Since AIDS activist Gao Yaojie (高耀洁) was released from house arrest by authorities in Henan province on February 16, paving the way for her trip to the United States to receive the Vital Voices Global Women’s Leadership Award, there has been no coverage of the story by Chinese media. But Guangdong’s Southern Metropolis Daily broke the silence today in an editorial criticizing “local and regional leaders” and calling for greater openness of information about AIDS and other issues of public concern. [BELOW:Screenshot of Gao Yaojie’s personal Weblog at Sina.com, with photo of Gao].

Gao Yaojie, a former gynaecologist who worked for years to call attention to a growing AIDS epidemic in China’s inland Henan province, was a key figure in driving sensitive domestic news coverage and drawing international attention to China’s AIDS epidemic in 1999 and 2000. Afraid an appearance by Gao at the Washington award ceremony for Vital Voices might humiliate China, local authorities in Henan’s provincial capital, Zhengzhou, put the 79 year-old woman under house arrest earlier this month [Coverage from Reuters via CNN.com].
The Southern Metropolis Daily editorial voices some praise for two top-ranking health officials who visited Gao Yaojie in her Beijing hotel before her departure for the U.S.. It does not, however, mention U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton‘s letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, which has been credited with securing Gao’s release.
A translation of the Southern Metropolis Daily editorial follows:
southern-metropolis-daily_gao-yaojie.pdf
______________________________
“Gao Yaojie’s Difficulty in Getting to the U.S. to Claim Her Award is a Cause for Concern”
By Zhang Tiankan (张田勘)
According to news reports, Gao Yaojie, the retired doctor who will turn 80 this year, has won the Vital Voices Global Women’s Leadership Award for her great efforts in defending those infected with AIDS in China. But Gao Yaojie’s has constantly faced resistance in going to America to claim her award. Over the last more than a month, a number of local officials have visited her home [in Henan province] to dissuade her from going the America to receive her award, and have even accused her of “manufacturing malicious rumors, telling lies and making up stories”.
The actions of these officials cause us to doubt whether Gao Yaojie is living in a free country, and this can’t help but make us uneasy about the actual situation of the AIDS epidemic in various regions of China. Concerning the AIDS epidemic, who exactly is telling the truth, and who is telling lies? Gao Yaojie has been on the front lines investigating and taking action to fight AIDS all along … It should be said that she has more authority than anyone concerning the current state of AIDS in China, or at the very least the most authority to speak to the AIDS situation in Henan and other areas. For this reason, I deeply believe that anything Gao Yaojie says concerning AIDS is earnest and true. Just as she has said herself, “At any time, in any place, under whatever pressure, I will never tell lies. I cannot cheat the people of the world”.
Correct policies arise from accurate information about a problem. They arise from a comprehensive and detailed recognition of a problem. If information is inaccurate, fabricated or incomplete, this potentially leads to policy miscalculations that are not only strategically wrong but set people on the road to ruin. This is true of AIDS prevention and other areas as well. As SARS spread in 2003, it was the honest Jiang Yanyong who stood up and was the first to say, “The Emperor has no clothes”, and point out that SARS was spreading in China. This urged decision-makers to set into motion a nationwide fight to effectively fight SARS, and resulted in eventual victory.
Do we not even today have the kind of environment and tolerance that allowed Jiang Yanyong to speak the truth during SARS? Even if Gao Yaojie says something wrong we should let her have her say, nor can we limit her freedom, violating the rights she enjoys as a citizen. And how much more so if Gao Yaojie speaks the truth.
One of America’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, once said: “If a nation expect to be ignorant and free … it expect what never was and never will be.” Through her revelations about the AIDS situation in China, Gao Yaojie wants to make everyone understand the real situation of the AIDS epidemic, making way for practical and realistic approaches to AIDS prevention. This is the way toward defeating epidemic disease and moving toward freedom and reason. In contrast, when a number of local leaders do not wish to let Gao Yaojie speak the truth about AIDS, this not only blocks our way to freedom and prosperity, but leads us to disaster through our ignorance of AIDS.
Under constant public concern, and owing to reasonable involvement by central officials, Gao Yaojie has already arrived in Beijing and obtained her entry visa for America. On the 25th she will fly to the United States, and receive her award in Washington on March 14. What is even more encouraging, both deputy health minister Wang Longde (王陇德) and Hao Yang (郝阳), deputy director of epidemic disease control at the Ministry of Health, visited Gao Yaojie on behalf of Vice Premier Wu Yi (吴仪) at the hotel where she was staying in Beijing. Wang Longde did not stand in the way of her trip to the U.S. to claim her award and in fact admitted the tragedy of blood supply infection, the fact of underground blood-selling, and that not enough had been done to publicize [AIDS]. This made Gao Yaojie feel that Wang Longde’s “attitude was good and he was reasonable”.
If our local and regional leaders could, like Deputy Minister Wang, benefit from the true words of Gao Yaojie and others, making relevant policies on the basis of real information through investigation and research, we will be able not only to prevent disasters arising from AIDS and other forms of epidemic disease, but will have greater hope of building an ideal and harmonious society.
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 26, 2007, 1:20pm]

