CMP Readings
These are readings from the Chinese media selected by the China Media Project and commented by CMP Project Researcher David Bandurski.
- Xinhua: Perpetrator in Taixing Kindergarten Attacks was Involved in Pyramid Schemes
(2010-04-29) ― Even as the forensic investigation is underway in this morning's brutal knife attack on Taixing Central Kindergarten in Jiangsu's Taixing City, Xinhua News Agency begins a character attack on the alleged perpetrator, Xu Yuyuan (徐玉元), a 47 year-old jobless man, former insurance company employee and pyramid schemer. See our updates on Chinese coverage at CMP Geo Events: http://jmsc.no-ip.org/maps/cmp/#event_5778 - 26 Children Injured in Attack on Jiangsu Kindergarten
(2010-04-29) ― Chinese news portals lead today with the story of a brutal attack on children in a kindergarten in Jiangsu's Taixing City. "The Jiangsu Provincial Police Command Center said that on the morning of the 29th a brutal attack occurred at a kindergarten in the center of Taixing City. Twenty-six children suffered injuries. The perpetrator of the attack has been subdued, and the details of the situation are being further assessed," Xinhua News Agency reported today. - The "Troubled Youth" of Weng’an Move On
(2010-04-28) ― QQ runs a special feature page compiling Xinhua News Agency coverage of the 104 children who underwent reformatory education after their alleged involvement in mass riots in Weng'an, Guizhou Province, in June 2008. During the riots, sparked by what many residents believed was a police cover up of the death of a young girl, government buildings and police cars were torched and destroyed. Xinhua now proudly announces that 9 of the "troubled youngsters" involved in the unrest have tested into university . . . The Weng'an riots are now frequently cited in writings on news and propaganda in China as an example of how lack of information transparency can lead to rumors that create disaffection and social unrest. - Local Officials Have Dismissive Attitude Towards Media Supervision
(2010-04-27) ― Earlier this month, the news of a forced land seizure in Muling City, Heilongjiang Province, was reported by the province's official party newspaper, Heilongjiang Daily. When reached for an interview by The Beijing News, a commercial newspaper, a land official in Muling reportedly responded: "Don't believe everything you read in little newspapers (小报). It's not accurate." An editorial from the official Xinhua News Agency today criticizes local officials in Muling (and local officials more generally) for taking a cavalier attitude toward press supervision, or watchdog journalism (舆论监督). As the Xinhua piece also points out, the term "little paper," or xiaobao, is used to refer to commercial spin-offs of party newspapers, not to papers like Heilongjiang Daily which are published by provincial party committees — which are referred to as "big papers," or dabao (大报). "With contemporary developments, watchdog journalism will only become stronger and stronger," the Xinhua journalist writes." - Nanjing Authorities Say News of Pending Earthquake Just Rumor, Internet User is Taken Into Custody
(2010-04-27) ― Several days ago Web users were in a flurry about an Internet post saying American seismologists had predicted a major earthquake for this coming June, with its epicenter in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province. Yesterday, Nanjing's Municipal Seismology Bureau issued a online notice saying the Internet posting about a pending earthquake was an unsubstantiated rumor. Today, the Yangtse Evening Post reports that Nanjing police have taken a young woman into custody as the originator of the rumor. Authorities said: "Recently and online post called "Nanjing Will Have a Major Quake Measuring 7-8 on June 13' drew attention from many Web users, and had a negative impact on the lives of city residents." - "Sealed-off Villages" Go Against the Times
(2010-04-27) ― In an editorial in today's edition of The Beijing News, columnist Hu Yinbin (胡印斌) criticizes moves to seal off Beijing urban villages with large migrant populations and subject them to special management. Openness, writes Hu, is the measure of any city that lays a claim to the label "international city," and these strict new procedures aimed at restricting the movement of Beijing's massive migrant population go against the more open spirit of the times. "Modernization and urbanization are first and foremost about the openness of society, about the removal of all obstacles to the free movement of people and resources," Hu writes. - Real-name Internet Registration is On Its Way
(2010-04-26) ― Peking University professor and CMP fellow Hu Yong re-posts on his blog a recent piece from Xinhua News Agency's Oriental Outlook magazine about how China is nearing implementation of a real-name registration system for the Internet. The creation of such a system, which would effectively end anonymity on the Internet in China, has always been a controversial issue in China. This is a complicated issue, and time permitting CMP will attempt a round-up of the angles in the near future. Stay tuned. - CCTV on "Public Opinion Channeling" to Ensure Diversity Doesn’t Confuse the People
(2010-04-26) ― This recent piece at the China Central Television website discusses Hu Jintao's information policy of "public opinion channeling" and the crucial role to be played by media in China. While it pays lip service to the public's "right to know," it also makes it clear that the priority remains "guidance" (or control), and that diversity of public opinion is dangerous. The Mao Zedong principal of "politicians running the media," or CCP control of the media, is also re-iterated. "It is through agenda-setting that the media leads the attention of the masses to certain hot topics in the media. . . Television media, as a fast-response mainstream medium, upholding the [Mao Zedong-era] guiding principle of 'the politicians run the TV stations' . . . must fully utilize their agenda-setting function, employing the soft strength' (软性权力) of discourse construction to prevent diversity of public opinion from confusing the public, conveying one voice, and strengthening the overall national situation.“ - Police Must Improve ‘Public Opinion Warning Systems’
