Freedom of Expression

General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) Director Shi Zongyuan said that his agency has "resolutely punished many instances of the buying and selling of book numbers, edition numbers, and publication numbers, as well unauthorized cooperation with foreigners," and has "made progress in strengthening guidance over opinions in publications and supervising and managing the Internet and other new media formats." Shi's remarks appeared in a June 21 People's Daily editorial.

The June 16 edition of "Seeking Truth," the official journal of China's Communist Party, includes an editorial by Nan Zhenzhong, editor-in-chief of Xinhua. The editorial discusses "public opinion supervision" (yulun jiandu), a Communist Party doctrine that dictates how China's state controlled media is allowed to report on national affairs. Nan's editorial provides several insights into how Chinese authorities approach censorship of politically sensitive news reports:

The Party and the government use censorship as a tool to strengthen the Party's control

Chinese authorities convened a national Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications (SAPSDIP) Symposium on June 23 in Shenyang. Xinhua reports that Liu Binjie, deputy director of the SAPSDIP Task Force and the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the symposium that, since the launch of the Task Force in 1994, Chinese authorities have confiscated more than 1.4 billion illegal publications, and shut down over 40,000 print shops.

According to Xinhua, the Chinese government announced on June 24 that: "The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has decided to temporarily close down all domestic Web sites that fail to register with local telecommunications authorities before June 30." The Xinhua report, available in English and Chinese, cited MII officials as saying that Web sites that the government shuts down will have 10 days to register with local telecommunications authorities. Some local governments have, however, already begun shutting down Web sites.

The Southern Daily reported on June 22 that someone removed pages A35 and A36 from copies of the June 21 edition of its sister publication, the Southern Metropolitan Daily, that were distributed in the Da Gang township. These pages included an investigative article entitled "Township Government Levies Land in Violation of Regulations, Villagers Petition Government to Have it Returned," which reported that 1,147 people from the Long Gu village in Da Gang had petitioned for the return of approximately three acres of land that had been requisitioned by the township real estate development company.

On June 21 Xinhua and the print edition of the People's Daily carried stories lauding China's General Administration of Press and Publication ("GAPP") for "promoting supervision and forwarding administration in accordance with law." The Xinhua version of the story mentioned what it termed "forceful acts" that "provided an environment conducive to the protection of intellectual property and the creative abilities of the people, and for the healthy flourishing and development of the news publishing industry":

Wang Yi, an author in China and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, has filed an administrative appeal with the Press and Publication Administration to have his right to self-publish respected, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported on June 16. According to the report, Chinese authorities confiscated 906 books that Wang had privately printed to give to friends. Wang told the IHT that if the Press and Publications Administration rejects his administrative appeal, he will sue it in court.