News: January 2006 Archives

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article

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.

>> Read the complete article