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

By David Bandurski — As the wooden, carefully crafted proceedings of the recent 17th National Congress painfully demonstrated, the public face of Chinese politics is all about, well, “face.” But yesterday’s news brought what by Chinese standards was a jarring story of open and edgy political exchange.
According to reports from newspapers across China, debates on the floor of Guangdong Province‘s “two meetings” (people’s congress and political consultative conference/两会) really heated up this week.

[ABOVE: Southern Metropolis Daily coverage today of Guangdong’s provincial party congress. Headline: “Edgy speech by delegate repeatedly interrupted.” Subhead: “Speaker emphasizes that delegates to the meeting are free to express their opinions, interrupter says, ‘These aren’t the opinions of our delegation’, and leaves early.”]

During a delegate working group (代表团小组) discussion forum on Wednesday, the Guangzhou delegation reportedly launched into an intense discussion of management systems for judicial organs and the problem of moonlighting by government employees for private firms (which raises the question of abuse of official duty).
Addressing the issue of an independent judicial system, National People’s Congress delegate Li Yongzhong (李永忠) said one of the principal problems was local protectionism. “I’ve been an NPC delegate for several terms now, and I often receive complaints from ordinary people about cases that are clear cut,” Li said.
Why wasn’t justice served in these cases, Li asked:

Because of interference by local protectionism. Right now, the courts and prosecutor’s offices at various levels in our country are given financial allocations by the government at that same level. As personnel, financial and material matters are rooted in the local government, its very difficult to expect these courts to render independent rulings.

“Therefore,” said Li, “we must go ahead with reforms by which the central government would directly handle fund allocation [for the courts].”
Delegate Li advised that judicial and inspection organs (司法检查机关), including judicial appointments, be directly handled by the central government, as is the case with customs and other organizations. Tensions mounted after Li’s comments, according to the Information Times:

As discussions over management systems for judicial organs continued and deepened, many delegates became anxious about Li Yongzhong’s ideas, and one made his opposition to his point of view clear. “This is what you’re saying, but we won’t dare say it. You can say it here, but you can’t say it in front of the central government!”
When a reporter started taking pictures, this delegate filed out of the meeting room because the topic under discussion was too sensitive.

According to a report in today’s Southern Metropolis Daily, Li Yongzhong was interrupted by a delegate who left the meeting early, saying, “These aren’t the opinions of our delegation.”
UPDATE:
Comments on Shenzhen-based Web portal QQ.com surpassed 10,000 as of 1:55pm January 25. Here’s a taste:
[From Shenzhen] That representative who left, he’s probably from the prosecutor’s office (procuratorate) anyway, and had his ass kissed all the way up to the people’s congress. It’s even possible he paid for his post as a delegate. How pathetic!
[From Guangzhou] All of those present were officials (做官) . . . Only Li Yongzhong was there as a people’s representative, saying some things that we all know to be true . . . The people there couldn’t stand it and said right away that it had nothing to do with them. How are they any different from feudal officials? They don’t even dare open their mouths, much less talk about discovering and solving problems . . .
[From Futian] Actually, that delegate gave up his credentials as a ‘people’s representative’ as soon as he abandoned the floor. But there are so many of these kinds of so-called ‘representatives.’ They’ve become the ‘talking dogs’ of a bad system. In the name of justice and social conscience, we should make these delegates get the hell out.
[From Shenzhen] I’m totally in support of Li Yongzhong. That delegate that left should be exposed so the whole whole country can remember his idiocy.

[From Guangzhou] We should have the guy’s name so we can see what he looks like!
[From Yichang City] This fake people’s congress system has reached the point where it must be changed!
[From Shenzhen] I‘m firmly in favor of getting rid of that guy who left. He’s not worthy of being a people’s representative.
[Posted January 25, 2008, 11:35am HK]

By David Bandurski – CMP noted recently that there had so far been no news of the annual national meeting of propaganda ministers, out of which we would expect some indication post-17th of any changes to the media policies of China’s central leadership. Yesterday, at last, we had news of a meeting. But instead of a run-of-the-mill gathering of ministers this was a “national propaganda work conference” headed up by none other than President Hu Jintao.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of Xinhua News Agency online coverage of Hu Jintao’s speech to national propaganda ministers on January 22.]

“National propaganda work” conferences, or quanguo xuanchuan sixiang hui yi (全国宣传思想工作会议) are held on an ad hoc basis in China, as top leaders perceive the need to send a strong message on ideology and media control. In this case, Hu Jintao apparently made no changes to existing policy, but rather cranked up the volume — by virtue of his presence, mind you — on “correct guidance,” pushing “scientific development“, etcetera.
Hu’s appearance was most probably timed to send a strong message at the outset of China’s Olympic year about the need to control the press and public opinion, and manage China’s image overseas.
The last time such a conference was called was on December 5, 2003, in the aftermath of SARS and the Sun Zhigang Case. That conference was held nearly one year after the first meeting of propaganda ministers, or xuanchuan buzhang huiyi (宣传部长会议), following the 16th National Congress, at which top propaganda leader Li Changchun (李长春) announced Hu’s new policy of the “Three Closenesses.”
This year’s conference, moderated by Li Changchun, apparently subsumed the meeting of propaganda ministers (Li emphasized to top provincial propaganda chiefs and ministers that Hu’s speech was a “programmatic document”, or 纲领性文献).
Also attending the event was recent politburo standing committee entry Xi Jinping (习近平).
The content of the conference was replayed today in the lead editorial of the official People’s Daily.
Hu Jintao told ministers that “propaganda work is a key, integral part of the work of the party and government,” and said propaganda work had maintained a “favorable state of health and vitality” (积极健康、蓬勃向上的良好态势) over the last year thanks to the “laying out of a series of guideline policies” (方针政策) and a series of major actions taken by ministries.
Hu urged those in attendance to study and implement the “spirit of the 17th National Congress, and hold high the banner of Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” all with a mind to “overall interests.”
Right. And those would be? . . .

