“Chinese dream” lead story in the Beijing Daily.

Xi Jinping introduced the “Chinese Dream” last December, after he became chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and before he took on the Chinese presidency. He often dovetails speeches about the “Chinese Dream” with the invocation of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which seems to signal a nationalistic turn. Aside from that, there is little sign that Xi’s rhetoric significantly differs from Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao’s concept of the “harmonious society”–which makes a cameo appearance here. These are new words to bolster the status quo.

Beijing Daily, the capital’s Party newspaper, published the following piece on the front page of its April 5th edition. Beijing Daily issued several scathing opinion pieces last May criticizing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke’s handling of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s case, as well as the Chinese press for valuing “Western ideas like ‘freedom of speech’ and the ‘fourth estate.’” This latest article has a gentler tone, instructing the municipal government to carry out “Chinese Dream” propaganda campaigns that reach everyone from senior cadres to elementary school children.

An April 16 editorial in the People’s Daily rings with the same call to fight a “propaganda battle” for the Chinese Dream.

CCP Beijing Municipal Committee Recommendations for Developing “Chinese Dream” Education and Propaganda Work

April 5, 2013

General Secretary Xi Jinping has poured much spiritual energy into the important discourse on the “Chinese Dream” of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, in order to lead the entire Party and people citizens of all ethnicities to join their minds and gather their strength to jointly push forward the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Deep comprehension and extensive dissemination of the basic tenets of the “Chinese Dream,” its essential requirements, and its path of practice, are of the utmost significance to deeply studying and implementing the spirit of the 18th Party Congress, and to actively encouraging the people of Beijing to accelerate the capital’s reform and development. The following recommendations are put forward for developing the city’s “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work.

A. Guiding Ideology

Lift high the mighty flag of Socialism With Chinese Characteristics. Integrate Deng Xiaoping Theory, the theory of the “Three Represents,” and the concept of Scientific Development to guide reform and development in the capital. Extensively promulgate the importance of realizing the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, its essential requirements, and its path of practice. Integrate “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work with the study, propagation, and implementation of the spirit of the 18th Party Congress; with the study and propaganda work of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and with the promotion of the scientific development of the capital. Use the “Chinese Dream” to gather consensus and unify strength. Ceaselessly reinforce the faith of all municipal cadres in the mass path, the theory, and the system. Fully enable the complete establishment of a moderately well-off [xiaokang] society and the realization of the leading of the historical course of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by setting an example. Provide powerful spiritual impetus to the development of strategies to effect a “cultured Beijing, scientific Beijing, and green Beijing,” and the creation of a world-class city with Chinese characteristics.

B. Primary Content

The development of “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work must closely revolve around studying and promulgating the spirit of the important speech that Secretary Xi Jinping delivered while visiting the “Road to Revival” exhibit, as well as the spirit of Secretary Xi’s comments at the [sixth plenary session of the] first session of the 12th National People’s Congress. It must also closely revolve around the policy decisions of the Municipal Committee. Fully reflect the enthusiastic responses of the capital’s cadres and masses; stand firm in your posts and fully command the active practice of solid work. Ceaselessly deepen the “Chinese Dream” of the great revival of the Chinese nation.

(1) Extensively promulgate and realize the meaning, basic tenets, and essential requirements of the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate the Party’s strategic goal of “Two 100 Years” as put forward at the 18th Party Congress. Extensively promulgate and realize that the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is precisely what will strengthen the nation, revive its ethnic groups, and bless its people.  Extensively promulgate that the direction determines the path and the path determines destiny, and that persistence and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the basic guarantee of realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate that the future and destiny of every person is inseparably linked to the future and destiny of the country and the [Chinese] nation, and requires that we have our feet firmly on the ground, striving unremittingly towards the great “Chinese Dream.”

(2) Extensively promulgate and realize that the “Chinese Dream” must be China’s path. Extensively promulgate that the road to socialism with Chinese characteristics has come from over 30 years of the great practice of Reform and Opening, from the continued explorations of over 60 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, from profound conclusions drawn from over 170 years of development the Chinese nation, and from the heritage of over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. It has deep historical roots and an extensive foundation in reality, guiding the city’s cadres and masses to unwaveringly forge ahead by following the correct Chinese path.

(3) Extensively promulgate that realizing the “Chinese Dream” must enhance the Chinese spirit. Extensively promulgate that patriotism is the nucleus of the national spirit, and reform and innovation the nucleus of the modern spirit. Promote patriotism as the soul of a powerful and invigorated country which joins minds and gathers strength, and as the spiritual force which strengthens and unites the Chinese people; reform and innovation were the spiritual forces which encouraged us to change with the times during Reform and Opening. Guide the entire city to push forward the enhancement of the national and modern spirit. Constantly strengthen the spiritual bond of unity and the spiritual force of unresting self-improvement, and forever march towards the future with vigor.

(4) Extensively promulgate that realizing the “Chinese Dream” requires the consolidation of Chinese power. Extensively promulgate that the Chinese Dream is the dream of the [Chinese] nation, and is also the dream of every Chinese person. As long as we are all inseparably linked, as long as we are a people united, as long as we struggle for the realization of our common dream, we will be matchlessly powerful in the force of our realization of this goal. Each one of us has vast space to assiduously realize his or her dream. Extensively promulgate that the Chinese people all share the opportunity to accomplish the outstanding, to make our dreams come true, and to grow and progress along with the motherland and the times. Encourage the people of the city to keep this mission in mind, and to keep all of their thoughts and energy directed towards the goal of promoting the capital’s scientific development of a strong spiritual force.

