Quotable Quotes - "While revolutionary leader Mao Zedong is the star of the film - and of most of the other TV shows and stage productions - the theme of 'Jianguo Daye", as China battles current day economic crisis and social unrest, is national unity."
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China goes Hollywood
China's 60th anniversary
AFP
Source - The Straits Times 28 September 2009
BEIJING - CHINA is going Hollywood for the communist state's 60th birthday. Dozens of films, TV mini-series and shows are hitting screen and stage, with a sweeping all-star epic taking the country by storm.
'Jianguo Daye' (The Founding of a Republic) is hard to miss. The film, which cost 30 million yuan (S$6.23 million) to make, is on a record 1,700 screens nationwide and Tinseltown-style ads are everywhere.
More than 170 of China's most beloved actors and directors - Zhang Ziyi, Chen Kaige, Jet Li and Jackie Chan, to name a few - lent their skills to the project, which was the brainchild of the king of Chinese cinema, Han Sanping.
While revolutionary leader Mao Zedong is the star of the film - and of most of the other TV shows and stage productions - the theme of 'Jianguo Daye", as China battles current day economic crisis and social unrest, is national unity.
The two-hour blockbuster tells the story of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - a coalition of 'democratic' parties, artists, scientists and intellectuals who voted to create the People's Republic.
Mr Han - the boss of China Film, the country's biggest movie producer and distributor - says he has created a new style of propaganda film, in which Mao and Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek are more realistic, human characters.
In one scene, we see Mao, the 'Great Helmsman' himself, completely drunk after a major battlefield victory.
While the film may draw older moviegoers wanting to relive the events of 1949, the stars have been recruited to lure younger viewers like 21-year-old student Fu Qiang, who raved about the film after a recent screening in Beijing.
'Every person in China should see this film,' he said.
'The most important thing is not the star power, really - even if that helps bring in the money. This film will boost a feeling of patriotism in China. Plus, it's a great way to celebrate National Day.' Wang Yu, a retiree in her 60s, said the film was 'truly authentic'.
'It shows how the revolution in China came to pass - it started out weak and gained strength - and explains the time when the Communist Party rallied the people to liberate the country,' she said. -- AFP
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ANOTHER PIECE OF PROPAGANDA
Controversial artist Ai Weiwei, whose work is often censured by the communist government, sees the film differently - as yet another piece of blatant propaganda by a regime that has hardly changed in six decades.
He suggested the stars - who were not paid for their work - had been pressured or felt obliged to take part, as otherwise 'they knew they would miss out on future opportunities'.
'The director (Han) is a very powerful man in the film industry. This nation has become more and more like a crime family - the Mafiosi control everything and so they can either make you or break you,' he told AFP in an interview.
No matter what the politics behind getting the film made, it is sure to be a massive hit.
Luisa Prudentino, an expert on Chinese cinema, says the 'Jianguo Daye' formula will be the model for future propaganda films.
'This allows the authorities to counter Hollywood's growing influence here by making blockbuster films that make money while also getting their message across to the masses in a more glamorous way,' she said.
The other major production on offer is 'Road to Revival", a two-and-a-half-hour Broadway-style musical that takes the audience on a journey from the Opium Wars to the present day, glorifying the re-emergence of China as a world power.
State television's main channel has also 'gone red' with 'Jiefang' (Liberation), a 50-part mini-series that tells the story of Mao's victory over the Nationalists, complete with bloody battle scenes. -- AFP
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
The media has and always been an instrument for manufacturing consent within the masses. Some (I hope some day soon, all of us will be, it's all a huge fog of war) are perceptive enough to see the forest for the trees, and Zhang Dali, China's 'first' graffiti artist has a good story to tell - how the pictures and reality tunnel he grew up with under the CCP's massive propaganda machine painted a very different reality of what should have been.
This is the story of how one man parted the fog and exposed how history had been re-written by agendas.
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Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
Source and Photos: Global Times 23 August 2009
By Peng Yining
Zhu De, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai salute the first PLA national sports meet in 1952. The bottom photo was published in Selected Photographs of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The altered version appeared in People's Pictorial of 1977.
Zhang Dali realized he had been living in a distorted world for many years. The world he had believed in collapsed, history all a great big lie.
He began collecting the old news photos in 2004, going to archives to find the original negatives and then comparing them with the published versions: shabby old houses transformed into multi-story buildings where residents were leading the good life, bonus pigs pasted beside a farm to add prosperity, revolutionary heroes moved in front of pine trees and red flags plus of course famous politicians airbrushed out of history.
“I felt so depressed when I found that things I had seen with my own eyes might not be true,” he said.
“Like being manipulated by something or somebody for years and one day, you suddenly feel it in your soul: ‘I live a fake life.'
Zhang first heard about doctored photos in the 1970s. His father showed him a calendar. There used to be four leaders in the photo, his father said: Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.
Liu had gone.
Global Habit
In 1993, Zhang read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and so he knew a bit about propaganda image manipulation, but the Czech writer's book had not prepared him for the discovery of so many wrong Chinese mainland photos.
He picked 130 out of more than 300 he had collected and named his work A Second History.
A portrait of Mao Zedong and the slogans “Follow the Communist Party” and “Listen to Chairman Mao” replace a shabby wall and door in the new photo of Chengzhuang Agriculture Labor School published by People's Pictorial in February 1969.
“There are different versions of history,” Zhang said. “The first is objective, but usually we only get to read the second: history that was revised.
“I want to find the hidden truth that was revised or deleted.”
Some photo alterations are easily understood, like cutting a tall person out of a group photo from alongside propaganda folk hero Lei Feng.
“The publisher wanted to make Lei Feng look taller, more heroic,” Zhang said. “That's just standard practice in China. It could have been revised by the publisher or art editors. Anyone could revise it.”
But other changes confuse us today.
“It's like ‘Spot the Difference',” said Zhang. “A man's hat has been removed for no obvious reason.
“Maybe he was the only one in the photo who wore a hat and that nonconformity made people uncomfortable back then. But it seems only natural today.”
To obtain the original negatives, Zhang went to almost every archive in China, even managing to get hold of some classified film through some sympathetic connections.
Most of these archives are not open to the public, he said, so collecting the original film was actually the hard part.
“I knew some photos of leaders were sensitive, but I really enjoy finding the truth I never knew,” he said. “The leaders and political issues are just a part of history, an element of the truth.”
A Second History exhibits in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May 2009. Photos: courtesy of Zhang Dali
Mao disappears
The very last photo of A Second History concerns Mao Zedong. The original photo was of Mao and many villagers, but all the villagers were deleted to make the photo focus on the leader. So far as expected.
But what makes the exhibit so surprising is the 2007 version of this photo: Mao has been deleted. The editors just wanted to compare the view with today's view: the place had changed so much they had found it impossible to locate a picture with the old view. Until they saw Mao.
This little story showed in his opinion that everything changes, and the photo just represents a change in people's own sense of worth. Important things might be ignored in another context, Zhang said.
As the process of collecting continued, Zhang became more and more optimistic. He stopped to think about what is real and what is fake and stopped obsessing over all the lies and deceit. He realized the whole process of revisionism reflected the whole country's mindset, not just propaganda and cultural policies but also the lives and habits of every ordinary Chinese person.
“And we can still trace answers for today's China in those photos,” he said. “Why we are so cocky but blush at our own mistakes and poverty?
“Why we are so sensitive and inferior that we refuse to admit there are problems?
“Don't be afraid to face history. This is what we have done and this is our nation. Every rational intellectual has the capacity to uncover our real history. An artist is part intellectual.”
A Second History just finished exhibiting in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May this year.
