By David Bandurski — China’s leaders say the long-awaited national ordinance on openness of information, due to take the stage in May this year, will usher in an era of “sunshine” governance in which government affairs are marked with clarity and transparency. Don’t count your chickens. The ordinance is hardly a panacea, and there are major questions about how effectively it will be enforced. But some government leaders ARE taking transparency seriously — or making a show of it anyway.
Since the weekend the Web has buzzed in China with the news that Kunming Daily, the mouthpiece of top leaders in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, printed a list of the names of city officials, their contact numbers and their specific areas of responsibility.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of Xinhua Online coverage of official name and contact list published in Kunming Daily.]

The February 16 edition of Kunming Daily included a four-page spread with information on local government officials. An online copy of the list, which ran on the Kunming news site www.clzg.cn, was feverishly downloaded by Web users, according to a report in today’s China Youth Daily.
While postings by Web users were generally enthusiastic about the list, initial response from officials was mixed. Kunming CPPCC member Wu Tinggen (吴庭根), quoted in China Youth Daily, was supportive. “Publicizing these phone numbers not only benefits the people in directly relating their problems, it also benefits the work of monitoring lower-level offices by superiors,” Wu said.

“Doing this might make some officials really uncomfortable, but as it stands officials are too comfortable and the people are too uncomfortable, so how you see this really depends on where you’re standing.”

Another local official told the newspaper, however, that the publishing of the list could carry a lot of negatives, overwhelming government offices with “fussy phonecalls” (骚扰电话) and impacting normal operations.
Kunming’s top leader, party secretary Ying Yongsheng (应永生), told China Youth Daily that all official numbers, including his own, would be made public “so that if they need the people can reach us.”
Ying Yongshen also said the city had plans to release a special manual including eight documents on Kunming’s soft environment (policies and laws, etc.), with the goal of making it easier for ordinary people and investors to navigate.
[Posted February 18, 2008, 12:08pm HK]

By David Bandurski — In the latest effort to push a “clean up” the country’s cultural sector ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games, China’s censors aimed their lances today at films containing scenes of horror and supersition, citing the need to “protect the mental and physical well-being of minors.”

[ABOVE: Screenshot of Sina.com coverage of of GAPP’s release on horror and the supernatural.]

In a notice released early this morning, regulators from China’s General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) said “rigorous checks” would be carried out on audio and video materials produced in 2006 and 2007. Anything dealing with “horror or the supernatural” (恐怖灵异类) and found to be in violation would be “pulled from shelves, sealed up, confiscated and handled according to relevant regulations.”
The notice, which spoke of a “resurgence” (回潮趋势) of horror and supersititon on the domestic market, added that production of such materials planned for 2008 release must be ceased immediately. [Reuters report via The Guardian].
In a commentary that topped Sina.com’s list of editorials today, Tao Duanfang (陶短房) suggested GAPP’s net was far too wide.
While “the goal is to control and remove the negative effect this kind of material has on society”, Tao wrote, “it should be pointed out that the measure of a policy is not just its original intention but its operability (可操作性) and intelligibility (可理解性).”
Sure, we should think about the health of our children, wrote the author. But before the authorities rush in to enforce this notice, they should be clear about what exactly they mean.
After all, people are bound to ask, said Tao: “Can we still watch Harry Potter?”
[Posted Thursday, February 14, 2008, 1:45pm]

By David Bandurski – Chinese leaders launched an all-out publicity drive last week to demonstrate the party’s concern for the public welfare amid devastating winter storms. In the midst of that charm offensive, addressing hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded at the rail station in Guangzhou, Premier Wen Jiabao actually said, “I apologize.”
Over the next few days and weeks, one critical issue will be whether Chinese media are permitted to ask the question: “What exactly SHOULD Wen Jiabao be sorry for?”
Yes, these storms were “natural.” But their impact on China this month and last — and the clear failure of emergency response mechanisms — ultimately speaks to the inadequacy of the political structure and the urgent need for political and social reform.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of Sina.com featured editorial by Shu Shengxiang on civil society and disaster relief.]

