Freedom of Expression

New regulations, which went into effect January 31, further tighten the state's control over online audio and video content in China. Notably, the Provisions on the Administration of Internet Video and Audio Programming Services (the Provisions) now require state ownership in companies providing these services (hereinafter referred to as A/V companies), although the Chinese government has said it will not impose this requirement on the mostly private companies already in operation.

A new program in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) strengthens government measures to promote Mandarin Chinese at the preschool level via educational instruction that the government describes as "bilingual" but that places primacy on Mandarin at the expense of ethnic minority languages. According to a February 28 article from the Urumqi Evening News (via Tianshan Net), authorities in the XUAR implemented a program in February to send student-teachers from the Xinjiang Preschool Teacher's College to preschools in Kashgar prefecture to supplement the area's shortage of bilingual teaching staff.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) will make "illegal" political and religious publications the focal point of their campaign to "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications," according to a January 18 report from Xinhua. Li Yi, head of the XUAR Propaganda Bureau, made the announcement at a January 17 conference at which he stressed the importance of censoring illegal publications and taking actions such as eliminating pornography and removing "harmful information" from the Internet to ensure reforms develop in a stable manner and to promote a "sound cultural environment." He described the situation regarding "illegal" religious and political publications as "severe," and called for enforcement agencies to maintain vigilance against such publications.

Editor Korash Huseyin completed his three-year prison sentence for "dereliction of duty" on February 2 and is presumed to have since been released from prison, according to information from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Political Prisoner Database. Radio Free Asia's Uighur service, which reported on the sentence's expiration in a February 1 article, reported that Chinese authorities have not provided confirmation of the release. Huseyin had served as chief editor of the Kashgar Literature Journal, based in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which published a short story in 2004 deemed to promote separatism.

The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) issued measures that standardize the disclosure of environmental information by government agencies and enterprises, and provide the public with the right to request government environmental information, according to an April 25, 2007, SEPA press release. SEPA issued the Measures on Open Environmental Information (the Measures) on April 11, and was the first government agency to release its own implementing measures after the State Council issued the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Open Government Information on April 5. Both come into effect on May 1, 2008.

A year after China's Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period went into effect, a Beijing-based association of foreign journalists noted "improved overall reporting conditions for foreign journalists" but also "hot spots where journalists have experienced repeated violations" of the regulations, according to a January 1 Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) press release. The temporary regulations, effective from January 1, 2007 to October 17, 2008, give foreign journalists greater freedom to report in China, something the International Olympic Committee required China do in order to host the 2008 Olympics.

Introduction

The 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which concluded on October 21, 2007, resulted in the promotions of two high-ranking Party officials, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Yandong, whose recent posts associate them with harsh policies that contribute to the repression of human rights such as the freedoms of religion and expression, and that undermine ethnic minority rights guaranteed by China's Constitution and system of regional ethnic autonomy. The Party’s elevation of Zhou and Liu to the highest levels of Party power is likely to signify strong endorsement of their work, and ensure the continuation and perhaps strengthening of the policies associated with them, especially during the period of the Party's 16th Central Committee (2002-2007).

State security officials in China released Internet essayist Wang Dejia (whose pen name is Jing Chu) on bail on January 12, the Chinese rights advocacy Web site Minsheng Guancha reported on the same day. The report said that Wang had been released from the Quanzhou County Detention Center in Guilin city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Wang was originally detained in Quanzhou on December 13, 2007, on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power." Wang has written and posted numerous articles on the Internet criticizing the Chinese government and Communist Party and has also criticized China's hosting of the Olympics, which takes place in August of this year.