“They said the artistic expression of A Second History surpassed any individual painting or statue,” said Zhang, who was delighted by the rave reviews.
“It's the best way to display China's cultural policy for a long time.”
Some of his photos admittedly contain some relatively sensitive political issues, Zhang said, but he urged authorities to think carefully about the message his exhibition sent.
“I didn't set out to criticize anything,” Zhang said. “Fake photos exist all over the world. If someone uses my works to attack China, I can't help that. I'm just an artist. I just show what I see.”
Zhang will try to get A Second History exhibited in Beijing this year, but he conceded there was little chance he could succeed and so he is already thinking about other Chinese cities. The display boards are all now leaning against the wall of his study.
“Such a pity,” he said. “My work is for Chinese.”
Did Zhang Dali sell out?
There's a lazy stereotype of artists that they loll about the street all day, growing long hair and then suddenly get hit with a flash of inspiration, Zhang Dali told the Global Times.
“People should ask themselves where this so-called flash of inspiration comes from,” he joked.
Well, perhaps it came from Zhang. Zhang himself had long hair 22 years ago when he graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing and started painting.
“I am not that into Beijing now. People here wandering all the time and calling themselves ‘artists',” said the lesser-known artist in the 1988 documentary film Drifters in Beijing. Zhang was huddled in a cramped rented room, his straight black hair hanging to his shoulders, unclean beard obscuring a small chin.
The Zhang of today sports a crew cut and a clean-shaven face. Only the Harbin drawl remains the same, perhaps a bit softer.
Returning from Italy in 1995, Zhang made his name as the “first graffiti artist of China” for his trademark profile of a bald man on Beijing streets.
But annoying many of his fans, he stopped graffiti in 2007.
“Zhang cleaned up,” Liu Yuansheng, a photographer who spent years documenting Chinese graffiti, wrote in his blog. “He became rich and his life was changed, so he abandoned graffiti.”
Some new graffiti artists agree with Liu.
“He disparaged graffiti after becoming famous from it, but I can understand why Zhang quit,” Seven, a member of a graffiti crew in Beijing told the Global Times. “He's a rich man now.”
“They think like that about me?” Zhang lifted himself out of the sofa and paused for a moment in thought.
“Well, I suppose to some extent, they're right. It's true that today I just don't get that sudden yen to sneak out at midnight and ride a bicycle to spray a blank wall.”
“But their conclusion about me is simplistic,” he shook his head, and fell back into the sofa.
“I am beyond street graffiti now. I seek fulfillment through something more complicated, more magnificent, like A Second History.”
Fast facts: Zhang Dali
1963 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province
1987 Graduates from Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1987 and works as a freelance painter in Beijing
1989 Moves to Bologna, Italy
1992 Paints his trademark profile of a bald man on the street of Bologna, and names it Dialogue.
1995 Back to Beijing as China’s first graffiti artist.
1998 A photo of his graffiti appears on the cover of Newsweek in the United States.
2003-2005 Portrays 100 immigrant workers in life-size resin sculptures of various postures, with a designated number, the artist’s signature and the work’s title Chinese Offspring tattooed onto each of their bodies.
2008 Work about migrant workers Wind Horses Flag exhibits in Beijing.
2009 A Second History exhibits in Walsall, UK.
This is the story of how one man parted the fog and exposed how history had been re-written by agendas.
---
Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
Source and Photos: Global Times 23 August 2009
By Peng Yining
Zhu De, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai salute the first PLA national sports meet in 1952. The bottom photo was published in Selected Photographs of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The altered version appeared in People's Pictorial of 1977.
Zhang Dali realized he had been living in a distorted world for many years. The world he had believed in collapsed, history all a great big lie.
He began collecting the old news photos in 2004, going to archives to find the original negatives and then comparing them with the published versions: shabby old houses transformed into multi-story buildings where residents were leading the good life, bonus pigs pasted beside a farm to add prosperity, revolutionary heroes moved in front of pine trees and red flags plus of course famous politicians airbrushed out of history.
“I felt so depressed when I found that things I had seen with my own eyes might not be true,” he said.
“Like being manipulated by something or somebody for years and one day, you suddenly feel it in your soul: ‘I live a fake life.'
Zhang first heard about doctored photos in the 1970s. His father showed him a calendar. There used to be four leaders in the photo, his father said: Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.
Liu had gone.
Global Habit
In 1993, Zhang read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and so he knew a bit about propaganda image manipulation, but the Czech writer's book had not prepared him for the discovery of so many wrong Chinese mainland photos.
He picked 130 out of more than 300 he had collected and named his work A Second History.
A portrait of Mao Zedong and the slogans “Follow the Communist Party” and “Listen to Chairman Mao” replace a shabby wall and door in the new photo of Chengzhuang Agriculture Labor School published by People's Pictorial in February 1969.
“There are different versions of history,” Zhang said. “The first is objective, but usually we only get to read the second: history that was revised.
“I want to find the hidden truth that was revised or deleted.”
Some photo alterations are easily understood, like cutting a tall person out of a group photo from alongside propaganda folk hero Lei Feng.
“The publisher wanted to make Lei Feng look taller, more heroic,” Zhang said. “That's just standard practice in China. It could have been revised by the publisher or art editors. Anyone could revise it.”
But other changes confuse us today.
“It's like ‘Spot the Difference',” said Zhang. “A man's hat has been removed for no obvious reason.
“Maybe he was the only one in the photo who wore a hat and that nonconformity made people uncomfortable back then. But it seems only natural today.”
To obtain the original negatives, Zhang went to almost every archive in China, even managing to get hold of some classified film through some sympathetic connections.
Most of these archives are not open to the public, he said, so collecting the original film was actually the hard part.
“I knew some photos of leaders were sensitive, but I really enjoy finding the truth I never knew,” he said. “The leaders and political issues are just a part of history, an element of the truth.”
A Second History exhibits in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May 2009. Photos: courtesy of Zhang Dali
Mao disappears
The very last photo of A Second History concerns Mao Zedong. The original photo was of Mao and many villagers, but all the villagers were deleted to make the photo focus on the leader. So far as expected.
But what makes the exhibit so surprising is the 2007 version of this photo: Mao has been deleted. The editors just wanted to compare the view with today's view: the place had changed so much they had found it impossible to locate a picture with the old view. Until they saw Mao.
This little story showed in his opinion that everything changes, and the photo just represents a change in people's own sense of worth. Important things might be ignored in another context, Zhang said.
As the process of collecting continued, Zhang became more and more optimistic. He stopped to think about what is real and what is fake and stopped obsessing over all the lies and deceit. He realized the whole process of revisionism reflected the whole country's mindset, not just propaganda and cultural policies but also the lives and habits of every ordinary Chinese person.
“And we can still trace answers for today's China in those photos,” he said. “Why we are so cocky but blush at our own mistakes and poverty?
“Why we are so sensitive and inferior that we refuse to admit there are problems?
“Don't be afraid to face history. This is what we have done and this is our nation. Every rational intellectual has the capacity to uncover our real history. An artist is part intellectual.”
A Second History just finished exhibiting in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May this year.
“They said the artistic expression of A Second History surpassed any individual painting or statue,” said Zhang, who was delighted by the rave reviews.
“It's the best way to display China's cultural policy for a long time.”
Some of his photos admittedly contain some relatively sensitive political issues, Zhang said, but he urged authorities to think carefully about the message his exhibition sent.
“I didn't set out to criticize anything,” Zhang said. “Fake photos exist all over the world. If someone uses my works to attack China, I can't help that. I'm just an artist. I just show what I see.”