(5) Extensively promulgate the Municipal Committee’s decision-making spirit in using the “Chinese Dream” to push forward innovation and development in the capital. Extensively promulgate the essence of leading municipal cadres’ speeches on teaching and promulgating the “Chinese Dream,” and the essence of of the 11th municipal Party representative meeting and the first and second plenary sessions of the 11th municipal Party committee meeting. Thoroughly recognize the stepwise development of the capital and precisely grasp the points of integration of the “Chinese Dream” and the work of the capital. Use the “Chinese Dream” to guide and promote the “two-wheel drive” strategy of cultural and technological innovation. Use the “Chinese Dream” to condense power in the capital and to initiate a new phase in social and economic development.

(6) Extensively promulgate all lively efforts and successful experiences from the capital’s battle lines in realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate the capital’s historical achievements in economic and social development–especially those that have occurred since the 16th Party Congress–in [improving] living standards, and in [altering] the appearance of urban and rural areas. Push every department and work unit in all districts and counties to tightly embrace the themes of scientific development and accelerated transformation of economic progress. Fully deepen the grand acts and fresh experiences of Reform and Opening. Publicize new progress and new results in the capital’s construction of socialist democracy, advanced socialist culture, preeminence as a location for harmonious society, and conservation culture. Publicize the good experiences and methods taken by all levels of city government to strengthen the able construction, progressive construction, and pure construction of the Party’s governance.

C. Priorities

Developing the “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work is a city-oriented systemic project, and a major, long-term political task. We must insist on commanding truth and detail. For best results, we must ceaselessly deepen and expand [our work]. Henceforth, we must focus our efforts on the following tasks:

(1) Improve the battle-ready force of theory. Focusing on leading cadres, we must channel the study of the “Chinese Dream” into the curricula of all levels of the Party committee (leading Party groups), as well as into the main curriculum of cadre training, making it the important contents of the municipal study model for Party organization construction. These programs will include courses and seminars organizing the majority of Party members into serious study and discussion. Primary-level Party groups must adopt a variety of forms to provide education to all veteran cadres, retired personnel, non-public economic organizations, and Party members in social organizations. This study and education must reach all social groups. All of the capital’s intellectual resources must be used to carry out an extensive propaganda campaign to bring “Chinese Dream” propaganda activities to the grassroots. A collection of related reading material is to be compiled into the “Chinese Dream” Cadre Theory Reader, a large-scale television series entitled The Correct Path to Great Change–500 Years of Socialism is to be filmed, and the song “Dream” is to be written. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work is to become an important part of students’ ideological and political education, and should be promoted in schools, textbooks, and classrooms.

(2) Widely develop self-directed educational activities by the masses. Integrate “Chinese Dream” study and propaganda and theorists [of the “Chinese Dream”] with the grassroots and the common people’s self-directed educational activities. With “My Dream, the Chinese Dream” as the theme, continue to deeply expand “The Party in the People’s Hearts” propaganda work. Cater to the grassroots, deeply excavate, and widely promulgate the true stories of people from all walks of life and from grassroots Party organizations who, under the Party’s leadership, stand on firm ground, take real action to reinvigorate the nation, contribute novel ideas, and tirelessly struggle in order to realize complete individual development, to push social progress, and to enact the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Create and present to the public a series of short films [based on] these stories in order to build a positive, healthy, progressive, and harmonious social atmosphere. Inspire people to pioneering action.

(3) Strengthen the study and interpretation of the theory of the “Chinese Dream.” Give full reign to [the preponderance of] the capital’s social science resources. Rely on a program of research into the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Focus on the major theoretical and practical issues of realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Set up a group of major philosophy and social science projects to interpret the “Chinese Dream.” Give full reign to all municipal social science theory work units. Utilize the Forum on the Sinicization of Marxism, the Academic Frontiers Forum, the Natural and Social Sciences Joint Summit, the Forum on the Study Model for Party Organization Construction, and other such academic institutions to increase exploration of the “Chinese Dream.” Rely on “Weekend Community Lecture Halls,” “Beijing Social Science Week”, and similar activities, and vehicles such as “SpeakersNet” and the “Capital City Microbloggers Community of Social Science Experts” to strengthen the “Chinese Dream” propaganda and dissemination.

(4) Carefully manage news media and Internet propaganda. Municipal news media should dedicate a number of features, columns, special reports, and special issues to introducing theoretical articles, commentary, and interviews in order to create an atmosphere of favorable public opinion. We must successfully fight a major propaganda campaign to publicize the measures our city has taken and the experiences gained in implementing important central government policy decisions; to take on the hot topics of economic trends, price regulation, transformation development, housing, traffic, social security, income distribution, and air quality; to respond to society’s concerns; and to cultivate a favorable social mentality. Municipal websites must launch special web pages on the “Chinese Dream” and assemble a series of “Chinese Dream” talks, essay competitions, and other activities that will form a positive public opinion.

(5) Encourage [the creation of] a group of literary and artistic masterworks. Use entertainment to educate. Adopt colorful forms of cultural entertainment to carry out “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work. Adhering to the creative theme of realizing the “Chinese Dream,” carefully organize key artistic creations and cultural activities, and plan and launch TV dramas, stage plays, songs, and other works of art. Adhere to the principle that “literature and art should be used to serve both the people and socialism,” the “Double Hundred” policy, and the principle of the “Three Closenesses” to fully grasp the creation of products on the themes of reality, youth, rural issues, and the elderly. Assemble and promulgate original, modern, and local masterpieces to create a good cultural atmosphere for the public to learn about the “Chinese Dream.”

