In a pointed reminder of the complex relationship between control and its subversion in China’s media, many professional journalists today mourned the passing of Zeng Li (曾礼), affectionately known as “Old Zeng,” a man who served as a “content examiner” (审读员) at Southern Weekly but also played a crucial role in the paper’s fight against overbearing censorship policies earlier this year.

[…] Journalists, writers and others took to Chinese social media, chatrooms and other forums to remember Zeng Li, his character and his contributions. They also widely circulated a copy of Zeng’s farewell letter, in which he looked back fondly but with some remorse on his time at Southern Weekly:

Looking back on these four years, I know I did things I shouldn’t have done, that I killed reports that I shouldn’t have killed, that I removed content I shouldn’t have removed. But in the end I had an awakening, preferring not to carry out my political mission, refusing to go against my conscience and to become a criminal of history.

The full letter is available (in Chinese) at CMP. At South China Morning Post, Patrick Boehler gave more details on Zeng’s role in January’s events, along with further praise from scholars and writers.

“This letter is surely an important document in China’s history,” Ma Yong, sociologist and history scholar at the Academy of Social Sciences wrote after Zeng’s passing.

“He used to be an in-house censor for Southern Weekly, he was entangled, but justice always dominated his mind,” wrote Li Chengpeng, a prominent writer. “When this thing happened some time ago, he behaved beautifully. Now that he’s gone, he will continue to edit this country in heaven.”

“He showed the strength of character and dauntlessness typical of a Southern Weekly newsman,” wrote Qian Gang, a former managing editor of the newspaper and now a scholar at the University of Hong Kong. “Everyone has a choice.”

Committee to Protect Journalists Asia Program coordinator Bob Dietz also noted Zeng’s passing on the organization’s blog.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, journalists, news media, obituary, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013
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Zhu Jianguo, an independent political commentator based in Shenzhen, said: “Hu is relatively stronger than [predecessor] Wang Yang as he responds to issues with actions instead of the fancy catchphrases that Wang was known for.

[...] ”He is more practical than Wang Yang. Instead of getting rid of small and medium-sized enterprises from Guangdong, Hu has adopted a more nurturing approach to moderate economic restructuring.”

[...] As party chief of Inner Mongolia for five years before moving to Guangdong, Hu increased economic growth, almost tripling the autonomous region’s per capita gross domestic product to more than US$10,000.

But Professor Niu Haipeng , of Renmin University, was quoted recently as saying that Hu Chunhua had established a worrying environmental record in the process, with growth achieved at the cost of environmental degradation and public health.

The article also mentions that during the Southern Weekly censorship incident this January, Hu, in order not to clash with his local propaganda comrades, failed to defend Guangdong’s tradition of relative press freedom.

See also “Little Hu” Thrown into the Guangdong Fire, via CDT.

See more on Hu Chunhua via CDT.

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Post tags: CCP 6th generation, Guangdong, Hu Chunhua, local officials, officials, press freedom, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, Wang Yang
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His low-profile, opaque political agenda and seeming reluctance to outline his own policy ideas combined to make the rising political star almost invisible at the NPC meeting, China’s most important annual political event. His discreetness could be a strategy to hide his capabilities and bide his time – a self-preservation instinct that could help him grow wings before they are clipped prematurely.

If Hu does well in Guangdong, he is expected to be rewarded with membership of the Communist Party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, in just under five years.

It is believed by many China watchers that the reason that Wang was unable to get into the Politburo Standing Committee in November was that his high-profile, reformist image was not well received by party elders.

Lau adds that Hu’s dark grey hair can “best be described as salt and pepper, with plenty of white mixed in with the grey.”  He did not have much time to get comfortable in his new seat, as a face-off broke out in early January between propaganda officials and journalists at the Southern Weekly newspaper over a rewriting of the liberal publication’s New Year greeting. And earlier this month, a police blockade around the village of Shangpu evoked memories of Wukan as residents demanded democratic elections and challenged the local village head over a disputed land deal.

Hu’s handling of these incidents offers clues about his management style, according to Reuters, as his local performance will affect his chances for promotion to the upper echelons of China’s central government. But the Diplomat’s Zachary Keck claims that Hu has backtracked on the agreed terms that ended the Southern Weekly incident, and his government’s response to the Shangpu crisis “oscillated between insufficient repression and insufficient concessions,” performances that will likely come under heavy scrutiny in Beijing:

That being said, these incidents in no way doom Hu’s future prospects in the Communist Party in the same way that stalled economic growth might. Still, if President Xi Jinping is like his predecessors his early tenure will be characterized attempts to shore up his power base. This usually includes, among other things, diminishing predecessors’ ability to exercise influence through well-placed political allies, which former President Hu Jintao has in spades.

It’s not clear if Xi Jinping will seek to diminish Hu Jintao’s influence by targeting his allies and protégés. Ling Jihua’s fate certainly suggests he might, whereas his decision to make Li Yuanchao vice president suggests he may not be all that concerned about the former president’s protégés after all.

Still, if Xi does move against the Hu Jintao-led Communist Youth League faction, Little Hu will want to avoid giving Xi any ammunition to target him directly.

Read more about Hu Chunhua via CDT.

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Post tags: CCP 6th generation, Guangdong, Hu Chunhua, land grabs, mass incidents, Shangpu, Southern Weekly
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Southern Weekly has long been a thorn in the side of Party conservatives and entrenched interests. Over the past 10 years, the paper has suffered repeated assaults from the authorities and many of its best reporters and editors have been forced to move on. Propaganda officials repeatedly tried sending down ideologically rigid officials from Party newspapers down to Guangzhou from Beijing to serve as editors-in-chief of the newspaper. They appointed “reviewers” who would go over copy with a strict eye. But a consistently strong core editorial team at Southern Weekly meant it was able to withstand such encroachments.

In May 2012, the deputy director of Xinhua News Agency, Tuo Zhen (庹震), was appointed propaganda chief of Guangdong province. He made it his mission to bring Southern Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily to heel. The campaign of pressure against Southern Weekly went into high gear. Instances of direct intervention and prior censorship began happening more frequently. In an open letter released in the midst of the Southern Weekly crisis last month, staff at the paper revealed that at least 1,034 reports had been killed in 2012 alone.

…

Every New Year’s special edition of Southern Weekly since 1999 has included features in which reporters return to the countryside and to city districts to witness the changes underway there. Together these pieces, which always deal with the same places, form a serial portrait of change in China over more than a decade.