Zhang will try to get A Second History exhibited in Beijing this year, but he conceded there was little chance he could succeed and so he is already thinking about other Chinese cities. The display boards are all now leaning against the wall of his study.
“Such a pity,” he said. “My work is for Chinese.”
Did Zhang Dali sell out?
There's a lazy stereotype of artists that they loll about the street all day, growing long hair and then suddenly get hit with a flash of inspiration, Zhang Dali told the Global Times.
“People should ask themselves where this so-called flash of inspiration comes from,” he joked.
Well, perhaps it came from Zhang. Zhang himself had long hair 22 years ago when he graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing and started painting.
“I am not that into Beijing now. People here wandering all the time and calling themselves ‘artists',” said the lesser-known artist in the 1988 documentary film Drifters in Beijing. Zhang was huddled in a cramped rented room, his straight black hair hanging to his shoulders, unclean beard obscuring a small chin.
The Zhang of today sports a crew cut and a clean-shaven face. Only the Harbin drawl remains the same, perhaps a bit softer.
Returning from Italy in 1995, Zhang made his name as the “first graffiti artist of China” for his trademark profile of a bald man on Beijing streets.
But annoying many of his fans, he stopped graffiti in 2007.
“Zhang cleaned up,” Liu Yuansheng, a photographer who spent years documenting Chinese graffiti, wrote in his blog. “He became rich and his life was changed, so he abandoned graffiti.”
Some new graffiti artists agree with Liu.
“He disparaged graffiti after becoming famous from it, but I can understand why Zhang quit,” Seven, a member of a graffiti crew in Beijing told the Global Times. “He's a rich man now.”
“They think like that about me?” Zhang lifted himself out of the sofa and paused for a moment in thought.
“Well, I suppose to some extent, they're right. It's true that today I just don't get that sudden yen to sneak out at midnight and ride a bicycle to spray a blank wall.”
“But their conclusion about me is simplistic,” he shook his head, and fell back into the sofa.
“I am beyond street graffiti now. I seek fulfillment through something more complicated, more magnificent, like A Second History.”
Fast facts: Zhang Dali
1963 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province
1987 Graduates from Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1987 and works as a freelance painter in Beijing
1989 Moves to Bologna, Italy
1992 Paints his trademark profile of a bald man on the street of Bologna, and names it Dialogue.
1995 Back to Beijing as China’s first graffiti artist.
1998 A photo of his graffiti appears on the cover of Newsweek in the United States.
2003-2005 Portrays 100 immigrant workers in life-size resin sculptures of various postures, with a designated number, the artist’s signature and the work’s title Chinese Offspring tattooed onto each of their bodies.
2008 Work about migrant workers Wind Horses Flag exhibits in Beijing.
2009 A Second History exhibits in Walsall, UK.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
China opens up with new media strategy
China's media is now powering up, in both size and dexterity. Along with its growing sensibility in international relation finesse, its handling of the media has developed too. What used to be a losing battle explaining itself to the sharpened, awfully one-sided analysis by foreign media is changing. China's media is increasingly becoming a nimble machine, a far cry from the deadset giant target it used to be. As powerful as the world's transnational media corporations are (mostly owned by the West), we must not forget 1 out of 4 people in the world are Chinese, and whose media do you think these Chinese will listen to, and be influenced by? Couple with this new strategem to intercept rogue thoughts about China, we are definitely on the brink, the cusp, of the brand new way China is seen.
related - read about China's 'media aircraft carrier here'. Also, check out an earlier story about China's growing open-ness when it dealt with the Xinjiang unrest here.
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China opens up with new media strategy
Used during major crises, system aims to get its side of the story out fast
By Grace Ng, China Correspondent
Source - The Straits Times, Tuesday 11 August 2009
BEIJING: Set up press centres. Check. Inundate journalists with information. Check. Monitor all news and Internet opinions. Check.
Faced with mounting media pressures to be more open, Beijing has instituted a six-step routine to get its side of the story out quickly and beat the rumour mill.
Dealing with a more inquiring home audience and a legion of foreign journalists asking tough questions, it has used this system to handle crises like the recent riots in the north-western province of Xinjiang, a media strategy adviser to the State Council, or China's Cabinet, said yesterday.
Dr Steven Dong Guanpeng said the government will set up press centres speedily, churn out enough press briefings to 'keep journalists busy with good information so that they would not get busy with rumours', and continually post news updates online, among other measures.
Other steps include registering journalists upon arrival, setting up a database with media contacts, and collating all news and Internet opinions on the event.
The director of Tsinghua University's Global Journalism Institute, who trains officials on media management, was explaining China's new media strategy to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China yesterday.
The country earned some praise for allowing foreign media unprecedented access to the city of Urumqi to cover the clashes between Han Chinese and the Uighur minority group last month - after Beijing was slammed by the international community for locking reporters out of Tibet after riots erupted there last year.
Seen by some as an apologist for Beijing, Dr Dong - a former CCTV presenter - commended Xinjiang officials for 'doing a good job' in engaging the media by holding 21 press conferences in a single week.
Beijing's ultimate aim by being more open at home and pushing its state media to set up branches overseas, say observers, is to steer the global news agenda to be more in its favour.
Dr Dong did not spell that out but hinted that foreign media reports on China were, to the Chinese, 'still not satisfactory'. He said: 'We know some negative coverage is natural...that's what we should work on.'
Beijing has used its new media-handling standard operating procedure during major events and crisis situations, such as last year's Beijing Olympics and the Sichuan earthquake.
The next time a crisis strikes, 'we will stick to the same way and do the same thing', Dr Dong predicted. He dated the roots of this new wave of openness to Beijing's botched handling of the Sars outbreak, which was a turning point.
Like other observers, he noted that while China had invited foreign journalists into Tibet 'only quite a while after the riots' last year, the media was allowed into Xinjiang on the same day.
That, he said, helped make international coverage of the Xinjiang riots much more objective compared to that on Tibet.
But he added - without going into detail - that 'lots of things remain terrible' and he was upset by some of the coverage.
He criticised the domestic press for being slower than the major foreign news groups in covering the Xinjiang story.
That handicapped China's effort to tell its own story to the international audience, he said. Beijing, he argued, needs to pump in far more resources to give Chinese state media a stronger voice worldwide.
Beijing has been discussing this move to have its state media 'go international' since 2001, said Dr Dong. Of late, it has reportedly put in some 45 billion yuan (S$9.5 billion) to relaunch China's four key official media arms. Dr Dong, who refused to confirm those reports, suggested that it was 'a media-created figure'.
But there is no doubt that Beijing is serious about boosting state media's global reach and credibility, especially as Chinese netizens are increasing acting as watchdogs on the official version of news stories.
Last year alone, 84 officials - or about one-third of those hunted down by China's army of netizens through 'human flesh search engines' - were sacked after their wrongdoings were exposed online.
All that means Beijing will have to become more nimble in its media management, said Dr Dong. But already, he claimed, the space for journalism in China now is bigger than at any point in China's history.
related - read about China's 'media aircraft carrier here'. Also, check out an earlier story about China's growing open-ness when it dealt with the Xinjiang unrest here.
---
China opens up with new media strategy
Used during major crises, system aims to get its side of the story out fast
By Grace Ng, China Correspondent
Source - The Straits Times, Tuesday 11 August 2009
BEIJING: Set up press centres. Check. Inundate journalists with information. Check. Monitor all news and Internet opinions. Check.
Faced with mounting media pressures to be more open, Beijing has instituted a six-step routine to get its side of the story out quickly and beat the rumour mill.
Dealing with a more inquiring home audience and a legion of foreign journalists asking tough questions, it has used this system to handle crises like the recent riots in the north-western province of Xinjiang, a media strategy adviser to the State Council, or China's Cabinet, said yesterday.