(6) Strengthen propaganda education directed towards youth and similar groups. Persist in targeting propaganda education at youth. Unite with the “Chinese Dream” the dreams of youth and students to grow up and become useful members of society. Launch an education program on the theme of “using the positive energy of youth to build the Chinese Dream.” Guide young people to use their position to put the “Chinese Dream” into practice. Organize extensive “My Chinese Dream” activities in the capital’s colleges and universities and sponsor a cross-institution “My Chinese Dream” contest, a Student Creative Culture Day, and similar activities in order to guide college students towards taking [these] ideals to heart and to make steadfast their conviction [in the Chinese Dream]. Implement a plan of action for ideology and morality construction for minors. Continuously fine-tune the four-in-one educational system of school, family, society, and the Internet. In primary and secondary schools, create “My Dream, the Chinese Dream” online summer camp activities to deepen the understanding of the “Chinese Dream” among younger students.

D. Work Requirements

(1) Integrate practice, promote work. Vigorously encourage “Chinese Dream” work. Use the “Chinese Dream” to arouse the spirit and strength of all of Beijing’s cadres and citizens. Comprehensively implement central Party work requirements throughout the capital. Firmly grasp the characteristics of the capital’s step-by-step development. Deepen Reform and Opening. Strengthen the drive to innovate. Guarantee improvements to the people’s quality of life. Coordinate a holistic plan for advancing the city’s economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological development. Achieve various tasks for the scientific development of the capital.

(2) Coordinate and concentrate. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work will be organized and implemented under the leadership of the municipal propaganda bureau. All ministries and commissions of the municipal Party committee and city government and all related work units will participate together. Actively promote the utility of labor units, the Communist Youth League, the Women’s Federation, etc. to increase the masses’ strength in self-education. All regions and counties, all ministries and departments, and every work unit shall attach great importance to making “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work a critical task for the deployment of work and education going forward. Tightly integrate the education and propaganda work of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party’s education and implementation of the mass line, and organizational construction of “study-type Party organizations.” Consider every angle. Plan scientifically.

(3) Focal points, categorical guidance. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work must successfully target Party members and cadres, intellectual communities, youth and students, and the grassroots masses. While the “Chinese Dream” is an essential part of the education of Party members and cadres at all levels, leading cadres should be the first to learn and lead in propaganda efforts. Realistically capitalize on intellectuals’ collective knowledge of science and technology, education, culture, and the social sciences for education and propaganda work. Develop curricula and publicity programs specifically targeted at different regions and industries.

(4) Unremittingly persevere. Persist in uniting long-term programs and stepwise planning; make “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work into everyday work that is distinguished by its unity and is consistently successful. Every district, county, and government department must unify practice, formulate specific schemes for implementation, and organize specialized strength and responsibility to enact “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work. Purposefully strengthen guidance of subordinate and low-level work units. Promptly carry out supervision, encouragement, and inspection. Make assessments of the results. Promptly summarize propaganda advancement models and successful experiences; set examples through models; let one point guide the whole. Construct a good environment for education and propaganda work.

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Josh Rudolph.

“Double Hundred” refers to Mao’s famous proclamation: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Back.

“Study-type Party organizations” arose from the 17th Party Congress in 2010. They are groups organized at all levels of government to study Marxism, “scientific development,” and other tenets of the CCP. Back.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, Beijing Daily, CCP, Chinese Dream, harmonious society, Hu Jintao, propaganda, reform and opening, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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“Grandpa Wen” famously spoke to Sichuan earthquake victims on the ground. Some saw his hands-on approach as a brilliant publicity stunt. (artist unknown)

我来晚了。 (Wǒ lái wǎn le.): I’m late.

A catchphrase of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He first apologized for the time of his arrival to Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province after a gas explosion in a coal mine there on November 28, 2004 killed 166 people. From then on, netizens noted Wen’s every apology for being late at the scenes of natural and man-made disasters: a southern snow storm in January 2008, the devastating Sichuan earthquake of May 8, 2008, and the site of the Wenzhou train crash stand out in the public memory. Instead of praise for “Grandpa Wen,” netizens often think Wen is feeding the people and the media a clever line. They believe he lacks real concern for the plight of the Chinese people.

See also movie star.

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Post tags: 2008 Sichuan earthquake, high-speed rail crash, natural disasters, Wen Jiabao, word of the week
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Prime Minister Li Keqiang at the site of the Sichuan earthquake. (CCTV)

Sichuan Earthquake: At least 188 are dead and over 11,000 injured after Saturday morning’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which struck Lushan County in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan.

• Fan Jiyue (范继跃): Lushan County Party Secretary Fan Jiyue was seen inspecting the disaster zone with Prime Minister Li Keqiang [zh]. Savvy netizens, quick to catch signs of luxurious lifestyles in these photo opportunities, noticed Fan’s distinct watch tan, then dug up older photos of him wearing a watch on the same arm. Fan is likely hoping to avoid the ridicule which drove Watch Brother out of office last fall. Netizens are calling Fan the “clever county Party secretary” (机智的县委书记) and “Taking-off Watch Brother” (脱表哥).
• Lushan County Party Secretary (芦山县委书记)
• Li Keqiang+put on a show (李克强+作秀): Li Keqiang was photographed yesterday eating a simple breakfast in a tent near the epicenter of the earthquake [zh]. Bedraggled from a busy night, he repeatedly emphasized to reporters that saving lives is his “number-one” priority right now.” Former prime minister Wen Jiabao was notorious for acting like this to demonstrate his concern for victims of natural and man-made disasters earning him the nickname “movie star.”
• prime minister+movie star (总理+影帝)
• Three Gorges+Sichuan earthquake (三峡+四川地震): Many people believe the Three Gorges Dam is to blame for the severe earthquakes which struck Sichuan this weekend and in 2008. Geologist Yang Yang, quoted in the Financial Times, says that this is a possibility, but that it is too soon to tell.

