2010年4月27日 星期二
Learn Chinese by studying censorship
Since 2003, I have been listening to Radio Free Asia's "A week in China", which features news censored in China. I have learned a lot about China, and improved my aural comprehension. Here are some recent expressions
2010年4月23日 星期五
Tiger Trends
Hong Kong Dongxiang (Trends) magazine, which is censored on the mainland, regularly critices the Chinese Communist Party. Many of the commentaries, which are written in Chinese by Chinese commentators, are trenchant and insightful. The strength of criticism usually outstrips anything found in the human rights community, which tries to be objective, and could be said to self-censor itself to avoid accusations of bias and chauvinism. Here is a commentary on the Chinese Year of the Tiger, which began in January. Unfortunately, there is no English language version, so I will attempt to translate some articles. Here is one from earlier this year, which claims that China's internal authoritarianism may result in external aggression.
Tiger Year Tiger Talk
Everywhere you go in China you can see attractive decorative displays of toy tigers, and apart from wishing everybody a happy year of the Tiger, we would also like to say we hope that in the New Year, China will become more amiable and more worthy of respect and not more detestable, terrifying and repulsive.
Decorative tigers are cute and lovely, but a nation which is seen as a tiger is terrifying. Both for China and for the world, the stronger such a country becomes, the greater the disaster. The fascist regimes of the 20th century are an example of this: not only did they bring disaster to the world, but in the end they also destroyed themselves.
After 30 years of reform and opening up, China is greatly changed, the economy has taken off and and quality of life is clearly improved and consequently the country has taken an important role on the international stage. This has been the dream of many Chinese for over a hundred years.
But advanced Chinese people want more than this. The revolutionary pioneers represented by Sun Yatsen called for the Three People's Principles and even the Chinese Communist Party swears by and strives to realise this political principle. But has it been achieved to them date? No, it has not. Today, not only is democratic freedom an empty phrase, even the CCP's much loved and repeated mantra of "Rule by Law" actually just means that the Communist party uses the Law to rule the people, while the powerholders themselves are above the law.
Despite signing international covenant on human rights, these have not been put into practice, and Chinese leaders have even made statements rejecting the universal values of democracy and freedom, rejected the tripartite division of powers and said that China is different. How can the Chinese leaders be so ignorant? It's shocking.
China is on the road to modernisation, and is truly rising in the global village. But modernising and rising are all very well. If you don't have freedom and democracy you will not be allowed into the court room of human civilisation. No matter how many shiny tall buildings, fast rail ways, gleaming airports, advanced missile systems, what matters most is the state of your people. Are your people free, do they have dignity? can they think freely, express themselves freely, make free choices? Are people equal? the People's Republic has been in existence for 60 years, but the power of the Communist party was seized with violence from the hands of the Nationalist party. The Chinese people never authorised the Communist party to exercise power. In order to maintain the party dictatorship, this party keeps tight control of the military, and still uses the slogan "the Party's absolute leadership of the military". From the point of view of the Chinese people, it's the private army of the Communist party, which" takes orders from the party" - this was one of the slogans formed by people's bodies during the 60th anniversary celebrations in Tiananmen Square. This does not smack of modernity.
Ever since the establishment of the People's Republic, the Commons party has monopolised society's resources, concentrated all power in its own hands, and its role has spread into every corner of society, so that the People's Republic has become a pyramid shaped machine. Because economic political and military power are highly concentrated in the party's hands and the party has never been authorised by the people and is not supervised by the people, and since the Party's power is concentrated in the hands of its leaders and the leadership is chosen by its predecessors, this kind of system inevitably creates a hotbed of dictatorship. Anybody who gets to the top of this pyramid can exercise absolute power; that's why Mao Zedong was able to launch the Cultural Revolution and why Deng Xiaoping was able to terminate political reform in the 1990s with his " four principles" speech
As China rises, the Chinese Communist Party is starting to resemble a tiger. As internal repression increases, it is throwing its weight around internationally. Diplomacy Is the extension of the internal affairs, and war is the extension of politics, as the sayings go.
It's inevitable that as the nation's power increases, it will put pressure on other countries. If it cannot achieve its ends peacefully war is inevitable. The Chinese Communist Party is inflaming nationalist fanaticism and only fascist regimes do this.
Nationalistic fanaticism reached a peak in 2008, but in order to raise the temperature this high, the country invested a huge amount and which was really excessive. Last year, with the military parades celebrating 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the Chinese Communist party showed its true face. All that advanced new military hardware was there only to show the world China's military prestige. What kind of message were they sending?
