January 2012 Archives

By Sharon LaFraniere ~ The New York Times

January 27, 2012

Weary of waiting for the authorities to alert residents to the city's most pernicious air pollutant, citizen activists last May took matters here into their own hands: they bought their own $4,000 air-quality monitor and posted its daily readings on the Internet.

That began a chain reaction. Volunteers in Shanghai and Guangzhou purchased monitors in December, followed by citizens in Wenzhou, who are selling oranges to finance their device. Wenzhou donated $50 to volunteers in Wuhan, 140 miles inland. Officials have claimed for years that the air quality in fast-growing China is constantly improving. Beijing, for example, was said to have experienced 286 "blue sky" days in 2011, a statistic belied by the heavy smog smothering the city for much of the year.

But faced with an Internet-led brush fire of criticism, the edifice of environmental propaganda is collapsing. The government recently reversed course and began to track the most pernicious measure of urban air pollution -- particulates 2.5 microns in diameter or less, or PM 2.5. It decreed that about 30 major cities must begin monitoring the particulates this year, followed by about 80 more next year.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection also promised to set health standards for such fine particulates "as soon as possible." Last week, after years of concealing its data on such pollutants, Beijing began publishing hourly readings from one monitoring station.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing nonprofit group, credits the Chinese public for the breakthroughs. "At the beginning of last year, we had almost lost hope that the PM 2.5 would be integrated into the standards," Mr. Ma said. "But at the end of the day, the people spoke so loudly that they made their voice heard."

The fine particulates, caused by dust or emissions from vehicles, coal combustion, factories and construction sites, are among the most hazardous because they easily penetrate lungs and enter the bloodstream. Chronic exposure increases the risk of cardiovascular ailments, respiratory disease and lung cancer. The Chinese government has monitored exposure levels in 20 cities and 14 other sites, reportedly for as long as five years, but has kept the data secret.

It sought 18 months ago to silence the American Embassy in Beijing as well, arguing that American officials had insulted the Chinese government by posting readings from the PM 2.5 monitor atop the embassy on Twitter. A Foreign Ministry official warned that the embassy's data could lead to "social consequences" in China and asked the embassy to restrict access to it. The embassy refused, and Chinese citizens now translate and disseminate the readings widely.

While China has made gains on some other airborne toxins, the PM 2.5 data is far from reassuring in a country that annually has hundreds of thousands of premature deaths related to air pollution. In an unreleased December report relying on government data, the World Bank said average annual PM 2.5 concentrations in northern Chinese cities exceeded American limits by five to six times as much, and two to four times as much in southern Chinese cities.

Nine of 13 major cities failed more than half the time to meet even the initial annual mean target for developing countries set by the World Health Organization. Environmental advocates here expect China to adopt that target as its PM 2.5 standard.

Wang Yuesi, the chief air-pollution scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimated this month that Beijing needed at least 20 years to reach that goal. The embassy's monitor showed that fine particulate concentrations over the past two years averaged nearly three times that level, and 10 times the World Health Organization's guideline, said Steven Q. Andrews, an environmental consultant based in Beijing.

In fact, Mr. Wang told Outlook Weekly, a magazine owned by China's official news agency, Xinhua, that Beijing's PM 2.5 concentrations have been increasing by 3 to 4 percent annually since 1998. He said the finer particulates absorbed more light, explaining why Beijing so often is enveloped in a haze thick enough to obscure even nearby buildings. Air pollution in the city and in nearby Tianjin is so severe that "something must be done to control it," he wrote on his blog.

Such sentiments are increasingly common on weibos, the Chinese version of microblogs like Twitter, especially among elites. International schools here are doming their athletic fields because pollution so often requires that students stay indoors.

In November, Pan Shiyi, a Beijing real estate tycoon, asked his seven million microblog followers whether China should employ a stricter air-quality standard. Shi Yigong, a molecular biologist who left Princeton University in 2008 to lead Tsinghua University's life sciences department, complained in a December blog post that air pollution was the single "most upsetting and painful thing" about life in China.

Some Chinese citizens remain stoic or unaware. One afternoon last week when smog cloaked Beijing and the American Embassy monitor edged toward the top of the chart, parents flocked to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, a children's hospital in downtown Beijing, towing children with respiratory ailments.

