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Free Flow of Information
Chinese authorities continue to censor the media despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press.(133) China has signed, though not ratified, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.
China's newspapers and magazines have become more freewheeling in recent years as they struggle to turn a profit in an increasingly competitive market. But the central government still has the last word, and Beijing is aggressive in ensuring that media outlets know where it draws the line. Current sensitive subjects include labor strikes, rural unrest, Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong spiritual movement, the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, criticism of the Communist Party, opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet and Xinjiang, and disclosures of corruption or nepotism within the government and military leadership.(134) Chinese President Jiang Zemin has said that the news media in China "are the loudspeakers of the Party and the people" and have a duty "to educate and propagate the spirit of the Central Party's committee." (135) James Mann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told a Commission roundtable, "The Chinese Communist Party maintains its monopoly on power, and that includes the power over the principal newspapers and television stations." (136)
A recent case in point is Southern Weekend (Nanfang Zhoumo), a newspaper published in Guangdong Province. Southern Weekend has long pushed the boundaries of media control in China by reporting frankly on sensitive social problems, including AIDS, crime, and trafficking in women. In the spring of 2002, the newspaper published a story about a criminal gang that killed 28 people in a spree of murder and theft. The article indicated that problems such as poverty and inequality in Chinese society led gang members to a life of crime.(137)
As a result, Southern Weekend was accused of painting a negative picture of China's socialist struggle, and its deputy editor-inchief, front-page editor, and a senior editor were demoted. The news section chief and the reporter who wrote the story also were fired and banned from ever working in journalism again.(138) Now, the newspaper is significantly tamer. He Qinglian, former editor of China's Shenzhen Legal Daily, told a Commission roundtable, "In a free country, the media is expected to criticize the government. In China, it's exactly the opposite; it is the government that criticizes the media." (139)
Foreign media organizations operating in China are not immune from Beijing's control. In July 2002, Chinese authorities blocked BBC World news broadcasts into China after the British network aired a report about the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. (140) A month earlier, authorities detained and later expelled Canadian journalist Jiang Xueqin after he filmed labor unrest in northeastern China for the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service. Until recently, some major foreign news organizations, such as the New York Times and CNN, have had their websites blocked. The Chinese government continues to jam broadcasts of the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA).(141)
Calling China "the world's leading jailer of journalists," (142) the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported at the end of 2001 that at least 35 journalists were imprisoned in China.(143) Kavita Menon of the CPJ told a Commission roundtable, "China is too large and unwieldy for perfect control to be possible, but the Communist Party remains unwilling to cede the battle. Hardliners believe that to relinquish control over information would be to relinquish control of power altogether."(144)
Many Chinese are finding ways around the government's information control. For example, a growth in purchasing power has allowed large numbers of Chinese citizens to purchase satellite-receiving equipment, even though regulations generally prohibit private use of such equipment. They often use the equipment to receive foreign television broadcasts and more politically open programming from Hong Kong.
Internet use in China has grown rapidly, with an estimated 46 million users at the end of June 2002(145) and analysts predicting that China could have the world's largest on-line population in two years. Although most Internet users today live in larger cities, Internet cafes are becoming ubiquitous throughout China. The Chinese government continues to encourage expanded use of the Internet to improve economic efficiency, increase economic growth, and disseminate government information more effectively to the public. But Chinese authorities are also aware that the Internet creates new challenges to information control and are scrambling to meet what they perceive as a threat to that control. The Internet (e.g., e-mail, chat rooms, websites) has given Chinese citizens greater access to information about events inside China and overseas. Some organizational activities have developed over the Internet, perhaps the most well known being a large Falun Gong demonstration outside the government leadership compound at Zhongnanhai in 1999.
The Chinese government policy towards the Internet generally parallels its approach to other media. To some extent, the Internet is harder to control than the print or broadcast media because of its decentralized and personal nature. The "Seven No's" on media activity issued in August 2001 by the State Press and Publications Administration¡ªincluding prohibitions against disclosing state secrets, interfering in Communist Party affairs, and criticism of government policies¡ªapply equally to the Internet.(146) Over the past 18 months, the Chinese government has issued an extensive and still growing series of regulations restricting Internet content and placing monitoring requirements on the industry. For example, on August 1, 2002, the Ministry of Information Technology and the State Administration of Press and Publishing issued "Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Publishing" that clarify topics prohibited on Internet sites, including the oft-cited prohibitions against anything that will "harm national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity" or "reveal state secrets" and "endanger national security."(147)
James Mulvenon of the RAND Corporation pointed out at a Commission roundtable that the Chinese government has used two methods to control the impact of the Internet.(148) High-tech software and hardware can block, monitor, filter, and hack websites and e-mail. This capability includes blocking offshore dissident sites, foreign news sites, general-purpose search engines such as Google and AltaVista, and VOA's weekly e-mail to China. Internet users in China attempting to access foreign websites have also found themselves redirected to Chinese government-approved websites.