Dr Steven Dong Guanpeng said the government will set up press centres speedily, churn out enough press briefings to 'keep journalists busy with good information so that they would not get busy with rumours', and continually post news updates online, among other measures.
Other steps include registering journalists upon arrival, setting up a database with media contacts, and collating all news and Internet opinions on the event.
The director of Tsinghua University's Global Journalism Institute, who trains officials on media management, was explaining China's new media strategy to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China yesterday.
The country earned some praise for allowing foreign media unprecedented access to the city of Urumqi to cover the clashes between Han Chinese and the Uighur minority group last month - after Beijing was slammed by the international community for locking reporters out of Tibet after riots erupted there last year.
Seen by some as an apologist for Beijing, Dr Dong - a former CCTV presenter - commended Xinjiang officials for 'doing a good job' in engaging the media by holding 21 press conferences in a single week.
Beijing's ultimate aim by being more open at home and pushing its state media to set up branches overseas, say observers, is to steer the global news agenda to be more in its favour.
Dr Dong did not spell that out but hinted that foreign media reports on China were, to the Chinese, 'still not satisfactory'. He said: 'We know some negative coverage is natural...that's what we should work on.'
Beijing has used its new media-handling standard operating procedure during major events and crisis situations, such as last year's Beijing Olympics and the Sichuan earthquake.
The next time a crisis strikes, 'we will stick to the same way and do the same thing', Dr Dong predicted. He dated the roots of this new wave of openness to Beijing's botched handling of the Sars outbreak, which was a turning point.
Like other observers, he noted that while China had invited foreign journalists into Tibet 'only quite a while after the riots' last year, the media was allowed into Xinjiang on the same day.
That, he said, helped make international coverage of the Xinjiang riots much more objective compared to that on Tibet.
But he added - without going into detail - that 'lots of things remain terrible' and he was upset by some of the coverage.
He criticised the domestic press for being slower than the major foreign news groups in covering the Xinjiang story.
That handicapped China's effort to tell its own story to the international audience, he said. Beijing, he argued, needs to pump in far more resources to give Chinese state media a stronger voice worldwide.
Beijing has been discussing this move to have its state media 'go international' since 2001, said Dr Dong. Of late, it has reportedly put in some 45 billion yuan (S$9.5 billion) to relaunch China's four key official media arms. Dr Dong, who refused to confirm those reports, suggested that it was 'a media-created figure'.
But there is no doubt that Beijing is serious about boosting state media's global reach and credibility, especially as Chinese netizens are increasing acting as watchdogs on the official version of news stories.
Last year alone, 84 officials - or about one-third of those hunted down by China's army of netizens through 'human flesh search engines' - were sacked after their wrongdoings were exposed online.
All that means Beijing will have to become more nimble in its media management, said Dr Dong. But already, he claimed, the space for journalism in China now is bigger than at any point in China's history.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
China tries new openness
Related story to an earlier post on the riots in Xinjiang. And...China learns fast. That's really the true 'threat' of rising China isn't it? Problem is many of us still hold an aged, if not 'medieval' impression that China's a lumbering authority. But that much is false. What we have is a very sophisticated, determined and perceptive leadership that maneuvers the countries in a fashion that few can predict.
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China tries new openness
The Straits Times July 9 2009
AP
BEIJING - WHEN riots broke out in the restive west this week, China took a different tack with foreign journalists: Instead of being barred, reporters were invited on an official tour of Xinjiang's capital.
The approach, a stark reversal from last year's handling of Tibetan unrest, suggests Chinese authorities have learned that providing access to information means they can get their own message out, experts said.
'They are getting more sophisticated in how they're handling foreign and domestic media coverage of a crisis. It used to be in a time of major crisis, you get a blackout... Now the approach is to get the government's viewpoint out there,' said Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, a journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong.
The State Council Information Office, the government's main public relations arm, extended their highly unusual invitation to the foreign media on Monday, just one day after the worst ethnic violence in decades left 156 dead and 1,100 injured in the regional capital of Urumqi.
Their goal? 'To help foreign media to do mor objective, fair and friendly reports,' the agency said in a statement.
Journalists from 60 different foreign media organisations travelled to Urumqi on Monday. They were taken to the largest hotel in town where the government had set up a media center. Special reporting passes were issued and press conferences were arranged.
The hotel was the only place in town where Internet service was not cut, which helped ensure that reporters stayed close.
Still, not everything stayed within the government's control. On Tuesday, as reporters were escorted around town to see the damage from Sunday's rioting, a group of some 200 Uighur women, wailing and shouting, appeared to protest the arrests of their husbands and sons in the ensuing crackdown.
For the government guides, who tried to herd reporters on buses as TV cameras rolled, it was a totally unscripted moment. -- AP
---
China tries new openness
The Straits Times July 9 2009
AP
BEIJING - WHEN riots broke out in the restive west this week, China took a different tack with foreign journalists: Instead of being barred, reporters were invited on an official tour of Xinjiang's capital.
The approach, a stark reversal from last year's handling of Tibetan unrest, suggests Chinese authorities have learned that providing access to information means they can get their own message out, experts said.
'They are getting more sophisticated in how they're handling foreign and domestic media coverage of a crisis. It used to be in a time of major crisis, you get a blackout... Now the approach is to get the government's viewpoint out there,' said Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, a journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong.
The State Council Information Office, the government's main public relations arm, extended their highly unusual invitation to the foreign media on Monday, just one day after the worst ethnic violence in decades left 156 dead and 1,100 injured in the regional capital of Urumqi.
Their goal? 'To help foreign media to do mor objective, fair and friendly reports,' the agency said in a statement.
Journalists from 60 different foreign media organisations travelled to Urumqi on Monday. They were taken to the largest hotel in town where the government had set up a media center. Special reporting passes were issued and press conferences were arranged.
The hotel was the only place in town where Internet service was not cut, which helped ensure that reporters stayed close.
Still, not everything stayed within the government's control. On Tuesday, as reporters were escorted around town to see the damage from Sunday's rioting, a group of some 200 Uighur women, wailing and shouting, appeared to protest the arrests of their husbands and sons in the ensuing crackdown.
For the government guides, who tried to herd reporters on buses as TV cameras rolled, it was a totally unscripted moment. -- AP
1st Chinese woman in space
Amidst the madness in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, some good news. Public relations vehicle or not, surely, this can only be good for the human race as women and men continue to learn to seek that middle path with each other.
---
1st Chinese woman in space
Source - The Straits Times 9 July 2009
AFP
BEIJING - CHINA could launch its first woman into space as early as 2012, state media reported on Thursday.
Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became China's first astronaut and is now in charge of new recruits for the space programme, said the search for the first woman in space was under way, the China Daily said.
'I believe Chinese women will soon be seen in space,' said Mr Yang during a webchat, the paper reported.
Sui Guosheng, an officer in charge of recruitment with the Chinese Air Force, said the female 'taikonaut,' China's word for astronauts, was expected to blast off in 2012.
The potential female astronauts would be recruited from among 16 female fighter pilots who graduated in April, Sui told the Nanfang Weekly, according to the China Daily report.
The pilots, who were chosen from 150,000 high school graduates, were the first batch of Chinese women qualified to fly fighter jets, the report said.
China became the third nation to put a man in space when Mr Yang piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003, part of the country's rising space ambitions.
The Chang'e-1 probe was launched in 2007 and is the first stage of China's lunar programme, which includes landing an unmanned rover on the surface by 2012 and a manned mission by around 2020.