One mother of a 6-year-old awaiting treatment for her child's chronic cough said: "I think it's good for the child's immune system to be exposed to tough weather like today's. It will make them tougher."

Chinese statistics indicate that urban air quality has improved over the past decade as cities have relocated factories, reduced coal burning and adopted stricter vehicle emission standards. The World Bank's analysis of the government's data found that average concentrations of particulates measuring 10 microns or less -- a group that includes both fine and coarser particulates -- fell 31 percent from 2003 to 2009 in 113 major cities.

Still, only a few cities managed to meet China's own toughest standard, which is twice as loose as the World Health Organization guideline. Mr. Wang, the researcher, contends that while Beijing's PM 10 level fell nearly a third from 2006 to 2009 -- for the most part, in the years leading up to the Beijing Olympic of 2008 -- it has been edging up ever since.

Whether government statistics are reliable is another matter. While some argue that the release of ever more detailed data makes fudging ever harder, Mr. Andrews, the environmental researcher, contends that the government systematically manipulated data and standards to create more "blue sky" days. Although attention focuses on Beijing, at least 16 other cities are more polluted, the World Bank says. Their efforts to clean up the air are partly offset by rising populations, an avalanche of vehicles and never-ending construction.

Some experts contend that the government shies away from epidemiological studies on pollution's health impact. "They are really unwilling to match it to the health data because that would be much more alarming," said one specialist who spoke anonymously for fear of angering Chinese officials. "They want to get the counts down first."

The World Health Organization estimated in 2007 that 656,000 Chinese died prematurely each year from ailments caused by indoor and outdoor air pollution. The World Bank placed deaths related to outdoor pollution at 350,000 to 400,000, but excised those figures from a 2007 report under government pressure.

Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told China Daily last month that without intervention, PM 2.5 particulates would replace smoking as China's top cause of lung cancer. Beijing health experts told the newspaper that while smoking rates were flat, the city's lung-cancer rate had risen 60 percent in the past decade, probably as a result of air pollution.

Feng Yongfeng, a Beijing father of a 3-year-old who founded a nonprofit environmental group called Greeen Beagle in 2009, argues that the Chinese should protect themselves by investigating their surroundings.

"If the data is real, officials keep it to themselves," said Mr. Feng, whose organization began this July to lend two PM 2.5 monitors to anyone who completes an online application. "You should not wait for the ministry to tell you the truth. You can find it out for yourself."

Only 30 people accepted the offer in the first five months. But Wang Quixia, the project manager, said interest had skyrocketed since publicity made PM 2.5 a household phrase in Beijing.

Now there is a two-month waiting list.

Mia Li contributed research.

>> Original Source

By Jonathan Watts | The Guardian (United Kingdom)

January 25, 2012

Chinese relations with Norway have been frosty since Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that dissident Liu Xiaobo would be peace laureate.

Norway could shut China out of the Arctic Council if Beijing does not stop a campaign of diplomatic snubs imposed after the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Norwegian newspaper has reported.

If confirmed, Oslo's move would mark a bold confrontation with the world's fastest rising economic power and highlight the growing importance of the Arctic, which is opening up for navigation and mineral exploitation as it melts due to global warming.

China's relations with Norway have been frosty since October 2010, when the Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that Liu, an imprisoned Chinese democracy activist, would be the next peace laureate.

Although the Norwegian government has stressed that the Nobel committee is independent, Beijing has punished its host nation by cutting political and human rights dialogues.

Until now, Norway has tried to use quiet diplomacy to ease the situation but, with little sign of progress, the Aftenposten, Norway's best selling newspaper, claims the government is preparing to up the stakes.

Citing an unnamed high-level diplomatic source, the paper said Norway would find it difficult to agree to China's application to be a permanent observer on the Arctic Council while the current situation persisted.

The Arctic Council is a forum for political discussions on the far north. It was established in 1989, originally to discuss measures to protect the Arctic environment, but has since expanded to work on scientific research, sustainable development and responses to emergencies.

Officially, the two governments have yet to comment on the issue.

