Last July media consumers in China were chilled by news of the brutal murder of 10 people in a Taoist temple in northwest China’s Shaanxi province. In the days that followed, the manhunt centered on Qiu Xinghua [Baidu Image], a 47 year-old Shaanxi resident who eventually confessed. On October 19, in a trial watched closely across China, Shaanxi’s Ankang Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Qiu Xinghua to death.
The case was far from over. Qiu’s defense attorney, Zhang Yong (张桦), filed an appeal in October, and the trial resumed on December 8 in Shaanxi’s Ankang Railway Transport Court. Zhang Yong submitted evidence from Qiu Xinghua’s local village committee testifying that he had a history of mental illness, but the court rejected the lawyer’s motion to submit his defendent for psychological evaluation.
Since December 10 haggling over legal procedure in the Qiu Xinghua case has gone public with a controversial open letter [Chinese here] from five prominent legal scholars, including Peking University’s He Weifang (贺卫方). The letter calls on the appeals court in Shaanxi to conduct a psychological evaluation of Qiu Xinhua based on Article 18 of China’s Criminal Law, which says “a mentally ill person who causes dangerous consequences at a time when he is unable to recognize or unable to control his own conduct is not to bear criminal responsibility after being established through accreditation of legal procedures.”
The drafters of the letter have said their concern lies not so much with the “Temple Killer” case itself as with the question of legal procedure in China.
There have been a number of similar public appeals from academics, journalists and citizens in recent years, often through open letters circulated via the Internet or newspaper editorials. As they spark debate on various social or policy issues (such as the proposed emergency management law this summer), they can be seen as a part of a growing climate of public opinion in China — tolerated to varying degrees for varying issues.
The drafters of the October 10 open letter, which was circulated on the Internet, argued that “the matter has already come to its final juncture”. “The case is already on appeal, and if other actions are not taken, Qiu Xinghua will sentenced to death. By using the form of an open letter we hope to draw the attention of the court and society”, said He Bin, a professor at China University of Politics and Law and another drafter of the open letter.
The letter said that following media coverage of the case “a number of psychological experts believed Qiu Xinghua might have a psychological condition as evidenced from a number of his behaviors …”
In a November 30 article in Southern Weekend psychology expert Liu Xiwei (刘锡伟) raised concerns that Qiu Xinghua might be mentally ill, a defense his lawyer had not explored during the original trial. Some opponents of psychological evaluation in the “Temple Killer” case point to the fact that Qiu Xinghua said during trial that he was not mentally ill. Other experts have countered that such a self determination of mental fitness does not provide legal certainty. As Renmin University of China professor Chen Weidong (陈卫东) put it to Legal Daily: “Someone who is truly ill more often than not believes he has no problem”.
An article in yesterday’s Beijing Morning Post headlined “Open letter from 5 legal scholars invites controversy”, quoted another Renmin University professor, Yang Jianxun (杨建顺), as saying he felt the use of an open letter was inappropriate. “I understand the sense of public welfare among these legal scholars, but I personally think its improper to use the method of an open letter”, said Yang. “Using an open letter is really leveraging public opinion (社会舆论) to put pressure on the court, using the power of the media to influence the judicial process. This is incommensurate with the ‘judicial independence’ we’ve been promoting.” Professor Yang suggested that a more appropriate action would be submitting a letter of legal opinion (法律意见书).
One of the letter’s five assignees, He Bin, countered: “Of course scholars can openly offer their opinions on cases that are currently being tried. Independence of the courts doesn’t mean that the people can’t express their opinions. The most important sense of judicial independence is that society be allowed to monitor [the actions of the courts] (社会监督)”.
In China judicial independence is a chronic issue. Official interference in court decisions is common, proceedings are generally not open to the public, and there are no peer juries for criminal cases [Click here for information on “people’s assessors”].
An editorial in yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily supported the drafters of the open letter, saying it was the duty of court prosecutors to admit evidence “impartially”, including evidence seemingly beneficial todefendants in criminal cases.