As CMP noted last week, Caijing magazine has already addressed some political problems in the government response, particularly the over-reliance on central directives and the failure of local governments to jump into action earlier.
In today’s edition of Hebei’s Yanzhao Metropolis Daily (燕赵都市报), columnist Shu Shengxiang (舒圣祥) addresses the sensitive social and political question of civic organizations and their role in disaster relief in China.
Shu first butters up national officials by giving them their due: “We should admit that government efforts to deal with the emergency have been effective, that the government has not been struck down by these disastrous snowstorms, and that they haven’t let the people down,” he writes.
Then comes the crucial qualification:

But there are nevertheless regrettable aspects of this type of disaster response. Owing to [the government’s] limited power and range of vision in dealing with the disaster, for example, only broad plans for relief were drawn up, and many people caught up in the disaster were unable to receive effective assistance. Additionally, owing to a bureaucratic mindset and formalistic attitude, many initiatives at the local and regional government levels were too late, too weak, too simplistic or simply stopped short of action.
We can see that basically our traditional method of dealing with disasters remains mired in a mode of “strong government, weak society” (强政府—弱社会). We have only the top-down vertical lines of government action and lack the right-left, horizontal lines of civic action. This means we cannot create an effective grid for dealing with emergency situations. As a result, the scope of effective action is limited and the “quality” of emergency response is hit-and-miss.
In fact, in the provision of social services — and particularly in assisting the disadvantaged and providing of disaster relief — civic organizations (民间组织) have natural advantages over the government. Civic organizations do not, for example, need to be as comprehensive in their response as governments do. They can seize on specific needs and issues and therefore stand a better chance of effectively achieving their objectives. In countries with highly developed civil societies, neglected pockets of society can be revealed quickly so that assistance can be rendered to those in need. Moreover, because civic organizations are not driven by calculations of political point-scoring and are not concerned with profit-seeking, they can more easily earn the trust of the public and become a force for rallying the disaster relief effort.

All of this is of course easier said than done in China, where officials traditionally regard non-governmental or other mass organizations as dangerous challenges to the authority of the Communist Party.
For examples, we need look no farther than the recent arrest of Chinese activist Hu Jia on charges of subverting state power, and the shutdown of the civil society-related publication Minjian.
The Yanzhao Metropolis Daily editorial is probably right that China could deal more effectively with emergency situations by permitting the growth of an active civil society. But Chinese leaders are terrified of the political implications of a society of do-gooders and people who actively care. Which is why veteran journalist Zhai Minglei asked rhetorically after the shutdown of Minjian last year: “What is the most difficult thing to do in China? The good deed.”
“The Chinese people have never lacked good-hearted individuals or the force of charitable action,” Shu Shengxiang writes. “What they do lack is institutional support (制度安排) for the effective mobilization of charitable action and giving.”

As the government reflects back on the snowstorms, it should look not only at [official] emergency response plans but also recognize the important power of civic organizations, and give civic organizations greater room for development at the legal and policy levels.

[Posted February 4, 2008, 3:05pm HK]

By David Bandurski – In the latest signal of support for state-promoted media commercialization, China’s broadcast minders announced today that they would “work toward raising and improving” the quality of China Central Television’s nightly national newscast, Xinwen Lianbo (新闻联播), a key tool of state propaganda.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of QQ.com coverage of Xinwen Lianbo‘s 30th anniversary and the program’s proposed makeover.]

According to an official release from China News Service citing the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, CCTV will establish an editorial department (编辑部) to actively plan news coverage (主动策划) rather than passively receive instructions from top propaganda authorities (被动接受), as is presently the case.
In line with the state policy of “Three Closenesses”, or san tiejin (三贴近), the release said the program was due for a “change in tone” (语态), making it more relevant and inviting to viewers. More decisions would be made according to “news value” (新闻价值), with thematic coverage, international news and “regular news” (一般新闻).
Despite the announcement and its forward-looking slogans, it is unlikely viewers will see a savvier, more commercially oriented Xinwen Lianbo any time soon.
The program, which enjoys a nationwide monopoly during its coveted primetime spot, remains a key vehicle for state propaganda, and top officials are sure to keep a tight grip on programming.
MORE SOURCES:
“Thirty-year History of Xinwen Lianbo“, Xinhua News Agency online, January 29, 2008
Xinwen Lianbo-related release on official SARFT website
[Posted February 4, 2008, 11:17 am HK]

By David Bandurski and Joseph Cheng — The scale of China’s biggest breaking news story so far this year is positively epic. Regional snowstorms have stranded millions of travelers, left scores dead and chilled the national economy. Here in blustery Hong Kong, though, newspapers seem far more preoccupied this week with a “storm” of sex and celebrity that has whirled out of the icy thin air of local Internet chat rooms.
Mainland news coverage has been far from ideal, and Hong Kong news choices haven’t been entirely profane. Nevertheless, coverage this week is a disappointing study in contrasts.