February 21 – Guangdong’s provincial office in charge of product pricing announced in a new statute on price supervision that the media have a “right to carry out press supervision” on the issue of fair pricing. The statute, “Guangdong Province Statute on Price Supervision (Draft Soliciting Comment)”, covers a wide range of goods and services and defines the legal responsibility of various points in the supply chain regarding fair pricing. It outlines maximum penalties of 50,000 yuan (US$6,500) for parties failing to provide information on pricing or cooperate with oversight procedures. The draft was made available on the Web starting February 14, and will seek public comment through April 1.
February 23 — Television shows about art collection, after the manner of Antique Roadshow in the U.S. and U.K., have become all the rage in China since 2006. But after a deluge of such shows during the recent Spring Festival, some experts attacked them as the latest example of media commercialization gone bad, according to the Beijing Evening News. As the market for arts and antiques takes off in China, more and more regional television stations are following the lead of such shows as China Central Television’s Sai Bao Da Hui, which reportedly drew an audience of more than 10 million last year. According to a report in Beijing Evening News, a spinoff of the official Beijing Daily, such programs were a popular “must see” over the recent holiday in China. But a number of collection experts, cited in the Beijing Evening News report only by their professions, said many of these programs were becoming too sensational, seeking out or manufacturing extreme scenes to draw larger audiences.

The top leader of China’s Hunan province, Zhang Chunxian (张春贤), who took up his post in November 2006, has set the bar for official public relations savvy in Hu Jintao’s new drive to “develop [the Internet] well, use it well and manage it well” (建设好、利用好、管理好). [BELOW: Screenshot of profile of Hunan Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian at China.org.cn].

In what some have read as a high-level official vote of confidence in China’s proposed real-name registration system for the Internet, Hunan Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian registered on the Web on February 15, the eve of China’s Spring Festival, and posted a message to the people of Hunan. The official not only included Web users in his well-wishing letter, but thanked them directly for their participation and support in offering suggestions to the leadership regarding the Party Congress to be held later this year, and their suggestions for creating a prosperous and harmonious Hunan [“The Road to the 17th Party Congress“, Hoover Institution].
In the days following Zhang Chunxian’s posting on Rednet.cn, the news was taken up with gusto by major Chinese Web portals, including Sina.com, Sohu.com, Xinhuanet, People.com.cn, Netease, and Qialongnet. Zhang was warmly appended with the moniker, “Secretary close to the people” (亲民书记).
As domestic media have pointed out, Zhang’s letter fits well with President Hu Jintao’s latest policy statement on how leaders should treat the Web. Hu emphasized back in January that party leaders must be strategic in their use of the Internet given its growing influence in the lives of Chinese citizens. “We must, with an energetic attitude and a spirit of innovation, strongly develop and propagate a healthy and uplifting Internet culture, practically building the Internet well, using it well and managing it well”, said Hu. In China, where numerical policy formulations are vested with a kind of political magic, Hu’s Web policy is now referred to in short as the “three wells” (三好).
Coverage of Zhang’s letter on the Web was followed with a wave of coverage in the traditional media. Shanghai’s Wen Hui Bao, for example, wrote in its story lead on February 20: “Up to 6:27pm on the 19th, Web hits [to Zhang Chunxian’s letter] had already reached 40,000, and close to 400 Web postings had been made [in response]. Several hundred Websites paid particular attention to this [event].”
Somewhat ironically, of course, it is impossible to say, given Hu Jintao’s injunction to officials to “use [the Web] well”, whether response to the Zhang Chunxian letter was a natural outpouring of public opinion or an orchestrated event. Why, in other words, did “several hundred Websites pay particular attention to this [event]”?
For reasons unknown to CMP, Zhang’s original posting to rednet.cn, cited in a number of Chinese news articles, is no longer available, but yields the following error message:

Hu’s call to use the Web well, and Zhang Chunxian’s savvy response, can be seen as part of a general effort to re-orient official propaganda. In the last several years, Chinese leaders have sought to use commercial media in new ways to get their messages out to the public. The need to resort to such methods is particularly keen in light of the poor performance of “party” newspapers (the X Dailies), which focus on dry official goings-on, in an increasingly competitive commercial media environment.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Netease coverage of Zhang Chunxian letter (Chinese)
The Beijing News coverage of Zhang Chunxian letter (Chinese)
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 23, 2007, 4:23pm]

Television shows about art collection, after the manner of Antique Roadshow in the U.S. and U.K., have become all the rage in China since 2006. But after a deluge of such shows during the recent Spring Festival, some experts attacked them as the latest example of media commercialization gone bad, according to the Beijing Evening News. [BELOW: Screenshot of a Beijing-based Website for collectors].

As the market for arts and antiques takes off in China, more and more regional television stations are following the lead of such shows as China Central Television’s Sai Bao Da Hui, which reportedly drew an audience of more than 10 million last year.
According to a report in Beijing Evening News, a spinoff of the official Beijing Daily, such programs were a popular “must see” over the recent holiday in China. But a number of collection experts, cited in the Beijing Evening News report only by their professions, said many of these programs were becoming too sensational, seeking out or manufacturing extreme scenes to draw larger audiences.
One expert, referred to as “the boss of a large auction firm in Beijing”, told the Beijing Evening News [“angrily”]: “People will often come to us carrying their so-called treasures and certificates of authenticity issued by some television station, and say the expert at the TV station looked at it and said it was worth this or that much money, would we please auction it off for them on the basis of this price. But when our experts look at the objects, they find they are not worth the amounts listed, and some are even fakes.”
Another expert, a “well-known expert appraiser of art objects”, said: “A prominent television station invited me to appear on their collecting program as a special guest, but before I went they said to me that when I made appraisals I had to say it was worth 110,000 yuan. I looked at the things, worth 30 thousand or 50 thousand, and I refused. After that, they didn’t seek me out again”.
According to the Beijing Evening News report, “more and more” art collection shows in China are departing from rigorous appraisal and sharing of knowledge about arts and antiques in the bottom-line pursuit of audiences. They seek to manufacture a sense of suprise and awe at the value of objects in the possession of ordinary people.
However, another expert who had reportedly participated in the filming of an art collection program told the newspaper that actors were used to pose as ordinary collectors, and that interactions with “experts” were already scripted by producers.
Another commonly-used tactic in art collection programs, said the newspaper, is the live destruction of “fake” art products. Experts pointed out, though, that Chinese art objects have been counterfeited for centuries, and some “fakes” may themselves have cultural value.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
“Art Collection Shows Surging Ahead at Regional Television Stations“, Wen Hui Bao via Jiangxi Broadcasting Bureau, July 14, 2006 [Chinese]
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 23, 2007, 11:15am]

Guangdong’s provincial office in charge of product pricing announced in a new statute on price supervision that the media have a “right to carry out press supervision” on the issue of fair pricing. [BELOW: Screenshot of Guangdong government site offering pricing information on goods and services].