The world's first female astronaut was the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova, who stayed in space for three days in 1963. -- AFP
---
1st Chinese woman in space
Source - The Straits Times 9 July 2009
AFP
BEIJING - CHINA could launch its first woman into space as early as 2012, state media reported on Thursday.
Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became China's first astronaut and is now in charge of new recruits for the space programme, said the search for the first woman in space was under way, the China Daily said.
'I believe Chinese women will soon be seen in space,' said Mr Yang during a webchat, the paper reported.
Sui Guosheng, an officer in charge of recruitment with the Chinese Air Force, said the female 'taikonaut,' China's word for astronauts, was expected to blast off in 2012.
The potential female astronauts would be recruited from among 16 female fighter pilots who graduated in April, Sui told the Nanfang Weekly, according to the China Daily report.
The pilots, who were chosen from 150,000 high school graduates, were the first batch of Chinese women qualified to fly fighter jets, the report said.
China became the third nation to put a man in space when Mr Yang piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003, part of the country's rising space ambitions.
The Chang'e-1 probe was launched in 2007 and is the first stage of China's lunar programme, which includes landing an unmanned rover on the surface by 2012 and a manned mission by around 2020.
The world's first female astronaut was the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova, who stayed in space for three days in 1963. -- AFP
Thursday, July 2, 2009
China backs down from requirement for Web filter
It looks like the people have won. About 3 weeks ago I highlighted the reality of China's Great Firewall coming into absolute effect. China has backed down from its stance of compulsory internet filters on all personal computers (for now?). The imagination of China certainly isn't easy to comprehend, I suppose even the greatest political systems can not withstand the might of 1.3 billion people in solidarity (well, not all of them of course, this is a far stretch, but written to stir imagination). But here's one for the Chinese people power (with a little help from supposed trade embargoes from the US) who show in some way, critical mass can be really really critical, even in an authoritarian body.
More significant than the internet filter itself, is the reflection of the growing presence of a new dynamic (and hence, a new collaborative culture) between the Chinese populace and their government. As much as the politicians and leaders have emerged from the shell of the Great Wall of China, so have its people. This new dynamism can only be good in the long run for civil society, but one might argue, would slow down China's progress (in economic and political terms) in the coming years.
---
China backs down from requirement for Web filter
By JOE McDONALD
Source - Associated Press via Google
1 July 2009
BEIJING (AP) — In a rare reversal, China's government gave in to domestic and international pressure and backed down Tuesday from a rule that would have required personal computers sold in the country to have Internet-filtering software.
Just hours before the rule was to have taken effect, the government said it would postpone the requirement for the "Green Dam" software. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it made the decision partly because some PC manufacturers were having difficulty meeting the deadline. It did not say whether the plan might be revived.
The change of course averted a possible scuffle with Washington. Top U.S. officials had protested the plan after it was imposed abruptly in May, calling it a barrier to trade. Angry Web users circulated online petitions protesting Green Dam, while industry groups warned the software might create computer security problems.
The controversy reflected the conflict between the communist government's desire to control information and China's high-tech ambitions. The country has an increasingly informed, vocal public and tighter links to companies that create urgently needed jobs and tax revenue.
The decision was a "victory for China's civil society," said Li Fangping, a Beijing lawyer who had demanded a public hearing on the plan.
"Many citizens worked together and voiced their opposition to the forced installation of this filtering software and forced the government to at least think more deeply about it," Li said. "We hope now that they will go ahead and completely drop this order."
News of the announcement spread in China quickly via Twitter and the Chinese mini-blogging site Fanfou. Some bloggers said they expect the government to look for a way to carry out Green Dam that attracts less attention.
"They are using the word `delay,' instead of saying they stopped the plan," said Wen Yunchao, a Chinese blogger who has been among the most vocal critics of Green Dam. "I think that it's possible that at some point in the future the government could still enforce their policy and install software on personal computers that filters the information people are able to look at. So, I am calling this an intermediary victory."
China's communist government encourages Internet use for education and business, and the country has the biggest population of Web users, with more than 298 million. But authorities try to block access to material deemed obscene or subversive, and Beijing operates the world's most sweeping system of Internet filtering. U.S. companies such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. have cooperated in way or another with government requests to tamp down criticism.
The Green Dam software would raise China's controls to a new level by putting a filter inside each PC. Chinese authorities said it would be needed to shield children from violent and obscene material online.
Analysts who have reviewed the program say it also contains code to filter material the government considers politically objectionable. Separately, a California company claimed Green Dam contained stolen programming code.
Chinese Web surfers ridiculed Green Dam by saying it would block access to photos of animals and other innocuous subjects. State media reported extensively on the complaints, a rare move. Chinese media usually uncritically support government policy.
Green Dam already is in use in Internet cafes in China and has been installed since the start of this year in PCs sold under a government program that subsidizes appliance sales in the countryside.
China accounted for 14 percent of the 63.5 million PCs shipped worldwide in the first quarter, according to the research group IDC. Beijing-based Lenovo makes the most computers for China, capturing nearly 27 percent of the market in the first three months of the year. It is followed by Hewlett-Packard Co., whose laptops and desktops make up about 14 percent of shipments.
Other large PC makers such as Toshiba Corp. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. said they were ready to provide Green Dam on disks beginning Wednesday. Worldwide industry leaders HP and Dell Inc. had declined to discuss their plans, possibly waiting for a diplomatic settlement.
Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn said the PC maker was happy with the Green Dam delay. He would not say what Dell had done to prepare for China's deadline.
"We respect the Chinese government's stated goal of protecting children by filtering access to pornography through the Internet," Blackburn said in a statement.
Representatives from U.S.-based technology groups, including the Information Technology Industry Council and the Software & Information Industry Association, were in Beijing trying to stop Green Dam.
"We welcome the delay in implementation of the Green Dam mandate, and we look forward to working closely with the U.S. government to find market-based solutions that enable consumer choice and protect children on the Internet," said John Neuffer, vice president for global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents companies including Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Inc.
The Green Dam initiative coincided with a tightening of government controls on Internet use. Last week, China's Health Ministry ordered health-related Web sites that carry research on sexually oriented topics to allow access only to medical professionals.
Also last week, the government issued new rules on "virtual currency" used by some game Web sites, saying it cannot be used to purchase real goods.
On Green Dam, the industry ministry sounded a conciliatory note. It promised to "solicit opinions from all parties" in an effort to improve its work.
"I think the cost of the move from trade friction and generally a public relations black eye was becoming pretty clear to the government," said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing research firm. Postponing the filtering rule "gets them out of the scrutiny of the international media and business."
Associated Press Writer Alexa Olesen and Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing and AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz in Seattle contributed to this report.
More significant than the internet filter itself, is the reflection of the growing presence of a new dynamic (and hence, a new collaborative culture) between the Chinese populace and their government. As much as the politicians and leaders have emerged from the shell of the Great Wall of China, so have its people. This new dynamism can only be good in the long run for civil society, but one might argue, would slow down China's progress (in economic and political terms) in the coming years.
---
China backs down from requirement for Web filter
By JOE McDONALD
Source - Associated Press via Google
1 July 2009
BEIJING (AP) — In a rare reversal, China's government gave in to domestic and international pressure and backed down Tuesday from a rule that would have required personal computers sold in the country to have Internet-filtering software.
Just hours before the rule was to have taken effect, the government said it would postpone the requirement for the "Green Dam" software. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it made the decision partly because some PC manufacturers were having difficulty meeting the deadline. It did not say whether the plan might be revived.
The change of course averted a possible scuffle with Washington. Top U.S. officials had protested the plan after it was imposed abruptly in May, calling it a barrier to trade. Angry Web users circulated online petitions protesting Green Dam, while industry groups warned the software might create computer security problems.
