fuxin Mining Group, websites are only to use Xinhua copy and news conference copy from Liaoning province, do not set up news trackers; concerning the matter of deliberating the “Sudden Incident Response Law” (Draft), websites are only to use Xinhua copy or corresponding copy from the People’s Daily, must strengthen management over news trackers, forums and blogs, and timely delete attacks, abuses and other harmful information; for articles related to income allocation and other problems, only use copy from main central news work units, this may not be played up, also don’t do online surveys. Management over forums, trackers, blogs, etc. must be strengthened, timely block misrepresentations, attacks, extremes and other harmful discourse.

29 June 2006, 9:30, Fan Tao

The “Sudden Incident Response Law” (Draft) has been submitted to the 22nd Meeting of the 10th National People’s Congress Standing Committee for deliberation a few days ago. In order to guarantee that corresponding work proceeds smoothly, concerning the matter of deliberating the “Sudden Incident Response Law” (Draft), websites are only to use Xinhua copy and corresponding People’s Daily comments, must strengthen management over news trackers, forums and blogs, and timely delete attacks, misrepresentations and other harmful information.

29 June 2006, 17:17, Fan Tao

Recently, posts about a mass incident at the Qingdao Feiyang Professional and Technical College in Shandong emerged on a number of websites and forums, and some people seized the opportunity to stir up things. In order to maintain stability, websites are not to disseminate information related to the mass incident at the Qingdao Feiyang Professional and Technical College without exception, must strengthen management over forums and blogs, and timely delete relevant information.

 

2006年6月北京网管办发出的禁令（三）

2006年6月21日08时59分 范 涛

各网如发现有《上海证券报》的评论文章”我国国民收入分配最终格局的变化 正向政府倾斜”请迅速删除！收到请回复！

2006年6月22日09时00分 陈华

搜索、清查、屏蔽“西山会议纪要”及相关内容；关于广东农业大学校园内一女生被撞死一事，不报导、不讨论。

2006年6月22日11时32分 陈华

一：

1、对岛内“罢免和倒阁”及“陈水扁女婿涉弊案”等事件，只报道不评论、不猜测，不得引用境外媒体评论。

2、主要报道事态的发展，这方面新闻报道跟帖要控制数量，100条左右。

3、不得将网民帖文、博客文章作正式新闻稿转发，对论坛、跟贴、博客中过激的、非理性的、不利于祖国统一大业的言论，对借机攻击我对台方针政策、攻击我社会制度的言论，对违法有害信息要及时删除。

4、关于岛内局势的报道只转发新华社稿件，不得编译境外媒体消息。

5、重大突发事件，要严格遵守宣传纪律，只转新华社通稿，不得自采、自编消息，不得擅自发表评论，不得编发境外媒体消息、文章、评论。

二：

有媒体报道“首创”集团总经理刘晓光被中纪委调查以及香港上市公司“首创置业”在港停牌的消息，据北京方面告，上述消息均与事实不符，网站一律不转发，已有的要立即撤除，论坛、博客也不贴发。

2006年6月22日11时54分 吴海红

（根据电话内容记录，一，二，四为标题，三是相关事件，无标题）
请删除以下新闻：

一；广州某大学女生被军车在校园内撞死

二；四川某大学因停电引发学生骚乱

三：删除所有关于郑州大学学生骚乱的报道（没有标题）

四：山西中北大学因宿舍搬迁引发骚乱

2006年6月22日12时48分 陈华

急。请速清查郑州大学达经贸学院发生大规模学生骚乱一事 速各自清查 搜索屏蔽 影响北京高校稳定的不报道 通知教育频道 博客

2006年6月22日17时17分 范 涛

搜索并删除站内发布的关于“福建工商局长周金伙外逃事件”的非新华社稿，加强监控。

2006年6月26日10时23分范 涛

通知原文: 各网速删《中国国际经贸仲裁委员会女副处长遭劫杀》

2006年6月27日18时45分网管办值班

1、建党85周年的纪念专题与文明办网、红色记忆放在一行，套红摆放。有重要纪念活动和中央领导的重要讲话时，世界杯专题必须让出大头条位置。坚决 制止负面新闻炒作，为纪念活动营造积极向上的网上舆论氛围。加强对论坛、博客和新闻跟帖的管理，对造谣、攻击、歪曲等各类有害信息必须坚决、及时删除。