Southern Weekly special editions are known for their outspokenness on core ideas like democracy and civil society. The 80th anniversary edition of the May Fourth Movement called for greater democracy. The 50th anniversary edition of the founding of the People’s Republic of China called for an end to a society of feudal subjects (臣民社会) and the building of a civil society. After 2001, the special New Year’s edition of Southern Weekly began choosing persons of the year as well as reviews of important achievements in press monitoring (much of it investigative reporting) over the past year. The newspaper also looked at some news stories it had been unable to cover during the previous year due to censorship instructions.

See also former Southern Newspaper editor Chang Ping’s recent interview with ChinaFile, in which he discusses censorship and China’s changing media landscape, as well as an op-ed by CDT’s Xiao Qiang and Perry Link about the Southern Weekly incident and the “China dream.”

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Post tags: journalists, media censorship, media freedom, Qian gang, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013
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The December article narrates the adventures of Qi Hong, an ex-wire-tapping detective who was so busy debugging the offices of various Chinese officials, he once dismantled 40 hidden wires and cameras in a single week.

The piece is no longer available from Southern People Weekly online.

CDT’s Mengyu Dong has translated the entire article:

Wire-tapping with Chinese Characteristics

Qi Hong grabbed a handrail on a crowded Beijing subway, exposing a deep scar. Others on the train took notice and immediately moved away. The scar was from 23 years ago. Although he had became used to people’s stares after all these years, it nonetheless evoked in him a sense of utter helplessness. He can’t explain what happened to other people. Just like countless other life experiences, this story started with ideals but ended with absurdity.

Qi Hong, about 185 centimeters tall, always appears very stern and alert when not speaking. But when he does speak, one can feel the intensity of his thoughts. I knew about him through a news report published on the front page of Southern Weekly. In the report, he revealed that Daocheng Company (which claimed to be “the third party between the doctor and patient”) bullied their patients, deceived the public, and allegedly committed other illegal acts.

“It’s not ‘revealing’–it’s simply telling the truth,” Qi Hong corrected me. I spent a few days chatting with Qi Hong in a city in Shandong Province. Much of the content of our conversations cannot be told to you at this time. Right now, I just want to tell you that he dismantled more than 300 pieces of wiretapping and video equipment from the cars, offices and bedrooms of over 100 government officials. This happened in 2011.

Wiretapping as Common Practice

The man’s legs went soft and he collapsed to the floor, speechless for a long time–Qi Hong clearly remembers the reaction of the government official when he dismantled a piece of eavesdropping equipment for the first time. He didn’t expect such a reaction. Even more unexpectedly, he started to gain a name for himself among officialdom.

Personal connections are like passing permits. One after another, officials approached him, through acquaintances, to have him look for and dismantle eavesdropping equipment and hidden cameras. They found Qi Hong either because they wanted to be on the safe side, or because they had already sensed something unusual–for example, their wives became aware of their secret whereabouts, or their leaders had given away some “hints” in their speeches. During his busiest week, Qi Hong dismantled over 40 eavesdropping wires.

This whole amazing experience started at a dinner party, during which an official from Shanxi divulged that “wire-tapping was a common practice among officials.” Officials commonly used spying equipment to eavesdrop on each other and gain the upper hand on their rivals in order to ascend from #2 to #1 at the office.

“Nowadays, we hug each other when we meet, taking the opportunity to feel around for spying equipment. Important conversations take place in bath houses,” the Shanxi official said. This astounded everyone at the dinner party. In the areas around Shandong, this was unheard of. People could just not be trusted, they emphatically sighed.

Qi Hong contemplated further. “What consequences will it bring if public servants collect secret info on their colleagues?” He told his friends, “I want to check your security. Let me figure out how to do it. You just wait.” A few days later, he found a set of detective equipment.

Starting out, he conducted his detective work within his circle of friends. “Focal point” persons were his priority, like this one, a mid-level, high profile cadre that had authority over examination and licensing.

“What if my private life is discovered, and my wife doesn’t let me back in the house?” this mid-level cadre joked when Qi Hong proposed helping him look for eavesdropping equipment. But he wasn’t laughing shortly afterwards, when two wires and one pinhole camera were discovered hidden in the air conditioner in his office.

“He gazed straight at the ceiling, and his face immediately turned deathly pale.” Two or three hours later, he regained consciousness and told Qi Hong that the apparatuses couldn’t have been set up by family. But the mistress was “quite adept at scheming.”

After calming down, he set about dealing with the situation. Over the course of the following week, he frequently visited and sent gifts to his superiors. Finally, he got the “suggestion” he sought–a certain deputy head was deemed exceedingly competent and was therefore transferred to a more challenging post. He name was suddenly cleared as he ordered his deputy head to leave.

Very Worried

The spying equipment Qi Hong discovered for his friends was installed by wives, lovers, colleagues, and political rivals. After finding the first 20 or 30 wires and secret cameras, Qi Hong couldn’t help but think: When friends get together, they speak their opinions, comment on politics, and express their shared disgust towards corruption. But what is their image like back in their offices? How do they become one of the “corrupted”?

Initially, he was curious to understand officialdom in China and pry into a different side of human nature. But as he gradually delved deeper into their private worlds, things became unexpectedly awkward.

He mentioned a friend, a bureau-level official, who had always been a decent, eloquent, and insightful man–as he put it, “like a state leader.” During one particular chat, this person said, in a rather tongue-in-cheek way, “Why don’t you check me out and see if I am a good cadre?”

Subsequently, there came a series of turning points. As it turned out, Qi Hong really did find plug-in-style wires in his car. He then saw an extremely distorted face. “Suddenly, it looked like his skin became wrinkled, as if he was radiated by a sudden nuclear explosion.” 20 days later, the friend came to Qi Hong and said, sternly, “I admit, I have two mistresses. I will call off the relationships immediately!”

But why did he specifically confess to Qi Hong? I think Qi Hong also had this embarrassing question in mind. On other occasions, people exclaimed to him, “Damn it! I didn’t take graft!” Others pretended to be calm. But Qi Hong isn’t stupid. He immediately thought, “Why are you reacting so slowly, and why is your expression suddenly so dazed?”

As for that “decent” friend, Qi Hong only remembers feeling embarrassed as he replied, “This is your personal life. If the mistresses make you feel wonderful or full of passion, you can still continue. You can even forget that you ever had a friend like me.” Qi Hong sighed, adding, “That is his freedom,” and continued to tell the story of another bureau chief.

