English language blogs are reporting on the closure of the Chinese language version of the China Development Brief, which monitors the work of foreign NGOs and aid groups working in China. From the Time China blog:
Authorities in Beijing last week moved to close a publication that covers foreign aid and nongovernmental organizations, its founder said today. Nick Young, a British national who established the China Development Brief in 1996, says the newsletter’s Chinese-language edition was ordered to cease publishing and he faces possible deportation. “My hope is that these actions have been precipitated by zealous security officers,” he says, “and that more senior figures in the government and Communist Party will realize that actions of this kind are not in China’s best interest.” [Full text]
See also a post from China Rises about this closure and an increase in pressure on foreign journalists. Newspapers have also picked up the story:
From Middle East Times:
Chinese police have shut down a Beijing-based Internet news site that counted the World Bank, UN agencies, and a host of foreign aid groups as clients, its British founder said Wednesday. The China Development Brief was told to end its operations July 4 as it was in violation of laws regarding the carrying out of social surveys, founding editor Nick Young said.
“I was formally told that I’m in breach of the law and that any further postings on the site would be in breach of the law,” Young said. “I’ve been told clearly that almost any conversation I have with a Chinese person can be construed as conducting a survey, and any comment posted on the site could violate the law.” [Full Text]
See also: China bans influential NGO newsletter from Guandian Unlimited.