"I can neither confirm nor deny this story, but I can say bilateral contacts between Norway and China are at a low level," Karsten Klepsvik, the senior Arctic official at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

He said no decision had been reached about Norway's position on applications from several nations to join the Arctic Council, adding: "As of today, we have not had inter-agency consultation on applications, but we will have to do that in the near future."

China makes no secret of its interests in the Arctic. The country has had a permanent research base in Norway since 2004 and conducted four expeditions of the region, according to the website of the government's Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

It has also announced plans to build a new 8,000-tonne icebreaker by 2013 to join its current vessel, the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, on some of the other three expeditions planned by 2015.

The potential is enormous. If the ice clears sufficiently for reliable summer navigation, ships could drastically cut the time needed to carry goods from China to Europe, and Chinese academics believe the Arctic could become the most important trade route in the world.

The region also has abundant resources, including fisheries, minerals, more than 10% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of its undiscovered gas reserves.

Although much of this is within territory that has already been claimed, emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil seek influence over these opportunities through observers seats at the Arctic Council, which currently has eight full members - Norway, Canada, Russia, the US, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark.

Until now, it had been thought that Russia and Canada were the strongest opponents of expansion, while Denmark has been the most supportive of a greater role for China in the development of the Arctic.

The Danish ambassador to Beijing, Friis Arne Peterson, said in October that China has "natural and legitimate economic and scientific interests in the Arctic".

Denmark hopes to benefit from the shrinkage of Greenland ice with the extraction of major deposits of rare earths, uranium, iron ore, lead, oil and gems. China is likely to be a key customer for these resources.

>> Original Source

By Edward Wong | The New York Times

18 January 2012

Yu Jie, a prominent writer of 11 books and a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, said Wednesday in a news conference in Washington that he and his family had left China on Jan. 11 after more than a year of harassment and house arrest.

Mr. Yu said his ordeal began Oct. 13, 2010, when he was placed under house arrest after the announcement that his close friend Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned writer, had won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. That December, Mr. Yu said, he was detained for four days and tortured nearly to death. He said security officers criticized him for planning to write a biography of Mr. Liu and for writing "China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao," a scathing critique of the prime minister.

Mr. Yu was then kept under house arrest, with a travel ban, until this month.

>> Original Source

By BBC World News

January 17, 2012

A veteran Chinese dissident, Zhu Yufu, has been charged with subversion for writing and publishing a poem on the internet, according to his lawyer.

The poem, entitled It's Time, urged people to gather in support of freedom.

Mr Zhu's lawyer said no date had been set for the trial. Chinese officials have not commented on the reported charge.

Mr Zhu was formally arrested last April as China began a wide-ranging clampdown on dissent.

The lawyer, Li Dunyong, said he had collected the indictment on Monday from a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

He told Reuters news agency he had met Mr Zhu, who he said was "in a good condition".

Jailed twice

Zhu Yufu, who is from Hangzhou, is a veteran activist who was involved in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, which pressed for a quicker pace of change in China.

He has been jailed twice before for his activism - in 1999 for seven years and in 2007 for two years.

The Chinese authorities formally arrested Mr Zhu in April 2011 for inciting subversion of state power - a charge often used against critics of the Communist Party.

A verse of his poem reads: "It's time, Chinese people! / The square belongs to everyone / the feet are yours / it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice."

But Li Dunyong said Mr Zhu was not connected with internet appeals for rallies inspired by uprisings in Arab countries.

Chinese police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to those calls; but the rallies themselves were tiny, with participants outnumbered by security officials.

China's Communist leaders have been stressing the need for stability ahead of a leadership change later in 2012.

The authorities have continued to detain and question large numbers of activists and lawyers.

In December 2011 the prominent Sichuan writer and political activist, Chen Wei, was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.

Days later, the veteran Guizhou dissident, Chen Xi, received a 10-year sentence on the same charge.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia

January 13, 2012

Entire Chinese village raises complaint to the government over a land grab.

Authorities in the southeastern province of Fujian detained about half a dozen people following demonstrations at an ethnic minority Muslim village over a government land grab inspired by last year's protests in the Guangdong rebel village of Wukan.

