January 2006 Archives
By Tom Zeller Jr. | The New York Times
January 29, 2006
When Google announced last week that it would censor its new search service in China, the company became, to many, the latest component in that country's sophisticated system of information control.
With strategies ranging from automated keyword filtering and Web site blocking to Internet traffic surveillance, the Chinese government is unmatched in its ability to censor and monitor its citizens online.
Of course, no system is perfect.
The OpenNet Initiative (www.opennet.net), an international human rights project linking researchers from the University of Toronto, Harvard Law School and Cambridge University, tracks Internet censorship and the techniques used to evade it. To surf the Web in China and elsewhere without censorship and in marginal safety, said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor and a member of the initiative, the primary tool is an old standby: the proxy server.
A proxy server is simply a generic computer through which people who want to be anonymous drive Web traffic before it reaches their own machines. This helps dissociate a computer address from the Web sites its user has visited.
BBC News
January 30, 2006
Oscar favourite Brokeback Mountain has been effectively banned from cinemas in China, it has been reported.
Censors ruled the gay cowboy romance too controversial to be shown in the country where homosexuality is a taboo, industry paper Daily Variety said.
Brokeback Mountain - by Taiwanese director Ang Lee - is a firm favourite to be among the Oscar nominations when they are revealed in the US on Tuesday.
The film stars Australian Heath Ledger and US actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
Geisha film
So far the film has dominated the 2006 Hollywood awards season, taking the best drama honours at the Golden Globe awards and winning the Producers Guild of America's top award.
Also unlikely to show in China is director Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha.
BBC News
Google's launch of a new, self-censored search engine in China is a "black day" for freedom of expression, a leading international media watchdog says.
Reporters Without Borders joined others in asking how Google could stand up for US users' freedoms while controlling what Chinese users can search for.
Its previous search engine for China's fast-growing market was subject to government blocks.
The new site - Google.cn - censors itself to satisfy Beijing.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
January 25, 2006
BEIJING (AP) -- Employees said Wednesday that China has shut down a newspaper supplement known for its in-depth reporting on sensitive issues, the latest measure by the communist government to tighten control over the media.
Production of Bing Dian, a four-page weekly supplement of the state-run China Youth Daily, was halted until further notice late Tuesday, the eve before its latest issue was to appear, the employees said.
Chief editor Li Datong said he was called into a meeting at 8 p.m. and notified of the shutdown without being given a reason. ''I'm very angry,'' said Li, the supplement's founder. ''We'll be going through regular channels to appeal.''
The 11-year-old publication had become a must-read among China's educated elite, running penetrating articles on topical issues such as a chemical spill that polluted a major river last year. Its closure reflects growing tensions between the Chinese leadership and media outlets that have been pushing the limits of official tolerance in part to capture greater market share.
Staff at Bing Dian -- which means ''Freezing Point'' -- expressed bewilderment with the closure. ''It's so unfair,'' said a woman in the Bing Dian office who declined to give her name because of the sensitivity of the situation. ''It's hard to tell how long this will last but we were told it can be resumed 'after improvements.'''
Employees said officials did not say what would happen to Bing Dian's staff of five editors and eight reporters.
In an attempt to reassert its authority, the government has recently fired aggressive editors and intimidated and even jailed enterprising reporters. According to government figures, authorities banned 79 newspapers deemed illegal in a nationwide crackdown last year.
BBC NEWS
January 25, 2006
Leading internet company Google has said it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market.
Google has offered a Chinese-language version of its search engine for years but users have been frustrated by government blocks on the site.
The company is setting up a new site - Google.cn - which it will censor itself to satisfy the authorities in Beijing.
By ELISABETH BUMILLER | The New York Times
January 23, 2006
White House Letter
When President Bush met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Oval Office this month, the talk turned to Ms. Merkel's childhood under Communism, then wandered to the subject of Mr. Bush's latest bedtime reading: "Mao: The Unknown Story," an 814-page biography that presents the Chinese dictator as another Hitler or Stalin.
Participants in the meeting say Mr. Bush spoke glowingly of the book, a 10-year project by Jung Chang, the author of the hugely successful memoir "Wild Swans," and her husband, Jon Halliday, a British historian. "Mao" has been at the top of best-seller lists in Britain and Germany, and was published to mixed reviews late last year in the United States.
