Thread: Chinese Internet Affairs

In late 2008 (or maybe early 2009) the CCP launched a major campaign of cleaning all 'inappropriate' material on the World Wide Web. Its main aim was to get rid of all pornographic material which 'damages social moral'. However, voices inside and outside China have been raised, concerning that such censorship would potentially damage citizens' right of free speech (guaranteed by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, 35th item) and subsequently bring about more 'suppress' onto Chinese citizens' minds, which unfortunately aren't well protected. Before this campaign, internet censorship already existed (blocking Wikipedia and YouTube for instance). In the thread Phelps apologizes to Chinese fans, appreciates their support I have discribed what I experienced as a user of internet in China.

Originally Posted by snowhole

I haven't kept an eye on all the rumours around so I can hardly be sure to your question. Here's from what I experienced.

Porn sites die with no room of hesitation. Recently they are doing a cleaning campaign that aims to get rid of all pornographic material on the net (closing all websites that are in China, and blocking all those from abroad). But still, it's hot stuff and you know the rules of market -- we can get it anyway. This is the major censor which is taken most seriously.

And they will give orders as "this specific piece of news should be released but not highlighted or debated on", e.g. the fire of the CCTV building recently. The news was on the headlines of the frontpage of Sina.com.cn (the biggest website-of-all-kind in China), and later put into the "domestic news" page, and comments were disabled, thus making it more "subtle" (but debates in forums kept going anyway).

On forums. The propoganda agency and net-cops under their command will do random surfs in forums, and if they find something "inappropriate" (that is pornographic, offensive, violating copyright, and of course, against "political correctness"), they will contact the site (they have at least all super-moderators' contact measures, if not all of them) and order them to delete it. And they ask those who are in charge of forums report how many new threads they have got and how many they have deleted on a monthly basis, but they don't really check themselves, so mods could just give random figures. Not really the nazi-style effective.

We as netizens do have means to go around some censors, but not everyone is so enthusiastic. For those who check the internet just as a receiving method of info (like telly), they could be mislead; and for serious debaters, they eventually get most of the info sooner or later, one way or another. So, to conclude, it is quite annoying. But if rumours say that they watch our every move on the internet, it's simply over-exaggerating because that's impossible.

This particular cleaning campaign, I believe, was trigered by the 'Sexy Photo Gate' which took place in early 2008. For your better understanding of what happened on the internet in China in the last year, I recommend you this essay from Southern Weekend by Ping Ke. (The translated article comes from http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20090124_1.htm)

Southern Weekend is a Guangzhou based weekly newspaper. It belongs to Southern Daily Group, which is famous in China for their voice for political and cultural reform.

[in translation]

"You have to check the channels one by one, the programs one by one, the pages one by one. You must not miss any step. You must not leave any unchecked corners. There is no such thing as an 'inspection-free' product." On January 29, 2009, State Council Information Office Internet News Research Center director Liu Zhengrong said this at a Bejjing media forum. So at the beginning of the new year in 2009, a clean-up campaign was started and swept through the Chinese Internet.

Several days ago before Liu Zhengrong gave his speech, the 81 photos of Zhang Ziyi and her fiancé having fun on a Caribbean beach were spreading rapidly across the Internet in the same way that "Sexy Photos Gate" did at the start of year 2008. For the public, "Sexy Photos Gate" was an astonishing "Gossip Gate." But for the government it was a "Management Dilemma Gate."



"Sexy Photos Gate" once again made the people and the government aware of the huge size of the Internet population and the incalculable power that can be unleashed in a instant.

On January 27, 2008, the sexy photos of Edison Chen were leaked at a certain Hong Kong forum. The mainland Tianya forum's "entertainment gossip" section quickly set up "the biggest post ever." In less than one month, it had accumulated 2.7 million hits. There were more than 150,000 comments spread over one thousand pages. Some netizen estimated: "It would take a person three days and three nights without eating or sleeping to read through the comments."

When this post reached more than 600 pages, it was briefly deleted before being quickly restored. Under the "aura" of "Sexy Photo Gate," people seemed to have forgotten that a once-in-50-years snowstorm was happening at the time.

Faced with this unexpected "Sex Photo Gate," the Hong Kong police also appeared to be at a loss -- What is an indecent/obscene article? Which method by which the articles are circulated is a crime? The Hong Kong media was boiling over.

The Hong Kong police commissioner Tang King-shing's public comment at the time deserves to be brought up again here: "Sharing these photos via email, or even storing such photos on a computer may constitute a crime." At the time, a Legislator asked in return: "If we all send junk mail with pornographic photos to Commissioner Tang's email address, then should he be arrested too?"