Meanwhile, low-tech methods include a combination of traditional control activities such as surveillance, informants, regulations, searches, and arrests to produce "a regulatory and political climate of self-censorship and self-deterrence" on the part of Internet users and providers. A case in point is the arrest of Internet activists such as Huang Qi, who was arrested in June 2000 after establishing one of China's first human rights websites. A recent low-tech development is a "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for China's Internet Industry," a voluntary pledge sponsored by the Internet Society of China, an industry organization linked to the Ministry of Information Industry.(149) Under this pledge, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Internet Content Providers (ICPs) agree not to post or produce information "that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." (150) Several foreign human rights NGOs have expressed concern that Yahoo's China subsidiary has signed this pledge. Another recent development is an August 2002 action by the Chinese government to halt new approvals for Internet cafes and to stop screening applications for re-registration as the government tries to exert firmer controls over this outlet for the Internet.(151)
Under this dual high-tech/low-tech strategy, the Chinese government, with minimal resources, has succeeded in limiting use of the Internet for dissemination of what it considers to be undesirable political and social content, including pornography, Falun Gong information, human rights, and political commentary. At the same time, the government has been able to shift much of the responsibility for Internet control from the Ministry of Public Security to ISPs and ICPs.
Footnotes
133: Chinese Constitution, art. 35.
134: Restrictions on Media Freedom in China, Staff Roundtable of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 24 June 2002 [hereinafter "Restrictions on Media Freedom in China: Commission Roundtable"], Testimony of James Mann, Senior Writer in Residence, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
135: Statement by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, 11 January 2001, quoted in a written statement by Reporters Sans Frontieres International, submitted to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, 18 January 2002, (22 August 2002).
136: Restrictions on Media Freedom in China: Commission Roundtable, Mann Testimony.
137: Committee to Protect Journalists, "Asia 2001, China," (31 July 2002) [hereinafter "CPJ, 'Asia 2001, China'" ].
138: Ibid.
139: Restrictions on Media Freedom in China: Commission Roundtable, Testimony of He Qinglian, former editor, Shenzhen Legal Daily, author of China's Pitfalls.
140: Ted Anthony, "China Axes BBC After Falun Gong Item," Associated Press, 6 July 2002, (16 September 2002).
141: Wired China: Whose Hand is on the Switch?: Staff Roundtable of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China," 15 April 2002 [hereinafter "Wired China: Commission Roundtable"], Written Statement submitted by Edward E. Kaufman, Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
142: Committee to Protect Journalists, "Ten Enemies of the Press for 2001," 3 May 2001, (31 July 2002).
143: CPJ, "Asia 2001, China."
144: Restrictions on Media Freedom in China: Commission Roundtable, Testimony of Kavita Menon, Asia Program Director, Committee to Protect Journalists.
145: China Internet Network Information Center, 10th Statistical Survey Report on the Development of Internet in China, July 2002, 5.
146: Compare "Government Issues New List of Banned Media Topics" with "Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services" [Hulianwang xinxi fuwu guanli banfa], issued 25 September 2000, art. 15 and "Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Publishing" [Hulianwang chuban guanli zanxing guiding], effective 1 August 2002, art. 17.
147: Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Publishing" [Hulianwang chuban guanli zanxing guiding], effective 1 August 2002, art. 17.
148: Wired China: Commission Roundtable, Written Statement submitted by James C. Mulvenon, Deputy Director, Center for Asia-Pacific Policy, RAND.
149: Internet Society of China.
150: "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for China Internet Industry" [Zhongguo hulianwang zilu gongyue], issued 26 March 2002, art. 9.
151: People's Daily, "Three Departments Jointly Issue Notice: Approvals for New Internet Cafes Will Cease Prior to the End of August," 13 August 2002 . |
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