Unlike the former one, this bureau chief swiftly accepted the result,  asserting that the mistress set up the wire. Afterwards, he decisively called off the relationship with her.

“Repulsive.” Bringing up this incident once again, the bureau chief still gnashed his teeth. Having heard so much about how many other officials fell due to their affairs, he even started to be suspicious of his mistress’s background. “Could she be have been planted at my side by someone? Was anyone using her?” Depression and uneasiness haunted him for a long time.

Since the incident with that bureau chief, Qi Hong has witnessed much, much more. Some officials cursed and called people dirty, back-stabbing dogs. Others had heart attacks, worrying day and night… Qi Hong would rush to the hospital and see them laying there, looking pathetic. But Qi Hong couldn’t ask questions of his own accord. Neither could he persuade them to act a certain way. Nobody wanted to broach the problem.

What about those lucky officials who ended up not being wire-tapped? Were they relieved? No! They were very much worried as well, suspicious day and night–could it be that the equipment used to inspect their offices was not advanced enough?

“Should I tell him?” Qi Hong gradually struggled more and more with his conscience as he continued to detect wires and hidden cameras. “If I don’t tell them, what paths will they go down in the future? I don’t want to see miserable things happen. If I do tell them, seeing so many terrible expressions, people becoming sick or just staying silent, I need to comfort them. But I can’t say anything comforting. I can’t just say: What did you do? Confess. Donate your assets.”

Some even eye Qi Hong with suspicion. You offer to test our offices for us… Could you have some ulterior motives yourself? Eh?

No Control of One’s Destiny

Inevitably, “miserable things” happened. A week after Qi Hong discovered one wire, a friend of his (a director at a state-owned capital management office) was detained and interrogated for alleged bribe-taking.

According to Qi Hong’s description, this director was very principled. He treated others with kindness and hated owing money or favors to people. He was the kind of person who would rush to pay the bill after a meal. Qi Hong proposed to help him inspect his office because “it would have been difficult for him to be in cahoots with evil forces, and he presided over a crucial position. Many forces, including his superiors, found it hard to gain interest through him.”

At the time, Qi Hong told him, “You have a great tendency to be viewed as a dangerous dissident, a stumbling block for interest groups.” With regards to the warning, the director merely restated the importance of “principles.”

However, in spite of this reaction, when he saw the wire dismantled by Qi Hong from behind the table lamp in his office, he fell silent.

“Not rage, but silence,” Qi Hong said with an air of thorough understanding of this world–lost, yet indifferent. He thought a great deal about the deeper meaning behind the director’s reaction– until he met him again.

By then, the director was already in jail. “I only took money once, and got into trouble!” He asserted with anger and resentment that the wire-tapping was a scheme and the bribery a trap. The purpose was to get rid of him!

Everything is irreversible. During that meeting at the jail, Qi Hong found out the director was sacked just one week after Qi Hong dismantled the wire. The reason why the director took the bribe, Qi Hong said, was because he could not handle the pressure caused by being in constant discord with his bureau chief. Both those above and below him could “work” smoothly only if he was more in lockstep with the chief. Because of this, the director was regretful–not for taking bribes, but because “it would have been better if I went corrupt much earlier, together with them. In this way, it’s hard to say if I would be sacked or not, because everyone would cover for each other,” the director said.

For a long time, Qi Hong was greatly affected by this. But later, he discovered that this director’s situation was no isolated incident. Another upright man in his eyes–the principal of a university–was also wire-tapped. Out of all of these miserable cases, the principal was the only one who kept calm (but Qi Hong suspected that he might just be a good actor). The principal merely chuckled and said, “Who would have done this to me? Is the Party testing me? Or are my colleagues observing me?”

“Who was using this stuff on him? What was the purpose? If a man like him is sacked and another group of people ascended to power, what would become of the work unit? If such tactics become commonplace in the professional lives of officials, how will it affect their mentality? Will this restrain them and make them perform better, or just make them slier? If this dark force were to come from officialdom, what consequences will it bring?”

Qi Hong didn’t get answers to these questions before he found out that wire-tapping and secret filming were not necessarily from rivals or “dark forces.” Even if a given group of officials were proverbially all in the same boat, they still had to test each other to ensure the security and stability of their collective interests.

“After an apparatus is discovered, the official will immediately check to see if it was installed by the Committee of Discipline Inspection and inform their partners to seek collective security and protection,” Qi Hong said. The next official he mentioned reacted in a similar way to most. After the spying equipment for him was discovered, he tried his best to keep calm and analyze the different chains of interest with which he was involved, consulting with all kinds of channels to determine the origin of the threat.

“Just like a kid who committed some wrongdoings and is afraid of the consequences, he had to ingratiate himself. He immediately turned modest.” After a series of discussions and meticulous investigation, the official involved with this case determined the wire came from colleagues who were taking “preventative measures.” This ultimately strengthened their “sense of loyalty” between them and solidified their alliance.

“No worries–it was from our own side,” the official said when he met again with Qi Hong. By that time, the official’s life was back to normal. Qi Hong saw him and his colleagues having a meal together happily.

Officials, no matter what, would argue in defense of themselves. Most of them lament that they do not control their own destinies. Qi Hong gave the following rough narrative as an example:

“People like me undoubtedly have no serious problems at work. But you know, how could it be possible to not have some minor issues? Nowadays, how could someone be so strict at the workplace? People give you some gifts, then give you a little money for your birthday. Under these circumstances, how could you say ‘no’ to someone like Comrade Jiao Yulu did? It’s impossible. If you do so, it will probably affect your work. All I can say is that it is a kind of necessary socialization, a type of communication. Under the current situation, if you don’t conduct yourself in this way, how can you still be able to work?”

Responses

Most often, officials actively looked for ways to solve their problems. Through witnessing their responses, Qi Hong saw multiple aspects of human nature. Some people ended their underground lives and became more honest in their work; some people became more careful and strengthened their information security; some people requested to install spying equipment as a counterattack on their adversaries; some people realized the importance of forming alliances and sought protection; some people thought to “separate power” in order to strengthen their own troops; some people thought it might be better to find themselves an “agent”…

During one meal, Qi Hong heard a bureau chief say, “People are so jealous nowadays, installing wires and secret cameras. Perhaps there are people following me on my way to and from work. When I lay on my bed, perhaps someone is watching over me. How about I just relinquish my power? But you know, I am a bureau chief. It would be impractical for me to resign. It would affect the interest of the group and arrangements made from above. Things aren’t that simple. So what should we do? In order to reduce jealousy and attacks from others, I’ll divide my power so that nobody hates me anymore.”