Alternate Renderings of Xi Jinping (习近平 Xí Jìnpíng): All based on sound.
• West Gold-peace (西金平 Xī Jīnpíng)
• Western Jin Peace (西晋平 Xī Jìn Píng): The Western Jin Dynasty ruled from 265-420 CE.
• Fully-washed Peace (洗尽平 Xǐ Jìn Píng)
• Whistle-clean Peace (洗净平 Xǐjìng Píng)
• Wash into Bottle (洗进瓶 Xǐ Jìn Píng)
• Sikkim Bottle (锡金瓶 Xījīn Píng)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

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Post tags: 2013 Sichuan earthquake, censorship, earthquakes, Fan Jiyue, Internet censorship, Li Keqiang, Ministry of Truth, natural disasters, Sensitive Words Series, Sichuan, Three Gorges Dam, weibo, Wen Jiabao
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In October, when David Barboza published his Wen Jiabao investigation, Chinese officials lashed out, accusing him of having “ulterior motives” and trying to “smear” China. The New York Times website was blocked in China, and it was later revealed that the newspaper’s headquarters were subjected to a sustained hacking effort, which appeared to be aimed at acquiring Barboza’s personal communications. Bloomberg, which published an investigative report on the networks of power and wealth surrounding current President Xi Jinping, was also blocked in China and hacked following the report.

Following the Pulitzer announcement, Chinese authorities repeated the accusations against the New York Times. From AFP (via Economic Times):

The story, which was published in October last year, alleged close relatives of Wen have made billions of dollars in business dealings.

It provoked anger from authorities in China, who said it was part of a “smear” by “voices” opposed to the country’s development. The Times’ Chinese and English websites were subsequently blocked in China and remain inaccessible.

“Our position towards this issue is very clear. We believe the relevant report by the New York Times reporter is with ulterior motives,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing Tuesday.

Foreign reporters based in China know they face consequences from authorities if their reporting delves into areas the government does not want exposed. ChinaFile hosted a roundtable discussion titled, “Why Does China Mess with the Foreign Press?”, in which Columbia University’s Andrew Nathan discusses the widespread perception among China’s leaders that such investigative reports are sourced by players with their own political agenda:

A senior Chinese whose job it is to gather intelligence asked me both of these questions –why did the Times attack the premier and who gave them the information — and was incredulous when I answered that the wealth of Wen’s wife had been widely known for years, and this was a story just waiting to be written by a reporter with the skills to get the facts. He must have thought I was either naive or a liar. Such is the paranoia of the Chinese political class.

David Barboza has explained that all his reporting was based on scrupulous reading of public documents. Isabel Hilton points out that Chinese reporters often face harsher consequences for their investigative reports, and cites the case of Jiang Weiping, who was imprisoned for his reporting on Bo Xilai and other local officials in the 1990s.

Update: In a further crackdown on foreign media, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television issued a directive this week forbidding journalists from “using news or informational products from foreign media or foreign websites” without prior permission.

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Post tags: Apple, david barboza, foreign correspondents, foreign media, Foxconn, jiang weiping, new york times, press freedom, Wen Jiabao
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“Political reforms didn’t stop under Hu [Jintao] and Wen [Jiabao] – they went backwards. So just like when people started talking about the Hu-Wen ‘new deal’ in 2003, now we start to talk about the Xi-Li ‘new deal’, it’s just wishful thinking.”

[…] Asked what he would say to Mr Obama, if he ever got the chance, Mr Chen said that ignoring China’s record on human rights was undermining America’s standing in the world.

“I would tell Mr Obama there is no small matter in international diplomacy. If an agreement between the US and China can’t be fulfilled, then US credibility as the standard bearer of universal values, freedom and democracy will be jeopardised.”

In op-ed at The Washington Post, Chen and Geng He, wife of vanished rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, urge the White House to push for an end to persecution of activists, lawyers and their families in China:

Our stories are flip sides of the same coin. Geng He sought asylum in the United States after Chinese authorities detained and brutally tortured her husband, the rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Chen Guangcheng, a legal activist, was a prisoner of conscience for many years before escaping house arrest last spring. Now in America, he is studying at New York University and advocating on behalf of his relatives, who continue to endure persecution in China because of his activism.

While our stories are different, the theme is the same: The Chinese government targets rights advocates and their families.

[…] Our stories are just two examples of Chinese authorities acting with impunity and complete disregard for the rule of law. But the attacks on our families are especially worrisome because they show that the government targets not only activists and their families but also the lawyers who have an ethical obligation to defend their clients’ rights against government abuses. Gao once said that you cannot be a rights lawyer in China without becoming a rights case yourself. And when these essential advocates and their families are targeted by the government, the international community must speak out on their behalf.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: asylum, Barack Obama, Chen Guangcheng, Gao Zhisheng, Hu Jintao, Li Keqiang, reform, rights lawyers, rule of law, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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Kunming PX Plant: A p-Xylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) processing plant is planned for the Anning Industrial Park [zh]. Anning County is located within Kunming Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Plans to build PX plants have been thwarted by concerned citizens throughout China over the past few years, notably in 2007 in Wuxi and last fall in Ningbo.