The statute, “Guangdong Province Statute on Price Supervision (Draft Soliciting Comment)”, covers a wide range of goods and services and defines the legal responsibility of various points in the supply chain regarding fair pricing. It outlines maximum penalties of 50,000 yuan (US$6,500) for parties failing to provide information on pricing or cooperate with oversight procedures. The draft was made available on the Web starting February 14, and will seek public comment through April 1. [Chinese coverage at Sohu.com].
Officials in Guangdong said the goal of the statute was to better regulate and stabilize price levels to protect the “legal rights and interests of consumers and business operators, and the public interest”.
According to the statute, released by Guangdong’s Product Pricing Bureau (广东省物价局), “any company or individual has the right to inform or conduct supervision in cases harmful to the legal rights of consumers or business operators in regard to pricing (损害消费者、经营者合法价格权益的行为).”
Concerning the role of the media and release of information, the statute said: “The news media have the right to conduct supervision by public opinion [“watchdog journalism”] on pricing. All pricing departments at people’s governments at the county level and above must establish working information release systems for prices and pricing policies and take the initiative in notifying the public about major readjustments in pricing policy.”
Unfair pricing of goods and services in China has been a source of irritation for consumers in recent years, with continued media coverage of such stories as unreasonable road repair fees levied on motorists. The Guangdong statute directly tackles three areas in particular, mandating that prices must be lowered for toll roads, fixed-line television and telecoms services “when service quality goes down”.
In recent years a number of local or targeted measures to address various economic, social or environmental problems in China have included statements on the media’s role in conducting “supervision by public opinion”, or “watchdog journalism”. These regulations, which seem to empower media on circumscribed issues within certain jurisdictional scopes, have cropped up amidst a general worsening of the overall atmosphere for media in China. Many journalists say conducting watchdog journalism has become increasingly difficult since 2003.
Domestic debates on media freedom and the role of the media have also cropped up from time to time around these localized laws and regulations mentioning media supervision.
When Henan’s capital city of Zhengzhou singled media out as a key form of monitoring in local legislation to combat official corruption late last year, China’s official People’s Daily praised the move. On January 6, however, The Beijing News offered a moderate dissent in an editorial by a prominent legal scholar, saying the language “should” in the media-related portion was ill-chosen and that such legislation should emphasize the right rather than the duty of media to perform a watchdog role. The editorial advised Chinese leaders to take the lead in protecting the media’s right to conduct watchdog journalism, rather than surrender the issue to local governments.
Unlike the controversial Zhengzhou legislation, Guangdong’s fair pricing statute specifies that media have a “right” (有权) to carry out watchdog journalism.
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 21, 2007, 12:00pm]

February 12 — Chinese lawyers circulated an open letter on the Internet protesting the deletion of their comments posted on personal Weblogs. [Complete translation available at ESWN].
February 14 — Chinese media turned again to the issue of free speech after reports that renowned sexologist Li Yinhe alleged on her Weblog that she had been pressured by officials to “shut up” and avoid contact with the media. In a February 8 posting on her personal blog, Li Yinhe, a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), wrote that leaders were pressuring her to “shut up”. In the near future, she said, she would “accept fewer interviews with reporters” and “make fewer comments about sex”. “Right now”, Li wrote, “I am faced with this decision: I am under pressure from officials ‘who are not ordinary people’. [They say] they hope I will keep my mouth shut”. A commentary in Southern Metropolis Daily, and excerpted in other papers, said the silencing of Li Yinhe posed a threat to the speech freedoms of all those who criticized her views, not to mention those who supported them. [Coverage from CMP].
February 15 — An editorial in Dahe Daily, a commercial newspaper in Henan Province, praised a speech by a top Guangdong propaganda official, who said on February 8 that propaganda officials would have to move away from a model of arbitrary censorship bowing to demands from local party officials. Dahe Daily said “smearing the media has become a tool” used by officials use to stave off monitoring from the press.
GAPP official: China’s Web economy will surpass Western countries due to cultural uniqueness
February 16 — A top official from China’s official agency in charge of press and publishing suggested in an interview with the overseas edition of China’s official People’s Daily that China’s unique cultural character made it particularly suited to the development of a Web-based economy, and that he expected the country’s Web economy to surpass that of many Western countries.
February 16 — Kou Shaowei (寇晓伟), a top official in China’s General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) in charge of audiovisual content and Web publishing, said China’s Web-based economy would surpass those of Western countries because of China’s unique cultural characteristics. China’s Web economy was growing rapidly, said Kou, particularly in the areas of SMS messaging and online games. China’s online game industry was worth 6.5 billion yuan (US$830 million) in 2006, he said, up 73.5 percent on the previous year and substantially surpassing estimates. Resorting to broad cultural generalizations (China versus “the West”) rather than demographic or market research data, the deputy minister said that when “compared with countries in the West, China’s situation is rather particular”. “When assessing the development of China’s Web, we cannot use viewpoints inherent to the West. I believe China’s Web-based economy will surpass those of many Western countries in both scale and speed”, Kou said.
February 16 — Urban myth cooked up by attention-seeking commercial media or news story in the public interest? … Law enforcement authorities in Guangzhou said at a press conference that a “thorough investigation” had found no evidence to support rumors that criminals might be using an anesthetic solution, or “daze drug”, to disarm victims in the city. Nevertheless, Guangzhou media persisted in reporting the “daze drug” story, and it continued to gain national attention through popular Web portals like Sina.com.