“That would simply be self-disguise,” Qi Hong said. Everyone at the table sensed anger in his words. “Without power, how could you still be corrupt?”

As he dove deeper into detective work, Qi Hong started to become used to all of this. He established new standards to decide between right and wrong in order to differentiate the good people from the bad. He said, for those “obvious jerks,” he would resolutely refuse to help them check for wires. However, he’s made mistakes.

He once helped an official dismantle a wire inside a car. The person was unwilling to accept the fact he had been eavesdropped. “I’m an excellent member of the Communist Party. There’s no way this was set on me, because I never say anything that contradicts Party discipline,” he argued.

“Are you sure? Don’t be so conceited. I bet I can make you stop talking like this.” Qi Hong contended.

“Are you going to use a wire?” he asked in reply.

“I wouldn’t use such an elementary measure. I’ll record what you say in some private meeting and play it back to you someday. But you must not sue me. Let’s sign a deal. Do you dare?”

Seeing him roll his eyes and fall into silence, Qi Hong continued. “There are lots of things you don’t know. When it comes to this stuff, I know more than you do. It’s just like how you know more than I about intra-Party affairs, but you know less than me about other things.” Having heard this, the “excellent” official burst into laughter and said he was just joking.

Another bureau chief, after seeing a dismantled wire, stated lightheartedly, “That was set by my wife.” Qi Hong explained, “He thought he was so popular within his work unit that nobody would spy on him, because he was the one who convinced the whole work unit to become corrupt, and every member of his staff had already gained a lot from it.”

Qi Hong reminded him that the there were still laws in this country.

“In our work unit, I have the final say! What I say is the rule!”

In times like this, Qi Hong always feels a quickly-growing sense of utter disgust. Gradually, he totally lost interest in such issues. He once tried so hard for his friends to understand why they were being wire-tapped and secretly filmed. He also hoped to warn officials about this phenomenon before it was too late. But he could wait for those positive results no longer. When someone suggested he should turn this into a career, he chose to step down and gave away all of his detection equipment.

“This is such ridiculous phenomenon. I will do this ridiculous work no more. But I’m glad that I’ve seen all kinds of miserable and terrified reactions from these officials. There’s no need to examine them in-depth. Their facial expressions already tell it all,” Qi Hong said.

Via Southern People Weekly. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

© Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: official corruption, Southern People Weekly, Southern Weekly, surveillance
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One might ask why Southern Weekly’s notion of dignity cannot simply be inserted into Xi Jinping’s China dream. Why should it conflict with either material improvement or national strength? The problem — and Southern Weekly editors wrote the point plainly — is that personal dignity depends on personal rights, and such rights can be secure only under a constitutional system of government.

“Constitutional government is the basis for the entire beautiful dream,” they wrote. “Only when we have established constitutional government, only when the powers of government have been limited and separated, will citizens be able to voice their criticisms of authority with confidence and be able to live in freedom, in accordance with their inner convictions. Only then will we have a free country and a country that is truly strong . . . . The real ‘China dream’ is a dream for freedom and constitutional government.”

[…] After officials of the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department “revised” the Southern Weekly statement, all of the lines quoted above had been removed and were replaced with words from Xi Jinping’s speeches about materialism and state power. It was announced that the editors had made these changes, and the result was published as “Message for 2013: We Are Closer to Our Dream than Ever Before.”

Propaganda officials’ actions sparked popular outrage in Guangdong and online. At the same time, the strong-arm tactics show the weakness of the party’s position. China’s rulers are well aware that something is missing in their version of the dream. Charter 08 and the original Southern Weekly statement both put “individual dignity” at the dream’s center. If it were true, as the regime often maintains, that such ideas are “Western” and stirred up only by “external hostile forces,” then there would be no reason to censor them or to jail their proponents. Authorities could simply publish the ideas and then watch the Chinese people inoculate themselves by rejecting them as “un-Chinese.” But no one is clearer than China’s rulers that this would not be the case.

See more on China’s constitutionalist movement and Xiao Qiang and Perry Link’s previous collaboration on subversively coded online slang, via CDT.

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Post tags: Charter 08, Chinese Dream, constitution, perry link, propaganda department, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, universal values, Xi Jinping, Xiao Qiang
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Why does it seem like censorship is getting worse?

You are correct. Over the past decade, the rapid development of the Internet has led people to believe there will be more space for speech. But the constraints [on the press] have actually gotten tighter. Fortunately, journalists are resisting. Otherwise, it would be worse. Now, the government’s domestic strategy is to maintain stability. Hu Jintao once said China should learn from North Korea, and sent people to investigate the Eastern European system. Although this trend began in the Jiang Zemin era, the Hu and Wen administration furthered it, regardless of the cost. For example, they bought the most advanced Internet surveillance technology, say, from CISCO. Internet companies like Sina and Tencent have struck a deal with the authorities—or you might call it collusion. In order to secure their business interests, they spend huge amounts monitoring social media. The […] space society has carved out for free expression is being constricted. Moreover, the “stability maintenance” system is making social management crueler. For example, the way law enforcement handles petitioners and property demolition is becoming ever more gangster-like. Although the media tries to fight, it can’t be a counterweight to the giant “stability maintenance” machine.

[…] Do you think new media, such as social media, can further China’s freedom of speech?

New media by itself is a tool. What is more important is how it is used. The government definitely wants to use it to control and steer public opinion. And, indeed, they are spending hugely on it. People in society hope social media will expand the space for expression. It’s not clear how things will turn out. New media might become society’s tool if society uses it more aggressively. For instance, in the current Southern Weekend and Yanhuang Chunqiu cases, new media played an important role. Without new media, it would have been unimaginable for the propaganda department’s work to have been exposed.

See also Yu Jianrong’s recent critique of China’s rigid “stability maintenance” system via CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chang Ping, cisco, freedom of information, freedom of speech, Hu Jintao, Internet surveillance, journalists, media censorship, news media, petitioners, reform, sina, social media, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, stability maintenance, tencent, Xi Jinping, Yanhuang Chunqiu
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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.