The controversy reflected the conflict between the communist government's desire to control information and China's high-tech ambitions. The country has an increasingly informed, vocal public and tighter links to companies that create urgently needed jobs and tax revenue.
The decision was a "victory for China's civil society," said Li Fangping, a Beijing lawyer who had demanded a public hearing on the plan.
"Many citizens worked together and voiced their opposition to the forced installation of this filtering software and forced the government to at least think more deeply about it," Li said. "We hope now that they will go ahead and completely drop this order."
News of the announcement spread in China quickly via Twitter and the Chinese mini-blogging site Fanfou. Some bloggers said they expect the government to look for a way to carry out Green Dam that attracts less attention.
"They are using the word `delay,' instead of saying they stopped the plan," said Wen Yunchao, a Chinese blogger who has been among the most vocal critics of Green Dam. "I think that it's possible that at some point in the future the government could still enforce their policy and install software on personal computers that filters the information people are able to look at. So, I am calling this an intermediary victory."
China's communist government encourages Internet use for education and business, and the country has the biggest population of Web users, with more than 298 million. But authorities try to block access to material deemed obscene or subversive, and Beijing operates the world's most sweeping system of Internet filtering. U.S. companies such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. have cooperated in way or another with government requests to tamp down criticism.
The Green Dam software would raise China's controls to a new level by putting a filter inside each PC. Chinese authorities said it would be needed to shield children from violent and obscene material online.
Analysts who have reviewed the program say it also contains code to filter material the government considers politically objectionable. Separately, a California company claimed Green Dam contained stolen programming code.
Chinese Web surfers ridiculed Green Dam by saying it would block access to photos of animals and other innocuous subjects. State media reported extensively on the complaints, a rare move. Chinese media usually uncritically support government policy.
Green Dam already is in use in Internet cafes in China and has been installed since the start of this year in PCs sold under a government program that subsidizes appliance sales in the countryside.
China accounted for 14 percent of the 63.5 million PCs shipped worldwide in the first quarter, according to the research group IDC. Beijing-based Lenovo makes the most computers for China, capturing nearly 27 percent of the market in the first three months of the year. It is followed by Hewlett-Packard Co., whose laptops and desktops make up about 14 percent of shipments.
Other large PC makers such as Toshiba Corp. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. said they were ready to provide Green Dam on disks beginning Wednesday. Worldwide industry leaders HP and Dell Inc. had declined to discuss their plans, possibly waiting for a diplomatic settlement.
Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn said the PC maker was happy with the Green Dam delay. He would not say what Dell had done to prepare for China's deadline.
"We respect the Chinese government's stated goal of protecting children by filtering access to pornography through the Internet," Blackburn said in a statement.
Representatives from U.S.-based technology groups, including the Information Technology Industry Council and the Software & Information Industry Association, were in Beijing trying to stop Green Dam.
"We welcome the delay in implementation of the Green Dam mandate, and we look forward to working closely with the U.S. government to find market-based solutions that enable consumer choice and protect children on the Internet," said John Neuffer, vice president for global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents companies including Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Inc.
The Green Dam initiative coincided with a tightening of government controls on Internet use. Last week, China's Health Ministry ordered health-related Web sites that carry research on sexually oriented topics to allow access only to medical professionals.
Also last week, the government issued new rules on "virtual currency" used by some game Web sites, saying it cannot be used to purchase real goods.
On Green Dam, the industry ministry sounded a conciliatory note. It promised to "solicit opinions from all parties" in an effort to improve its work.
"I think the cost of the move from trade friction and generally a public relations black eye was becoming pretty clear to the government," said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing research firm. Postponing the filtering rule "gets them out of the scrutiny of the international media and business."
Associated Press Writer Alexa Olesen and Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing and AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz in Seattle contributed to this report.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
China wields 'soft power' with English TV broadcasts in Europe
The empire strikes back would be a suitable succinct way to describe this measure to tilt the balance of global favoritism determined by the flows and owners of global media (very broadly, all the transnational media corporations (like Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, et al. are all Western owned, who in turn run most of the world's media, save but one, i.e. Sony from Japan which one might figure, not desire to tilt in China's favour much), once a domain so well played out by the U.S. Like China's aspirations to build an aircraft carrier to find a stable middle path between east and west, China's quite had enough of one-sided press reports for some time now, and is more than eager to be heard by the English-speaking world. The global power shift has not just begun. We're right in the thick of it.
---
China wields 'soft power' with English TV broadcasts in Europe
Source - the Straits Times 30 June 2009
BEIJING: China's official news agency will begin providing English-language television broadcasts on screens in European supermarkets this week, in Beijing's latest move to expose Western audiences to its view of world events.
The Xinhua news agency, in partnership with about a dozen European broadcast partners, will show 90 minutes of news daily on TV screens in supermarkets and outside Chinese embassies across Europe starting tomorrow, Mr Chen Yue, a spokesman for Xinhua's English news department, said yesterday.
'China has recognised the importance of soft power, and through the medium of television and the Internet, the Chinese government aims to strengthen its influence internationally,' he added.
He did not give details on which supermarkets would carry the broadcasts, or in which countries. The Financial Times cited an editorial staff member of Xinhua, however, as saying that the broadcasts would be aired in Brussels and other cities.
It is not known what benefit the stores would gain from showing broadcasts from an agency that is seen as the propaganda arm of the Chinese government.
The announcement comes after the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, announced plans to expand its coverage. It also comes after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said it would revamp its news broadcasts for the first time in a decade to combat a sharp decline in viewership.
The People's Daily launched an English-language edition of its popular Global Times earlier this year.
The moves are believed to be part of a government plan to fund a major international expansion of CCTV, the People's Daily and Xinhua.
Academics with an advisory role in the plan have said the government would hand out 30 billion yuan to 45 billion yuan (S$6.4 billion to S$9.6 billion) to the media groups, the Financial Times said, though it added that the Chinese government has denied the numbers.
The Xinhua broadcasts in Europe will consist mostly of 10- to 15-minute news briefs plus a 30-minute feature and lifestyles segment, Mr Chen said. All shows are recorded in Xinhua's Beijing studio.
The Chinese media drive reflects steps already taken by Russia and Qatar to influence international news coverage through their state-funded Russia Today and Al-Jazeera channels. Those attempts to challenge the BBC and CNN have scored some success.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
---
China wields 'soft power' with English TV broadcasts in Europe
Source - the Straits Times 30 June 2009
BEIJING: China's official news agency will begin providing English-language television broadcasts on screens in European supermarkets this week, in Beijing's latest move to expose Western audiences to its view of world events.
The Xinhua news agency, in partnership with about a dozen European broadcast partners, will show 90 minutes of news daily on TV screens in supermarkets and outside Chinese embassies across Europe starting tomorrow, Mr Chen Yue, a spokesman for Xinhua's English news department, said yesterday.
'China has recognised the importance of soft power, and through the medium of television and the Internet, the Chinese government aims to strengthen its influence internationally,' he added.
He did not give details on which supermarkets would carry the broadcasts, or in which countries. The Financial Times cited an editorial staff member of Xinhua, however, as saying that the broadcasts would be aired in Brussels and other cities.
It is not known what benefit the stores would gain from showing broadcasts from an agency that is seen as the propaganda arm of the Chinese government.
The announcement comes after the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, announced plans to expand its coverage. It also comes after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said it would revamp its news broadcasts for the first time in a decade to combat a sharp decline in viewership.
The People's Daily launched an English-language edition of its popular Global Times earlier this year.
The moves are believed to be part of a government plan to fund a major international expansion of CCTV, the People's Daily and Xinhua.