Centering on overall interests (围绕大局) means we must conscientiously carry out the decisions of the central party, firmly encompassing the core of economic construction, upholding correct guidance (正确导向), placing social effects (社会效益) first, grasping prosperity in one hand, grasping control in the other, energetically pushed forward with scientific development, promoting social harmony, creating a strong ideological guarantee and creating a favorable public opinion environment for economic reforms and socialist modernization.

Aside from the annual meeting of propaganda ministers and these so-called “national propaganda work” conferences, the media-related meetings of greatest significance are full politburo sessions, or zhongyang quanhui (中央全会), devoted specifically to ideology. The last politburo sessions of this kind were in 1983 (when Deng Xiaoping and others voted to uphold the party’s opposition to “bourgeois liberalization”, much to the delight of Leftists in the party) and 1996.
[Posted January 24, 2008, 5pm HK]

In recent years, as editorial pages have debuted and expanded at commercial newspapers across China, some have heralded the coming of a new “age of citizen speech.” The editorial section at Southern Metropolis Daily, a commercial spin-off of Guangdong’s official Nanfang Daily, is one of the most prominent examples of this trend in China’s media. Since its launch in 2002, Southern Metropolis Daily’s editorial section has expanded to include a number of different pages reflecting a variety of viewpoints.
In this lecture, Southern Metropolis Daily’s chief editorial page editor, He Xuefeng, will talk about the history and vision behind the newspaper’s editorial section, and how it goes about creating a unique voice in China’s strictly controlled press environment.
Speaker: He Xuefeng (何雪峰), chief editorial page editor for Southern Metropolis Daily
Date: January 29, 2008 (Tuesday)
Time: 5:30 pm to 7:00pm
Place: Foundation Chamber, Eliot Hall, University of Hong Kong
Lecture will be conducted in Mandarin.
For more information, please contact Rain Li at (852) 2219 4001.

By David Bandurski — Zheng Jichao (郑继超) has a brand new roof over his head. Zheng Jichao has a cozy cotton jacket. Zheng Jichao has a shiny new methane stove. And he has — hallelujah! — the Communist Party to thank for it all.
It is a narrative universally recognizable in China, where propaganda conventions urge media to emphasize proactive leadership and minimize the grisly facts of catastrophe and human error. A typhoon strikes, a flood devastates, and party cadres descend like gods in a Greek tragedy, showing the masses just how human they really are.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of online BBS coverage of President Hu Jintao’s visit with peasant Zheng Jichao.]

According to CMP sources, propaganda officials have lately sprinkled their directives to media rather liberally with cautions about maintaining the party’s “image,” or xingxiang (形象). But the power of the Web is presenting leaders with unforeseen challenges as they resort to old norms in managing the party’s image.
The cadre ex machina story was replayed last week on China Central Television as President Hu Jintao appeared on the nightly national newscast, Xinwen Lianbo (新闻联播), visiting a region of Anhui Province plagued by floods last year [VIDEO available here].
Official television coverage showed President Hu visiting the home of peasant Zheng Jichao (郑继超) in Anhui’s Wangjiaba Town to make sure the government was rendering all possible assistance. Here is the scene recounted in an English news report from Xinhua News Agency:

President Hu, showing concern for the disaster-hit people, visited a local village to see whether people got their flood compensation.
Hu said the life of villagers was always on his mind. Villager Zheng Jichao told Hu that his family had built a new house and his life was guaranteed.
“Have you received the flood compensation fund yet?” Hu asked.
Zheng then showed him a red bankbook. Reading the entries marking the amount of money allocated each time for disaster victims, Hu smiled, “I feel great relieved after seeing this.”