The book might at first seem an odd choice for Mr. Bush, whose taste in biography, like that of other American presidents, runs to previous occupants of the Oval Office. But it is not so surprising given that "Mao: The Unknown Story" has been embraced by the right as a searing indictment of Communism.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
January 23, 2006
BEIJING (AP) -- Workers protesting the sale of a factory in southwestern China clashed for three days with baton-wielding police, according to a factory employee and a news Web site Monday, underscoring the country's growing social tensions.
The conflict at the No. 354 military factory in the southwestern city of Chengdu left some of the workers injured -- one of them in critical condition, according to the Web site.
By Ben Blanchard | REUTERS
January 20, 2006
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities arrested more than 18,000 people for national security reasons in the mainly Muslim western region of Xinjiang last year, a newspaper said on Friday, which a dissident described as a rise of a quarter.
By Tim Luard | BBC News
January 17, 2006
The southern province of Guangdong should be a dream come true for China's leaders.
For more than two decades it has set the pace for China's economic development.
It used its closeness to Hong Kong and the commercial instincts of its people to become the richest province in the country, and the workshop of the world.
But a series of protests, disputes and scandals have turned this glittering jewel in the reformists' crown into something closer to a blot on the political landscape - the grim embodiment of all that is going wrong with China's unique blend of capitalism and communism.
Howard W. French - The New York Times
January 17, 2006
SHANGHAI, Jan. 16 - A week of protests by villagers in China's southern industrial heartland over government land seizures exploded into violence over the weekend, as thousands of police officers brandishing automatic weapons and electric stun batons moved to suppress the demonstrations, residents of the village said Monday.
The residents of the village, Panlong, in Guangdong Province, said that as many as 60 people were wounded and that at least one person, a 13-year-old girl, was killed by security forces. The police denied any responsibility, saying the girl died of a heart attack.
Editorial - The New York Times
January 17, 2006
Microsoft has silenced a well-known blogger in China for committing journalism. At the Chinese government's request, the company closed the blog of Zhao Jing on Dec. 30 after he criticized the government's firing of editors at a progressive newspaper. Microsoft, which also acknowledges that its MSN Internet portal in China censors searches and blogs, is far from alone. Recently Yahoo admitted that it had helped China sentence a dissident to 10 years in prison by identifying him as the sender of a banned e-mail message.
By REUTERS
January 16, 2006
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sealed off a village in southern Guangdong province after days of protests over land grabs ended at the weekend in clashes with police that killed a teenage girl, two residents said on Monday.
Last week's protest came a month after police sent to quell a similar demonstration in another part of Guangdong opened fire, killing at least three people and as many as 20.
Reporteros Sin Fronteras
El gobierno ha continuado con la privatización de los medios de comunicación y reprimiendo severamente a los periodistas reformistas. La prensa escrita, que por primera vez se encuentra en situación de competir, se arriesga a ejercer la crítica, pero el Departamento de Propaganda vigila y sanciona. A fecha 1 de enero de 2005 China era, con al menos 27 periodistas detenidos, la mayor cárcel del mundo para los profesionales de la información.
Reporters Sans Frontieres
Le gouvernement a poursuivi la privatisation des médias et maintenu sa répression sévère des journalistes réformateurs. La presse écrite, placée pour la première fois en situation de concurrence, se risque à la critique, mais le Département de la propagande surveille et sanctionne. Avec au moins 27 journalistes détenus, la Chine était, au 1er janvier 2005, la plus grande prison du monde pour les professionnels de l’information.
Reporters Without Borders
The government continued its privatisation of the media and kept up its ruthless harassment of reformist journalists. The written press, experiencing competition for the first time, took some chances but was monitored and sanctioned by the propaganda department. With at least 27 journalists in prison, China was at 1st January 2005, the world’s largest prison for journalists.
BBC News
January 10, 2006
The European Parliament has passed a resolution demanding pressure on China to ban the farming of bears for bile.
The bile is extracted from the caged bears' gallbladder by means of a metal catheter, then sold for use in Chinese medicines and cosmetics.
The resolution was approved by more than half of the parliament's 732 members, with cross-party support.
"We want China to shut all the bear farms before the 2008 Olympics," said British Labour MEP Peter Skinner.
BBC News
January 9, 2006
Chinese authorities are scrambling to deal with two more toxic spills polluting the country's rivers.
Officials said water supplies were safe despite the spills, which hit rivers in central and eastern China.
The new alerts came as China was still struggling to deal with two earlier major toxic spills which left millions of people without drinking water.
Correspondents say the spills have focused attention on how polluted China's rivers have become.
