… [State] media outlets began referring to Gadhafi in disparaging terms not seen before. As recently as late August, Gadhafi had been portrayed in relatively complimentary terms as a “Middle Eastern strongman” who defied Western threats and pressure. On Friday, however, the Web sites of both the official Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily newspaper ran photos of him, including those of his corpse, alongside side captions describing him as insane.

“The death of Gadhafi concludes the Middle East’s era of madmen,” people.com.cn said, while xinhuanet.com wrote simply, “The Middle Eastern madman Gadhafi.”

Yang Hengjun, meanwhile, bade farewell to Gadhafi’s rule at China Media Project, and argued that his fate was inevitable in the end for all autocracies:

One-hundred years ago, perhaps 90 percent of nations on earth were ruled by despots who relied on military might. Fifty years ago, such countries represented less than 50 percent of the total. And today, less than 10 percent of nations in the world are under autocratic rule.

I would argue that against this historical tide, one could write a “goodbye” essay about any despot and then sit around waiting for their undoing. The people won’t keep you waiting long, and history won’t disappoint you.

… As tyranny goes against human nature and public feeling, regardless of how splendid things seem on the surface, no matter how much rulers whitewash reality and employ machines of propaganda to inspire a glorious image of public loyalty and love, it will all unavoidably come crashing down, and this will happen faster than anyone can expect it.

See also China’s calls for an “inclusive political process” in the wake of Gadhafi’s death, via CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arab Spring, autocracy, dictatorship, Libya, middle east, people's daily, Xinhua, Yang Hengjun
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Emperor Yongzheng’s suppression of Lü Liuliang’s writings under an invidious system of censorship only spurred more critical reflection on authority devoid of moral suasion

Lü Liuliang, a well-known anti-Manchurian intellectual once said the silence of scholars and officials not only enabled but enacted the abuse of power, and that such scholars also fail in their responsibility to society by not seeking a superior truth ….

[Governor] Mai was worried that beating Tang to death would attract unnecessary public attention. He claimed Tang died of illness in prison, and implied that even God could not tolerate his unfaithfulness. But the truth of Tang’s death soon spread. He had died of suffocation in jail, his body crushed by the placement of sandbags on his chest.

But a year later, Qi Zhouhua, a scholar from Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, wrote to the emperor to voice grievances over Lü’s case …. Similar to Tang, he wanted to rectify the Lü family’s story. And in like turn, the local government also accused Qi of insanity, jailing him for years. In 1767, Qi was executed under the reign of Emperor Qianlong. Among Qi’s personal belongings was Tang’s essay on Zhuge, and along with it, the public exoneration of Tang.

See also posts on punitive hospitalisation for supposed mental illness (“According to one Chinese human-rights NGO, petitioners are ‘today’s most frequent victims of psychiatric abuse.’”) and the recent “illnesses” of Li Tiantian and Yang Hengjun (fortunately less terminal than Tang Sungao’s), via CDT.

At The Useless Tree, meanwhile, Sam Crane looks at the less-than-Confucian reality of Han Dynasty rule and its modern parallels, with reference to Michael Nylan and Thomas Wilson’s “Lives of Confucius: Civilization’s Greatest Sage Through the Ages”:

Looks like The Master was a useful puppet for powerholders, with little real political impact on statecraft. Rulers used “Confucian” priciples when it served their interests, and ignored them when convenient.

And that brings us to the contemporary revival of Confucianism. The past tells us that powerful centralized states in China have been able to present themselves as “Confucian,” without living up to Confucian ideals. They have been “Confucian” only in their words, not their deeds. Of course, this does not mean that there were no individuals who conscientiously enacted Confucian teachings – there were plenty of them. But “Confucianism” (whatever basket of principles and ideas that term might connote) was not the “supreme doctirne of state.” I suspect Legalism had more influence on day to day political decision-making…