“According to homegrown, popular notions of justice it is a divine rule that murder should punished with death. However, when we try capital punishment cases, the point is to break away from barbarous retribution and take a more civilized approach (实现文明),” said the newspaper. “The people of our nation, who have set off on the road to rule of law, should be more tolerant and open in attitude toward the judicial appraissals [of evidence] in the Qiu Xinghua case and the calls of these legal experts who are sparing no efforts [to ensure a just outcome].”
An editorial in today’s Legal Daily advocated following the suggestion of the legal scholars and conducting a psychological evaluation of Qiu Xinghua to ensure a fair verdict and said such measures to ensure accuracy and fairness were a “touchstone of the humanity and reason of the law”: “Actually, there is a high probability that Qiu Xinghua will face death. And even if [psychological] evaluation does go ahead, there is no reason to believe that [Qiu] will be spared death for psychological reasons. But if this small evaluation is foregone, there’s not even a one-thousandth of one percent chance [that he will be spared]. This tiny supplementary evaluation process is not just a little decision at a fork in the road, it is quite simply the touchstone of the humanity and reason of the law”.
Other links and sources:
[Angola Press (Dec. 14) “Experts call for psychiatric assessment of temple slayer“]
[People’s Daily (Dec. 8) “Chinese court hears appeal of temple slayer“]
[China Daily (Oct. 20) “Shaanxi Temple Axe Murderer Gets Death”]
[Sina.com ENGLISH (Oct. 14) “Trial of accused temple slayer to be televised“]
[ESWN (Aug. 29) “The Psychological File of a Mass Murderer“]
[China Daily (Aug. 8, 2006) “Police Search Mountains for Temple Murder Suspect“]
[BBC Online (oct. 31) “China tightens death penalty law“]
[Posted by David Bandurski, December 14, 2006, 5:15pm]

China brought its growing online music industry under closer strutiny, announcing new regulations calling for tighter control of original, not-for-profit creative works as well as foreign-produced music distributed within China [Coverage at Sina.com].
The announcement of the regulations said written requests must be submitted to the Ministry of Culture for all “imported” music products to be broadcast on the Internet by “Web-based cultural businesses”. Proof of copyright, copies of relevant online licensing agreements and “other documents”, as well as a copy of the music on disk, would be necessary for the approvals process.

Those “making bold” distribute foreign music in China via the Internet and without prior approval from the Ministry of Culture would be punished, said the announcement. [ABOVE: News of the new online music regulations top the headlines at Sina.com this morning.]
Without offering specifics, the announcement also said Web portals and other companies offering online music would be required to “strengthen examination” of not-for-profit music posted by Web users, citing the need for a more “civilized” online culture.
The regulations also ban foreign investment in Internet entertainment companies.
[“China tightens control on ‘network music‘”, People’s Daily Online]
[Posted by David Bandurski, December 12, 2006, 6:37pm]

Chinese media seldomly use the highly sensitive term “human rights” (人权) to talk about China’s own rights issues, but the use of a stand-in term, weiquan (维权), roughly translated “rights protection”, has risen rapidly in recent years as media have turned to such issues as public health, land rights, the rights of migrant workers, etcetera. The rapid climb in use of the term “rights protection” suggests growing attention within China, particularly among commercial media, to a range of issues like those mentioned above as they pertain to citizens’ rights.
Looking at the term “rights protection” as it appears in three party publications and corresponding commercial publications since 2002, the numbers show not only growing attention to rights issues, but also a growing gap between coverage at party and commercial media. In 2002, use of the term was roughly neck-and-neck, with commercial publications accounting for 45 percent of the total. Commercial publications accounted for close to 60 percent of uses last year, and this year 72 percent. There are also marked differences in use of the term between party and commercial publications, a topic for another time.

[Search for the party publications People’s Daily, Nanfang Daily and Sichuan Daily and their corresponding or other regional commercial publications, Jinghua Times, Southern Metropolis Daily and Huaxi Dushibao.]
One focus of the rights protection issue, particularly visible at commercial publications, is the need for specific legal safeguards for citizens’ rights and the need for the government to take a more service-oriented approach to the public, as opposed to a paternal, authoritarian role.
In the following editorial from the Yangcheng Evening News, a Guangzhou-based commercial newspaper, the writer accuses government officials of neglecting citizens’ rights when considering policy measures, pushing off rights protection with a dismissive, “We will take it into consideration”. The editorial is relevant to a number of policies in the news lately, including China’s proposed real-name Web registration system.