February 16 — Is it an urban myth cooked up by attention-seeking commercial media or a news story in the public interest? … Two days ago law enforcement authorities in Guangzhou said at a press conference that a “thorough investigation” had found no evidence to support rumors that criminals might be using an anesthetic solution, or “daze drug”, to disarm victims in the city. Nevertheless, Guangzhou media persisted in reporting the “daze drug” story today, and it continued to gain national attention through popular Web portals like Sina.com. [BELOW: Screenshot of special coverage of the “daze drug” story at Sina.com, beneath today’s story from Guangzhou’s New Express].

It was the latest installment in an ongoing war of words between Guangzhou law enforcement authorities and local media, who have faced numerous accusations lately of building up stories to drive up circulation. Back in January, Guangzhou’s top law-enforcement official, Zhang Guifang (张桂芳), blamed media for the worsening sense of public safety in the city.
News reports alleging attacks using “daze drugs” began surfacing in Guangzhou in September last year, creating concern among city residents, according to a report yesterday in Guangdong’s official Nanfang Daily.
One of the most controversial news reports at the time came from Guangzhou’s New Express, a popular commercial newspaper, which sent reporters out on the street to purchase “daze drugs”. According to their story, the reporters conducted an experiment with a white rat on site after purchasing a spray solution. The rat reportedly went unconscious as a result. The news report generated considerable interest in Guangzhou.
Nanfang Daily reported yesterday that police had carried out laboratory analysis of samples of an alleged “daze drug” and found ingredients ranging from ammonia water and menthol to camphor, but had found no chemicals capable of “controlling human thought or movement”.
The New Express was not convinced. In a report today, the paper re-visited the question and defended local media reports, speaking with Guangzhou residents and the reporters responsible for the above-mentioned story.
Mrs. Wang, a reader [of the New Express] who lives on Chebo Road called into the newsroom and said that in the last two years the public safety situation in Guangzhou has turned around a bit. The hard work of the police is to credit for this, but the investigations of the media are also inseparable. It’s because of media reports that a number of terrible cases and new types of cases have gotten widespread attention, causing the police to apply their strength. The “daze drug” issue is one example, and [she] hoped our newspaper would continue to report on crime problems.
The paper also offered testimony from a Ms. Luo, who claimed to have been the victim of a “daze drug” attack:
She said yesterday to this reporter that the last time she spoke to police was when they paid her a visit on September 6 [last year], and that no-one has sought her out since. Nor had she received any final word or response from the police. “I’ve never once changed my story. What I told the police was the same thing I told the press,” said Ms. Luo. “I am not lying. But no one has been reasonable with me”.
The article quoted one of the New Express reporters on the original “daze drug” story, curiously choosing to protect their identity:
“Now the police are saying ‘daze drugs’ don’t exist. As one of the original reporters on the undercover story, I can say we’re really happy. Because our intention in doing the report was to call police attention to this problem. We achieved our objective in looking into the so-called ‘daze drugs’ bandied about on the Web … But we’re also not convinced. Why were the explanations of criminals in the [police] case so different from the facts we uncovered in our investigation?”
MORE SOURCES (Chinese):
[Special page on “daze drugs” at Sohu.com]
[“Do ‘daze drugs’ daze you? Not true!“, Guangzhou Daily, February 15, 2007]
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 16, 2007, 6:55pm]

A top official from China’s official agency in charge of press and publishing suggested in an interview with the overseas edition of China’s official People’s Daily that China’s unique cultural character made it particularly suited to the development of a Web-based economy, and that he expected the country’s Web economy to surpass that of many Western countries. [BELOW: Screenshot of coverage of GAPP officials statements via Sohu.com].

