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| Xi Jinping faces litmus test on vows of transparency and rule of law | Xi Jinping faces litmus test on vows of transparency and rule of law |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| How China's incoming president, Xi Jinping, manages a series of recent developments – such as anti-censorship protests over a liberal newspaper and proposed reforms to the country's extralegal corrective system – will prove a major litmus test for his oft-repeated calls for transparency and rule of law. | How China's incoming president, Xi Jinping, manages a series of recent developments – such as anti-censorship protests over a liberal newspaper and proposed reforms to the country's extralegal corrective system – will prove a major litmus test for his oft-repeated calls for transparency and rule of law. |
| A nationwide backlash against propaganda officials' moves to control the Southern Weekend newspaper has thrown China's media censorship regulations into high relief. Propaganda authorities' unannounced revision of a New Year's Day editorial headlined "China's Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism" led to a staff strike and a large protest in front of the paper's Guangzhou office on Monday. The paper blamed one official in particular for the revision: the provincial propaganda chief, Tuo Zhen. | A nationwide backlash against propaganda officials' moves to control the Southern Weekend newspaper has thrown China's media censorship regulations into high relief. Propaganda authorities' unannounced revision of a New Year's Day editorial headlined "China's Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism" led to a staff strike and a large protest in front of the paper's Guangzhou office on Monday. The paper blamed one official in particular for the revision: the provincial propaganda chief, Tuo Zhen. |
| How Xi reacts will speak volumes about the future of censorship under his tenure. | How Xi reacts will speak volumes about the future of censorship under his tenure. |
| On the same day as the protests, China's top law enforcement official, Meng Jianzhu, said the country will scrap its "re-education through labour" system, according to state-run media reports. The highly controversial system, which started in 1957, allows authorities to keep 160,000 inmates in 350 labour camps across China; its captives, many of them political dissidents, are held in dismal conditions without the right to a formal trial. | On the same day as the protests, China's top law enforcement official, Meng Jianzhu, said the country will scrap its "re-education through labour" system, according to state-run media reports. The highly controversial system, which started in 1957, allows authorities to keep 160,000 inmates in 350 labour camps across China; its captives, many of them political dissidents, are held in dismal conditions without the right to a formal trial. |
| State media's coverage of the proposed reform leaves room for scepticism. Some reports that the system would end within the year were taken down shortly after they appeared online. Some reappeared; others didn't. "No further information on the reform has been made available," noted the state news agency Xinhua. State media pulled a similar trick in December when it reported that authorities had punished someone for holding petitioners in extralegal holding cells, known as black cells in China. The articles were quickly retracted. "Black jails do not exist," said a foreign ministry spokesperson at the time. | State media's coverage of the proposed reform leaves room for scepticism. Some reports that the system would end within the year were taken down shortly after they appeared online. Some reappeared; others didn't. "No further information on the reform has been made available," noted the state news agency Xinhua. State media pulled a similar trick in December when it reported that authorities had punished someone for holding petitioners in extralegal holding cells, known as black cells in China. The articles were quickly retracted. "Black jails do not exist," said a foreign ministry spokesperson at the time. |
| Chinese journalists are often silenced for reporting on such sensitive affairs. One reporter was detained in the south-west city of Bijie, Guizhou province, for investigating a story about five homeless children who suffocated in a dumpster in November. Authorities bundled him off to the southern resort island Hainan to put a stop to his reporting; he went missing for about four weeks. When two journalists from the German newspaper Der Spiegel travelled to Bijie to investigate, local authorities damaged the pair's reporting equipment and harassed their sources. | Chinese journalists are often silenced for reporting on such sensitive affairs. One reporter was detained in the south-west city of Bijie, Guizhou province, for investigating a story about five homeless children who suffocated in a dumpster in November. Authorities bundled him off to the southern resort island Hainan to put a stop to his reporting; he went missing for about four weeks. When two journalists from the German newspaper Der Spiegel travelled to Bijie to investigate, local authorities damaged the pair's reporting equipment and harassed their sources. |
| While foreign reporters are rarely subject to the same perils as their Chinese counterparts, authorities often try to silence them in subtler ways. The New York Times reporter Chris Buckley was recently forced to leave China after authorities failed to renew his visa before the end of the year, possibly in retaliation for his paper's recent exposés on riches accumulated by the family of the outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao. Last May, al-Jazeera correspondent Melissa Chan was denied a visa because of her reports on sensitive issues like black jails. | While foreign reporters are rarely subject to the same perils as their Chinese counterparts, authorities often try to silence them in subtler ways. The New York Times reporter Chris Buckley was recently forced to leave China after authorities failed to renew his visa before the end of the year, possibly in retaliation for his paper's recent exposés on riches accumulated by the family of the outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao. Last May, al-Jazeera correspondent Melissa Chan was denied a visa because of her reports on sensitive issues like black jails. |
| Until its authorities stop refusing to discuss them openly, China's most sensitive issues will continue to simmer. And there are few signs that this will change. When a foreign ministry spokesman was asked about the Southern Weekend incident last week, he responded quickly and concisely. "There is no censorship of the media in China," he said. | Until its authorities stop refusing to discuss them openly, China's most sensitive issues will continue to simmer. And there are few signs that this will change. When a foreign ministry spokesman was asked about the Southern Weekend incident last week, he responded quickly and concisely. "There is no censorship of the media in China," he said. |
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