The police later issued a revised statement, "It is not against the law to watch these photos or share them with friends via email. But it is illegal to post these photos onto the Internet." This immediately raised questions with the Hong Kong netizens: "If we bring a portable hard disk to meet a netizen, we become friends and I make copies of the sexy photos for my friend. Am I breaking the law?"

The mainland also took all sorts of actions on "Sexy Photos Gate": "It is illegal to give the 'Sex Photo Gate' series of photos to friends"; "criminal liability is incurred if you send more than 200 photos to others." In Hong Kong and mainland China, people were summoned or arrested by the police for distributing those sexy photos.

On December 10, 2008, Google announced the top keywords in 2008. "Edison Chen" was the year's most quickly rising keyword. "Sex Photos Gate" was number 5. "Sex Photos Gate" became the first item coming out of the Pandora's box for the Chinese Internet. Once the magical box is opened, it cannot be shut again. Even as "hope" came out of the box, "disaster" and "calamity" came out as well.

How shall we face these "disasters" and "calamities"? Peking University School of Journalism and Communication associate professor Hu Yong said: "It is reactive to use the old methods. The government must adjust to this new channel."

Actually, on January 4, 2008 which was a couple of weeks before "Sexy Photos Gate" broke open, the article <2007, Listen to the Chinese Netizens> in <People's Daily> had described the management strategy. The article affirmed that the year 2007 was the year in which the Internet became public space for the people. With the attention of both the people and the government, the Internet has become a channel to rationally bring about fairness and justice. At the same time, the importance of "protecting the people's right to know, the right to participate, the right to express and the right to monitor" was emphasized.

The renowned Internet observer Keso noted the clash of various voices triggered by the Lhasa riots.

On March 14, 2008, a disturbance took place in Lhasa. Three days later, the American website CNN.com published a photo of "two army trucks heading towards two civilians" on a Lhasa street. In truth, this photo had been cropped. In the complete photo, there were about 10 people throwing rocks at the military vehicles on the side. The British website BBC and the Germany Newspaper <Berlin Morning Daily> also made serious "errors" in which the texts did not match the photos in their reports about the Lhasa disturbance.

On March 20, the 23-year-old Beijing young man and Tsinghua University graduate Rao Jin established the Anti-CNN.com website. This website specialized in "collecting and exposing the anti-China slurs made by the western media." Rao Jin told the media: "This website was visited by 200,000 persons in five days' time. Two to three hundred people wanted to become volunteers for us."

At the same time, an Anti-Anti-CNN website was also established. Its purpose was to "analyze what is being presented as 'facts' and 'analyses' on the Anti-CNN.com website" in the hope of "showing the facts and truth accurately."

On April 9, a Chinese student at Duke University in the United States Wang Qianyuan became a key person over the Lhasa disturbance. Her actions at a certain gathering caused her to be accused as "Chinese traitor" and "Chinese scum." She was the subject of "human flesh search." Several days later, someone poured feces on the door of her parents' home in Qingdao. The voices which were supportive and sympathetic clashed loudly with the voices which condemned and scolded her.

Before one thing ended, something else came along. In April, the Olympic torch reached its fifth stage in Paris, France. The paralympian torchbearer Jin Jing was attacked by a Tibet independence supporter. The netizens at several dozen websites proposed a campaign to "boycott Carrefour, boycott France." Afterwards, the "MSN patriotic red heart" became popular. According to People's Net, this idea came from "a small website" and this became a public interest activity that was started spontaneously by Chinese netizens. An article at Hexun Net called this action "a wonderful piece of crisis management by public relations."

Keso used "the furtherance of the public space" to include the increase "of unofficial voices" on the Internet in 2008. "In the west, they have their own public spaces, such the culture of public plazas. But the Chinese don't have that sort of thing. The Internet is providing such a public space for the Chinese people. In 2008, more and more people are expressing their views on the Internet. The area of this public space is continuing to expand. It has led to more and more influence on public opinion, particularly with respect to things that occur in social lives."

"When the unofficial voices get louder, it is impossible to shut them all up. Stability is the most important mission at present. At the same time, the ruling party needs to have a certain channel to understand public opinion." Hu Yong told the Southern Weekend reporter.

On May 12, there was a big earthquake in Sichuan. This was the twelve day after the "People's Republic Of China Government Open Information Regulations" came into effect. Less than minutes after the earthquake hit, Xinhua reporters the news. The various web portals also reported the news on the front page.