[ABOVE: Combined image of front page coverage on January 29 in Hong Kong’s Apple Daily (left) and Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily (right).]

Let’s look first at mainland media coverage this week.
Chinese media, as ever under the watchful eye of party propaganda discipline, have met the snowstorm story head on with non-stop coverage (and so far no hints of information suppression at the national and provincial levels).
Predictably, we’ve seen familiar strains of government mobilization and official image crafting [Reuters coverage of here]. And there is certainly not enough reporting and criticism on the issue of government preparedness. Since national leaders mobilized action earlier this week, the critical tones have more or less submerged. One notable exception is an editorial in yesterday’s issue of Caijing magazine (more below). [CMP coverage of earlier criticism].
Some mainland commentators, including journalists, have said that now is the time for action and not for criticism. They have a point, of course, in being concerned first and foremost with the welfare of the millions stranded across the country.
Still, emergency response efforts should not quiet media criticism. After all, when you see images of tens of thousands of PLA soldiers clearing away snow with only hand shovels, you might be stirred by this show of solidarity and self-sacrifice. But let’s face it, this has to raise serious questions about institutional readiness too.
That said, there has been a noticeable flood of news coverage of the snowstorms in the mainland media, and not all of it is slavishly in service of the government’s public image.
The front page of Guangdong’s Southern Metropolis Daily on Monday ran with a full-page photo of a sea of passengers at Guangzhou West Railway Station jostling with green-clad soldiers. The main headline read: “Beijing-Guangzhou train line will be tough to clear in the next 3-5 days.” Controls have been imposed at the city’s rail stations, the subhead tells us, and stranded passengers have already surpassed 500,000. A separate headline at the bottom of the page points us to an inside article dealing with the impact on the stock market.

[ABOVE: Frontpage of Southern Metropolis Daily, January 29, 2008]

The next day, front page coverage at Southern Metropolis Daily dealt with Premier Wen Jiabao’s apology on January 29 to passengers stranded at a rail station in Hunan, one of the provinces hardest hit.
Additional reports included information on the province-wide refunding of more than 500,000 train tickets, more than 14,000 passengers stranded at Guangzhou’ Baiyun International Airport, and the imminent clearing of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway.

[ABOVE: Frontpage of Southern Metropolis Daily, January 30, 2008]

Reports of the disaster on the newspaper’s inside pages covered a wide range of areas, from traffic and weather news to official announcements to personal stories.

[ABOVE: Page A10 of Southern Metropolis Daily, January 30, 2008, reporting on more than 10,000 passengers stranded at Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport.]

Beginning as early as January 26, newspapers across China set up special sections on the snowstorms.
As the disaster worsened the news focus turned to the relief effort. Shenzhen-based QQ.com announced a pact with seven other media to mobilize citizens for the local relief effort in Guangdong. Guangzhou Daily printed up special editions on the disaster providing up-to-date information on where people could go for food, shelter and other needs.
In an editorial run on its Website today, Caijing magazine essentially called the present winter crisis the first failed test of China’s law on emergency management (突发事件应对法律), which took effect two months ago.
Quoting one of the emergency law’s principal drafters, Tsinghua University professor Yu An (于安), the magazine said that the law mandated that “relevant departments should declare a state of emergency in affected regions or areas at the earliest opportunity” and that “local governments should put response and relief structures in place and institute warning systems”.
This did not happen in recent weeks. Rather, emergency efforts did not roll into play until national leaders at the State Council held an emergency session on January 27, more than two weeks after unusual snowstorms caused havoc in local areas. The model of response, in other words, was still far too centralized.
The dissection of Hong Kong’s role in snowstorm coverage is unfortunately a simple procedure.
As snowstorms crippled China this week, Hong Kong media were obsessed with photographs of questionable authenticity depicting alleged sexual acts involving Hong Kong pop idols Edison Chen, Gillian Chung and Bobo Chan.
With the exception of South China Morning Post coverage, Ming Pao and some television coverage in Chinese (by the likes of ATV), attention has lingered on the photo scandal.

[ABOVE: Frontpage of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, January 29, 2008.]