And that could be a model for the Chinese Communist Party. It can encourage the revival of Confucianism, wrap itself, when useful, in a shroud of Confucian legitimacy (perhaps the robes are available at your local Confucius Institute), but not really adhere to a consistent or coherent Confucian ideology in terms of actual policy and politics. It worked for the Han, maybe it can work for the CCP.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCP, censorship, Confucianism, Han Dynasty, hospitals, psychiatry, qing dynasty, Yang Hengjun
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Perhaps everyone knew that this day would come, and the day did come on that day. In the aftermath, there are a couple of points we should think about: Who is it that made everyone believe that a patriotic writer, calm and moderate, who writes stories and reasons things out would eventually come to such a day? Why is it that no one actually supposed that I might have been “kidnapped” by criminals who wanted to hold me for ransom, sold out by traitorous “friends,” possibly suffered a fallout with a business partner, or even maybe even a jealous lover? In a country in which they say a socialist system of rule of law has been fully built, how is it that the rational line of thought for the Chinese media leads them directly to the government in a “kidnapping” case so that they maintain a shameless and numb distance?

Think about the Qian Yunhui case (钱运会), think about the recent hoarding of salt, think about my “kidnapping” case. How is it that they all come to the same point? What I want to say is that the role I have played all along, and will continue to play, is the role of the calm intermediary, connecting the past and the future, connecting domestic [China] to the outside world. Calmly, and progressing step by step, I want to build our nation into a harmonious and stable one, strong and prosperous, a modernized nation that is free and democratic.

The goal isn’t asking too much. And on some level every citizen should take responsibility for realizing this goal. But I don’t want to shoulder that cold and serious joke I hear at every meeting: How is it that you haven’t been arrested yet?

Having been through this experience, I have added another dream. I dream that when I silently take my leave of you all, you will sigh and exclaim, “He’s tired, let him rest. We don’t need him anymore.” I hope when word comes that I’ve been “kidnapped,” our [foreign ministry] spokesperson and government will say, “We can’t lose a single citizen!” I dream that disappearances and missing persons in this country of ours happen because someone is ill, or because their mobile phone ran out of juice. I dream . .

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, dissidents, Yang Hengjun
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“Friends, this afternoon I was finally able to contact Dr Yang. He is recovering: this has all been a misundertanding, and he will able to get online in the coming two days. He asked me to wish everyone well, and express his gratitude for everyone’s concern and his regret for the trouble this has caused.”

This message was left by an assistant on Yang Hengjun’s Twitter account on Wednesday. Other reports, however, suggest that the Chinese-Australian writer, who appears to have been detained since Sunday, remains in custody, but may soon be freed. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

HOPES remain that Australian writer Yang Hengjun could be released and a diplomatic crisis averted, after he told a close confidant yesterday they would meet face-to-face “within days” ….

Dr Yang’s phone was switched on yesterday, although it mostly rang unanswered, and he told several friends and relatives he was in hospital but otherwise was fine. Sources close to Dr Yang expressed hope he would not be pushed through China’s capricious legal system, noting that his messages were carefully worded and possibly designed as an attempt by security officials to execute a face-saving backdown ….

Yesterday the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Dr Yang had been in contact with his family and it also reminded Beijing the consular agreement between both countries requires notification of any detention within three days.

That period is presumed to have begun shortly after he phoned a friend to say he was being followed on Sunday afternoon, and would have ended late yesterday.

Elsewhere, the Herald reported the Australian government’s reaction to Yang’s situation:

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says Dr Yang’s circumstances remain unclear.

“We are aware Dr Yang spoke to his family on 30 March, 2011 to say he was well,” a DFAT spokesperson said.

“We are seeking urgently to speak to him directly to confirm his situation.” …

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is yet to comment on the case. But government backbencher Michael Danby says Dr Yang’s apparent detention was “unacceptable”….

“We’re getting a bit sick and tired in this country of Australian citizens being arrested by the Chinese state.

“It’s very contemptuous and it’s actually provocative before the prime minister arrives there.”