2、论坛中如有“中国海军774舰被撞沉”的消息，迅速删除，并加强封堵；

3、有关“央视就改版后取消晚间国歌播放声明”事，网站不再转载、报道、评论，已有新闻压至后台，要加强对论坛、博客跟帖的管理，及时删除攻击、谩骂等有害信息。

以上要求请认真执行！！

2006年6月28日10时09分 网管办值班

各位，今天下午信息产业部和国务院新闻办将联合召开”扎实推进文明办网 文明上网活动 深入开展’阳光·绿色网络工程’”电视电话会议，请各网站在首页要闻区突出转发好人民网、新华网登载的会议新闻稿，以及蔡武主任、王旭东部长在会上的讲 话，并保留24小时。放在文明办网位置上，以标题带专题。

2006年6月28日10时56分 网管办值班

各网：关于建党85周年的稿件，一律关闭跟帖。再次强调，有大的纪念活动和中央领导讲话时，必须套红放网站首页头条，新闻中心面头条，世界杯必须让路。务必执行。

2006年6月28日14时56分 网管办值班

各网请继续清除有关陈秋华（坠机事件中的专家）的内容

2006年6月28日18时38分

请各网在网站首页、新闻中心要闻区位置转发今天下午信息产业部、国新办联合召开的电视电话会议的报道。

文章链接为：http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-06/28/content_4762266.htm

此文章至少要在首页保留24小时。

2006年6月28日18时40分 陈华

有关辽宁阜新矿业集团五龙煤矿瓦斯爆炸事故的报道，网站只使用新华社通稿和辽宁省新闻发布会稿件，不设新闻跟帖；有关审议《突发事件应对法》（草 案）事，网站只使用新华社通稿和人民日报相关评论，要加强对新闻跟帖、论坛、博客的管理，及时删除攻击、歪曲等有害信息；收入分配等问题有关文章只使用中 央主要新闻单位稿件，不得炒作，也不搞网上调查。要加强对论坛、跟帖、博客等的管理，及时封堵删除歪曲、攻击、偏激等有害言论。

2006年6月29日09时30分 范 涛

《突发事件应对法》（草案）已于日前提交十届全国人大常委会第二十二次会议审议。为保证相关工作顺利进行，有关审议《突发事件应对法》（草案）事，网站只使用新华社通稿和人民日报相关评论，要加强对新闻跟帖、论坛、博客的管理，及时删除攻击、歪曲等有害信息。

2006年6月29日17时17分 范 涛

近日，一些网站论坛出现山东青岛飞洋职业技术学院群体性事件帖文，一些人借机煽动。为维护稳定，网站一律不传播有关青岛飞洋职业技术学院群体性事件的消息，要加强对论坛、博客的管理，及时删除有关信息。

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on November 28, 2012 (here).

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, Beijing Internet Instructions, Cai Wu, CCTV, censorship, Censorship Vault, Chen Hua, Chen Shui-bian, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Internet censorship, Jufian, Liaoning, Liu Xiaoguang, mining accidents, Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Truth, netizens, people's daily, propoganda, Qingdao, riots, Shandong, Shanghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, State Council Information Office, student protests, sudden incidents, Taiwan, World Cup, Wu Haihong, Xinhua, Zhengzhou
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Central Propaganda Department: With regards to reports on Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s foreign visit, strictly and without exception adhere to Xinhua wire copy. (November 21, 2012)

中宣部：有关温家宝总理出访的报道一律严格按新华社通稿刊播。

Central Propaganda Department: Do not republish, report, or comment on the essay “Border Province Governor Liu Qibao” or related issues. (November 21, 2012)

中宣部：对四川网登载的“封疆大吏刘奇葆”一文及相关问题，不转，不报，不评。

Sichuan Province Party Secretary Liu Qibao has just been appointed head of the Central Propaganda Department. “Governor of a border province” (封疆大吏) is a late imperial term. Its use by the provincial press implies a feudal title, although the intent was probably just to laud Liu.