Meanwhile, various rumors from unknown sources began to fly all over the place: "There will be a big earthquake in Beijing tonight," "There will be a 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Zhejiang," ...

On May 14, the Baidu Forum carried a post that proclaimed: "It's over! It's completely over! The chemical plant in Dujiangyan has exploded!" The news spread quickly. Tens of thousands of people rushed into the street to buy food and mineral water. The local government quickly organized personnel to direct traffic and use television broadcasts and the Internet to dispel the rumor about the "so-called chemical plant explosion in Dujiangyan." Within two hours, the buying spree stopped. The three persons who spread the rumor were given administrative punishments and lectures.



On June 28, 2008, there was disturbance in Weng'an, Guizhou province: a local female student died in unsual circumstances on June 22. The first two autopsy reports said that she died from drowning. Within the next six days, all sorts of rumors were flying around. A common rumor was that the uncle of the deceased was beaten to death by the police.

At this time, all the related posts on the Internet were rapidly deleted. Some forums even posted a notice: "All posts related to the Weng'an incident shall be deleted." This caused the netizens to believe even more that some injustice must be involved.

So all sorts of posts carrying oblique and distorted references to Weng'an appeared on the Internet, as the netizens uses various means to upload and distribute videos from the scene in Weng'an and they even posted the rumors. In order to blockade the news about the disturbance, the authorities even cut off mobile phone service in Weng'an.

On June 29, an emergency management center was set up in Weng'an for the purpose of guiding public opinion. On June 30, the Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan hurried to Weng'an to direct the work. On July 1, the first press conference was held in which the details of the incident was disclosed to the world. The media from all around China reported the news, including clarifications about "the rumor that the police beat the uncle to death." Three days later on July 4, the Weng'an leadership was dismissed from their jobs. On July 6, the Weng'an county public security bureau held an open day to listen to grievances from petitionters. On July 9, the results of the third autopsy was announced. The cause of death was drowning.

Afterwards, some netizen discovered the blog of a Weng'an female police officer named Shen Xue. This female police officer had written: "Within a short ten days' time, we estimated that we handled six mass incidents. These neverending notices of suddenly breaking incidents forced us stay ready all the time. We were all very tense and nervous. I don't know what kind of tool the public security bureau is nowadays. We handled these six incidents, some of which had no need to have so much police power there. Why do the relevant want to treat the public security bureau as a fist or a violent tool. How is the public security bureau supposed to maintain good relationships with the people? This is really hard to explain."

Actually, Shen Xue's blog post was written in February 2007, and is unrelated to the Weng'an disturbance. Dramatically, this blog post got many hits after the disturbance and caused it to be deleted for a while.

What Shen Xue felt in her blog post a year ago was exactly what Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan said about the Weng'an incident one year later: "We must be cautious about how we use police force, we must be cautious about how we use police weapons and we must be cautious about how we apply suppression. We should not push the public security apparatus into the frontline at the drop of a hat. We cannot use the dictatorship of the people against the people themselves."

Concerning the handling of information about this suddenly breaking incident, Shi Zongyuan emphasized: "The most important thing in handling a suddenly breaking incident is whether we can release information immediately, accurately and factually and then we can guide public opinion properly."

More than 20 days after the Weng'an incident, Bai Yansong made a summary of the incident on the CCTV program <News 1+1>: "Rumors stop as soon as information become publicly available. When a negative incident is made public and transparent, there will be positive reflections." The Weng'an model became the model for how the government made information public for suddenly breaking incidents in 2008.

With respect to the Weng'an incident, Hu Yong said: "It was definitely not handled the same way as before. When the Internet sentiments are very strong, other side needs to strengthen their arguments in the battle. Sometimes, it is a good thing to have mediation and negotiation. The Internet belongs jointly to the government and the people. They need to adjust to each other."

Concerning the numerous rumors on the Internet about emergency incidents, Hu Yong holds an even more open attitude: "The public has the right to dispute the veracity of any official reports or even government statements. The people have the right to monitor the government. The government can work harder to make information more open in order to eliminate the worries of the public and eliminate untrue statements."



In 2008, the Internet's function as monitor reached unprecedented levels. It is no longer difficult for netizens to monitor government officials. Some government officials have even lost their jobs as a result.

Some netizens use these words to warn certain government officials: "The netizens are everywhere. We are watching you. You better be worried about your job!"