"That's right, they were probably detained on Thursday afternoon," said a resident of Fujian's Xibian Hui Minority Village, near Chendai township. "The whole village went to the township government to complain."

She said the majority of Xibian villagers were Hui minority Muslims. "Only reporters from Hong Kong dare to report this," she added. "Journalists here don't dare to report it."

Protests have continued in the village since Dec. 27, when villagers took to the streets carrying banners which read, "We must learn from Wukan," and "We strongly demand our land back."

In a case they say is similar to land grabs in Wukan, where protesters won major concessions from officials after several days of pitched battles with riot police, Xibian villagers accuse local officials of secretly appropriating more than 900 mu (60 hectares) of local land.

The villagers were detained by police after around several hundred villagers marched to the government office building on Thursday, local residents said.

"About 500 to 600 people went on the march yesterday," said a villager surnamed Ding. "There were hundreds of police there, and they snatched away people's flags and banners and threw them away like rubbish."

"There are still a few people locked up," he said. "There was one guy who tried to go to the district-level parliament to complain, but they wouldn't let him in, and they locked him up too."

Photos

Photos of the protest posted online showed an elderly villager in a wheelchair waving a flag, and heading towards the ranks of assembled policemen. They also showed a banner which read, "We welcome China's central government leaders and the overseas media to come and investigate the truth."

An official who answered the phone at the Xibian village committee office denied that any demonstration had taken place.

"No, there wasn't," the official said. "I don't know [what the situation is]."

According to online posts, protests began in September amid allegations that the relatives of the village ruling Communist Party secretary had appropriated hundreds of millions of yuan in village funds from the sale of local farmland.

"In other villages they divide up the proceeds [of land sales] among each individual," said another Xibian resident. "We got nothing here in our village. I don't understand it."

An employee who answered the phone at the Chendai police station declined to comment on the protests.

"I don't really know," the employee said.

Clashes between farming communities and police are becoming more and more widespread as local residents increasingly challenge lucrative property deals involving communal land by local officials.

Last week, activists in the southwestern province of Sichuan said they were spurred on by the concessions won by Wukan villagers amid strikes at a major state-owned steel works in Chengdu.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service and by Lin Jing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Report

By Chris Buckley | REUTERS [India edition]

January 11, 2012

One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, said police confiscated two computers from his home on Wednesday and warned that he could face renewed detention or investigation on accusations that he broke the terms of his jail release.

Hu, 38, was released in June last year after serving a jail sentence of three and a half years for "inciting subversion of state power", a charge used to punish dissidents who criticise China's ruling Communist Party in print and online.

Communist Party chiefs are preparing for a leadership handover late this year, when the party's long-standing focus on fending off political challenges is likely to intensify.

Hu has largely avoided the limelight since his release while showing support for rights campaigners and protesters through online comments, visits and appearances at government offices.

He told Reuters that authorities appeared to be seeking to silence him with the threat of fresh punishment.

"Eight police came to my home -- one of them was an Internet police investigator -- and took away two computers," he said, adding that the police had told him to go to a police station for further questioning on Thursday.

"They said I might have violated the conditions of my release and there could be consequences, perhaps detention for fifteen days or I could be held on suspected inciting subversion charges," he added in a telephone interview.

Reuters' calls to the police headquarters of Tongzhou district in Beijing, where Hu lives, were not answered.

If Hu is detained again, that could add to international friction over China's heavy grip on dissent, which recently brought the jailing of two less-well-known activists.

He won the European Parliament's human rights prize in 2008. Supporters also spoke of him as a potential recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which in 2010 went to his friend and fellow Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo.

Before he was detained in late 2007, Hu pursued an energetic career as an environmental protection campaigner, advocate for rural victims of AIDS, and critic of China's restrictions on dissent.

Hu said that when he was released from jail, police told him not to accept interviews from foreign reporters, protest, publish his views on the Internet or otherwise speak out. But he said he had always insisted he would not remain entirely silent.

He said the police might have been prompted to move against him because of his vocal support for Gao Zhisheng, a prominent Chinese right lawyer who was recently sent back to jail.

"I told them from the very beginning that when I saw other people's human rights were being violated, I wouldn't avoid speaking my views," he said. "I was never secretive about it. I told them that was my position."