Clockwise from top right: Mao Zedong, Hu Jintao, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin. (artist unknown)

• Anning+PX (安宁+PX)
• Kunming+PX (昆明+PX)
• boycott PX (抵制PX)

Xi Jinping:
• boss Xi (习boss)
• Xi+Peng (习+彭): Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan
• Xi+first lady (习+国母)
• Xi+fake (习+假): We are unsure why this is blocked. Reader tips welcome.
• Xi+king (习+王): As in “Crown Prince Xi” (习王储), etc.
• Xi+Jiang (习+江): Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin
• Xi+Li (习+李): Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang
• Xi+chief (习+总)

Other:
• hu+wen: Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.
• nine presidents (九总统): Refers to the nine members of the outgoing Politburo Standing Committee (PSC); the number of PSC members has been reduced to seven.

In addition, the terms below have been blocked from Sina Weibo search results as of March 22:

• Huangpu River+dead pigs (黄浦江+死猪): Over 15,000 pig carcasses have been fished out of the Huangpu, the source of more than 20% of Shanghai’s water.
• Peng Liyuan+similar items (彭丽媛+同款): Netizens chatted eagerly about the overcoat Peng wore on her first trip as first lady. “Similar terms” is a search term on the shopping site Taobao; sellers listed her coat, complete with photos of her on the tarmac in Moscow [zh].
• first lady+similar items (第一夫人+同款)
• Auntie Peng (彭阿姨)
• Mrs. Xi (习夫人): retested
• Xi+old (习+老): As in Elder Brother Xi (习老大) Boss Xi (习老板), etc.
• Jiang faction (江派): Party leaders with allegiance to Jiang Zemin, such as Xi.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words posts (March 24 and March 22).

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Post tags: Anning, censorship, Hu Jintao, Internet censorship, Jiang Zemin, Kunming, Kunming PX, Li Keqiang, Ministry of Truth, Peng Liyuan, PX, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping, Yunnan
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Leadership Transition:

• Tao-Bao (涛宝): Playing on the name of the online shopping site Taobao, this is a term of endearment for Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. See the “prime minister and chairman edit” of Fish Leong‘s “Sadly, It’s Not You” below.
• Chief Xi (席总): 席 Xí sounds the same as 习 Xí, as in Xi Jinping.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chengdu Construction Woes: Chengdu Party Secretary Huang Xinchu has undertaken major construction in the city, snarling traffic, stirring up dust, and irking residents.
• Digger Huang (黄挖挖): A nickname for Huang Xinchu. Coincidentally, “Digger Huang” (黄挖挖 Huáng Wāwā) sounds similar to “Baby Huang” (黄娃娃 Huáng Wáwa).
• Huang WW (黄WW)
• Huang Xinchu + end class (黄新初+下课): Netizens are complaining about Huang; some hope he will “leave the classroom” and step down from his post.
• Pengzhou + petrochemical industry (彭州+石化): An oil refinery project is already complete in nearby Pengzhou.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

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Post tags: censorship, Chengdu, Chengdu PX, Hu Jintao, Huang Xinchu, Internet censorship, leadership transition, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, taobao, weibo, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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The Siumut party in Greenland, led by Aleqa Hammond, has just won 42% of the vote, allowing it to form a coalition government in place of the current ruling party led by Kleist.

[…] Hammond, 47, who was educated in Canada and brought up with traditional skills such as curing seal skins, said she would take a more critical look at Chinese mining investments in Greenland. She also pledged to increase royalties on miners and ensure they talked through staffing plans with trade unions.

“We are welcoming companies and countries that are interested in investing in Greenland,” she said in her first interview since the election. “At the same time we have to be aware of the consequences as a people. Greenland should work with countries that have the same values as we have, on how human rights should be respected. We are not giving up our values for investors’ sake.”

The election result may be a short-term setback in a long-term game, however. From Reuters:

When asked about how much Greenland could make in revenues from oil, Greenland’s [now ousted] mining and petroleum minister Ove Karl Berthelsen replied, “Oil? We have to find it first.”

“People say mining has almost started,” Finance Minister Maliina Abelsen told Reuters. “It is a lot more difficult than that. This is not the best investment climate for finance. I worry expectations may be too high.”

[…] That said, Greenland’s long-term promise remains alluring.

[…] Damien Degeorges, founder of the Arctic Policy and Economic Forum, say few countries could afford to be complacent.

“Greenland is a long-term strategy,” Degeorges said. “Like the Arctic, it will not be some 10-year fashion that will go away. You cannot take the risk of not being there.”

Another sign of China’s growing Arctic presence came this week with the news that the country’s first commercial voyage through the northeast passage over Eurasia is expected later in the year. This will follow in the wake of the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon) and 45 other vessels which made the trip in 2012. From Alister Doyle at Reuters:

For China, the world’s No. 2 economy after the United States, the route would save time and money. The distance from Shanghai to Hamburg is 2,800 nautical miles (5,185 kms) shorter via the Arctic than via the Suez Canal, Yang said.

[…] Yang showed delegates at a conference about the Arctic in Oslo organised by The Economist magazine longer-term scenarios under which between five and 15 percent of China’s international trade, mostly container traffic, would use the route by 2020.

[…] “We see a potential there but it will not be the new Suez Canal,” said Christian Bonfils, managing director of Denmark-based Nordic Bulk Carriers which sent 10 ships through the route in 2012 carrying products such as iron ore.

“You will not see a boom in the construction of ice-class vessels – the season is too short,” he said of a shipping season that lasts from about July to November, referring to ships needing specially hardened hulls.

See more on prospects for Arctic shipping at chinadialogue and Foreign Policy.

Greenland’s voters are not the only ones perturbed by the possible side-effects of a gold rush in the warming Arctic. At The New York Times this week, the University of California’s Paul Arthur Berkman expressed concern that competition over newly accessible resources might get out of hand:

Several countries, along with corporations like ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, are preparing to exploit the region’s enormous oil and natural gas reserves. New shipping routes will compete with the Panama and Suez Canals. Vast fisheries are being opened to commercial harvesting, without regulation. Coastal areas that are home to indigenous communities are eroding into the sea. China and the European Union are among non-Arctic governments rushing to assert their interests in the region. Some states have increased military personnel and equipment there.