The Associated Press spoke to Feng Chongyi, a friend of Yang’s and associate professor of China Studies at Sydney’s University of Technology:

Feng said one of his students in Guangzhou was able to phone Yang on Wednesday. Yang told the student he was in a hospital but was healthy and had been out of contact because his cellphone ran out of power.

“We have a very bizarre situation now,” Feng said.

“It’s my guess that the authorities just want the situation to calm down and then will let him walk away, but he has to deny that he was held by authorities until he leaves China,” he added ….

Feng said he had been unable to contact Yang from Sydney by phone but had been told by the student of the contact by email. The Associated Press was also unable to contact Yang by phone Wednesday.

A New York Times article includes accounts from two friends who had been able to speak to Yang:

One friend, Li Huizhi, wrote that Mr. Yang had said everything was “a misunderstanding.” Another friend, Wu Jiaxiang, told Reuters that Mr. Yang coughed a few times.

“It’s impossible for me to say whether Yang was really in the hospital,” he said.

March 31 Update: The AP spoke with Yang Hengjun by phone, during which he provided few details on his whereabouts for the previous two days:

In a brief phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Yang Hengjun also said he is recovering but declined to elaborate. He expressed thanks to the public and the Australian government for their concern.

“I’m OK right now. Everything is OK. I’m just recovering,” he said. “This trouble is caused by me.”

Yang, who sounded flustered but relieved, said he is heading to Hong Kong on Saturday and then back home to Australia.

Though Yang gave no details during his phone call, he posted a longer explanation on Twitter late Thursday night.

“Due to personal reasons, on the night of March 27, I temporarily lost contact with family and friends for more than 50 hours, creating a great disturbance. I deeply apologize,” he wrote in Chinese.

See also: Yang Hengjun Free? (And Who Is He?) on CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Australia, detention, Guangzhou, Yang Hengjun
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When asked about his detention, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jiang Yu claimed “I have not heard of that person”. In response, China Media Project offered an introduction:

A former diplomat, [Yang] saw democracy at work in the Western world, and he [eventually] became a lively and acute advocate of universal values. He is also a writer of spy fiction. He use of a vivid and popular style of writing earned him admirers among a wide range of readers, including Party officials and rural workers. A group of migrant workers even established their own Yang Hengjun reading group.

When Yang Hengjun started writing his blog, people felt there was something mysterious about him. A man in his forties, and no one has any idea where he comes from, and here he is writing a blog about military affairs, national security and politics. Moreover, it was said he had written international spy fiction. For a time, opinions were widely divided. Some said that he’s one of our own, after all. Others speculated that he must be a spy.

There’s no question that Yang Hengjun is a strange one. “That’s right, I used to work inside the [Chinese] system. I was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for twenty years, and I also worked in politics and law and other systems. Professional ethics demand I keep quiet about exactly what I did at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But what does writing a blog have to do with what I did in the past? I have a friends who are policeman, national security guys and foreign ministry people about the ministerial level, and they write blogs too. They too write their suggestions as citizens, and their ideas are much like mine. It’s just that no-one reads them.”

The post at CMP also includes a reading list of ten translations of Yang’s work. ChinaGeeks, meanwhile, has posted a translation of journalist Zhang Wen’s reaction to Yang’s detention:

On March 28, when I saw this news on the net, I was shocked; I truly couldn’t believe my eyes. On the 26th, I had met up with him and had a chat. In the past, I recommended his book “Jiaguo Tianxia”, and he had agreed to give me a signed copy and present it to me when he got to Beijing this trip.

During the meal [on the 26th], Dr. Xu Zhiyong, mentioned lawyer Teng Biao had been taken away [by police], and everyone felt very sad. Only brother [Yang] Hengjun was still smiling and trying to console us. Who could have known that just the next day, it would be his turn to “have an accident.”

Thinking about that now, it’s really hard to focus. After the lunch ended, we all went our separate ways. I went to Houhai to meet up with some family and have a little fun. In the warm afternoon sun and spring breeze, I flipped idly through “Jiaguo Tianxia,” and I was moved again by the warm, loving, sincere, and powerful words.