In late December, a court in Guizhou, southwest China, jailed a veteran dissident, Chen Xi, for 10 years on subversion charges, in one of the heaviest sentences for political charges since the Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo was jailed two years ago.

Chen Xi's long sentence came days after another dissident -- Chen Wei from Sichuan province in southwest China -- was jailed for nine years on similar charges of "inciting subversion".

(Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)

>> Original Source

By Edward Wong | The New York Times

January 06, 2012

President Hu Jintao has said China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the West's assault on the country's culture and ideology, according to an essay in a Communist Party policy magazine published this week. The publication of Mr. Hu's words signaled that a new major policy initiative announced in October would continue well into 2012.

The essay, which was signed by Mr. Hu and based on a speech he gave in October, drew a sharp line between the cultures of the West and China and effectively said the two sides were engaged in an escalating war. It was published in Seeking Truth, a magazine that evolved from a publication founded by Mao Zedong as a platform for establishing Communist Party principles.

"We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration," Mr. Hu said, according to a translation by The Associated Press.

"We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond," he added.

Those measures, Mr. Hu said, should be centered on developing cultural products that can draw the interest of the Chinese and meet the "growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people."

Chinese leaders have long lamented the fact that Western expressions of popular culture and art seem to overshadow those from China. The top-grossing films in China have been "Avatar" and "Transformers 3," and the music of Lady Gaga is as popular here as that of any Chinese pop singer. In October, at the sixth plenum of the party's Central Committee, where Mr. Hu gave his speech, officials discussed the need for bolstering the "cultural security" of China.

"The overall strength of Chinese culture and its international influence is not commensurate with China's international status," Mr. Hu said in his essay, according to another translation.

"The international culture of the West is strong while we are weak," he added.

Mr. Hu's words suggested that China would not lift anytime soon strict limits that it sets on imports of some cultural products. Each year, the agency in charge of regulating film allows only 20 foreign movies to potentially make a profit off their box office take here. Hollywood studios have long criticized that system and lobbied the United States government and international organizations to pressure China into scrapping or loosening the quota.

People involved in the arts here say the policy also means more government financing for Chinese companies to create cultural products, ranging from books to live musical productions. At the same time, officials have been encouraging many cultural industries to become more market driven and rely less on government subsidies.

Some investors might see the government's announcement of support for more creative works to be positive, but the policy also runs counter to market freedoms, emphasizing the need to censor cultural expressions that the government deems unacceptable.

In his essay, Mr. Hu did not address the widespread assertion by Chinese artists and intellectuals that state censorship is what prevents artists and their works from reaching their full potential. In late December, Han Han, a novelist and China's most popular blogger, discussed the issue in an online essay called "On Freedom."

"The restriction on cultural activities makes it impossible for China to influence literature and cinema on a global basis or for us culturati to raise our heads up proud," Han Han wrote.

The publication of Mr. Hu's essay and other articles in Seeking Truth about bolstering China's cultural power signaled that this would be a central initiative in 2012, which is a transition year for the Chinese leadership. Seven of the top nine party members, including Mr. Hu, will step down from the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Mr. Hu appeared keen to enshrine the culture drive as a final defining moment of his decade-long tenure at China's helm.

The Central Committee meeting in October established the ideological foundation for a tightening of the cultural sphere that is only now beginning to unfold. Right after the meeting, officials announced a sweeping new policy to wipe scores of so-called entertainment shows off the air. That took effect on Sunday, and Xinhua reported Tuesday that the number of prime-time entertainment shows was now at 38, down from 126.

Last month, officials in Beijing and other cities ordered Internet companies based there to ensure that people posting on microblogs had registered their accounts using their real names, though they could still post under an alias. Officials have been putting pressure on executives and editors running the microblog platforms to self-censor, and many microblog users say the microblogs have been getting less interesting.

At the same time, China has been making a push to increase its cultural influence abroad, or its "soft power." The government has opened up Confucius Institutes around the world to aid foreigners in learning Chinese. The state is also lavishing money on opening operations of large state-run news organizations, including Xinhua, the state news agency, and China Central Television, in cities around the world. Officials from those organizations say they hope their version of the world events becomes as common as those from Western news organizations.