Wasn’t this a simple question of relevance? Did storms to the north actually have any measurable impact on the lives of Hong Kong residents?
Yes.
There is the affect on the stock exchange. There are thousands of Hong Kong residents stranded in China. Air traffic in and out of the city has been directly affected. Hong Kong manufacturers will also no doubt feel the bite.
Was the story interesting enough to make the front page?
Yes.
The images emerging from China this week were arresting. The numbers were staggering. The human, institutional and political dimensions of the story were engaging and important.
Nevertheless, as millions of travelers were stranded across China on Tuesday, including more than 800,000 rail passengers in nearby Guangzhou alone, the headline splashed across the front page of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily read: “‘Explicit photos’ of Edison Chen and Gillian Chung exposed.”
“The storm broke at around 8pm on the evening before yesterday,” the Apple Daily reported (translation from ESWN). “A netizen posted a photograph of a man and a woman in bed at the Hong Kong Discussion Forum. These two bore some resemblance to Edison Chen and Gillian Chung.”
“Naughty photos make it onto the Web,” declared the front page of Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily, which gleefully included cropped versions of the photos under a banner advertisement for dried scallops.

[ABOVE: Frontpage coverage in Oriental Daily , January 29, 2008, of the photo scandal.]

The case is now a bit newsier. The focus has turned to the efforts of Hong Kong police to find those responsible for posting the photos to the Web. The images themselves have been played down a bit too (a natural process of fading reader interest?).
But one week into what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest breaking China news stories of 2008, Hong Kong’s major newspapers are still yammering on about Edison Chen, Gillian Chung & Co. The story dominated the space above the fold on yesterday’s Apple Daily, with the headline, “Police begin mass round-up of photo posters”:

[ABOVE: Frontpage of yesterday’s Apply Daily.]

At other major papers yesterday treatment was much the same [See Roland Soong’s round-up at ESWN]. The only notable exception was Ming Pao, which placed the photo scandal on page two and avoided sensational images (the paper’s leading story was about the Macau corruption trial of former planning minister Ao Man-long).
One of the key tests of mainland news coverage will come in the next few days and weeks, as the immediate priorities of disaster relief diminish. How will Chinese media look back on the snowstorms of 2008? To what extent will they address such issues as institutional readiness?
It’s not too soon to say, however, that Hong Kong media have fallen short.
As journalists in China struggle for greater rights, neighboring Hong Kong should serve as example of the possibilities offered by free expression. This week’s pathetic showing must leave mainland journalists wondering, “Is that the kind of press a free market pays for?”
Does Hong Kong deserve a better press? Should Hong Kong residents be concerned about this issue? . . . These are certainly questions the SAR should talk a great deal more about once the madness of these storms has been cleared away.
[Posted February 1, 2008, 2:31am HK]
MORE SOURCES:
QQ.com Special Page on the Snowstorms, soliciting comments from eyewitnesses
Hunan’s RedNet Feature Page on Snowstorms
“China makes martyrs of three killed in storm,” AP, January 31, 2008
Snow and chaos,” Danwei.org, January 29, 2008
“Newspaper editorial calls for greater information openness to combat snowstorm woes,” CMP, January 29, 2008

By David Bandurski — As snowstorms continued to wreak havoc across China today, the principal editorial in The Beijing News (新京报) said the government could do more to offset problems by loosening controls on the flow of information. “Obstruction of information is the enemy of emergency relief, and the present snowstorms are no exception,” the editorial said.
The editorial made particular mention of reports over the weekend that congestion on the Hunan sections of the Beijing-Zhuhai and Hengzao (衡枣) expressways had been caused not just by weather conditions but by the closure of expressways in neighboring provinces. Hoping to circumvent route closures elsewhere, tens of thousands of vehicles entered Hunan only to find expressways closed there as well.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of Sina.com news photo page on snowstorms]

“Chaos in the release of traffic information . . . made traffic problems resulting from the snowstorms worse,” said The Beijing News.

From this we must learn that we can avoid unnecessary oversight, bungling and chaos by opening up the flow of information and ensuring the whole nation works together to avoid disaster.

The actions of many government agencies, said the editorial, have gone directly against the principle of openness.
According to Xinhua News Agency reports on January 27 power outages disrupted national arterial train routes in eastern Guizhou, where storms were particularly fierce. When the Xinhua reporter approached relevant government offices to inquire about this situation, government personnel not only refused to answer his questions or provide information, but even accused him of “stirring up trouble.”
“Train disruptions, their causes and repair status are information travellers should have at their disposal, and this should be actively provided to media (理应主动向媒体通报). We must put an end to the bottling up of information by government offices,” said The Beijing News.
[Posted January 29, 2008, 12:52pm HK]
MORE SOURCES:
“Blizzards strand thousands in China,” AP, January 29, 2008
“Wild China weather kills 25, besieges heartland,” Reuters, January 29, 2008
“China issues severe weather warning amid fuel shortage fears,” AFP, January 28, 2008