It was the face of the tiger!
We hope that our interpretation is wrong, and that our concerns are unnecessary!
Happy Year of the Tiger!
Dong Xiang editor Zhang Weiguo can also be heard weekly on Radio Free Asia's Zhongguoyizhou ( a week in China )
Tiger Year Tiger Talk
Everywhere you go in China you can see attractive decorative displays of toy tigers, and apart from wishing everybody a happy year of the Tiger, we would also like to say we hope that in the New Year, China will become more amiable and more worthy of respect and not more detestable, terrifying and repulsive.
Decorative tigers are cute and lovely, but a nation which is seen as a tiger is terrifying. Both for China and for the world, the stronger such a country becomes, the greater the disaster. The fascist regimes of the 20th century are an example of this: not only did they bring disaster to the world, but in the end they also destroyed themselves.
After 30 years of reform and opening up, China is greatly changed, the economy has taken off and and quality of life is clearly improved and consequently the country has taken an important role on the international stage. This has been the dream of many Chinese for over a hundred years.
But advanced Chinese people want more than this. The revolutionary pioneers represented by Sun Yatsen called for the Three People's Principles and even the Chinese Communist Party swears by and strives to realise this political principle. But has it been achieved to them date? No, it has not. Today, not only is democratic freedom an empty phrase, even the CCP's much loved and repeated mantra of "Rule by Law" actually just means that the Communist party uses the Law to rule the people, while the powerholders themselves are above the law.
Despite signing international covenant on human rights, these have not been put into practice, and Chinese leaders have even made statements rejecting the universal values of democracy and freedom, rejected the tripartite division of powers and said that China is different. How can the Chinese leaders be so ignorant? It's shocking.
China is on the road to modernisation, and is truly rising in the global village. But modernising and rising are all very well. If you don't have freedom and democracy you will not be allowed into the court room of human civilisation. No matter how many shiny tall buildings, fast rail ways, gleaming airports, advanced missile systems, what matters most is the state of your people. Are your people free, do they have dignity? can they think freely, express themselves freely, make free choices? Are people equal? the People's Republic has been in existence for 60 years, but the power of the Communist party was seized with violence from the hands of the Nationalist party. The Chinese people never authorised the Communist party to exercise power. In order to maintain the party dictatorship, this party keeps tight control of the military, and still uses the slogan "the Party's absolute leadership of the military". From the point of view of the Chinese people, it's the private army of the Communist party, which" takes orders from the party" - this was one of the slogans formed by people's bodies during the 60th anniversary celebrations in Tiananmen Square. This does not smack of modernity.
Ever since the establishment of the People's Republic, the Commons party has monopolised society's resources, concentrated all power in its own hands, and its role has spread into every corner of society, so that the People's Republic has become a pyramid shaped machine. Because economic political and military power are highly concentrated in the party's hands and the party has never been authorised by the people and is not supervised by the people, and since the Party's power is concentrated in the hands of its leaders and the leadership is chosen by its predecessors, this kind of system inevitably creates a hotbed of dictatorship. Anybody who gets to the top of this pyramid can exercise absolute power; that's why Mao Zedong was able to launch the Cultural Revolution and why Deng Xiaoping was able to terminate political reform in the 1990s with his " four principles" speech
As China rises, the Chinese Communist Party is starting to resemble a tiger. As internal repression increases, it is throwing its weight around internationally. Diplomacy Is the extension of the internal affairs, and war is the extension of politics, as the sayings go.
It's inevitable that as the nation's power increases, it will put pressure on other countries. If it cannot achieve its ends peacefully war is inevitable. The Chinese Communist Party is inflaming nationalist fanaticism and only fascist regimes do this.
Nationalistic fanaticism reached a peak in 2008, but in order to raise the temperature this high, the country invested a huge amount and which was really excessive. Last year, with the military parades celebrating 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the Chinese Communist party showed its true face. All that advanced new military hardware was there only to show the world China's military prestige. What kind of message were they sending?
It was the face of the tiger!
We hope that our interpretation is wrong, and that our concerns are unnecessary!
Happy Year of the Tiger!
Dong Xiang editor Zhang Weiguo can also be heard weekly on Radio Free Asia's Zhongguoyizhou ( a week in China )
Is China teaching the world to censor?
In recent years, economic and political ties have blossomed between Brazil and China. China has replaced the US as Brazil's largest trading partner. Both countries have leaders who see the US as hegemon to be contained and are suspicious or US foreign policy intentions. According to a recent WSJ article citing Human Rights Watch, in international forums, China and Brazil have both undermined attempts to sanctions human rights abusers, arguing that this infringes national sovereignty. President Lula of Brazil is friendly with Fidel Castro, and has defended the Cuban leader's imprisonment of dissidents.