>> Original Source

By Edward Wong | The New York Times

January 1st, 2012

Wang Peijie's idea for what would become the most-talked-about show in China was simple: Throw a spotlight on this country's bright young things as they court each other on stage to pop music and audience applause.

The men boasted of their bank accounts, houses and fancy cars. The women were svelte and sassy, dousing suitors with acid putdowns. But mixed into the banter were trenchant social issues that urban Chinese from their 20s to 40s grapple with, if not always so publicly: living together before marriage, the unabashed pursuit of wealth or the government's one-child policy.

"Through this show, you can tell what China is thinking about and chasing after," said Mr. Wang, a veteran television producer.

The show, "If You Are the One," broke ratings records in the first half of 2010. More than 50 million people tuned in. The sauciest contestants became sensations -- one aspiring actress famously rejected a man offering a bicycle ride by saying, "I'd rather cry in a BMW." The show attracted huge interest from Chinese overseas; some students on American campuses even filmed their own versions. It increased the nation's cultural influence, which China's leaders crave.

But reality television proved too real for the censors. Disturbed by the program's revealing portrait of Chinese youth and the spread of copycat shows, they threatened to cancel it. Producers raced to overhaul the show. They brought on older contestants and added a third host, a matronly professor from the provincial Communist Party school. "We've had more restrictions on expressions on the show, to eliminate remarks that could have negative social impact," the wiry Mr. Wang, 45, said one morning as dozens of screens flickered behind him in a control room here in Jiangsu Province.

Then regulators formulated a sweeping policy that takes effect on Sunday and effectively wipes out scores of entertainment shows on prime-time television. The authorities evidently determined that trends inspired by "If You Are the One" and a popular talent show, "Super Girl," had gone too far, and they responded with a policy to curb what they call "excessive entertainment."

That a dating show could help set off the toughest crackdown on television in years exposes the growing tension at the heart of the Communist Party's control of the entertainment industry. For decades, the party has pushed television networks here to embrace the market, but conservative cadres have grown increasingly fearful of the kinds of programs that court audiences, draw advertising and project a global image not shaped by the state. Television, after all, occupies a singular position in the state's media arsenal: with its 1.2 billion viewers and more than 3,000 channels, it is the party's greatest vehicle for transmitting propaganda, whether through the evening news or staid historical dramas.

"A conflict has arisen: On the one hand, they're pushing for the building of a commercial industry, but on the other hand they wonder if this commercialization has led to an overall decline in cultural quality and moral cultivation," said Yin Hong, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing who studies television.

The party's definition of "entertainment shows" encompass game shows, dating shows and celebrity talk shows. As in the West, they are cheap to produce but earn high ratings and advertising revenue, which is critical since stations get little or no government subsidies. Now, the new rules, which were announced in late October, are forcing television executives and producers at 34 satellite stations across China to cut many entertainment shows from their lineups to limit what regulators describe as "vulgar tendencies."

The tightening of television is at the fore of a major new effort to control culture overseen by President Hu Jintao that is also permeating film, publishing, the Internet and the performing arts.

Government regulators issued the television guidelines right after the party's Central Committee made culture and ideology the focus of a meeting in October. Mr. Yin, who advised officials in the prelude to the meeting, said cadres had originally intended to issue a paper that would push cultural industries closer to the market. But starting half a year ago, he said, senior officials began growing more worried about "social morality," so they steered the policy toward the control of culture. Regarding television specifically, he said, "many old comrades" frequently complained about entertainment shows and "the idolizing of celebrities."

Under the new rules, each television station can broadcast only two "entertainment shows" during prime time each week. Only nine can be shown nationally per night, down from an official estimate this fall of 126 per week. A panel convened by regulators will decide which ones will remain if the stations do not trim. Ideas for new shows must be approved by censors. Satellite stations are also expected to increase their news programming and broadcast at least one show that promotes traditional Chinese virtues and the "socialist core value system."