Central Propaganda Department: With regards to reporting on high-level personnel changes at the national, provincial, and local levels, adopt without exception Xinhua copy. Do not changes titles or contents. (November 21, 2012)

中宣部：对国家有关部门和各省区市等高层人事变动的报道，一律采用新华社稿，不改动标题和内文。

Central Propaganda Department: If reporting on the vulgar video from Chongqing is to appear in print, use authoritative sources, do not make it too big, and do not use pictures. (November 22, 2012)

中宣部：重庆不雅视频报道如果见报，要用权威消息源，不要处理太大，不用图片。

Central Propaganda Department: With regards to the explosion at a hot pot restaurant in Shouyang, Shanxi Province; the explosion in a coal mine in Xiangshui, Guizhou Province; and the vulgar photos of a Chongqing official: if you report on these incidents, follow Xinhua wire copy and the information issued by the authorities in the respective locale. Do not report in depth, do not put the news on the front page or lure readers to these stories, and do not send reporters to the scene. (November 24, 2012)

中宣部：对山西寿阳火锅店爆炸事故、贵州响水煤矿爆炸事故、重庆官员不雅照事件，如报道按新华社通稿和当地权威部门发布的信息刋播，不作深度报道，不上头版导读，不派记者到事发地采访。

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, central propaganda department, Chongqing, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Guizhou, Internet censorship, Liu Qibao, media censorship, mining accidents, Ministry of Truth, official corruption, propaganda, Shanxi, Sichuan, Wen Jiabao, Xinhua
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The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

3 April 2006, 8:55, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

Please timely reprint this in the important news section of the News Center: “Disaster Precaution and Emergency Response Handbook” is given to urban residents, mayor Wang Qishan delivers a speech, http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2006/04/03/2442@3089383.htm. This city will freely issue the handbook on disaster precaution and emergency response to urban residents, http://www.beijing.gov.cn/rdgz/t341408.htm. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

3 April 2006, 16:03, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Chen Hua

Everyone, today, the article in the Beijing Modern Commercial Daily “Money Laundering Domestic Films” (general idea), forums are not to discuss this.

9 April 2006, 18:26, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

The Proposal Letter must be put in the header of the news section of the main page of websites, and in a large header on the main page of the news center (on a red background); website forums and all forum websites are to reprint it at the top at the same time; websites send short messages with the headline of that day, all websites, when reprinting, may not change title or content. Content of trackers must be kept under control, trackers must be supporting and have positive content. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

Please pay attention, websites having short message services, please only send short messages after eight o’clock tomorrow. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

10 April 2006, 9:43, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

Experts state that Japan’s choice for a China expert as ambassador in China is intended to foster good will, 10 April 2006, 1:26, Dongfang Net. Please delete this.

10 April 2006 (Monday), 10:57

All websites are requested to timely reprint the Beijing Daily commentator’s article Run the Web and Use the Web in a Civilized Manner, (Beijing Daily information, under the information follows the Beijing Daily commentator’s article); at the same time, reprint the People’s Daily commentator’s article Promote Honour and Abandon Disgrace, Run the Web in a Civilized Manner. Furthermore, please let the Letter of Proposal in place until eight o’ clock tonight, after removing it from the header, corresponding content is to be continuously maintained in the important news section. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

11 April 2006, 8:59, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

Sino-American Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade meeting held today, the U.S. side pressures China on exchange rate reform – please push this to the back stage!

11 April 2006, 15:04

On the case of “30 deaths after explosion in the original Pingxuangang Coal and Electricity Company Hospital” in Shanxi, do not make special subjects, do not make header pictures, and remove it from the important news section to the domestic news section. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

11 April 2006

Xinhua will issue an article entitles “Main Central News Websites Jointly Issue a ‘Letter of Response on Running the Internet in a Civilized Manner,’” please reprint it; make it into a header title on websites’ main pages and news centers, and into a large title in news centers on a red background, keep it there fore 24 hours; it will do for all websites to put the present headers into special subjects. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

12 April 2006, 9:00, Beijing Information Office, Fan Tao

Please remove the two articles “Train Collision on Beijing-Kowloon Line Causes 10 Hours of Interruption (Images)” and “Beijing-Kowloon Line Train Collision Means 7000 Passengers Delayed or Needing Ticket Refund” from the main pages of websites and news centers. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