By Emma Graham-Harrison | REUTERS
January 7, 2006
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's environmental woes spilled visibly over its borders as a toxic slick flowed into Russia in December, but exports of pollution are becoming as common as sales of cheap T-shirts for the economic powerhouse.
The country's leaders are only starting to grapple with the political fall-out at home after years of pursuing economic expansion at almost any price.
Dirty or scarce water, choking air and toxic factory effluent are some of the common problems fouling China's environment and its neighbours'.
Yet the international impact of China's problems have barely registered as cause for concern for Beijing's leadership. It took days for China to notify Russia that an explosion at a petrochemical plant sent 100 tons of benzene compounds pouring down a tributary to the Amur.
By Jill McGivering
BBC Asia analyst
The death of the last remaining member of the "Gang of Four", Yao Wenyuan, ends one of the most troubled chapters in China's modern history.
But many in China, especially those are too young to remember it themselves, know very little about the persecution and bloodshed orchestrated by Mao Zedong's Gang of Four.
Mao is still hailed by the authorities in China as an inspiring symbol.
Andrew Yeh | Financial Times
January 4, 2005
China is lacking both the financial and human resources needed to combat a new wave of HIV/Aids infections, especially in southern and western regions, said a senior health official.
Wu Zunyou, a top Aids official at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said there was an alarming number of new HIV cases, predominantly among intravenous drug addicts and sex workers.
China does not have recent statistics on the total number of HIV cases in the country, but Mr Wu’s statements echo concerns expressed by officials in Beijing, including the health minister last month, and international health professionals.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
January 3, 2006
BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese journalist who was jailed on subversion charges after reporting on corruption has been released early from prison, ahead of a planned U.S. visit by President Hu Jintao, a U.S.-based activist announced Wednesday.
Jiang Weiping was released Tuesday after the one year remaining on his sentence was commuted, and he was with his family in the northeastern city of Dalian, said John Kamm, executive director of the Duihua Foundation in San Francisco. Kamm said he had spoken to Jiang's wife.
Kamm said he didn't know the reason for the early release.
But Hu is due to visit the United States early this year, and Beijing frequently releases prominent prisoners in connection with high-level official contacts with the United States.
By Zhang Xiaomin | The Epoch Times
December 31, 2005
Attorney Liu Ruping, from Shuntian Law Firm in Jinan City, Shandong Province, was recently sent for 15 months of forced labor because he published an article on the Internet urging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to stop the practice of brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners. He is currently detained at the Wangchun Forced Labor Camp in Shangdong Province.
On November 25, 2005 Liu Ruping published an article entitled "Immediately Stop Brainwashing Falun Gong Practitioners" on a website based outside of China. The article stated that Falun Gong practitioners [in China] are violently taken to brainwashing centers and fined as much as 100 yuan a day for "training [brainwashing] fees." He revealed that the practitioners could be released any time if they gave up their faith or cursed the founder of Falun Gong. Otherwise they face jail terms, or extensions of their existing labor camp terms.
>> Read the complete article
By JIM YARDLEY | The New York Times
December 31, 2005
YUJIAGOU, China - From the prison cell where he contemplated an executioner's bullet, a migrant worker named Wang Binyu gave an anguished account of his wasted life. Unexpectedly, it rippled across China like a primal scream.
For three weeks, the brutal murders Mr. Wang committed after failing to collect unpaid wages were weighed on the Internet and in Chinese newspapers against the brutal treatment he had endured as a migrant worker. Public opinion shouted for mercy; lawyers debated the fairness of his death sentence. Others saw the case as a bloody symptom of the harsh inequities of Chinese life.
But then, in late September, the furor disappeared as suddenly as it had begun. Online discussion was censored and news media coverage was almost completely banned. Mr. Wang's final appeal was rushed to court. His father, never notified, learned about the hearing only by accident. His chosen defense lawyer was forbidden from participating.
"All of you are on the same side," Mr. Wang, 28, shouted during the hearing, his father said in an interview here in the family's home village in northern Gansu Province. "If you want to kill me, just kill me."
On Oct. 19, they did. Mr. Wang was executed so quickly, and quietly, that it took weeks for the word to fully trickle out that he was dead.
China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined. By some estimates, the number of executions is more than 10,000 a year. The government's relentless death penalty machine has long been its harshest tool for maintaining political control and curbing crime and corruption.
But it has now become a glaring uncertainty about China's commitment to the rule of law. There is widespread suspicion, even within the government, that too many innocent people are sentenced to death. This year, a raft of cases came to light in which wrongful convictions had led to death sentences, or, in one well-publicized case, the execution of an innocent man.
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