The most fundamental challenge for the Arctic states is to promote cooperation and prevent conflict. Both are essential, but a forum for achieving those goals does not yet exist.

The closest such forum to date is the Arctic Council, comprising Canada, Denmark (representing Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. But the council concerns itself with economic and environmental issues, not security. China, like the E.U., South Korea and Japan, is now pursuing a seat at the table as a permanent observer to cement its status as a “near-Arctic nation”. From Einar Benediktsson and Thomas R. Pickering at The New York Times:

Although China has not stated an official policy on the Arctic, it is not likely to support the unilateral decisions of the Arctic Council. The polar sea route is of major importance to the world’s leader in manufacturing. And China has made a major effort in recent years to acquire access to mineral and energy resources in many parts of the world. Chinese public institutes and scholars have maintained that Arctic maritime routes and seabed riches should be for the use of all mankind.

China has also begun to court Iceland to help get access to the Arctic Council. Last year, Iceland was the first stop on an official European tour by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and a large Chinese delegation. And when the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong paid a call on Iceland, the crew was received by President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson at his residence. The colossus China and tiny Iceland, half a world apart, are now discussing a bilateral free-trade agreement.

[…] In short, China is reaching out for a position in the Arctic, beginning in Greenland, followed by support facilities in Iceland — which is not a member of the European Union and seemingly has been put out in the cold by the United States — with potential use for naval vessels patrolling the Arctic and the Northeast Polar Passage.

But a report published last November by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute played down China’s Arctic ambitions. Tom Levitt summed up its findings at chinadialogue:

China’s primary interest, with no sovereign rights in the region, is in access to shorter shipping routes for food and resource security, but there is also a secondary objective, namely China’s quest to be seen as a major power, says the SIPRI.

[…] However, in comparison to Antarctica, the Arctic is of limited importance to Chinese officials, with just one-fifth of China’s polar resources devoted to the Arctic, says the report.

What’s more, it points to China’s uneasy relationship with Norway, an Arctic Council member and world leader in deep-sea and cold-climate drilling technology, in recent years. If the Arctic were a priority for China it would not have upheld punitive measures against Norway for more than two years, says the report.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arctic, Arctic Council, european union, Greenland, iceland, minerals, mining, norway, oil, Panama, rare earth elements, shipping, Suez, United States, Wen Jiabao
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As of March 15, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).

National People’s Congress:

• dissenting vote (反对票): One delegate voted against Xi Jinping in the presidential election, held at the Congress. Global Voices reports on netizen reactions.
• predict + leaders (预测+领导人): see Netizen Voices: At NPC, Nail-Biter of an Election.
• predict + chairman (预测+主席)
• predict + prime minister (预测+总理)
• lifetime achievement award (终身成就奖): A jab at outgoing prime minister Wen Jiabao.
• power + handover (权力+交接)
• Hu-Xi (胡习): Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping
• Xi-Hu (习胡)

Retested:

• Xi-Li (习李): Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Hu Jintao, Internet censorship, Li Keqiang, Ministry of Truth, NPC 2013, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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Follow the latest news from the Two Sessions here.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangbiao, Hu Jintao, Jia Qinglin, leadership transition, Mao Xinyu, NPC 2013, photo gallery, PM2.5, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping, yao ming
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- Changchun + ban (长春+禁令): Following the tragic murder of a two-month-old boy in Changchun, Jilin Province, a censorship notice to local media leaked on Weibo. Tea Leaf Nation has reported the story and translated the notice.
- Changchun + reporting requirements (长春+报道要求)
- succeed (接班)
- Wen Jiabao + leave office (温家宝+卸任)
- Wen + ten years (温+十年)
- govern + ten years (执政+十年)
- see off the god Wen (送温神)
- the god of plague (瘟神): “The god of plague” (瘟神 wēnshén) sounds the same as “the god Wen” (温神).
- Commun-x Party (X产党): The letter X substitutes for the first character in “Communist Party” (共产党 Gòngchǎndǎng). Other sarcastic references to the Party, such as “Commu-kidding Party” (哄产党 Hòngchǎndǎng) and “Commun-dam Party” (垬产党 Hóngchǎndǎng), are already blocked.

Retested: one-party dictatorship (一党独裁): “Dictatorship” (独裁) was recently unblocked.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, NPC 2013, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Wen Jiabao
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“We are keenly aware that we still face many difficulties and problems,” Wen told almost 3,000 delegates in his final report to the National People’s Congress in Beijing today. He set an economic growth target of 7.5 percent for this year, unchanged from 2012, and an inflation goal of 3.5 percent.

Those achievements have come at the cost of surging inequality, environmental degradation and growing financial risks, challenges that he leaves for incoming Premier Li Keqiang.

“There are also many problems Wen left behind, and the new leaders are to face and tackle,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. They include “the risk of a property bubble, significantly increased local government debt, income equality and worsening pollution,” said Zhang, who previously worked for the International Monetary Fund.

Wen has promoted an image of a grandfatherly figure who is in touch with the people’s problems. In his final months in office, he has expressed regret for not accomplishing more while in office, and has also spoken out in favor of political reform and against corruption – even while being the subject of an investigative probe by U.S. media. From the New York Times:

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, well known for baring his emotions in public, has displayed a blend of defeatism and defensiveness as he winds down his decade in office. During a visit last month to a Muslim neighborhood here, Mr. Wen lamented that he “fell short in some tasks” to improve people’s livelihoods. “In my heart I feel guilty and constantly blame myself,” he said.