12 April 2006, 9:00

Fan Tao (Municipal Government Information Office-Municipal Internet Management Office: 65278743) says:

Please completely reprint the Beijing Evening News article Zhang Pingzheng Brought “Grandmother” into Marriage 25 Years Ago – a Rare Loving Act of a Young Woman for a Grandparent without Blood Relationship. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

13 April 2006, 22:00, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Chen Hua

Everyone, issue this article in a news header on the main page of websites and a large header in the news center, http://news.qianlong.com/28874/2006/04/13/1160@3116849.htm.

Issue this article in a smaller header under the large header of the news center, http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2006/04/13/178@3115767.htm.

Everyone, please clean up information in your forums and blogs on the wedding of Zhang Chunxian and Li Xiuping, no longer report it.

2006年4月北京网管办发出的禁令（一）
2006年4月3日16时03分 北京市新闻办公室 陈华

各位，今天北京现代商报“洗钱洗滥国产电影”（大意）一文不转，论坛不讨论。

2006年4月9日18时26分 北京市新闻办公室 范涛

倡议书必须放在网站首页新闻区头条、新闻中心首页大头条（套红）；网站论坛、各论坛网站同时置顶转载；网站发当天头条短信；各网站在转载时，不得改变标题及内容。务必管住跟贴内容，跟贴必须是支持和正面内容。收到请回复，谢谢。

请注意，有短信业务的网站，请在明天8点以后再发短信。收到请回复，谢谢。

06年4月10日9时43分 北京市新闻办公室 范涛

专家称日本选择中国通驻华大使意在释放善意

2006年04月10日01:26 东方网

请予删除

2006-4-10 (星期一) 10:57

请各网及时转载北京日报评论员文章《文明办网文明上网》http://epaper.bjd.com.cn/rb/20060410/200604/t5206.htm（北京日报消息，消息下面跟着北 京日报评论员文章）；同时转载人民日报评论员文章《扬荣弃耻文明办网》http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026 /4283456.html。另外，倡议书请放到今晚8点，从头条撤下后，相关内容继续保留在要闻区。收到请回复，谢谢。

2006年4月11日8时59分 北京市新闻办公室 范涛

中美商贸联委会今起举行 美方将对中国汇改施压 ——请压到后台！

2006-4-11 15:04

“山西原平轩岗煤电公司医院爆炸30人死亡”一事，不做专题，不做头图，从要闻区撤到国内。收到请回复，谢谢。

2006-4-11

新华社将发出“中央主要新闻网站联合发出《文明办网响应书》”一稿，请务必转载；做网站首页新闻中心头条标题、新闻中心做套红大头条，并保留24小时；各网现在的头条放到专题内即可。收到请回复，谢谢。

2006年 4月12日9时 分 北京市新闻办公室 范涛

“京九线列车追尾中断10小时(组图)”和“京九铁路火车追尾七千旅客滞留退票”两篇稿件请从网站首页、新闻中心首页撤除。收到请回复，谢谢。

2006年 4月12日9时

范 涛 （市政府新闻办/市网管办：65278473） 说:

请在要闻区中下部位置全文转载北京晚报文章《张品正带着“奶奶”出嫁25年——当年少女的一个善举结下了没有血缘的祖孙奇》,http://epaper.bjd.com.cn/wb/20060404/200604/t2946.htm收到请回复，谢谢。

06年 4月13日22时 分 北京市新闻办公室 陈华

各位，这条发网站首页新闻头条和新闻中心大头条，

http://news.qianlong.com/28874/2006/04/13/1160@3116849.htm

这条发新闻中心大头条下边的小标题

http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2006/04/13/178@3115767.htm

各位，请清理各自论坛博客中关于张春贤和李修平结婚的消息，不再报。

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on November 20, 2012 (here).

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, Beijing Daily, Beijing Internet Instructions, censorship, Censorship Vault, Chen Hua, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, exchange rate, Internet censorship, Japan, Li Xiuping, mining accidents, Ministry of Truth, people's daily, Shanxi, Wang Qishan, Xinhua, Zhang Chunxian
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An special police officer in Taiyuan.