The video of Shenzhen Marine Affairs Bureau Disciplinary Committee party secretary Lin Jiaxiang allegedly molesting a girl and subsequently using his official job position to bully people was posted on the Internet and that caused him to lose his job; a netizne found the overseas travel invoices and receipts for Wenzhou government officials on the Shanghai subway and a number of officials were dismissed or disciplined as a result; some netizens determined from photos of Nanjing City Housing Authority official Zhou Jiugeng that he wore an expensive Vacheron Constantine watch and smoked 150 yuan/pack cigarettes and he was dismissed from his job one week later; Liaoning province Xifeng county party secretary sent police to arrest a female reporter in Beijing and he lost his job after the Internet exposure; nine months later, he was appointed to a new position elsewhere but the netizens exposed that too and he lost his job again ...

Not only are government officials monitored, but even the websites are monitored by netizens too. After the Sanlu affair was exposed, Baidu encountered an unprecedented confidence crisis -- an internal Sanlu Group crisis management plan was published on the Internet whereby Baidu was going to be paid 3 million yuan to hide all negative information about the Sanlu Group.

According to Hu Yong had published the book <Hubbub of Noises> about public expression on the Internet: "We cannot overestimate the utility of Internet opinion." He said: "The Internet is still at the stage of expression in the so-called 'hubbub of noises.' Previously, there was only a stony silence. Now all of a sudden, we have the tool to express our voices. So everybody is expressing themselves to their fullest. The next steps after expression should be to reach a consensus and then take action. At the moment, we are just expressing ourselves. We can't speak of any consensus, never mind any action."

On January 13, 2009, the China Internet Network Information Center released the <The Statistical Report On the Growth and Development of the Internet in China> for 2008. The reporter showed that the number of Chinese Internet users has increased to 298 million in 2008. The highest rate of increase occurred in the 10-19 age group (that is, those who were born after 1990), and they are now the biggest group in the Chinese Internet. Another noteworthy change is the increase in the number of Internet users in rural areas. In 2008, the number of rural Chinese Internet users reached 84.6 million, which is a 60% increase over 2007.

Keso holds the opinion: "It is not very meaningful to lead the world in numbers." Actually, in June 2008, the number of Chinese Internet users passed the number of American Internet users for the first time and hence led the world. At the time, People's Net published a critical essay entitled <Chinese Internet users leads the world in numbers, but what is their rank in terms of quality?> which cast doubts on the state of the Chinese Internet.

What are the implications of having more rural Internet users. In the rural areas, the Internet is regarded mostly as the "bad thing" that gets children to play games all day. But in the rural areas of Taiwan, the Internet has other applications.

27-year-old Taiwan farmer Xie Mingjian (nickname Sword Sword Man) established a blog entitled <The History of the Struggles of the Sword Sword Optimistic Young Man> and tried to use it to promote the rice that he grows on his farm. Not only did he sell all his rice, but he also won the top prize in the Annual Global Chinese-language Blog Awards. Many young people are following his example to return home to farm.

Jeremy Goldkorn from South Africa pays attention on the increase of rural Chinese Internet users. His English-language blog Danwei.org presents the various incidents that occur in China and has been called the "Mini Xinhua." In Goldkorn's view, the implication of "farmers becoming Internet users" is not just about opening the vision of the farmers. More importantly, this will "form a new platform so that farmers can have more opportunity to express their opinions." The campaign to clean up vulgarity on the Internet is still ongoing. According to Xinhua, 726 websites have been shut down since January 19, 2009. At the same time, the first "human flesh search" of year 2009 has just been issued against railroad officials who are responsible for making tickets so scarce during the Chinese New Year period. Then it was rumored that Xuzhou (Jiangsu province) city has introduced laws to ban "human flesh search" with a maximum penalty of 5,000 yuan. "One step forward and two steps back, or two steps forward and one step back." Hu Yong used the Minuet to describe the management model of the Chinese Internet.

The CCP's attitude towards porn might be something conservative. Actually, IMHO, it's not. Through years of my life, I rather find it "radical".

In most part of the world, films are rated with different standards. For instance, in England, there are U (universal), PG, 12A, 15, 18 etc.. But in CCP's mind, everything is U(niversal), or at least should be. But unfortunately they find the real world not living to its standard, so they introduced such censorship in all cultural fields. By blocking all inappropriate material around, they want to create such cultural atmosphere that's suitable for every man, woman and children. (Yet, CCP is not as effective as Nazi, or the soviet communists. By this I point to the fact that some 'not so universal stuff in the other parts of the world' would appear in theatres or cinemas for all audience. For example, in cinemas in China you might notice some kids seeing Ang Lee's Lust, Caution which contains strong sex and would probably be rated 18 in England. This causes quite some awkwardness amongst the parents.)