Kou Shaowei (寇晓伟), a top official in China’s General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) in charge of audiovisual content and Web publishing, said China’s Web-based economy was growing rapidly, particularly in the areas of SMS messaging and online games. China’s online game industry was worth 6.5 billion yuan (US$830 million) in 2006, he said, up 73.5 percent on the previous year and substantially surpassing estimates. “In terms of software development, we still lag behind other countries, but when you talk about the new levels of business at online game companies in China, many Western colleagues voice their admiration,” said Kou.
But some of the deputy minister’s statements concerning the reasons for China’s success bore overtones of cultural nationalism, or what has in China been termed “cultural subjectivity” (文化主题性).
The debate over cultural nationalism has found some limited following in China in recent years, and was evidenced in 2006 by an open letter issued by 10 Chinese graduate students on the Internet urging action to limit Christmas celebrations in China on the grounds that these endangered China’s “cultural subjectivity”。 [Zhao Mu blog on students open letter]. [Leeman, Lee and Xu lawfirm blog on open letter]. [Washington Post coverage of open letter].
Resorting to broad cultural generalizations (China versus “the West”) rather than demographic or market research data, the deputy minister said that when “compared with countries in the West, China’s situation is rather particular”:
When assessing the development of China’s Web, we cannot use viewpoints inherent to the West. I believe China’s Web-based economy will surpass those of many Western countries in both scale and speed. This owes to the particulars of the Web and the consumption habits of Chinese. The characteristics of the Web are rapid transmission, strong interactivity, and massive information capacity. In an increasingly open world, the Web’s utility is major. The Chinese people, moreover, enjoy public discourse and are eager to join in the excitement. With this kind of cultural background, the Web industry will develop as the Web suits the consumption habits of the Chinese.
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 16, 2007, 11:20am]

Responding to a recent speech by Hu Guohua, Guangdong’s deputy propaganda minister, in which the official talked about news control and the role of mass media, Dahe Daily, a commercial newspaper in Henan Province, said in a commentary last week that “smearing the media has become a tool” some officials use to stave off monitoring from the press.
Prior to Hu Guohua’s speech last week, in which he intimated propaganda officials would have to move away from a model of arbitrary censorship bowing to demands from local party officials, the media, particularly in Guangdong province, had been targeted on several occasions. In mid-January a top law-enforcement official in Guangzhou blamed media for a worsening sense of public safety. Just days before Hu’s speech, officials in Guangdong said media shared responsibility for public concerns about food safety.
The Dahe Daily commentary follows:
Someone in Guangdong’s Ministry of Public Security said [recently] that the serious public safety situation in Guangdong was related to negative reports by the media. But Hu Guohua, deputy to the People’s Congress and the vice minister of the propaganda department in Guangdong, said [in a speech several days ago] that the rise in the number of criminal cases is natural [given economic growth] and should be related [instead] to economic and social development, and not to journalists. From the point of view of management of the media, [Hu said, media should be treated well, used well and managed well. Managing media does not mean not allowing them to report anything (February 7, Southern Metropolis Daily).
These words by Hu Guohua are probably the most touching I have ever heard in my five years working as a journalist.
When I was choosing my undergraduate major, my father told me the only way to avoid being insulted and bullied was to become a government official, a journalist or a lawyer. Although this advice may not accurately sum up the real situation in contemporary Chinese society, it does accurately express the social situation as seen through the eyes of one peasant. Four years later I was a reporter. The first news story I did was to make records of ]the life of] people who survived by scavenging at two large dumps. They lived there with their children and even naturally formed social groups. I spent about two weeks going to the dumping grounds and spending the days with them. Sometimes I helped them out to break down the hostility they felt toward me.
In that period, I lived the life of a beggar … But I noticed the smearing of journalists was becoming more and more common. Public security takes a turn for the worse and reporters are blamed. Explosions cause deaths at coalmines, and while the issue of illegal mining is glossed over, journalists are defamed for their intention to extort money.
Out of self-defense, smearing the image of reporters has become a tool for some departments and professions that are sensitive [to investigation]. These actions [to smear the media] seek to limit the media’s monitoring function so [these people] can cover up their dereliction of duty. They think that by shutting the mouths of reporters they can shirk their responsibility. Clearly, faced with intelligent and open-minded officials like Li Yizhong, Zhu Xiaodan and Hu Guohua, their attempts can’t have quite the effect they desired.
[Posted by Brian Chan, February 15, 2007, 11:35am]