Now a new report from Google shows that Brazil leads the world in government censorship demands, and yesterday China's Communist Party propaganda newspaper the China Daily featured this in another barely disguised attack on Google, which it says has broken it's promise to censor search results in China.
When censuring Google's Orkut, the Brazilian courts have also noted the example of Google's censorship in China, saying in effect: "Google will censor for China, why won't it censor for us?" .
Nobody is saying that the media takes its orders from the government in Brazil as it does in China. But China's influence on Brazil, indeed on the world, is worrying.
Now a new report from Google shows that Brazil leads the world in government censorship demands, and yesterday China's Communist Party propaganda newspaper the China Daily featured this in another barely disguised attack on Google, which it says has broken it's promise to censor search results in China.
When censuring Google's Orkut, the Brazilian courts have also noted the example of Google's censorship in China, saying in effect: "Google will censor for China, why won't it censor for us?" .
Nobody is saying that the media takes its orders from the government in Brazil as it does in China. But China's influence on Brazil, indeed on the world, is worrying.
2010年4月21日 星期三
Shanghai Expo, another excuse for censorship
Once again, another big showcase event is turning out to be an excuse to censor dissidents. This reminds one of the big crack down during the Olympics, when dissidents were taken away by police, and old ladies were arrested for applying for a permit to demonstrate in a park designated for demonstrations
According to today's Apple Newspaper, Shanghai lawyer Feng Zhenghu had been planning an "exhibition" of 12 miscarriages of justice to coincide with the Expo. Police questioned him for four hours yesterday, and confiscated four of his computers, as well as his scanner and other equipment. They even took away the modem supplied by his ISP. Their reason: he has "Slandered people".
Police told Feng to learn from the example of Gao Zhisheng, who has finally given up his legal advocacy after repeated arrests, detention, death threats and torture, which included toothpicks stuck through his testicles.
What an intelligent use of public funds. I am sure it will help to promote the reputation of Shanghai and ensure the success of the Shanghai Expo.
Last year, Feng was denied entry to China after visiting Japan, and forced to spend weeks in Narita Airport.
According to today's Apple Newspaper, Shanghai lawyer Feng Zhenghu had been planning an "exhibition" of 12 miscarriages of justice to coincide with the Expo. Police questioned him for four hours yesterday, and confiscated four of his computers, as well as his scanner and other equipment. They even took away the modem supplied by his ISP. Their reason: he has "Slandered people".
Police told Feng to learn from the example of Gao Zhisheng, who has finally given up his legal advocacy after repeated arrests, detention, death threats and torture, which included toothpicks stuck through his testicles.
What an intelligent use of public funds. I am sure it will help to promote the reputation of Shanghai and ensure the success of the Shanghai Expo.
Last year, Feng was denied entry to China after visiting Japan, and forced to spend weeks in Narita Airport.
2010年4月20日 星期二
Animated gifs: a way around Censorship
If you stare at this long enough, a message will be revealed, or should, with some a sensitive statement about June 4th and Tiananmen.
Could this be an anti-censorship strategy?
Inside the great fire wall? view it here
From the mouths of babes
According to a post on yahoo.cn, school children whose colleagues were murdered by a serial killer said: "why do you have to slaughter children, why not kill a few corrupt officials instead".
This reminds me the online support for Yang Jia, who become a popular hero after murdering six policeman in a knife attack at a Shanghai police station.
This reminds me the online support for Yang Jia, who become a popular hero after murdering six policeman in a knife attack at a Shanghai police station.
The best form of censorship is to kill
The best form of censorship is death. What more effective than to sentence to death a person who knows too much about corruption, government mafia etc.
Maybe this is what really happened to Wen Qiang, the former head of the judiciary of Chongqing. The 13 million yuan he is said to have taken is not much these days. Many have received lesser sentences for smaller amounts. And apparently the money was invested in a government owned bank.
China doesn't really have a legal system it seems. Important cases are decided for political reasons, in this case to shut the mouth of someone who knew too much
Maybe this is what really happened to Wen Qiang, the former head of the judiciary of Chongqing. The 13 million yuan he is said to have taken is not much these days. Many have received lesser sentences for smaller amounts. And apparently the money was invested in a government owned bank.
China doesn't really have a legal system it seems. Important cases are decided for political reasons, in this case to shut the mouth of someone who knew too much
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)