I don't live up to CCP's cultural standard either. And IMHO their 'universal' altitude toward culture would simply make people stupid.

And as you might have noticed in the newspaper essay, there are loads of irresponsible internet users as well as media that spread rumours or false information which would create unnecessary social disorder. Although they have to firstly censor within themselves as it is their bad reputation caused distrust upon them, I do support CCP to introduce some degree of 'quality control' on the internet and mass media, because no matter how good they do their job, there would always be some people who 'just want to watch the world burn'.

As I myself have some immature thinking on this (my solution would take as long as one generation), I would like to ask for your take on this. Their effort of censorship is like a preemptive strike upon the the ill-info on the net, and its shortcomings are obvious. Yet, if they act passively and reactively, we as members of the society would inevitably lose something to the ill-info. What's your opinion?

Originally Posted by snowhole

And as you might have noticed in the newspaper essay, there are loads of irresponsible internet users as well as media that spread rumours or false information which would create unnecessary social disorder. Although they have to firstly censor within themselves as it is their bad reputation caused distrust upon them, I do support CCP to introduce some degree of 'quality control' on the internet and mass media, because no matter how good they do their job, there would always be some people who 'just want to watch the world burn'.

As I myself have some immature thinking on this (my solution would take as long as one generation), I would like to ask for your take on this. Their effort of censorship is like a preemptive strike upon the the ill-info on the net, and its shortcomings are obvious. Yet, if they act passively and reactively, we as members of the society would inevitably lose something to the ill-info. What's your opinion?

There is no absolute press freedom in any country any place!
The problem with CPC is they impose too tight a control on the press, whether online or offline!

Originally Posted by Shuimo

There is no absolute press freedom in any country any place!

I know. It's a nominal thing. But it has its own values for being mentioned everywhere.

As for press freedom, they should always bear this in mind:

Concerning the handling of information about this suddenly breaking incident, Shi Zongyuan emphasized: "The most important thing in handling a suddenly breaking incident is whether we can release information immediately, accurately and factually and then we can guide public opinion properly."

More than 20 days after the Weng'an incident, Bai Yansong made a summary of the incident on the CCTV program <News 1+1>: "Rumors stop as soon as information become publicly available. When a negative incident is made public and transparent, there will be positive reflections." The Weng'an model became the model for how the government made information public for suddenly breaking incidents in 2008.

well, not everything is so block and white, there are people out there that will continue to fight the good fight.




Ma Jun: China's environmental patriot

2 hours ago

HONG KONG (AFP) — In China, where dissent is often brutally suppressed, publicly shaming powerful corporations for destroying the environment is fraught with risk. Ma Jun treads carefully.

The author of "China's Water Crisis," a savage catalogue of the country's environmental collapse, Ma now takes the fight to polluters, shaming factories on a website run by his non-governmental organisation the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE).

And working out how far a small campaign group can push businesses -- and the officials who back them -- has become his specialty.

"There is a space there, but there is a line as well. The key is to understand both," said the soft-spoken 40-year-old.

"This is the Chinese condition. This is a country that has been ruled in a top-down way for thousands of years. Now you want to do things in a different way? We have to have some patience."

There is no doubting the severity of China's environmental crisis.

Centuries of slashing forests, diverting rivers and expanding agriculture were compounded by the arrival of the world's most polluting industries during the economic boom of the last 30 years.

More than 60 percent of China's rivers and lakes are now dangerously contaminated, according to official figures. The desert is spreading from the north and the World Bank says 20 of the world's 30 filthiest cities are in China.

China's senior environment official Zhou Shengxian has said there were more than 50,000 public disturbances linked to pollution in 2005, state media reported, the last year any figures were released.

Despite the groundswell of anger, Ma is adamant any environmental progress must be measured.

"We want to see change, but we also want to see that this does not sink China into total chaos," he said.

The World Bank estimates the cost of air and water pollution is about 5.8 percent of the country's GDP, prompting new central government policies.

Tougher rhetoric has been followed by stringent targets, major clean-ups and reforestation programmes.

There is also increased tolerance of critical media coverage of environmental issues and a wary acceptance of small-scale international and local NGOs.

But enforcement remains woefully lax, and Ma -- who was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 -- hopes public scrutiny can pressure polluters to clean up, as it has in the United States.

