From Asia Times: Much has been made of signs that Chinese President Hu Jintao’s leadership of the Communist Party, the government and the armed forces would allow non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to flourish, as the party would realize that it needed to rely on civil-society groups. But on March 21, Chinese authorities ordered that all NGOs […]
From South China Morning Post, via AsiaMedia: Communist Party censors have acted over the rising tide of anti-Japanese sentiment nationwide, ordering all media to drop coverage of public protests against the Japanese government and companies. The ban was contained in an eight-point circular issued by the party’s Central Publicity Department. Apart from instructions to cool […]
From the Christian Science Monitor: In a surprisingly broad and deep targeting of thought and expression here, authorities across China have shut or drastically curtailed college Internet message boards – a powerful vehicle for free exchange, and one used far more by non-students than students… The crackdown is another phase of a broad and zealous […]
Courtesy of Asia Media, several new stories that highlight the challenges and opportunities facing the Chinese media: The Taipei Times covers two widely-reported instances of government censorship: the crackdown on university...
From the China Herald blog: A public register to co-sign a letter of protest against the recent restrictions on BBS’s to president Hu Jintao has been opened for signing. New entries are coming in very fast: while I signed up it passed the 1,400 threshold.
AP has written about protests against the recent crackdown on university BBS sites: Chinese censors scour Internet bulletin boards and blogs for sensitive material, and block access to violators. Sites that let the public post comments are told to censor themselves or face penalties. Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao says restrictions on bulletin boards are likely […]
Newsweek has published a brief article – including an interview with CDT’s Xiao Qiang – about reactions to the recent crackdown on university BBS sites: The clampdown, however, is only forcing China’s Netizens to become more innovative. Within hours of the Tsinghua protest, students had posted photographs on the Internet and bloggers had pasted them […]
ESWN has translated an excerpt of an open letter by writer Liu Xiaobo about the recent crackdown on university BBS sites. The original Chinese version is available on Boxun.
From Danwei, a summary of students’ online reactions to the new restrictions placed on university BBS sites: Other, cheekier students on the BBS in question – “Shui-Mu Qinghua,” abbreviated, in accordance with the heretical non-Pinyin romanization of the university’s name as ‘Tsinghua,’ as “SMTH” – have taken to using Chairman Mao quotations to title their […]
From the Washington Post, more coverage of the new restrictions on university BBS sites: The effort appears to have provoked a backlash among students. On Tuesday, one student disrupted a discussion at Beijing University to speak out against the new restrictions, kneeling and bowing several times when the moderator refused to call on him. The […]
ESWN has posted translations of a number of Chinese documents which are being circulated about the recent crackdown on university BBS sites, including explanations of the new policies from site administrators. The original documents are available on New Century Net. Update: ESWN has just added more translations on this topic here.
Still on the issue of university BBS restriction, from Global Voices Online: Improfile Chinese blogger Isaac Mao has been watching the latest crackdown on internet bulletin boards and website registration with great concern. I e-mailed him some questions which he was kind enough to answer: Rebecca: Up until now bulletin boards have remained the number-one […]
The South China Morning Post , via Asia Pacific Media Network, has reported on the restrictions placed on university BBS sites: From Sunday, chat room operators and bloggers will be held liable for any “objectionable content”. Sources said the Ministry of Education had also weighed in with a circular on strengthening “political thought” at universities, […]
(JUST UPDATED) From Sheng Cuihua’s email: From March 16, some of the most influential University BBS (Bulletin Board System) in China, including the one of Tsinghua University (smth.org), Peking University (ytht.org) and...
Students at Tsinghua University protest new BBS restrictions. More photos.
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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