The site also carries a translation of a recent blog post by Ran Yunfei, entitled “Domestic Microblogs Exist to Die in Battle”. Ran’s wife received notice that he had been formally charged with subversion on Monday.

The internet is a big gift from God to the human race, especially to China, but it’s a shame that when confronted with this rich and multi-faceted gift, many people are at a loss as to what to do. Because Chinese people have never received such a good gift, it has made some people lose all curiosity for digging out the gift, [as well as] all exploratory spirit, and all creativity. That is to say, after being enslaved for a long time, they have even lost all desire, confidence, toughness and strength to cast off their rotten shackles. This is the Chinese people’s grief. When facing the constant progression of the internet, some people’s eyes are seeing just as ignorantly and as powerlessly as before. There’s no harm in cautiously believing that the transformative effect that the internet has brought to Chinese society has only just begun, and the curtain has only just opened on the interaction between Twitter and domestic blogs. The best scene is yet to come.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Foreign Ministry, Ran Yunfei, Yang Hengjun
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Yang Hengjun, who retired from the Chinese Foreign Ministry to become a Sydney-based spy novelist, intellectual and blogger, has not been seen since phoning a colleague from Guangzhou airport on Sunday with news that he was being followed by three men.

If Dr Yang does not promptly reappear, then his name will be added to the list of challenges facing Julia Gillard when she arrives in Beijing next month for her first visit as prime minister.

Mr Yang is understood to carry an Australian passport. Others on her list of Chinese-Australians who have fallen foul of China’s capricious justice system include Matthew Ng, a successful entrepreneurs in China, and the iron ore salesman Stern Hu.

Read more by and about Yang Hengjun via CDT.

Ran Yunfei, another popular blogger and critic of the government, has been charged with subversion in Sichuan. From VOA:

Ran’s wife told VOA’s Mandarin service she received a copy of the formal charging documents Monday, and says they were dated last Friday. She said she will move quickly to hire a lawyer to defend her spouse, and expects formal court proceedings within two months.

Analysts say the formal charges allow police to continue their detention of the activist, while moving him closer to a criminal trial.

Ran, a 46-year-old writer, magazine editor and blogger from southwestern Sichuan province, has been an online presence in China for more than a decade. He was arrested five weeks ago in Chengdu, as police in Beijing and Shanghai moved to squelch protests called for by unidentified activists in Internet postings.

UPDATE: Yang Hengjun’s sister reportedly received a call from him in which he indicated that he had been taken by secret police. The Australian government has asked Beijing for information about his disappearance. From the Washington Post:

The Sydney-based spy novelist phoned an assistant Sunday from Guangzhou airport in southeastern China to say three men were following him, said his friend Feng Chongyi, Associate Professor in China Studies at the University of Technology in Sydney.

Yang was later able to briefly phone a sister in Guangzhou to say “he’s having a long chat with his old friends,” Feng said. This was a prearranged signal that Yang had been taken by the secret police, Feng said.

“I’m 100 percent sure that he was been taken away by the secret police,” said Feng, adding that the current crackdown on political expression in China was the reason.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating the disappearance.

In the Age, John Garnaut profiles Yang Hengjun and his work:

He watched how civil society and democracy worked in the West and wrote about how they could in China. ”The true wonder of America and other Western countries is that all their flaws and ills come from the facts that are exposed by their people and even the government itself,” he wrote.

Yang is a former Chinese diplomat and his classmates from Fudan University’s department of international relations are now spread through the bureaucracy and business. His most important teacher was Wang Huning, who now accompanies President Hu Jintao on every overseas trip.

These connections provided endless fodder for his fiction and sources for his views. And they partly explain the miracle of how he has been allowed to survive so long and attract the phenomenal following that he has on the Chinese-language internet.

Yang also stood at the centre of a network of writers, intellectuals and activists.