But his most intriguing comments have touched on corruption. During a cabinet meeting last month, he said that even among top officials, “abuse of power, trading power for cash, and collusion between officialdom and commerce continue unabated.” And in a vague mea culpa before a group of overseas Chinese in Thailand late last year, Mr. Wen admitted to unidentified failings but defended his integrity by paraphrasing an ancient Chinese statesman said to have taken his own life to protest imperial corruption. “In the pursuit of truth, I would die nine times without regret,” he said.

With his retirement looming at the end of the annual meeting of China’s legislature that begins Tuesday, Mr. Wen, 70, has been struggling to push through economic changes and to shore up his image as a frugal populist and one of the few Communist Party leaders to champion political reform, even if that push has come to naught. But he has also been pressing hard to clear his name, particularly in the months since The New York Times published accounts of the way his immediate family had become extraordinarily rich during his time in high office.

But Wen has also been called “China’s greatest actor” by critics. The South China Morning Post looks at these two sides of Wen’s legacy:

Professor Liu Kang, a China-watcher and director of Duke University’s China study programme, said Wen had been working hard to cement two legacies – as “a political reformer” and “a people’s premier”.

Wen called for political reform in a series of speeches in recent years, mostly during trips overseas, appearing more like a dissident or a human rights campaigner than a communist leader by saying that “democracy, rule of law, freedom and human rights are shared values pursued by humanity over the long course of history, the products of a common civilisation”.

Critics accuse him of using his last two years in office to cultivate his public image before retirement – or deliberately playing the role of an outspoken reformer in an effort to balance the communist leadership’s conservative image.

But sympathisers say Wen has really represented a dissenting voice within the top leadership because many other members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee have argued the opposite on countless occasions.

His final work report also received mixed reviews on Chinese social media, according to the BBC:

Wu Tianzheng says on Sina Weibo: “Premier Wen’s last report made it clear that urbanisation is part of the modernisation drive, and that it would help the reform of the registration card system. It’s a good proposal, but it was not implemented during his last five years in government; Now that he is retiring, who will carry it through?”

On Tencent Weibo, Hu Zhihai posts that economic increases have “only benefitted the corrupt officials; ordinary people are still poor, some dying in garbage bins, or under the bridge; many can’t afford to go to school or buy houses. Please save these people.”

Liu Jianqiang, a magazine editor, is pleased that the speech referred to pollution issues. “He [Wen Jiabao] says let people see hope from our actions – very impressive; but I feel that hope is fading, now even soil has become a state secret. People know nothing.”

Read more about Wen Jiabao, via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: economic growth rates, NPC 2013, political reform, Wen Jiabao
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“Representation by unelected delegates is rape.”

National People’s Congress:
- sand c**t + Beijing (沙逼+北京): Beijing was battered by a sandstorm last week, earning a nickname that plays on the curse “stupid c**t” (傻逼 shǎ bī): “sand c**t” (沙逼 shā bī).
- Two Sessions + shock (两会+雷人): “Shocking” images from the National People’s Congress are making the rounds online. See these photo galleries (1, 2) from CDT Chinese [zh]. (Together with the People’s Consultative Congress, these annual gatherings are known as the “Two Sessions.”)
- Five Do-Nots (五不搞): Do not make a system in which multiple parties govern in turn; do not diversify guiding ideologies; do not “separate the three powers” and create a bicameral system; do not federalize; do not privatize.
- Three Above-Alls (三个至上): Service to the Party above all; the interests of the people above all; constitution and laws above all.
- movie star + take a curtain call (影帝+谢幕): After delivering his “government work report” yesterday, outgoing prime minister Wen Jiabao bowed three times and took a “curtain call” in response to applause. Exiled writer Yu Jie described Wen as a movie star in his 2010 book China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao.
- three bows (三鞠躬)
- movie star + wen (影帝+wen)
- Wen Jiabao + housing prices (温家宝+房价): People are grumbling about the 20% tax recently added to the sale of previously owned homes. A number of netizens attribute the ever-rising price of housing to the failure Wen’s policies over the past decade.

Other:
- defend freedom of the press (捍卫新闻自由)
- suppression of public opinion (舆论钳制)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, NPC 2013, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Wen Jiabao
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On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal revealed that it, too, has suffered attacks focused on its coverage of China. From Siobhan Gorman, Devlin Barrett and Danny Yadron:

In the most recent incident, the Journal was notified by the FBI of a potential breach in the middle of last year, when the FBI came across data that apparently had come from the computer network in the Journal’s Beijing bureau, people familiar with the incident said.

[…] Among the targets were a handful of journalists in the Beijing bureau, including Jeremy Page, who wrote articles about the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in a scandal that helped bring down Chinese politician Bo Xilai, people familiar with the matter said. Beijing Bureau Chief Andrew Browne also was a target, they said.

[…] “Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal’s coverage of China and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information,” Paula Keve, a spokeswoman for Journal publisher Dow Jones, said in a written statement Thursday. Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp.

The Times noted that Bloomberg News had also been attacked following its investigation of Xi Jinping’s family last year, and that security firm Mandiant had compiled a list of other targeted journalists. The Globe and Mail’s Mark MacKinnon added on Twitter that a 2011 intrusion into his own computer had also been aimed at “specific China-related files”. Numerous other targets have been identified elsewhere; in fact, wrote Adam Segal of the Council on Foreign Relations, the “sweeping cyber espionage campaign […] appears endemic”. From Foreign Policy:

As with many cases of cyber espionage, the break-in is assumed to have started with a spear-phishing email, a socially engineered message containing malware attachments or links to hostile websites. In the case of the attack on the security firm RSA in 2011, for example, an email with the subject line “2011 Recruitment Plan” was sent with an attached Excel file. Opening the file downloaded software that allowed attackers to gain control of the user’s computers. They then gradually expanded their access and moved into different computers and networks.