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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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A source close to Guangdong’s provincial government said Wang Genghui, a deputy editor-in-chief of Nanfang Media Group, which owns the newspaper, had taken over from Huang Can, Southern Weekly’s editor-in-chief since 2009. Huang had been sidelined and was likely to be transferred to another post in the group.

“Wang has a rather popular image as he is more willing to listen to editors and journalists,” the source said. “But this is likely to be a transitional role to restore normal operation at the newspaper as soon as possible.”

This week’s newspaper included a veiled protest saying that editorial procedures should be respected and made corrections – a typographical error, the erroneous numbering of the edition and a factual flaw that said flood control work by “Yu the Great” happened 2,000 years ago, instead of 4,000 years ago.

A comment below the corrections, signed by editorial staff, read: “Newspaper mistakes are always in black and white. In every link of editing and publishing a newspaper, its standard processes should always be respected and followed. We have never been more keenly aware of this.”

A report at Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, meanwhile, described Xi Jinping’s alleged displeasure at propaganda chief Liu Yunshan’s handling of the affair. Though the account is based on information from unnamed sources, Bill Bishop commented in his Sinocism newsletter that “[I] hear from other reporters that this report could be credible, that this paper has had other scoops recently..if true then very interesting.” One sign of the report’s accuracy might come in or after March when, it predicts, Guangdong propaganda chief Tuo Zhen will be removed from his post.

At a meeting in Zhongnanhai in Beijing on the night of Jan. 9, Xi, visibly displeased, asked if the media control division was not adding to confusion, sources familiar with the discussions said.

[…] Liu had decided to impose penalties, including dismissals, against editors and reporters who disobeyed the order. But Xi gave instructions not to punish journalists who protested the propaganda department, according to a party source formerly involved in media control.

Xi has apparently attempted to contain the fallout even by accepting demands from Southern Weekly reporters.

He decided to remove the chief of the propaganda department of the Guangdong provincial party committee, who led prior screening of the Southern Weekly.

The official is not expected to leave the post until at least March, when the National People’s Congress is scheduled to convene, because an immediate removal would reveal confusion within the party.

In particular, Xi reportedly suggested, Liu’s order for other outlets to republish a Global Times editorial expressing the Party line had turned a local problem into a wider one. (The order was conveyed by a Central Propaganda Department directive obtained and published by CDT.) Certainly, it spread the stand-off as far as Southern Weekly’s half-sister, the Beijing News, which initially refused to republish the article at all, and eventually buried an abbreviated version under a non-committal headline deep within the paper. At Reuters, Sui-Lee Wee described what had threatened to become the Beijing News’ last stand:

“This is the first time in China’s history, with the exception of June 4th, that there’s been such a large-scale collective protest by Chinese journalists against the central government’s propaganda department’s restrictions and suppression,” said Cheng Yizhong, who co-founded the Beijing News with Dai [Zhigeng], referring to the Tiananmen Square protests.

But Cheng said he expected no improvement in freedoms, predicting authorities would try to pre-empt any direct challenges by strengthening controls over social media. Cheng was arrested in 2004 on embezzlement charges that his supporters said were politically motivated. He was later released.

The editor at the Beijing News said management had warned staff not to talk about the incident, especially to foreign reporters, who “could make the higher-ups lose face”.

“It’s possible that after this, they might settle scores.”

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Post tags: Asahi Shimbun, Beijing News, Cheng Yizhong, Guangdong, June 4th, Liu Yunshan, media censorship, news media, newspapers, press freedom, Southern Media Group, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, Tuo Zhen, Xi Jinping
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“I would hardly be here to buy Li’s book if not for what happened to him on Sunday,” one young man said. “I just came here to show my support for Li, a liberal-minded critic.”

[…] Meanwhile, dozens of protesters, most in their 40s or 50s and some wearing Mao Zedong badges, gathered outside the building.

One of the protesters said he was outraged by some of Li’s recent comments, such as labelling those who took to the streets in anti-Japanese demonstrations in Shenzhen “brain damaged”.

“Li is a typical traitor who does nothing more than distort history and mislead the public, particularly the young,” he said.

Also at the South China Morning Post, Laura Zhou had previously described Sunday’s altercation, over which Li is reportedly considering legal action.

Li Chengpeng, a former journalist, was punched in the head during an afternoon signing of his new book for readers at the Zhongguancun Bookstore in Haidian district, and another man was filmed throwing a packaged kitchen knife at Li.

The man who punched Li claimed to have a strong aversion to the content of Li’s new book, The Whole World Knows. The assailant was taken away by Beijing police, according to a post on the public security bureau’s microblog that night.

The new book is a collection of essays that include sensitive topics such as the shoddy quality of school buildings that collapsed and killed thousands of students during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the alleged cover-up of the 2011 Wenzhou train crash.

The knife incident, in which a man waited in line to present Li with the threatening “gift”, and then threw it at him when it was apparently rejected, was caught on video (via SCMP’s John Kennedy):

Click here to view the embedded video.

In contrast with the action in Beijing and Shenzhen, Li’s signing in Chengdu on Saturday was markedly subdued. Li had been ordered not to address the audience and wore a mask over his mouth in protest. Global Voices Online translated a weibo post Li sent before the event, together with a selection of other users’ reactions:

Someone just delivered a strict order: at my book signing event, I’m not allowed to talk; the readers are not allowed to ask me any questions; I can’t even introduce myself or say “ Happy New Year, Thank you”. I’m not even allowed to introduce the names of other guests at my event; they are not allowed to talk or answer any questions. They can only sit in the corner. I deeply feel it’s against my understanding of dignity. They are crazy.

王金明小伙[zh]: It’s the most depressing signing event I’ve ever experienced. There were many people on the spot but no sound. The policemen were guarding each corner. Li wore a mask and signed his book with the wrong date. His guests only appeared very shortly before being asked to step down. There were tears on Li’s face.

I suddenly discovered that the Communist Party has made creating a buzz into an art. Li Chengpeng’s book signing was just a small ordinary event, but after the Communist Party’s handling of it, it became a work of performance art that has spread throughout the world.

Bruce Humes and Sascha Matuszak blogged their accounts of the Shenzhen and Chengdu signings, respectively.

Scuffles between leftists and liberals also broke out outside the offices of the Southern Weekly newspaper, during protests over censorship of its New Year greeting. Li was particularly outspoken about the Southern Weekly affair. From an interview at Japan’s Asahi Shimbun:

To me, this feels as if the insult toward freedom of speech has been lifted up a level. I cannot stand it, and I believe many other people feel the same.