What followed was a sublimely human moment. President Hu leaned over, cupped his hands, and drank from Zheng Jichao’s faucet. It was this dramatic scene that captured the particular attention of Chinese blogger “Zuo You Yi Guo Hui” (左右一锅烩).
“I saw the news today of President Hu Jintao’s visit to the home of that peasant, where he takes a drink of cold tap water, and naturally I was moved,” the blogger wrote on January 18. “So I made note of the peasant’s name.”
Putting “Zheng Jichao” through a search engine, Zuo You Yi Guo Hui found that the villager had had at least seven visits from party leaders within a period of just two months. The blogger’s post included the key graphs of official news stories going back to November 2007, with working links to official news sites on which the stories appeared.
There was a constant progression of courtly cadres. Local township and county leaders, Anhui provincial party congress delegates, Anhui’s vice-governor and his entourage, Anhui’s deputy secretary and his entourage, local city leaders, and finally Hu Jintao himself.
Through all of this, of course, Zheng Jichao was reportedly euphoric. He was described as “very happy,” “extremely excited,” “moved to tears.”
There was scarcely any need for the blogger to editorialize. Clearly, Zheng Jichao had become the latest poster boy in the party’s ongoing charm offensive: “The people love us! You all love us! . . . Just look at Zheng Jichao!”
Zuo You Yi Guo Hui’s revealing news smash-up is the latest example of how the Internet is changing the nature of news consumption in China even as the party does its utmost to control public opinion and monopolize the message.
A simple act of connecting the dots on China’s censored Web and Hu Jintao’s genuine moment becomes what we all quietly supposed it was — a naked act of self-interested party publicity.
And this is probably not the last we will hear of Zheng Jichao. Those online spoofs should be coming out any day now.
A translated portion of the original blog entry follows:

First Time
November 15, 2007
On November 15, the vice-secretary of the work committee, Zhao Kai (赵凯), went in a spirit of profound friendship to Fuyang City (阜阳) to carry out inspections and ask after [residents]. He was accompanied by Hu Liansong (胡连松), deputy director of the standing committee of the provincial party congress and Fuyang party secretary, Zhang Shaochun (张韶春) and Li Hongta (李宏塔) of relevant departments, and vice-mayor Liu Shaotai (刘绍太).
—–
“The house has been roofed, the road widened, we cook with gas now. Our lives have improved, and for all of this we must thank the party and government for their care and support,” . . . 50 year-old Zheng Jichao said happily as he shook the hand of Zhao Kai.
—–
Second Time
November 23, 2007
Like Liu Wenge (刘文阁), Zheng Jichao of Wangjiaba Town . . . has been very excited these last two days. On November 23, county, township and village cadres came together to his home with cotton-padded coats, cotton quilts and flour and asked how he was getting on with the cold and if there were any difficulties he needed help with. Only when county vice-secretary Li Guoqing (李国庆) learned that Zheng’s house had already been rebuilt and they were well fed and clothed was he satisfied enough to take his leave. Wearing his new cotton-padded coat, Zheng Jichao said excitedly: “This wadded jacket is new and thick. When I put it on I feel warm in my heart. All those things we didn’t think about, the government thought about for us!”

[January 22, 2008, 1:37pm HK]

By David Bandurski – It’s been more than three months now since the 17th National Congress, and still we’re waiting with bated breath for news of China’s all-important national meeting of propaganda ministers (宣传部长会议), which should signal any changes in media policy at the top. So far, nothing — a great big, substantial NOTHING.
This is very unlike what we saw five years ago, when 2003 dawned with a whole constellation of media terms dragged along by “The Three Closenesses.”
Today, however, we have news of the first important speech by politburo member and propaganda chief Liu Yunshan (刘云山) since the close of the congress last October. The gist, obscured by a fog of anti-pornography rhetoric, is an intensified push against political content.

[ABOVE: Screenshot of a release on the January 17 conference call and Liu Yunshan’s speech at the Shanghai Municipal Government website].

In a national conference call with local leaders of China’s “sweep pornography and strike illegal publications” campaign, or sao huang da fei (扫黄打非), Liu Yunshan urged an intensification of last year’s efforts to “struggle” (斗争) against unfavorable publications. Topping the list were “illegal publications of a political nature” (政治性非法出版物), which would presumably include the likes of journalist Zhai Minglei‘s Minjian magazine [more from CMP here].
The release on the Liu Yunshan-led conference posted on Shanghai’s official government website said:

In 2007, deployed in concert by central and city leadership, various Shanghai districts and counties carried out a struggle to “sweep pornography and strike illegal publications,” organizing a series of targeted clean-up campaigns and achieving clear results in dealing with (查堵) illegal publications of a political nature (政治性非法出版物), indecent or pornographic publications, etc., and pirated or copyright violating publications.

The emphasis on “illegal publications of a political nature” suggests leaders intend to leverage law enforcement in 2008 to target print and online content deemed “unfavorable.”
“We must continue and deepen the struggle against pornographic and illegal publications in order to promote a rapidly developing and booming socialist culture, and create a favorable thought and public opinion climate and cultural environment,” the release said.
The very phrase employed for the official campaign — “sweep pornography, strike illegal publications” (扫黄打非) — speaks volumes about the willful conflation by Chinese authorities of the anti-pornography crusade and political censorship generally.
In an unaccountable exception, no release was apparently made available from the official Xinhua News Agency.
[Posted January 18, 2008, 12:52pm HK]
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
“30 Key 2007 Cases in the National ‘Sweep Pornography, Strike Illegal Publications’ Campaign“, Chinacourt.org, January 18, 2008
China’s official “sweep pornography, strike illegal publications” Website
Following the Liu Yunshan tele-conference, the City of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, touts its own “sweep pornography” record, January 18, 2008