Academics with an advisory role in the plan have said the government would hand out 30 billion yuan to 45 billion yuan (S$6.4 billion to S$9.6 billion) to the media groups, the Financial Times said, though it added that the Chinese government has denied the numbers.
The Xinhua broadcasts in Europe will consist mostly of 10- to 15-minute news briefs plus a 30-minute feature and lifestyles segment, Mr Chen said. All shows are recorded in Xinhua's Beijing studio.
The Chinese media drive reflects steps already taken by Russia and Qatar to influence international news coverage through their state-funded Russia Today and Al-Jazeera channels. Those attempts to challenge the BBC and CNN have scored some success.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, June 11, 2009
China internet filter challenged
We read recently how the media output and input in China was rather strong-handedly approached by the blocking of youtube, myspace, twitter, amongst others. And this is an even more clear show of strength. And wow on two fronts - perhaps immortalizing the perennial Chinese habit of building walls, looks like the great Chinese firewall (officially known as the Golden Shield Project) is about to sink grindingly into history books as the 'fifth' major wall to be built in the last two thousand years. Second - wow that the Chinese people are speaking up and out. How far can they take this before the CCP uses an iron fist? Something worth monitoring.
Certainly an interesting contraction (but not unexpected) after many years of steady opening up. Would like to read what the West will (or rather not, and keep quiet due to the new status quo), or will not say this time.
---
China internet filter challenged
The Straits Times
June 11 2009
Reuters
BEIJING - A CHINESE lawyer has demanded a public hearing to reconsider a government demand that all new personal computers carry Internet filtering software, adding to uproar over a plan critics say is ineffective and intrusive.
Li Fangping, a Beijing human rights advocate who often embraces controversial causes, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to allow hearings on the 'lawfulness and reasonableness' of the demand, which takes effect from July 1 and was publicised only this week.
'This administrative action lacks a legal basis,' Mr Li wrote in a submission to the ministry that was sent to reporters by email on Thursday. 'Designating that the same software must be installed in all computers affects citizens' rights to choose.'
Mr Li's demand, and denunciations of the plan from Chinese rights groups, have expanded a public battle over the 'Green Dam' filtering software, despite a state media effort to promote the software as a welcome way to prevent children being exposed to pornography.
Many citizens worry such software and other measures are being imposed to deter discussion of sensitive political topics, especially in this year of controversial anniversaries, Mr Li told Reuters.
'Above all, we're concerned about freedom of speech and the right to know,' he said. 'We know that citizens have been prosecuted because of their private emails, and we're worried about more such cases.'
Chinese human rights and gay advocacy groups have demanded the software plan be immediately quashed. A statement from five groups sent by email said the software threatened to cripple access to many of the gay community websites that have flourished in recent years.
The software works by judging whether website pages may show large amounts of exposed flesh.
Wan Yanhai, a leader of the Beijing-based Aizhixing organisation, which works on AIDS and gay rights, said he was preparing a mass petition to mobilise opposition to the software.
'We need to demand not just the lifting of this software decree, but also an end to restrictions on gay publications,' Mr Wan told Reuters. 'This is about opposing censorship.'
CHINA DEFENDS NET FILTERING SOFTWARE
BEIJING - CHINESE state media on Thursday issued an unprecedented defense of newly required Internet filtering software that must be packaged with every computer sold in China starting next month, after a public outcry at home and abroad.
Although the government says the software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, users who have tried it say it prevents access to a wide range of topics, from discussions of homosexuality to images of comic book characters such as Garfield the cat.
-- REUTERS
Certainly an interesting contraction (but not unexpected) after many years of steady opening up. Would like to read what the West will (or rather not, and keep quiet due to the new status quo), or will not say this time.
---
China internet filter challenged
The Straits Times
June 11 2009
Reuters
BEIJING - A CHINESE lawyer has demanded a public hearing to reconsider a government demand that all new personal computers carry Internet filtering software, adding to uproar over a plan critics say is ineffective and intrusive.
Li Fangping, a Beijing human rights advocate who often embraces controversial causes, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to allow hearings on the 'lawfulness and reasonableness' of the demand, which takes effect from July 1 and was publicised only this week.
'This administrative action lacks a legal basis,' Mr Li wrote in a submission to the ministry that was sent to reporters by email on Thursday. 'Designating that the same software must be installed in all computers affects citizens' rights to choose.'
Mr Li's demand, and denunciations of the plan from Chinese rights groups, have expanded a public battle over the 'Green Dam' filtering software, despite a state media effort to promote the software as a welcome way to prevent children being exposed to pornography.
Many citizens worry such software and other measures are being imposed to deter discussion of sensitive political topics, especially in this year of controversial anniversaries, Mr Li told Reuters.
'Above all, we're concerned about freedom of speech and the right to know,' he said. 'We know that citizens have been prosecuted because of their private emails, and we're worried about more such cases.'
Chinese human rights and gay advocacy groups have demanded the software plan be immediately quashed. A statement from five groups sent by email said the software threatened to cripple access to many of the gay community websites that have flourished in recent years.
The software works by judging whether website pages may show large amounts of exposed flesh.
Wan Yanhai, a leader of the Beijing-based Aizhixing organisation, which works on AIDS and gay rights, said he was preparing a mass petition to mobilise opposition to the software.
'We need to demand not just the lifting of this software decree, but also an end to restrictions on gay publications,' Mr Wan told Reuters. 'This is about opposing censorship.'
CHINA DEFENDS NET FILTERING SOFTWARE
BEIJING - CHINESE state media on Thursday issued an unprecedented defense of newly required Internet filtering software that must be packaged with every computer sold in China starting next month, after a public outcry at home and abroad.
Although the government says the software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, users who have tried it say it prevents access to a wide range of topics, from discussions of homosexuality to images of comic book characters such as Garfield the cat.
-- REUTERS
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Reluctant earthquake star takes centre stage
Reluctant earthquake star takes centre stage - looks like the Chinese propaganda machine has some kinks it needs to work on.
Source - The Age 120509
---
Source - The Age
THIS is Xiao Yawen on the plane to Beijing, where she is to star tonight on China Central Television's extravaganza to mark the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake.
A year ago Xiao was photographed in the arms of a particularly handsome soldier, Sheng Yufeng, on the morning after the quake that destroyed her home in the mountains above Beichuan town.
The legend is that Mr Sheng reunited Xiao with her mother after they had lost each other in the exodus of earthquake refugees.
Reports said he carried the girl through Beichuan for an hour because the girl's grandmother was exhausted after holding her all night.
Xiao remained happily oblivious to the fuss she was causing in the media until a journalist from the Western China Metropolis Daily finally tracked her down last month.
Last Wednesday, CCTV flew her to Beijing and The Age happened to be seated next to her on the plane. Xiao, as feisty as she is cute, was not at all happy about having to sit for two hours on a plane in sweaty Qiang minority costume to perform for the cameras.
"It's a hassle," Xiao's mother, Yang Shengchun, said. "I refused to go many times, but they kept on asking."
Ms Yang said her daughter had no special story, nor did the soldier with the nicest smile. "We weren't injured," she said. "On May 13 soldiers were taking the healthy survivors through old Beichuan town. One of the soldiers picked her up — the photograph looked like a rescue, but it wasn't — I don't really have much to thank them for."
The People's Liberation Army has a history of legendary soldiers who fought floods, plugged oil wells with their own bodies and performed other selfless acts to protect the nation and capture the hearts of the masses. Typically these heroes, like Lei Feng in the 1960s, were created by the Communist Party's Propaganda Department.
Sheng Yufeng is different to his soldier-hero predecessors because his popularity among users of the internet appears to be genuine and spontaneous.