China’s Constitution recognizes freedom of speech. The new party leadership advocates the rule of law. It should therefore sponsor freedom of speech–but doesn’t. The reality is different.

[…] I’ve felt pressure. I’ve been braced to see my blog shut down. Yet, we are not challenging the government. We just want China to become a better country.

The fact that many people have raised their voice this time has great significance. This is the first step on a long road toward achieving freedom of speech.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008 Sichuan earthquake, anti-Japan demonstrations 2012, Beijing, books, Chengdu, freedom of speech, leftists, Li Chengpeng, Mao Zedong, rule of law, Shenzhen, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, train crash, wenzhou, writers
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“We are like frogs being slowly cooked in warm water,” the former Southern Weekend journalist told me. “We were perishing slowly without knowing it, until this bowl of boiling water was dumped on us.”

“All these years, people like us have seen our articles killed and our voices silenced, and we’ve started to get used to it. We started to make compromises and to censor ourselves,” reflected Lin Tianhong, a Chinese journalist at Renwu magazine, in a message that had been reposted over 5,000 times. “We’ve gone too far, as if we have forgotten why we had chosen this industry to begin with.”

Just as journalists consider their collective acquiescence to censorship in the past partially responsible for their current humiliation, citizens who decided to speak out are also demonstrating a keener awareness of their own civil responsibilities. Large-scale protests in China in the past were triggered mostly by perceived foreign affronts or economic grievances, and limited mainly to the working class. In the most recent protest over speech, however, both online and on the street, middle- and upper classes have come out in large numbers. Besides the traditionally more vocal government critics like writers, lawyers and academics, movie stars, corporate executives, students, and tens of thousands of other ordinary citizens have joined the fight. Many of their messages at the protests show a new sense of urgency.

“If I don’t stand up today, I won’t be able to stand up tomorrow,” a sign outside Southern Weekend’s Guangzhou headquarter read.

Southern Weekly’s former executive deputy editor-in-chief Qian Gang, who is currently director of the China Media Project, provides an account of how the recent censorship of the New Year’s Letter was enacted. He ends by discussing the significance of the protests for the future of press freedom in China:

The Southern Weekly incident is important first and foremost because it exposes what has been happening behind the scenes. Over a period of several years, media controls have been transforming and becoming much stricter. Methods of prior censorship have been applied shamelessly in the darkness.

[...]

The staff at Southern Weekly had suffered long. But this time they hit their limit. Their demands were specific. They wanted a rollback of prior censorship. They wanted editors to have autonomy again.

Propaganda leaders may be more careful after this showdown over censorship. But the road to freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 35 of China’s Constitution will be a long one. The orders and bans will continue. Punishments will still await those who step too far over the line.

But we can say that things have begun. For the first time, the word “NO” has resounded within China’s media system. The game of competing interests we saw played out this week was like none we have seen before.

Read more about recent events at Southern Weekly via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: media conditions, press freedom, Qian gang, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013
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Right now, the Chinese name of the outspoken magazine caught up in a tense struggle of willswith the government – Southern Weekend in English, 南方周末 (nan fang zhou mo) in Chinese – is censored in Chinese on WeChat. But it’s not just restricted to users in China (where the app is called Weixin), and typing that name in the Chinese language is now blocked globally. The restriction notice says (pictured):

The message “南方周末” you sent contains restricted words. Please check it again.

We’ve tested it out going from users in China to Thailand (blocked), Thailand to China (blocked), and even Thailand to Singapore (blocked); the prohibited words are not sent at all. The name of the magazine can be sent in English.

TechInAsia contacted Tencent for a comment, and a newer post quotes the company writing off the restricted characters as a “technical glitch”. The post goes on to offer “incriminating evidence” that the restrictions were more deliberate:

Referring to the case as a “glitch”, the full statement given to us reads:

A small number of WeChat international users were not able to send certain messages due to a technical glitch this Thursday. Immediate actions have been taken to rectify it. We apologize for any inconvenience it has caused to our users. We will continue to improve the product features and technological support to provide better user experience.

Indeed, testing out the offending phrase today, it does now work within WeChat.

[...]But what about that warning that many saw? It’s as clear as day in many screenshots. “The message “南方周末” you sent contains restricted words. Please check it again.”

Yes: Restricted words. That’s no error message. It’s very far from being: Ooops, our servers are a bit busy right now, please try again a few minutes later.[...]

TechInAsia has previously reported on Tencent’s (largely successful) efforts to go global with their popular new product. A post from PandoDaily.com describes the new opportunities to globalize offered by the mobile market, and suggests that internationalizing the self-censorship required for a media company to sustain in China would impede Tencent’s quest for global presence:

In the past, Chinese social networks have only had to worry about censorship in regards to users inside the country – because, proportionately speaking, so few users of China’s Internet properties access the sites from overseas – but WeChat, which has the potential to be more international, presents a new challenge.

The advent of the mobile age has opened up the possibility for China to compete on a global stage and develop Internet products in parallel with the rest of the world. In particular, many entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses within China consider themselves to have an advantage over their Western counterparts when it comes to expanding into developing countries, such as India, Brazil, and those in Southeast Asia.

[...]Until now, WeChat has been allowed to spread beyond China without having to deal with a big censorship blowup. Now it’s being put to the ultimate test. For users in China, it’s business as usual. For everyone else, it’s time to reassess.