The China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group gives a rundown of all the lawyers who have been detained or harassed in recent weeks.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Australia, bloggers, Yang Hengjun
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The plagiarism case involving the well-known “leftist” scholar Wang Hui (汪晖) has made ripples in the press lately, and some academics in the West have stepped up to defend Mr. Wang. My own readers have written to me about this. Why, they ask, do Western academics rush to defend such a scholar?

I’ve read only a number of essays by Wang Hui. Nevertheless, I do have some understanding of scholars of Wang’s ilk. Scholars in China who have, like Mr. Wang, been branded with the label “left” tend to criticize Western democratic systems and universal values with an aptitude not greatly unlike that of Western academics. Their scholarship and pronouncements on such matters as “Chinese characteristics” and Chinese models have found some favor among Western academics [for whom such material provides fresh fodder]. As a result, many Western academics enjoy and “respect” these scholars on China’s “left”, and not without their reasons.

It only makes sense that Web users should have trouble separating truth from fact in the Wang Hui case, and that they should end up turning some things on their heads.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: China scholars, Wang Hui, Yang Hengjun
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This book is not even worth refuting.

Please do not understand this as my summary verdict [on this book]. Every year I read something like 120 different books, roughly half of which speak against democratic freedoms and universal values, including works of China’s angry youth like those “say NO” books and those “unhappy” books, and even tomes in which Americans refute the notion of democracy. But never have I come across a book like this one by internationally-known author John Naisbitt that I find so shallow and ignorant to the point of shamelessness.

…Allow me first to describe this book’s biggest distinguishing feature. The book gives greater attention and credence to the discussions, speeches and utterances of the three generations of top leaders since Deng Xiaoping than anything of comparable length [in the official CCP canon], including government work reports and People’s Daily. When I flipped through a few pages and noticed the liberal use of these names and references, I had the impression I was indeed reading a government work report.

I suppose that as a futurist, resorting to the use of the summaries and pledges of the top leaders who are most capable of determining China’s future is a practice beyond reproach. But let me emphasize that never in the last 20 years have a I read a book thicker with the names and utterances of China’s top leaders. In many cases, he writes about the pledges made by leaders as though they bear the hope and guarantee of China’s future. I’m sure that, as an American, Naisbitt is not so credulous about the plans and promises of his own country’s top leaders. So perhaps we should start by thanking him for the unwavering belief he has in China’s leaders!

Read more about China’s Megatrends via CDT.

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Post tags: John Naisbitt, views of China, Yang Hengjun
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Mr. Yang, whose outspoken writing on public affairs has earned him the title “democracy huckster” among Chinese Web users, said in a public talk at Hong Kong University’s Journalism & Media Studies Centre on March 10 that the Internet has offered “grassroots writers” in China an unprecedented opportunity to make their voices heard.

“Based on my understanding of China’s political situation, I can guarantee that if the Web did not exist I would not find a place to express what I wished to express,” Yang said. “The Internet offers much greater freedom.”

A former official in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the People’s Government of Hainan Province, Yang writes from personal experience — as an institutional insider and later as an outsider living overseas — to reflect on issues ranging from government corruption in China to the country’s long-term development.

His critical eye has not always made him popular at home.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, freedom of expression, Yang Hengjun
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With the Internet, the Chinese people have a platform for expression to expose the problems around us. So we began to change. This is not a case in which the overseas media began to misunderstand China and “distort” their reports on China. Rather, we understand our nation better and we become aware the inadequacy of the foreign media in achieving a full and in-depth understanding of China.

This is the biggest progress that I have seen in China. This progress came as a result of criticisms and not because of the effusive praises. The true wonder of America and other western countries is that all their flaws and ills come from the facts that are exposed by their people and even the government itself.

I have thought about the day when all the problems in China were dug out by the people themselves. We may not have become rich or strong overnight, and we still lag behind the west by a far distance. But we will catch up or even surpass them sooner or later. Let us now review the history of the People’s Republic of China over the last 30 years. We ask ourselves which advancement did not depend on the efforts (or even sacrifices) of Chinese people who dared to expose and criticize problems …?

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: criticism, foreign media, Yang Hengjun
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