Popular Magazine Changes Format to Avoid "Politically Sensitive Issues"

The Beijing-based monthly magazine People [Bai Xing], has toned down its outspoken style and removed the "Recording China in Change" slogan from its cover, according to a December 30 South China Morning Post (SCMP) article. A December 29 Voice of America (VOA) report (in Chinese) quoted a "knowledgeable person" at Bai Xing as saying that "the slogan did not have any political meaning, but we were not willing to touch politically sensitive issues, so we are doing our best to keep a distance from certain politically sensitive issues." The SCMP quoted Bai Xing editor Huang Liangtian as saying: "we are required to focus more on culture and lifestyle topics." Huang told the Epoch Times that "higher ups" had demanded that the magazine change its cover, columns, style, and content, but no personnel changes were planned, according to a January 5 report on the Epoch Times Web site.

The South China Morning Post article noted that the magazine was known for its "detailed investigative stories from around the country and radical comments, which have displeased authorities." Some examples include:

• In June 2005, the magazine published a report on how the government of impoverished Taikang county in Henan province spent large sums of money on building a town square, and did not compensate villagers for the land acquisition. The following month, the magazine published a letter from the county government demanding the magazine apologize, claiming the article was a "malicious attack" that had "not only harmed the image of the Taikang County Communist Party Central Committee and the government, but also harmed the image of the entire Party and government."
• In September 2005, propaganda department officials in Gengtai city, Hebei province, ordered public security authorities to detain two Bai Xing reporters for several hours, claiming their credentials were false, according to a September 13, 2005, Radio Free Asia report. The reporters had just completed interviewing an official at a toll gate on a Nanhe county road about whether he was authorized to collect tolls.

Various sources, including the SCMP and Boxun, reported that Bai Xing was ordered to close its Web site, which carries the publication's reports and public feedback. Both Huang and VOA's unnamed source denied this was the case, however, and the Web site - bai-xing.net - was accessible as of January 15.

Reports on this incident have been unclear about whether the source of the magazine's decision to move away from politically sensitive content was a direct order from the government or the Party, or a decision by the magazine's management to self-censor. Chinese laws do not provide clear guidance about what kind of political or religious expression is illegal. For example, regulations prohibit publishing or disseminating anything that "harms the honor of China," but no legislative or judicial guidance exists to guide publishers as to what constitutes a violation of this prohibition. Instead, Chinese authorities rely upon detaining writers, indoctrinating publishers, and banning publications to encourage companies, institutions, and individuals to "choose" not to use certain words or publicize certain views that a government official might deem politically unacceptable. For more information on the pressure to self-censor in China, see the Commission's 2005 Annual Report: III(e) Freedom of Expression -- Self-Censorship.