The Yangcheng Evening News editorial follows:
“When things are “taken into consideration” and not guaranteed in law this is a “neglect” of rights”
Yangcheng Evening News
December 9, 2006

Government offices, when faced with public opinion, are particularly fond of saying, “We’ll take it into consideration”. For them to say this is to shove their own obligations onto the people. When [the people’s] responsibilities are clearly documented, but their rights and benefits are stuck at the point of “being considered”, where do we stand?
[China’s] personal income tax declaration system is right around the corner.. Because this system puts the onus largely on the citizens themselves, the government is promoting the system actively to the population. Wang Jiping (王纪平), director of the Beijing Municipal Tax Bureau revealed [recently] that when they assess personal income tax they will take into consideration the taxpayer’s overall family income (12/7/2006 The Beijing News). In the example of a family of four, in which the two elderly parents do not have incomes, the grandson is in college and the father makes just over the assessable minimum of 1,600 yuan, because the family’s overall income is low, the tax bureau will take into consideration not charging tax, making sure the end result is fair.
For tax assessors to assess tax on the basis of overall household income is of course much fairer than the current system . . . By all appearances, the tax authorities wish to show with this [idea of] “[we] will take overall household income into consideration” that the personal income tax assessment process is ethical and legal. The secret script here is: you guys [the citizens] take the lead in filing your taxes and the tax bureau will take into consideration your overall household income. To tell the truth, I object to the government occupying a commanding position and setting its own rules with this “we will take it into consideration”. On what basis is the public to believe that you will “take it into consideration”? Rights and benefits must be made clear in articles of law before anything can be anticipated.
Recently more than a few government departments, when faced with public opinion, have grown fond of saying “we’ll take it into consideration”. Take the real-name Web registration system for example. Faced with concerns that the public registering their real names might constitute a violation of their privacy, the relevant offices responded [that they] “would take protection of privacy into consideration when implementing [the system]”. To offer another example, as many areas installed close-circuit surveillance in public places [in recent years] no prior measures were taken to protect personal privacy. The answer from relevant government offices was again, “we’ll take it into consideration”. In levying fuel surcharges, the Civil Aviation Administration said it would take into consideration the public’s ability to support them. When water prices in Beijing were to go up, it was said that the needs of the poor would be taken into consideration. During breeze sessions for various price increases the Development Reform Commission also said that next year price increases for various energy products would not come all at once, that price adjustment proposals would take into consideration the ability of the people to support them.
The popularity of “we will take it into consideration” among government offices underscores the weak standing of public rights. All of these things the government says it will “take into consideration” are rights the public should by law enjoy — like privacy under a real-name registration system, like privacy under camera surveillance, or the right to survival under increases in public commodity prices, etcetera. When things are to be “taken into consideration” by government authorities, this signals that rights lack specific institutional and legal protection, that officials are free to handle things as they please, and [we are simply to] trust that good and just officials will “take the rights of the public into consideration”. But how exactly will those officials with a hold on power take things into consideration? Fuel prices have gone up repeatedly, water prices are going up everywhere, and news of rising energy prices is everywhere too – have these officials really taken into consideration the public’s ability to support these? We can’t depend on officials to take things into consideration. Rights and fairness must be realized through means visible to us all, particularly the law.
When many government offices say to the people, “We will take it into consideration”, this is shrugging off their duty. For them to say, for example, that they “will take into consideration the total household income of the taxpayer”, this means the onus is entirely on the public in declaring their personal tax; when they say they will “take personal privacy into consideration”, this means the onus is on the public to be monitored by cameras. [But when] the responsibilities [of the citiznes] are written out clearly, and it is left to officials to “take into consideration” our rights, this is unfair. Actually, rights and obligations should both be written equally onto paper. We can’t set rights aside in the unreliable realm of that which is to be “taken into consideration”. In creating real-name Web registration or public camera surveillance regulations, it should be laid out clear in the regulations themselves how exactly the public’s right to privacy is to be protected. Only when privacy is protected does real-name registration constitute a just obligation. When personal income tax is assessed and the total household income of the taxpayer is taken into consideration, rights should be balanced by a system and should not be up to the consideration of government offices and those carrying out the process. It should be the same way with price increases for various public commodities, and the public should stand up and appeal directly for their rights when faced with price increases. They should not wait idly for others to “take things into consideration”.