"Public participation is the key to dealing with our environmental problems," said Ma, who studied at Yale University in 2004.

"The pre-condition for any meaningful participation should be to allow those who are affected to have access to the information."

Using government statistics the IPE has created a map highlighting 30,000 violators of air and water regulations. Firms can only be removed after a third-party audit.

While Ma uses only government-approved data, his approach has still provoked angry responses from businessmen and occasionally from local officials.

"There are some extreme cases when they created a certificate with a chop (an official stamp) saying the company is 'basically OK' within hours (of being named on the site)," said Ma. "These are awkward moments."

Ma's gentle and legalistic approach is crucial.

"When they learn that all the data come from the government I think many of them feel more at ease," he said.

Inducements have been offered -- in a "delicate" way, Ma said -- by those convinced the website is an elaborate shakedown.

"It is the traditional Chinese way of doing things," said Ma, who says he has never taken a bribe.

Ma Jun was born in Qingdao, a city on China's east coast. He grew up in Beijing, where his father, an aerospace engineer, encouraged him to learn English from one of the first foreign-language radio programmes.

He studied English and journalism at university before becoming an assistant in the South China Morning Post's Beijing bureau.

Travelling with the paper's correspondents, he witnessed the toll China's economic boom was taking, prompting the research that developed into his 1999 book.

The discord between the idealised versions of the country's natural richness that fill Chinese literature and the brutal scarring of the landscape Ma saw inspired the groundbreaking study.

"It was an astonishing book. China's equivalent of 'Silent Spring' (the 1962 book by Rachel Carson credited with helping launch the environmental movement in the United States)," said Mark O'Neill, a colleague during the 1990s, who added Ma's calm approach was crucial to the NGO's success.

"He has made the maximum use of the space, but without getting himself arrested or getting locked up. This takes great intelligence and savvy."

Most of the companies the website pinpoints are Chinese, but multinationals with operations in China have also been named.

Ma hopes the website will challenge the argument, repeated by big firms, that the complexity of modern supply chains prevents proper monitoring.

"From now on you cannot say 'I do not know'," said Ma, who runs IPE out of a small Beijing apartment.

US giant General Electric (GE) has used the site to check suppliers, and said it could even help find new customers.

"I think it could be an opportunity where we may be able to use some of our technology to help turn around a factory," said Albert Xie, head of GE's Ecomagination project in China, which develops environmentally-friendly business opportunities.

Last summer, Ma's NGO launched the Green Choice Alliance Programme where corporations commit not to take goods from suppliers who flout environmental regulations.

The aim is to give a competitive advantage when selling goods and stop firms having to obsess about low costs.

"If they only care about quality and pricing and nothing else, you push (suppliers) to cut corners," he said.

Multinationals are crucial to any genuine progress, Ma said.

Former Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott said in Beijing last year the firm would require suppliers to ensure the factories they buy from receive the highest ratings in audits of environmental and social practices by 2012.

"That is the game-changer," said Ma.

"If you are below legal discharge standards you are out of the game. Only by adopting it can you compete," Ma said.

Ma is realistic about the challenge of cleaning up China's pollution -- "We still haven't seen the turning point," he said -- but he believes there is a genuine desire for improvement.

"At the time I wrote my book, it was not just officials, many ordinary people believed we needed to get rich before we deal with our environmental problems," he said.

"Recently, things have changed," he said, adding a database like his would have been "unimaginable" only eight years ago.

Indeed, just the fact that green NGOs are allowed to organise -- impossible for democracy or labour rights campaigners -- indicates a real commitment.

Ma resists any comparison with environmental groups in eastern Europe at the end of the Soviet era, some of which acted as Trojan horses for nascent democratic movements.

"I am sure that it is a worry for the government," he said, nevertheless repeating his mantra of gradual change.

"(Foreigners) are observers, they want to see things changing faster. But to us, we are part of it. We need to make sure this thing does not sink into chaos," he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...QkkoB8DFR4OfTg

Meet China's green crusader
By Daniel K. Gardner
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

It's a challenge to defend China these days. There's violation of human rights. There's Sudan. There's Tibet. And now there's "currency manipulation."

So looking at China's pollution mess, we in the West have been quick to denounce the bad guys in Beijing, blaming them for doing nothing to protect their air, water and people.

But Chinese indifference to the environment is a myth. In the last few years China has begun to take aggressive action to bring its air and water pollution under control.