[…] Evidence that the hackers are China-based in all of these cases is suggestive, but not conclusive. Some of the code used in the attacks was developed by Chinese hacker groups and the command and control nodes have been traced back to Chinese IP addresses. Hackers are said to clock in in the morning Beijing time, clock out in the afternoon, and often take vacation on Chinese New Year and other national holidays. But attacks can be routed through many computers, malware is bought and sold on the black market, groups share techniques, and one of the cherished clichés of hackers is that they work weird hours.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence has been the type of information targeted. The emails and documents of the office of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan activists, defense industries, foreign embassies, journalists, and think tanks are not easily monetized and so would apparently have little attraction to criminal hackers. The information contained in them would be of much greater interest to the Chinese government.

Graham Cluley at Sophos’ Naked Security blog summed up the attribution debate:

Security experts brought in by the newspaper have pointed the finger of blame at China. And, in all likelihood, they’re right.

However, it must be remembered that it is extremely difficult to prove who is behind an internet attack like this. That’s because it’s so easy to use compromised computers around the world to route attacks through – disguising the true origin.

Of course, even if China is identified as the starting point of an attack – it doesn’t necessarily prove that it the operation is backed by the Chinese government or intelligence services. It could just as easily be a patriotic group of skilled, independent Chinese hackers upset with how the Western media is portraying their country’s rulers.

But let’s not be too naive… In all probability, the New York Times’s conclusion is correct, and this attack was sanctioned by the powers that be in Beijing.

NPR’s Neal Conan raised a third possibility: that the campaign might have been initiated privately by a member of Wen’s family, to investigate the investigation.

According to The Times report, the organization’s Symantec anti-virus software detected only one of 45 pieces of intruding malware. Symantec would not comment for the article itself, but in a later statement suggested that the newspaper had simply not bought enough of its products:

“Advanced attacks like the ones the New York Times described in the following article, (http://nyti.ms/TZtr5z), underscore how important it is for companies, countries and consumers to make sure they are using the full capability of security solutions. The advanced capabilities in our endpoint offerings, including our unique reputation-based technology and behavior-based blocking, specifically target sophisticated attacks. Turning on only the signature-based anti-virus components of endpoint solutions alone are not enough in a world that is changing daily from attacks and threats. We encourage customers to be very aggressive in deploying solutions that offer a combined approach to security. Anti-virus software alone is not enough.”

While some dissected the NYT attack itself, others pondered its broader significance. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos viewed it in light of Xi Jinping’s professed crusade against official corruption:

The timing of all this is significant for anyone interested in the prospect of reform: this attack has unfolded at the very moment that the new Chinese leadership, under Xi Jinping, has pledged to root out corruption before it destroys the Party. Xi has been making so many gestures of reform that he has persuaded some longtime China-watchers to take him seriously.

[…] The renewed commitment to combating corruption isn’t looking as sincere. On the contrary, this case feels like déjà vu for the Times: in 2004, the Chinese government detained the Times researcher Zhao Yan, accusing him of leaking state secrets. As evidence, the investigators cited a photocopy of one of Zhao’s handwritten notes; the Times pointedly noted, “questions remain about how security agents obtained a copy of the note. One possibility is that agents entered The Times’s Beijing bureau without permission.”

This time, the newspaper claims, the intruders have been exorcised, and no sensitive data was taken. The Times has always maintained that the Wen exposé was based on public records, not human sources. Nevertheless, some feared, the recent episode might raise doubts about its ability to protect such sources in future. At Slate, Farhad Manjoo suggested that a deterrent effect might even have been one of the attackers’ goals:

The most important outcome here might be the chilling effect: Now that a Chinese attack on the New York Times is international news, any dissident or potential whistle-blower in China will be wary of talking to journalists at the paper—or, for that matter, all journalists.

In other words, the hack worked. […]

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, computer security, cyberattacks, cybersecurity, Dalai Lama, hackers, hacking, journalism, Neil Heywood, new york times, news media, newspapers, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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Investigators still do not know how hackers initially broke into The Times’s systems. They suspect the hackers used a so-called spear-phishing attack, in which they send e-mails to employees that contain malicious links or attachments. All it takes is one click on the e-mail by an employee for hackers to install “remote access tools” — or RATs. Those tools can siphon off oceans of data — passwords, keystrokes, screen images, documents and, in some cases, recordings from computers’ microphones and Web cameras — and send the information back to the attackers’ Web servers.

[…] The attackers were particularly active in the period after the Oct. 25 publication of The Times article about Mr. Wen’s relatives, especially on the evening of the Nov. 6 presidential election. That raised concerns among Times senior editors who had been informed of the attacks that the hackers might try to shut down the newspaper’s electronic or print publishing system. But the attackers’ movements suggested that the primary target remained Mr. Barboza’s e-mail correspondence.

“They could have wreaked havoc on our systems,” said Marc Frons, the Times’s chief information officer. “But that was not what they were after.”

What they appeared to be looking for were the names of people who might have provided information to Mr. Barboza.

I would like to apologize to the NYT computer support folks I snapped at after they reset my password without warning nytimes.com/2013/01/31/tec…

— John Schwartz — NYT (@jswatz) January 31, 2013

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cyberattacks, cybersecurity, hackers, hacking, journalism, new york times, news media, newspapers, Wen Jiabao
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