For more on Tencent and WeChat, see “WeChat, a Threat to All?” Also see CDT’s ongoing coverage of censorship, strike and lingering concern surrounding the notoriously candid Southern Weekly (also known as Southern Weekend) – the newspaper whose name was reportedly restricted for international WeChat users.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Internet companies, social media, Southern Weekly, tencent, WeChat, Weixin
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One of the most shared images on Weibo this week, this image was posted by Southern People Weekly, a sister publication of Southern Weekly in the Nanfang Media Group. (Artists unnamed)

A proud rooster, defying his encroaching enemy, stands tall on a rock inscribed with the words “Southern Weekly.” Artist Rebel Pepper explains his cartoon [zh]: “The vampires hopelessly strangle one rooster after another, just to stave off the coming of the dawn.” This cartoon draws inspiration from the investigative work of Shen Yachuan, who made his name uncovering the assassination of a whistle-blowing schoolteacher. On the 10-year anniversary of Shen’s triumph [zh] last April, @ShenzhenLaocui said, “Even if you kill every last rooster, the sun will still rise!” (Artist: Rebel Pepper)

Many Southern Weekly staff pointed their fingers at Tuo Zhen, the new propaganda chief of Guangdong Province, for writing the reviled New Year’s message which replaced the original. To skirt the censors, netizens have referred to Tuo as a “lump” (坨 tuó), which is also the measure word for excrement. Scatological cartoons lampooning the censors’ treatment of Southern Weekly abound. (Artist: Pearl Forest)

A one-tuo note from the Proppy Bank of China. “Lump” Zhen is now a stand-in for the propaganda and censorship apparatus generally. (Artist: Rebel Pepper)

Posted to AmazeNews with the title “Say No to Shit,” Tank Man faces down an advancing line of government turds. The cartoonist adds the subtitle, “Support the Southern Weekly editorial protest.” (Artist: Badiucao)

Tuo has also been condemned online as an “ostrich” (驼鸟 tuóniǎo) for his conspicuous silence during the protests. (Artist: Simon)

These “news trimming rulers” are yet another reference Tuo Zhen. Netizens have “spelled” out components of Tuo’s surname with the characters for “measure.” As the “Minister of Measure,” Tuo appears to have taken a personal role in demarcating the limits of the printed word. (Artist: Mr. Choo Choo 500)

A carrot and whip are placed strategically on top of the editorial page of the January 7th edition of the Global Times. The top headline, “Southern Weekly’s ‘Message to Readers’ Is Food for Thought Indeed,” claims that the Guangdong Propaganda Department did not write the New Year’s greeting run in place of the original, and that loosely connected, outside forces, including Chen Guangcheng, have stirred up controversy through the Internet. All news media were mandated to carry this editorial. Beijing News refused at first, thus drawing it into the fray. The 50-cent coin above the whip is a jab at the authors of the Global Times apologia. (Artist: Shu Hao)

The censors and the press are personified as abusive boyfriend and female victim. “I rape, you resist! You must be seeing someone else…” (Artist: Dashix)

Press freedom with Chinese characteristics: a bureaucrat, feigning adherence to liberty and the law, holds the axe ready over the stack of newspapers which are his platform. He seems oblivious to the odd fashion choice of three watches and a Hermès belt with a Lady Liberty crown. (Artist: Kuang Biao)

Follow developments at Southern Weekly from CDT.

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Post tags: censorship, Drawing the News, media censorship, political cartoons, political humor, press freedom, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, Tuo Zhen
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The exact terms of the deal were not released, but it appears that the journalists agreed to refrain from airing their grievances in public about Tuo Zhen, the propaganda chief for Guangdong province accused of the heavy-handed censorship that sparked the standoff. The staff had planned to publish details of more than 1,034 stories they said were censored or deleted in 2012, according to a journalist who asked not to be quoted by name.

Southern Weekly staff members were instructed not to speak to reporters for foreign media about the protest.

When the paper was finally issued Thursday morning, it was reportedly distributed at newsstands in Beijing and Shanghai before its hometown of Guangzhou. Some issues of the paper were missing sections. From South China Morning Post:

The newspaper, which is published on Thursdays, was not available in at least six newsstands in Guangzhou, which normally carry the paper. The paper appeared as normal in Beijing, carrying a cover story on the aftermath of a fire in an orphanage in central Henan province.

Thursday’s edition led with a two-page investigation into a fire at an orphanage in central China’s Henan province, in photo via Sina Weibo.

“It’s not coming today,” said one newspaper seller in a kiosk near the Southern Weekly’s headquarters in Guangzhou.

[...] In Shanghai, two sections of the paper were missing − one focused on a new regulation on land reclamation and the other on “the dramatic changes” in reform.

The front page carried a story about children killed in an orphanage fire, and did not contain any news about the dispute. The paper republished a People’s Daily editorial but added its own commentary. From Reuters:

In a show of continued resistance, the Southern Weekly republished a Monday editorial from the Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, that said “the party’s methods of controlling the media must move with the times”.

In its interpretation of the People’s Daily editorial, the Southern Weekly said the remaining reforms that need to be done are as difficult as “gnawing at bones”.

“They need the protection and support of a moderate, rational and constructive media,” the Southern Weekly said.

On his South China Morning Post blog, John Kennedy reports that not all planned content made it into this week’s edition:

However, Zuo Zhijian, director of features at Southern Media Group’s 21st Century Herald’s Shanghai office, revealed on his Sina Weibo microblog last night that censors killed an editorial commemorating the 30th anniversary of Southern Weekly’s founding that was meant to run in the issue scheduled to hit stands today.

According to one microblogger, today’s issue of Southern Weekly is two 4-page sections shorter than usual, absent its current affairs and commentary sections.

But the fact that the staff were able to secure enough of their demands to be willing to publish this week is seen by some as a victory, albeit a limited one. China Media Project’s David Bandurski tells AFP:

The agreement is a “small victory” in a long-running struggle between journalists and censors in China, said David Bandurski, a Chinese media researcher at Hong Kong University.

“It’s a victory in the most concrete terms, it’s a turn back to a normalcy of censorship that journalists have become accustomed to,” he said, adding that the high-profile stand-off could persuade officials not to further tighten controls.

But not everyone was satisfied. Editors told Al Jazeera that, despite publication, there was still lingering resentment among staff:

Still fuming, some editors and reporters tried late on Wednesday to insert a carefully-worded commentary praising the newspaper as a tribune of reform, but were rebuffed by management, an editor said.

The editor, who asked not to be named because he had been repeatedly warned not to talk to foreign media, described the mood among editorial staff as indignant.

He predicted that some staff would resign, either voluntarily out of anger or forced out by management.

“There’s complete disappointment,” the editor said.

A small number of protesters continued to gather outside the newspaper offices to make broader calls for press freedom and human rights, as well as Maoists there to oppose them. Other citizens who rely on the paper to have their stories heard also gathered. Mark MacKinnon of the Globe and Mail was tweeting from the scene:

Scene outside Southern Weekend is wild. Petitioners arriving from all over, saying paper is only outlet for their stories. #chinadiaries

— Mark MacKinnon/马凯 (@markmackinnon) January 10, 2013

Pro-democracy demonstrators, Maoists in shouting match outside Southern Weekend: twitpic.com/btxxvu

— Mark MacKinnon/马凯 (@markmackinnon) January 10, 2013

Protesters outside Southern Weekend dragged away by plainclothes police: twitpic.com/btxy2e

— Mark MacKinnon/马凯 (@markmackinnon) January 10, 2013

Some protesters in Guangdong and elsewhere reported being detained or questioned. A video of protesters being dragged away by police was posted by @JoFloto.