February 14 — China’s most controversial expert on human sexuality, Li Yinhe (李银河), is once again the focus of news and commentary in China following allegations on her personal Weblog last week that officials have warned her to keep quiet. [BELOW: Screenshot of February 8 entry from Li Yinhe’s Weblog alleging pressure from officials to “shut up”].

In a February 8 posting on her personal blog, Li Yinhe, a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), wrote that leaders were pressuring her to “shut up”. In the near future, she said, she would “accept fewer interviews with reporters” and “make fewer comments about sex”. “Right now”, Li wrote, “I am faced with this decision: I am under pressure from officials ‘who are not ordinary people’. [They say] they hope I will keep my mouth shut”.
A commentary in Monday’s Southern Metropolis Daily, and excerpted in today’s Chongqing Morning Post, said the silencing of Li Yinhe posed a threat to the speech freedoms of all those who criticize her views, not to mention those who support them:
Clearly, if Li Yinhe’s voice can be so easily suppressed then the interests and right to speak of all those who curse her [for her views] will be difficult to safeguard, and the voices they wish to hear might suffer similarly.
Protecting freedom of expression necessarily means we will have to hear some voices we don’t particularly like. This is a necessary price to be paid for freedom. If we must choose between “hearing both those voices we like and those we don’t” and “hearing absolutely nothing”, we should opt for the former.
An editorial from Li Rui (李辉) in yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily offered a slightly different view to the spirited defense of speech freedoms voiced the day before. Countering Li Yinhe’s point that her statements about sex were not political, and therefore not threatening, the editorial expressed intellectual sympathy with officials who might find Li Yinhe’s views politically provocative:
Surely, Li Yinhe’s sex topics are not [overtly] political topics. But this does not mean they do not have political significance. As a disciple of [Michel] Foucault, Li Yinhe most certainly understands the political significance of “sex”. For her to say such a thing is naturally a deceit with which to protect her freedom to express her views … So, for those [officials] “who are not ordinary people”, they cannot possibly tolerate tolerance toward Li Yinhe and her freedom to express herself.
An editorial in yesterday’s Information Times firmly defended Li Yinhe’s right to speak her mind, and said a multiplicity of voices was a sign of a “healthy, scientific and rational” society of citizens:
In the eyes of some, Li Yinhe is the epitome of “different”. Particularly concerning some of her statements about sex, there are some people who simply find her shocking and hard to accept. But regardless of whether you understand Li Yinhe, or see her as a freak, no one has the right to shut her up. No one can, through whatever means, deny her right to speak.
In a healthy, scientific and rational citizens society and public space, various kinds of advance guard speech should be tolerated. The expression of different voices not only benefits a balanced ‘opinion environment’ but these competing points of view will bring about social debate at all levels and will be beneficial in promoting deliberation in society generally. They will also be beneficial in fostering civic rationalism, helping to build consensus through debate …
A February 12 editorial in Shanghai’s Oriental Daily argued for greater tolerance for diverse voices in Chinese society, including ones many people may find offensive:
The expression of different voices not only benefits the ‘opinion environment’, but these voices and viewpoints and the discussions they prompt are beneficial to clearing up our ideas that seem right but are actually wrong. People at all levels [of society] can reach a common understanding through the sharing of opinions.
The editorial related Li Yinhe’s “right” to speak her mind to the constitutionally guaranteed right [Chapter II, Article 5] of every Chinese citizen to freedom of expression:
Regarding sensitive topics like sex, whether one tends to conservatism or advocates personal free license, so long as it falls within the law, no-one, including myself or Li Yinhe, has the right to ‘give the final word’. You can disagree with Li Yinhe’s viewpoints, but you have to admit that her views have aroused a great number of citizens. Li Yinhe’s right to speak her views are actually the same thing as every citizen’s right to speak his or her views.
[Posted by David Bandurski, February 14, 2007, 3:35pm]