Senior Official Claims Foreign Newspapers Raise Threat of Color Revolution in China

Shi Zongyuan, Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said that Chinese authorities have halted plans to allow foreign newspapers to print in China because of concerns raised by the recent "color revolutions" against Soviet-era leaders in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, reports a November 16 article in the Financial Times (subscription required). GAPP Deputy Director Liu Binjie said in November 2004 that China would "allow foreign newspapers to come and print in China . . . but their newspapers still have to go through the procedures for an imported product." Director Shi now says that "the 'color revolutions' were a reminder not to let saboteurs into the house and that the door must be closed, so we have closed it temporarily." According to Shi, "the role of the international media in such popular revolts had prompted the suspension of what had been a cautious, but significant easing of China's curbs on foreign news publications." Shi also told the Financial Times that any return to the liberalization policy depended on the conduct of foreign media.

The "significant easing" to which Shi referred is difficult to identify. The GAPP Director boasted in a June 2005 People's Daily editorial that his agency had "resolutely punished many instances of . . . unauthorized cooperation with foreigners," and while he did not provide any examples of "unauthorized cooperation," in the last year, the GAPP and its sister agency, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, have enacted over half a dozen regulations designed to limit foreign cooperation with, and access to, China's media industry, increased restrictions on foreign participation in China's domestic television and film production, and launched a crackdown on foreign periodicals.