The agency regulating the industry, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or Sarft, is not shy about imposing limits on dramas, either. Last year, it expressed disapproval of spy dramas and time-travel shows. In late November, it surprised the industry by mandating that as of January, commercials cannot be shown in the middle of television dramas. "The whole point here is that Sarft is trying to get TV station presidents back to the roots," said a person once involved with "If You Are the One," who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "What are the roots? TV is supposed to be the mouthpiece of the party in the country. You're supposed to broadcast propaganda instead of sensationalistic content."

The Role of Money

Reining in television is not just ideological, but is also tied to advertising money, people in the industry contend. Officials at Sarft are close to those at China Central Television, or CCTV, the state-run television network that is the largest in the country. CCTV still dominates the industry, but it has ceded market share to provincial satellite stations because they are producing the most popular entertainment shows. CCTV and Sarft have a revolving-door relationship: In November, a former vice minister of Sarft, Hu Zhanfan, took over as president of CCTV. The network also remits a fraction of its annual revenue to Sarft. From 2001 to 2005, it gave the agency $675 million, according to statistics from CCTV. By contrast, provincial stations remit revenue to local authorities, who have little incentive to censor successful shows.

So Sarft's crackdown on entertainment shows is partly aimed at enriching CCTV, industry observers argue. The announcement of the new order in October may already have yielded benefits for the network. On Nov. 7, at its annual auction for advertising spots in 2012, CCTV earned $2.2 billion, a 12.5 percent increase over the previous year. Sarft and CCTV officials did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

Tightening the vise could backfire. Some analysts say that the more television is regulated, the more viewers will watch shows on the Internet, over which Sarft wields much less power.

"If You Are the One" dropped in ratings after censors forced it to change its format last year. But Mr. Wang and his crew have found ways to keep it the top-rated variety show. When the parent station, Jiangsu Satellite Television, held its 2012 advertising auction in November, "If You Are the One" earned an astounding 82 percent of the station's total haul of $345 million.

Jiangsu wants desperately for censors to allow the 90-minute show to remain in its Saturday and Sunday prime-time slots. The station is cutting a half-dozen other entertainment programs, Mr. Wang said, and is developing shows that promote "social responsibility." But some wonder whether censors will show leniency. People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece, ran a commentary in October that lamented the negative influence of two shows. One was "Super Girl," an influential talent show that had been repeatedly punished for being "vulgar" since its 2004 debut on Hunan Satellite Television. It was suspended in September. The second was "If You Are the One."

"Some programs seek novelty as their objective," the article said. "They rely on peering into the privacy of others to achieve that, and they hype money worship and pleasure-seeking, which have aroused the antipathy of the audience."

Clashes Between Ideas

At a recent taping of "If You Are the One" in a Beijing studio, a male contestant, Wang Yan, 23, told the women on stage that he appreciated women who wore silk stockings. The women grilled him, to the delight of the audience. That turned into a discussion of the sizes of women's legs.

"Do you prefer S- or M-sized women?" asked one of the female contestants, Zuo Teng'ai, a single mother.

"I'm sorry, I really have no idea about the difference between the two," Mr. Wang said. The main host, Meng Fei, chimed in: "Is she asking whether you like S-and-M?"

"I didn't ask him about S-and-M!" Ms. Zuo said. The audience laughed and applauded. But the exchange was excised from the episode that aired Nov. 12.

Sharp dialogue was once the show's hallmark. One of its original goals was to push the limits of what could be discussed on Chinese television. "We hoped there would be some clashes between different ideas," Mr. Wang said.

The show was conceived in cigarette-fueled talks between Mr. Wang and Xing Wenning, a media entrepreneur now with the Hearst Corporation. In the fall of 2009, Mr. Xing, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia, was working for FremantleMedia, owned by Bertelsmann, and his task was getting Chinese stations or production companies to buy the rights to adapt foreign television shows. One of FremantleMedia's properties was "Take Me Out," a dating show popular in Britain. Mr. Xing approached the two most adventurous stations, Hunan and Jiangsu.

Mr. Wang at Jiangsu was receptive. He had worked at the station since the late 1980s and had witnessed the industry's transformation. In 1997, satellite television was established, allowing some provincial stations to broadcast nationally and compete with CCTV for advertising money. CCTV and provincial stations had increased production of entertainment shows around that time. "Competition is fierce among the top few stations," Mr. Wang said.