Here are a few examples:

-China's fuel-efficiency standard for cars is currently pegged at 43 miles per gallon, which means that when America's 2020 standards of 35 mpg go into effect they'll be lower than China's minimum standard of today.

-Coal-fired plants must install or retrofit filtering devices in their smokestacks.

-Chief executives of companies found responsible for waste-dumping are being fined 50 percent of their previous year's salary.

-Approval of new industrial projects in cities along China's four major rivers has been suspended indefinitely.

-A "green credit policy," which instructs banks not to give loans to energy-intensive, polluting industries and to recall loans when companies are later found to be violation of environmental regulations, went into effect in July 2007.

-An ambitious renewable-energy program, in which hydroelectric, biomass, wind and solar power are to account for 10 percent of China's total energy use by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020, was made public in March 2008.

Credit for most of these measures goes mostly to one man, Pan Yue, vice minister of the newly established Ministry of Environmental Protection. Pan has made it a personal mission to raise awareness of China's ecological crisis since 2003, when he was appointed vice deputy of the ministry's less powerful predecessor, the State Environmental Protection Administration.

"In 20 years, China has achieved economic results that took a century to attain in the West," Pan says. "But we have also concentrated a century's worth of environmental issues into those 20 years."

He appears unafraid to challenge the "development" path that the Chinese Communist Party has taken for the past three decades: "There has been a flaw in our thinking: The belief that the economy decides everything. If the economy is booming, we thought, political stability will follow; if the economy is booming, we hoped, people will have enough to eat and live contented lives; if the economy is booming, we believed, there will be money everywhere and materialism will be enough to stave off the looming crises posed by our population, resources, environment, society, economy, and culture. But now it seems this will not be enough."

With remarks like this, Pan is taking on the party leaders in Beijing. His insistence that it is time for the leadership to give less emphasis to development and considerably more to responsible stewardship of the environment has been unrelenting.

In one month alone (February 2008), he announced the shutdown of 40 plants that were operating in violation of pollution standards. A month earlier, he issued a blacklist of more than 100 multinational companies with subsidiaries in China that continue to contribute to contamination of the waterways. In late February, he introduced through SEPA the "Green Securities Act," which requires companies from energy- and pollution-intensive sectors to undergo strict inspection by environmental specialists if they wish to launch an initial public offering - thereby limiting the expansion of those sectors.

He acknowledges that the battle he's fighting is uphill, saying in the China Daily: "Local resistance will reduce the effects of environmental policies. Some projects that use a lot of energy and create a lot of pollution are able to generate quick returns for local governments, which has inspired some of them to stand in the way of policies like green credit." Yet he expresses faith, not in government officials, but in the Chinese people becoming ever more proprietary about their air and water - especially if the people are given information about the environment by the government, a position he advocates strongly. He said, "By increasing the transparency of environmental information, the force of public opinion can put pressure on those who destroy the environment."

Pan's initiative, the "Measures on Open Environmental Information," was formally adopted on May 1, 2008. The public activism implied in Pan's remarks is indeed growing. In 2006 alone there were 60,000 public protests related to the environment.

Further evidence of the public's engagement with ecological issues is the growth in the number of environmental-related nongovernmental organizations in China. As recently as the mid-1990s there were but four or five, now there are a few thousand.

So, we in the West can stay on the sidelines and keep our hands clean of China's deepening environmental crisis. Or we can join hands with environmentalists in China. Pan Yue, and others like him, represents an ideal opportunity to build bridges with a growing and critically important indigenous Chinese environmental movement.

It doesn't pay for the world community to treat China's pollution as China's problem. Pollution is a global problem; curbing it will require a global effort.

Daniel K. Gardner is a professor of history at Smith College.

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=20105872

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10830027.htm

Chinese netizens call for extension of anti-porn crackdown
www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-16 22:57:45 Print

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese netizens want to extend an anti-porn campaign to schools and campuses in an effort to protect young people from erotic materials.

In a Monday meeting, which was organized by the Beijing Association of Online Media, a non-profit government-sponsored organization, 15 participants, all randomly-selected netizens, urged authorities to incorporate Internet ethics and legal education into school curriculum.

An official with the Beijing Internet management office, a local Internet regulator, who attended the meeting and required anonymity, told Xinhua that "authorities will seriously consider the feasibility of those ideas".

Participants also hailed China's online campaign against pornography and erotic materials, which was launched in early January by seven government agencies, including the State Council's Information Office and the ministries of Public Security and Culture.