Update: Additional photos added at end of article.

Mainland media outlet Hexun reports a display of police might in Taiyuan, Shanxi in preparation for this October’s leadership transition:

On the evening of August 22, 2012, the Taiyuan Municipal Police Department in Shanxi Province launched a “provincial capital public security and public incident prevention and control combined patrol demonstration” at the Taiyuan Coal Business Center.

The combined patrol officially started at 8 p.m. Taiyuan’s armed police, patrol police, special police, traffic police and all other divisions and units formed an all-weather, all-terrain 103-unit strong “golden shield” patrol squad. This high-density force has been set up to patrol public incident prevention and control activities and police checkpoints, as well to as aid the masses. It will maintain public order in Taiyuan during the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th session of the National People’s Congress.

2012年8月22日晚，山西省太原市公安局“省城治安防控联合巡逻启动仪式”在太原煤炭交易中心举行。

此次联合巡逻从8月22日晚20时正式开始，太原市的武警、巡警、特警、交警、各公安分局和派出所共同组成103支“金盾”巡逻分队，开展全天候、全方位、高密度的联勤联动、巡逻防控、设卡盘查和救助群众，保障党的“十八大”期间的太原社会治安稳定。

During the National People’s Congress, new leaders will ascend to the Politburo Standing Committee, the presidency and premiership. Xi Jinping is expected to take over from Hu Jintao as president and general secretary of the Communist Party. A reduction in the number of Standing Committee members from nine to seven is also anticipated. Authorities are particularly wary of unrest during the Congress in the wake of the Bo Xilai scandal.

Some of the images from this demonstration bear eery resemblance to Tiananmen. From Xinhua News Agency:

Read more about the upcoming leadership transition from CDT.

Translation by Harriet Xu.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Armed Police, CCP, Hexun, Hu Jintao, leadership transition, National People's Congress, NPC, police, Politburo Standing Committee, public security, Shanxi, stability maintenance, Taiyuan, Xi Jinping, Xinhua
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© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: animals, beauty contest, Shanxi, women
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The food-safety regulator in Shanxi province said Saturday that during an April inspection it found that a batch of drinks produced by Coca-Cola (Shanxi) Beverage Ltd. was made with water containing chlorine. The statement, from the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, refers to the suspension as a penalty for the chlorine levels.

The statement didn’t detail the findings and didn’t say when the plant will resume production.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the Atlanta-based company found only trace levels of chlorine in a batch made between Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. The levels were just below the national standard of purified water in China of 0.005 milligrams per liter, the spokeswoman said, adding that the chlorine level was below World Health Organization limits for drinking water.

Xinhua, on the other hand, reported that the Shanxi subsidiary had admitted to and apologised for the contamination, and that other, unspecified problems had been found on the plant’s production lines. But the agency had previously declared that the official investigation had cleared Coca-Cola:

An investigation and analysis conducted on Tuesday by the Food Quality Safety Supervision Testing Institute of Shanxi Province and the Shanxi Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center found that the chlorine levels of the nine allegedly contaminated batches were found to be lower than that of purified drinking water, the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said on Wednesday.

The products are therefore safe for consumption, the experts concluded.

See also ‘Truth, Rumour, Weibo & Coca-Cola‘, on how earlier reports of the contamination fit into the government’s ongoing anti-rumour campaign.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chlorine spills, Coca-Cola, food safety, rumors, Shanxi, Xinhua
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Photographs on the government’s news website showed rescuers hauling passengers out of the 50-metre (165-feet) gorge on stretchers, some with blood on their faces, with the bus lying on its side, its windows completely smashed.

China’s roads are notoriously dangerous, with traffic laws and safety widely flouted.According to police statistics, around 70,000 people die and 300,000 more are injured in road accidents every year in China, state media have reported.

But the World Health Organisation said in a recent study the true figure was almost twice that number, citing hospital and medical clinic statistics.

According to Times Live, the bus, operated by a state-run firm, was carrying 34 passengers and running from Sanmenxia city to Jiyuan city in Henan province.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bus crash, Henan, road accidents, road safety, Shanxi, traffic safety
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