Nevertheless, the party and PLA propaganda machines have been working overtime in the year since the earthquake to ensure the masses know to whom they should be thankful.
On the ground in Beichuan the reality was not so glorious. Soldiers were conspicuously absent from rescue work in the early days that mattered.
On Saturday, The Age quoted a soldier who said he left a trapped survivor for dead and said his orders did not permit him to rescue her. She was subsequently rescued by local volunteers and firefighters.
That story was censored yesterday in China and The Age's computers in Beijing repeatedly crashed when trying to open it.
Beichuan town remains unoccupied, a graveyard town. Ms Yang and Xiao have been relocated to Anxian town just outside the mountains.
Source - The Age 120509
---
Source - The Age
THIS is Xiao Yawen on the plane to Beijing, where she is to star tonight on China Central Television's extravaganza to mark the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake.
A year ago Xiao was photographed in the arms of a particularly handsome soldier, Sheng Yufeng, on the morning after the quake that destroyed her home in the mountains above Beichuan town.
The legend is that Mr Sheng reunited Xiao with her mother after they had lost each other in the exodus of earthquake refugees.
Reports said he carried the girl through Beichuan for an hour because the girl's grandmother was exhausted after holding her all night.
Xiao remained happily oblivious to the fuss she was causing in the media until a journalist from the Western China Metropolis Daily finally tracked her down last month.
Last Wednesday, CCTV flew her to Beijing and The Age happened to be seated next to her on the plane. Xiao, as feisty as she is cute, was not at all happy about having to sit for two hours on a plane in sweaty Qiang minority costume to perform for the cameras.
"It's a hassle," Xiao's mother, Yang Shengchun, said. "I refused to go many times, but they kept on asking."
Ms Yang said her daughter had no special story, nor did the soldier with the nicest smile. "We weren't injured," she said. "On May 13 soldiers were taking the healthy survivors through old Beichuan town. One of the soldiers picked her up — the photograph looked like a rescue, but it wasn't — I don't really have much to thank them for."
The People's Liberation Army has a history of legendary soldiers who fought floods, plugged oil wells with their own bodies and performed other selfless acts to protect the nation and capture the hearts of the masses. Typically these heroes, like Lei Feng in the 1960s, were created by the Communist Party's Propaganda Department.
Sheng Yufeng is different to his soldier-hero predecessors because his popularity among users of the internet appears to be genuine and spontaneous.
Nevertheless, the party and PLA propaganda machines have been working overtime in the year since the earthquake to ensure the masses know to whom they should be thankful.
On the ground in Beichuan the reality was not so glorious. Soldiers were conspicuously absent from rescue work in the early days that mattered.
On Saturday, The Age quoted a soldier who said he left a trapped survivor for dead and said his orders did not permit him to rescue her. She was subsequently rescued by local volunteers and firefighters.
That story was censored yesterday in China and The Age's computers in Beijing repeatedly crashed when trying to open it.
Beichuan town remains unoccupied, a graveyard town. Ms Yang and Xiao have been relocated to Anxian town just outside the mountains.
Monday, January 5, 2009
2008 - A year of tragedy and triumph for Beijing
A year of tragedy and triumph for Beijing
By Kent Ewing
from the Asia Times Online
HONG KONG - The stunning pyrotechnical display that opened the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August is a fitting image to remember as China closes the book on 2008. A year that was rocked by trial and tragedy ultimately culminated in explosive triumph, with Beijing staging what was, by many accounts, the most successful Olympics ever.
The country reveled in its Olympic glory after the devastating winter storms with which the year had begun and the far more devastating earthquake that followed. And there was also lots of pre-Olympic anxiety and doubt as protests against China's human rights record and stance on Tibet dogged the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and athletes worried about competing in Beijing's foul air.
But the protests mercifully stopped once the torch arrived on Chinese soil, and the Beijing air magically cleared during the Games, thanks to a special traffic scheme and massive government-imposed factory shutdowns. After 17 flawlessly organized days of compelling athletic competition, the international protests had largely turned to praise. Beijing's official coming-out party had been a marvelous success, and the Chinese nation and its worldwide diaspora could breathe a tremendous sigh of relief.
Now, of course, although that grand Olympic memory lives proudly on, it has been undercut by an economic crisis that began with high-rollers on Wall Street but may soon threaten social stability among ordinary Chinese.
On December 18, the Communist Party celebrated the 30th anniversary of the launch of former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, which have propelled the country into the first rank of nations and generated double-digit economic growth in nine of the past 16 years. But China's economic juggernaut is expected to slow to 7.5% growth next year, a level that authorities worry could spark social unrest as exports slow, factories close and angry migrant workers head home with little money and no hope.
Keeping a lid on social upheaval will be the main preoccupation of Chinese leaders in 2009, which is likely to be a year filled with more trial than triumph for China. The anniversaries alone that mark next year's calendar indicate that there should be no shortage of drama and that potential for crisis is rife.
Consider this: the new year will bring (let's celebrate with more Olympic-style pyrotechnics) the 60th anniversary of the birth of the People's Republic of China, but it will also be (let's worry with arrests of dissidents and, possibly, violent suppression) the 20th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown and the 50th anniversary of the flight of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's internationally recognized spiritual leader, from his homeland following its takeover by the Chinese.
While 2009 will not have an Olympic theme, brace yourself nevertheless for more fireworks - both actual and metaphorical.
Here for full article.
By Kent Ewing
from the Asia Times Online
HONG KONG - The stunning pyrotechnical display that opened the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August is a fitting image to remember as China closes the book on 2008. A year that was rocked by trial and tragedy ultimately culminated in explosive triumph, with Beijing staging what was, by many accounts, the most successful Olympics ever.
The country reveled in its Olympic glory after the devastating winter storms with which the year had begun and the far more devastating earthquake that followed. And there was also lots of pre-Olympic anxiety and doubt as protests against China's human rights record and stance on Tibet dogged the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and athletes worried about competing in Beijing's foul air.
But the protests mercifully stopped once the torch arrived on Chinese soil, and the Beijing air magically cleared during the Games, thanks to a special traffic scheme and massive government-imposed factory shutdowns. After 17 flawlessly organized days of compelling athletic competition, the international protests had largely turned to praise. Beijing's official coming-out party had been a marvelous success, and the Chinese nation and its worldwide diaspora could breathe a tremendous sigh of relief.
Now, of course, although that grand Olympic memory lives proudly on, it has been undercut by an economic crisis that began with high-rollers on Wall Street but may soon threaten social stability among ordinary Chinese.
On December 18, the Communist Party celebrated the 30th anniversary of the launch of former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, which have propelled the country into the first rank of nations and generated double-digit economic growth in nine of the past 16 years. But China's economic juggernaut is expected to slow to 7.5% growth next year, a level that authorities worry could spark social unrest as exports slow, factories close and angry migrant workers head home with little money and no hope.
Keeping a lid on social upheaval will be the main preoccupation of Chinese leaders in 2009, which is likely to be a year filled with more trial than triumph for China. The anniversaries alone that mark next year's calendar indicate that there should be no shortage of drama and that potential for crisis is rife.
Consider this: the new year will bring (let's celebrate with more Olympic-style pyrotechnics) the 60th anniversary of the birth of the People's Republic of China, but it will also be (let's worry with arrests of dissidents and, possibly, violent suppression) the 20th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown and the 50th anniversary of the flight of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's internationally recognized spiritual leader, from his homeland following its takeover by the Chinese.
While 2009 will not have an Olympic theme, brace yourself nevertheless for more fireworks - both actual and metaphorical.
Here for full article.
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