Netizen Wei Xing said Internet pornography's influence on young people was twofold: they might be hurt by online criminal activities such as swindling and sexual harassment; pornography and "lewd" materials have gradual and long-term negative impact on their growth.

Peng Yong, another netizen, suggested the promotion of positive online activities for young people to ward off the influence of pornography and obscene contents.

Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China. Since the government campaign started, search engines including Google, Baidu and MSN China were blacklisted for providing obscene content and being too slow to delete erotic materials.

The anti-porn campaign later extended to mobile phone games, online novels, blogs, videos, radio programs, cell phone Web sites, chat rooms and instant messenger groups.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the country's Internet users hit 298 million by the end of 2008, overtaking the U.S. as the nation with the world's largest online population.

Of those users, about 108 million are under 19 years old, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

This was a report in HK's Apple Daily (it's like The Sun, not serious newspaper). But I find it interesting.

According to the Religious Hegemony Concern Group convenor Chun Heifai, Reverend Patrick So of the Yanfook Church upset people by saying that the amendment of the Domestic Violence Ordinance is protecting homosexuals. Chun also criticized the conservative religious groups for using "cell division" to offer repeated opinions in the name of various groups and persons to the Legislative Council to tighten the Control of Indecent and Obscene Articles Ordinance, which is the same as bearing false testimony. He said that these religious Taliban are giving partial interpretations of the Bible and insists on having their views accepted to the exclusion of all dissident voices.

Another convenor named Democratic Party Legislative Councilor Wong Sing-chi for "using the resources of the Democratic Party to run in the election and then working for religious groups after being elected." Hong Kong Young Students Association chairman Lee Cheung-yin pointed out that the Carmel Holy Word Secondary School had earlier mobilized the parents of their students to write a letter each to demand the tightening of the Control of Indecent and Obscene Articles Ordinance. He said that the religious education groups were hijacking civic education and fabricating fake public opinion.

"Fantasizing the Control of Indecent and Obscene Articles Ordinance can educate your children for you; right-wing logic is impractical." The demonstrators kept chanting this slogan during the march. At the Legislative Council hearing, parents and education groups complained that they are unable to prevent their children and students from coming into contact with harmful information on the Internet and therefore the Legislative Council must force the Internet service providers to use filtering software to block pornographic information. A parent said: "I have to earn a living. I don't have time to educate my children."

The demonstrators gathered yesterday at 11:30am at the Cheung Sha Wan Parth in Lai Chi Kok district. They held an assembly first to denounce the conservative religious groups for attempting to impose their personal religious beliefs and values onto others in recent years. The demonstrators are mostly young people who came together through Facebook and the Hong Kong Golden Forum.

The demonstrators then set out to the Yanfook Church while singing the group Beyond's song <The Glorious Years>. They stood outside the church to protest silently. The church sent out about twenty security guards and congregation members to monitor the demonstrators. The demonstrators then went to the True Light Society office on Prince Edward Road before disbanding peacefully at 1:25pm.

According to the organizers, there was as many 1,200 persons in the march. The reporter counted about 500 demonstrators. Chun Heifai said that he is planning a demonstration at the Legislative Council to protest against "collusion between politicians and religious groups."

This demonstration was organized by the Religious Hegemony Concern Action, the Civic Social Web and the Hong Kong Young Students Association. There are relatively unknown groups. But a Facebook account was set up on January 28 to call for this demosntration, and 2,059 persons signed up by February 10. In the end, 500 people showed up to march. Christians have also established a "Grand Alliance to support freedom of religion and speech" Facebook group to counter-attack, but only 154 persons signed up.

(English translation of this article comes from EastSouthWestNorth blog)

Originally Posted by snowhole

This was a report in HK's Apple Daily (it's like The Sun, not serious newspaper). But I find it interesting.


(English translation of this article comes from EastSouthWestNorth blog)

The Apple Daily is a serious newspaper. It's the only explicitly anti-China paper in Hong Kong.

no, apple daily is trash, it is all about sensationalism, but confuse one's political stand with good journalism.

Originally Posted by xinhui

no, apple daily is trash, it is all about sensationalism, but confuse one's political stand with good journalism.

Then, by your standard, noHK paper is serious (except South China Morning Post which is an English paper). Oriental and Sun daily are equally bad if not worse than Apple Daily. MingPao and Singtao are slightly better but still worse than many western papers.

Apple Daily is biased, but still contains quality reviews and articles.

I don't read a single news paper for story, if an item that is interesting to me, I will read multiple sources and use my own judgment. The issue is not rather it is bias, they all are. The issue is quality of their research.