Several Chinese journalists expressed concern that the deal reached for Southern Weekend would not positively impact conditions at other media and may in fact lead to tighter control. Zhang Hong, deputy editor in chief of the Economic Observer, writes in the South China Morning Post:

One result of the strike is that the Guangdong propaganda ministry clearly has the upper hand as its actions are in line with party policy and will get support from the party hardliners. Any hope for direct intervention from the central government seems unrealistic.

Thus, the government will strive to achieve a swift resolution both online and offline by issuing clear warnings to those who disobey. In fact, it has already done so.

This crisis rings alarm bells for journalists and liberal intellectuals. The new government might kick-start economic reforms in certain areas, to ensure continued growth. But swift political reforms are not on the top leaders’ agenda, as they are still calculating resistance from conservative blocs. The Southern Weekly row could even be cited by conservatives as an argument against looser media control. This could be viewed as a frustrating setback for reformers.

In an interview with Asahi Shimbun, popular blogger and journalist Li Chengpeng says:

We don’t need high-rise buildings, the status of the world’s second-largest economy, or an aircraft carrier. What China needs now is a newspaper that tells the truth.

That is because the right to tell the truth represents human dignity. Major powers that command respect worldwide possess newspapers that speak the truth.

Our authorities have long exerted control on speech, but this time they altered an article and made a newspaper tell lies.

To me, this feels as if the insult toward freedom of speech has been lifted up a level. I cannot stand it, and I believe many other people feel the same.

The original protests by Southern Weekly journalists were directed at Guangdong Provincial Propaganda Chief Tuo Zhen. Tuo has been widely criticized for tightening controls over Southern Weekly, which had found space to operate with some independence within the censorship regime before he took office. Reuters reports:

While the system of government oversight had already been well established, including an internal censor to vet stories, current and former staffers said the levers of control tightened substantially with Tuo’s arrival last May.

Xiao Shu, a former columnist at the Southern Weekly, said Tuo treated the paper not as an asset for pursuing the truth but “as a burden, or a negative thing, to trample on as much as he liked”.

[...] While many Southern Weekly staff have declined to speak on the record, a picture has nevertheless emerged of Tuo pushing too far, just as China’s new leadership under party chief Xi Jinping tries to project a more reformist image.

“I think pressure on media has been accruing for so long,” said Li Datong, a former journalist sacked for challenging censorship. “It’s no wonder that a relatively small thing caused an explosion. Journalists have a lot of anger built up.”

Read also about recent events at Beijing News, a sister publication of Southern Weekly, which has suffered significant collateral damage as a result of this controversy.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Li Chengpeng, Li Datong, press freedom, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013
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“We sincerely hope [Beijing News] can faithfully record the progress of our time, speak for the people… and serve its duty in promoting [social] progress, good governance with rule of law, and a civilised society,” Dai said.

Police cars were seen outside the newspaper office yesterday, a sign that the authorities were concerned that journalists might stage a protest or that members of the public might rally in their support, one source said.

[…] Beijing News, along with Southern Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily, are among the most respected newspapers on the mainland because of their outspoken comments and reports on sensitive issues.

After its transfer to the direct control of the Beijing party committee in 2011, there were widespread fears that the newspaper’s bold reporting would be reined in, and that did appear to be the case last year.

Various accounts have emerged of the struggle over the editorial’s republication. The New York Times quoted an online posting by one journalist at the paper: “Some people look sad; some burst into tears; some shout that they are going to quit. We don’t want to kneel down, but our knees have been shattered. We are kneeling down this one time while gnashing our teeth.” A longer account appeared at China Real Time Report:

Yesterday we all felt happy and proud that our leaders had decided not to reprint the editorial. We thought if only we could stand firm for a couple more hours, this situation would go away.

Later we realized that the pressure really was huge. Propaganda officials were all waiting for the results. No matter how it appeared, the editorial had to be published.

When Mr. Dai and the other leaders saw that all of our journalists and editors had rushed back from home, they called us into a meeting room and asked for our opinions. Everyone said they were opposed to publishing the editorial. We discussed the worst-case scenario if we refused to publish it – maybe we wouldn’t be able to put out the paper at all. According to coworkers who understood the situation, this was a result the higher-ups [in the propaganda department] would be willing to see happen. When everyone heard this, the room fell silent. [Starts to cry]

[…] [Sobbing] I don’t think we compromised. We did everything we can do.

As far as the question of Mr. Dai resigning, I personally can’t represent him, but when he and Ms. Wang were discussing things with us they mentioned resignation, and according to one of the top leaders who was in meetings, Mr. Dai and Ms. Wang verbally threatened to resign in front of the propaganda authorities. What changes will take place with our newspaper’s management in the end, right now nobody knows.

Like other reluctant republishers, the Beijing News also issued a thinly veiled message of support for Southern Weekly: in this case, a love letter to southern-style congee porridge. From David Bandurski at China Media Project:

In Chinese, the word for “porridge,” zhou (粥), is a homophone of the first character in “weekend,” zhoumo (周末), the second half of Southern Weekly‘s publication name. The shorthand for Southern Weekly is nanzhou (南周), which sounds very similar to “porridge of the south,” or nanfang de zhou (南方的粥).

[…] Hot porridge in an earthen pot, hailing from [China's] southland. Just placed upon the table, the porridge writhes still with heat. Perhaps it has a heart of courage yet. In the deep of the cold night, you open your mouth and white steam billows. There are so many troubles in this world, and all you can count on for warmth is this bowl of porridge.

On Twitter, Gianluigi Negro pointed out a previous gesture of defiance from the paper after it was forced to condemn America’s role in Chen Guangcheng’s escape last year. As China Media Project reported at the time, an enigmatic apology subsequently appeared on the newspaper’s official Sina Weibo account, comprising a black and white photo of a smoking clown, and the message: “In the still of the deep night, removing that mask of insincerity, we say to our true selves, ‘I am sorry.’ Goodnight.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing News, censorship, chinese food, David Bandurski, Global Times, propaganda, Southern Media Group, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013
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