(2010-04-25) ― A recent article at China Police Web discusses the importance of "public opinion channeling," President Hu Jintao's more active approach to information control — what we have termed at the China Media Project "Control 2.0." The article says police must work to build comprehensive "public opinion warning systems" to alert them to potential hot-button issues, then must work to get their own information out quickly, "turning 'disaster' into 'opportunity'." - Ministry of Commerce Denies Issuing Report on Embezzlement by Officials
(2010-04-25) ― China's official Xinhua News Agency issued a release today denying that it ever produced a report saying that "since economic reforms began corrupt officials had embezzled close to 100 million on average per person overseas." This year and last, there have been a number of reports in domestic Chinese media using six year-old figures reportedly from the Ministry of Commerce. For more on this interesting issue, and the series of reports using the supposed ministry figures, see this January 2010 article from CMP Director Qian Gang: http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/01/19/3970/ - The Local Party School That Doubles As a Jail
(2010-04-25) ― In the personal editorials section of today's Southern Metropolis Daily, Su Dahe (苏大可) writes about the case of a peasant in Guangdong's Yangxi County whose house was razed by the local government 10 years ago for alleged violations of the One-Child Policy. Over the decade that followed, the peasant frequently petitioned the government, seeking redress for this injustice, and as a result was locked up repeatedly in Yangxi County's local Party school. Apparently, there is now a popular local saying in Yangxi that "the Party school differs little from a jail." Many people who have committed unspecified crimes, and whom the local jail won't dare lock up, are placed under lock and key at the Party school, generally a place of training for CCP cadres. Su concludes his editorial: "I'd like to ask, is there anything more dreadful than this?" - Wang Lequan Removed in Xinjiang Leadership Reshuffle
(2010-04-25) ― A number of Chinese news portals promoted to the top of the news page today the story of Wang Lequan's (王乐泉) replacement by Zhang Chunxiang (张春贤) as party secretary of Xinjiang. But unlike Western media, which drew a clear line from the leadership reshuffle to unrest in Xinjiang last year, the Chinese stories, all from an official news release, took care to emphasize that there was no connection. Politburo Standing Committee member Xi Jinping (习近平), a possible successor to President Hu Jintao in 2012, was quoted as saying: "Comrade Wang Lequan has been at his work in Xinjiang for close to 20 years, and has been the region's principal leader for 15 years. He has made important achievements for the development and stability of Xinjiang." The release also said Wang had been "steadfast in upholding the idea of stability before all else, and steadfast in preserving the unity of China's ethnic groups, struggling with a clear banner against the forces of ethnic separatism." - China, "Knock-off Superpower"
(2010-04-25) ― Just days after the doors open at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, accusations of plagiarism and copyright violation fly. Following closely on the heels of reports that the Expo's theme song, "Right Here Waiting for You 2010" (featuring notable stars like Jackie Chan) was a copycat of Japanese singer Mayo Okamoto's song 1997 hit "Stay the Way You Are," the song was yanked. Now, after NPR reporter Louisa Lim relayed Internet users' concern that the Expo mascot "Haibao" is a knock-off of the bendy, green Gumby, Chinese media are taking a closer look at the entire China display in Shanghai. Is China, some are asking, a "Knock-off superpower?" Click the headline above for an interesting summary from Guangming Daily. - We Need to Make Leaders’ Welfare Benefits and ‘Red Benefits" Public Too
(2010-04-24) ― In an editorial today, "well-known Internet user" and columnist Song Shinan (宋石男) writes that making the assets of government leaders public is just the first step to full transparency. The issue of publicizing leaders' personal asset figures has been bandied about in China's media since Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned the issue in a section on anti-corruption in this year's Government Work Report to the National People's Congress. Song writes that the benefits accruing to officials in the form of publicly financed travel, free housing and medical care are substantial, and that a public accounting should be made. Song cites a 2006 article in China Youth Daily quoting a top Ministry of Health official as saying that 80 percent of China's state expenditures on healthcare go to services for the country's roughly 8.5 million cadres. - Police: Boyfriend Pressures Girlfriend Into Alleging Rape After Internet Tryst
(2010-04-24) ― According to local police, a young woman in the central Guangdong city of Huizhou was pressured by her boyfriend, a Mr. Tian, to accuse another man she met on the Internet of rape. Police say the woman agreed to meet an online male friend at a local hotel, where the two had what police say was consensual sex. When the young woman's boyfriend learned about the encounter, he allegedly pressured his girlfriend to accuse the second man of rape. "My girlfriend was raped after she met a net friend," Tian maintained to reporters. We can file this under the more bizarre changes the Internet has brought to Chinese society.