Mr. Wang said he wanted a new dating show to capitalize on the concept of "leftover girls" and "leftover boys," career-oriented people without a partner, a hot topic in China. The show, too, would be a window into the lives of the "rich second generation," the children of China's new money.

Hunan beat Jiangsu in the bidding for "Take Me Out." But Mr. Wang pushed ahead with his version, which Unilever had wanted to sponsor.

"If You Are the One," called "Fei Cheng Wu Rao" in Chinese, is set up like a tribunal. Twenty-four single women stand behind brightly lighted podiums and pepper a potential male partner with questions. Directing the talk is Mr. Meng, a bald, witty former news anchor. His sidekick is Le Jia, a younger, slimmer (but also bald) man dubbed the show's "psychological analyst."

The first episode aired Jan. 15, 2010, and set the tone. "Any woman who comes with me won't have to worry about her livelihood," said the first male contestant, Zhang Yongxiang, 23. His family ran a factory with more than 1,000 workers. A video showed off his large apartment, white sedan and endless rows of clothing. Other male contestants had their incomes advertised in graphics on their videos.

Later in the episode, a female contestant in red, knee-high vinyl boots and a tight black dress performed a chair dance that would not have looked out of place in a strip club.

But serious issues wormed their way into the talk. Women interrogated Mr. Zhang on why he clung to a traditional mentality of wanting to sire at least one son.

"Today's youngsters dare to express themselves," Mr. Wang said. "You can't be authentic if you don't dare to express yourself."

Spare No Dignity

The show's notoriety surged after one contestant, Ma Nuo, rejected a man with her "cry in a BMW" remark. Ms. Ma got thousands of messages from fans and critics alike. Supporters said she was only publicly voicing what many women think.

Ms. Ma, 23, said in an interview that producers had told the women not to spare the dignity of the male contestants. After the BMW comment, "Because they saw that I was outspoken, they wanted me to say more controversial things," she said.

On another episode, Zhu Zhenfang brushed off a suitor by saying that any man who wanted to shake her hand had to pay 200,000 renminbi, almost $32,000, because "my boyfriend must have a monthly salary of 200,000" renminbi. Another woman, Yan Fengjiao, made the headlines when nude photographs of her appeared online.

Viewers swarmed to the show. By May 2010, its ratings were second only to those of the CCTV evening news, which all satellite stations are forced to carry. China Daily called it "morally ambiguous and visually electrifying." Copycat dating shows sprang up, ones that were even more explicit.

Censors were not amused. In June, the heads of the Jiangsu and Hunan satellite stations were both called to Beijing for a meeting with Sarft officials. "They were quite harsh," said one person briefed on the meeting. The message was simple: Tone down the shows or face cancellation. The agency issued two edicts. One said: "Do not humiliate and assault participants in the name of dating; do not discuss vulgar topics involving sex; do not hype materialism and other unhealthy, incorrect viewpoints on marriage; and do not air the show without censorship and editing."

Zhejiang Satellite Television canceled a dating show. For a time, it looked as if all stations might have to do the same. One person on the set of "Take Me Out," the Hunan show, recalled a producer telling the entire cast and crew: "I might get a phone call at any minute, and all of you will have to pack up and go home."

Fans of "If You Are the One" immediately noticed the changes when the June 26 episode aired. Most obvious was the addition of a third host -- Huang Han was a mother who taught psychology at the local party school. All the female contestants had been replaced. The new ones were more subdued. So were the male contestants. And there was no mention of their incomes. "We started to choose older participants who have a stronger desire for marriage," Mr. Wang said.

Each episode now had to be reviewed at least six times in-house before broadcast, one person said. The producers still asked the hosts to steer talk toward social topics, but more subtly. "The comments made by contestants weren't as incisive as before," said Guo Wei, 34, a longtime fan.

Mr. Wang said he hoped the censors, when they whittle down the entertainment shows, keep in mind that "If You Are the One" made changes when asked. The show now tries to win ratings not through fiery dialogue, but by promoting itself online and bringing on overseas Chinese contestants. On the show's Web site, all the episodes from the show's first half-year have been deleted. "Our show," he said, "is one that obeys the rules."