The Guangdong party secretary has criticized the Hong Kong media for reporting on recent protests in the province, which have been blacked out in the mainland media. Lin Shusen told reporters that he doesn’t believe there has been an increase in the number of public protests and said, ‘It’s normal for people to go to the government to complain. That is a reflection of democracy. Hong Kong people are very fond of marches but we don’t want to be like Hong Kong.’ ” The full SCMP report is here (via: China Study Group).
Meanwhile, Wang Guangze, former editor of 21st Century Business Herald, was recently fired after he traveled to the US and gave a lecture on a college campus: “In his speech, Wang argued that despite tight controls by the authorities, the internet was reshaping the mainland’s political landscape and civil society. The World Wide Web, he argued, provided a forum for the emergence of independent voices and, in some instances, forced the authorities to respond to public outcry. He said that the authorities were adopting more sophisticated and subtle methods to punish independently minded intellectuals. ‘Although they do it subtly, they are cruel. I lost my job and I don’t know where my enemies are,’ he said. ” The full SCMP report is here.
