Freedom of Expression
Public security officers in Henan and Guangdong provinces detained two foreign journalists to prevent them from reporting on politically sensitive stories. The first incident occurred December 7 near Shanwei in Guangdong province, when a reporter from Hong Kong's TVB tried to enter Dongzhoukeng village to investigate reports of clashes between local residents and the government over property rights, according to a December 8 Radio Free Asia report. Chinese authorities detained the reporter, forced him to write a self-criticism, and would not allow him to enter the township.
Shi Feng, a Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), described the position of the government and Communist Party on state control over newspapers and periodicals in an October speech to the National Newspaper and Magazine Administration Work Meeting (via the People's Daily Web site). Shi's remarks came a month after the GAPP issued new regulations governing newspaper and periodical publishing in China in September. Deputy Director Shi's views were published again in an article in the November edition of "Media" magazine (via the Xinhua Web site).
Over the past several weeks, Chinese authorities have continued what appears to be a crackdown on free expression by detaining or imprisoning at least five more prominent intellectuals and activists.
The following is a partial translation prepared by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China of the "Rules on Internet Security Protection Technology Measures" issued by the Ministry of Public Security on December 28, 2005. The Chinese text was retrieved from the Anhui Public Security Bureau Web site on December 30, 2005.
The following is a partial translation by CECC staff of the text of a speech by Liu Yunshan, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Political Bureau, Secretary of the Secretariat, and director of the Communist Party Central Propaganda Department which he gave at the National Propaganda Department Director's Meeting on December 18, 2004, and which was subsequently reprinted under the title "Conscientiously Implement the Completion of the Government's Overall Plan for Solid Propaganda Ideology Work" in the January 2005 edition of "Party Building" magazine, as well as on the People's Daily Web site on January 20, 2005.
3. Embrace the establishment and fulfillment of a scientific development perspective, put forth an effort to create a public opinion atmosphere that is beneficial to stable reform and development. . . . .
According to an August 31 New York Times article, arrested Times researcher Zhao Yan is forbidden from seeing his family, has lost 22 pounds, and has requested a biopsy because of concern for lumps on his skin. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) not only denied the biopsy request, but also has denied Zhao's lawyer's efforts to post bail. The Times commented: "But even as China's authoritarian leaders now promise a more impartial legal system to their citizens and the multinational corporations that do business here, they continue to use the loosely defined state secrets law to single out political enemies and prevent journalists from prying into the inner workings of the top leadership of the ruling Communist Party."
A court in Kashgar city, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), has sentenced Korash Huseyin, the senior editor of the Kashgar Literature Journal, to three years imprisonment for publishing a short story in late 2004 that Chinese authorities allege "incites ethnic splittism," according to a November 11 Radio Free Asia report. Nurmemet Yasin, the author, is already serving a prison sentence; the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court sentenced him in February to 10 years imprisonment for "inciting splittism." Both Huseyin and Yasin are members of the Uighur ethnic group.
Liu Yunshan, a Communist Party Central Committee member who also serves as secretary of the Secretariat and Director of the Central Propaganda Department, set out the tasks and issues that Party propaganda officials should focus on in 2006 during an August 23 speech at the National Propaganda Directors Seminar. The Central Committee subsequently published the text of this speech in the October 1 edition of its official journal, Seeking Truth, (in Chinese) under the title "In Accordance With the Requirements of Building a Socialist and Harmonious Society: Deepen, Broaden, and Innovate Propaganda Ideological Work." Liu called on Party propagandists to focus on ensuring that China maintains a single and unified "guiding ideology," -- Marxism.