[Posted by David Bandurski, December 12, 2006, 1:17pm]

AFP reported today that China has close to 20 million bloggers. Right now, most are anonymous, their real identities protected, and many argue that in China, where speech freedoms are not protected despite a constitutional guarantee of “freedom of expression” (言论自由), this is a basic condition of vitality on the Chinese Internet. A real-name Web registration system reportedly being ironed out at the Internet Society of China in the name of social “responsibility” could change all that.
Yesterday, CMP translated an article from China Youth Daily arguing against China’s proposed real-name Web registration system on the grounds of the practical challenges it posed to protection of personal information as well as infringement of freedom of expression. The day after the China Youth Daily editorial, an argument from the opposite side appeared in the Liberation Daily. Written by Yin Xiaohu (殷啸虎), director of the Center for Politics and Law Research at East China University of Politics and Law, it largely parrots the “responsibility” argument of the pro-registration camp, drumming home the point that the right to freedom of expression is by its very nature conditional.
Like much of the language arguing in favor of a real-name registration system for the Internet, the Liberation Daily editorial sticks principally to theoretical issues and avoids discussion of practical problems, such as who ensures the personal information of Web users is not pilfered under a system of forced registration, and how. De-contextualizing comments on freedom of expression from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and F.A. Hayek, it attempts to build a theoretical argument for limiting free expression on the Web in China. Once this argument is made, it is more or less taken for granted that the real-name Web registration system is the best tool for the job.
The purported quote from Holmes is used to make the point that even in America the right to expression is not absolute. The quote in Chinese, which CMP has not translated (nor found an appropriate English original) is as follows:
“就像其他权利一样，关于言论出版自由的权利是有限制的，就是说，它的自由行使意味着一个有组织的社会的存在，一种公共秩序的存在，没有这种秩序，自由就会被滥用，或者丧失殆尽.”
It should be remembered that it was Holmes who created the libertarian test for free speech, saying it should be curtailed only in cases where there was a “clear and present danger” to society: “The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.” (Schenck v. United States).
We have also from Holmes: “Only the emergency that makes it immediately dangerous to leave the correction of evil counsels to time warrants making any exception to the sweeping command, ‘Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.'” (Abrams et al. v United States).
The Liberation Daily editorial follows:
“Does the ‘real-name Web registration system’ contravene the principle of free expression?”
Liberation Daily
December 4, 2006
Yin Xiaohu (殷啸虎), Director of the Center for Politics and Law Research at East China University of Politics and Law
Question from Crystalsmile, a Web user on Dongfang Online: “From online forums requiring real-name registration to Web bars requiring real-name registration to go online, to more recent news that a real-name registration system will be implemented for ‘blogs’ as well, China’s Internet seems to be facing ever greater pressure from real-name registration. The goal of the ‘real-name registration system’ is to supervise and urge self regulation of speech by Web users. But ordinary Web users like us are still a bit worried about whether the so-called ‘real-name registration system’ is necessary and whether it violates the principle of freedom of expression (言论自由)?”
. . . To answer this question we must first be clear about what freedom of expression means. It essentially includes three important factors: first of all, that citizens have the right to use language and other relevant means [of expression] to express their ideas and views; [secondly,] that citizens are free to remain silent in public or specially designated places (特定场合), that is the freedom “not to speak”; [lastly,] that citizens have the duty and the ability to take responsibility for their own language.
In the past when we’ve talked about freedom of expression, we’ve largely laid emphasis on the rights of citizens and overlooked the responsibilities of the citizen in this regard. Actually, freedom doesn’t just mean that a person has choices and bears principle responsibility for these choices, but also means that they must bear responsibility for [the consequences of] the choices they make. The famous social theorist [Friedrick A.] Hayek once said [translated directly from Chinese]: “An age convicted about personal freedoms, is also thoroughly an age that upholds personal responsibility”. [NOTE: Hayek did say that: “Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive praise or blame for them. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable. A free society will not function or maintain itself unless its members regard it as right that each individual occupy the position that results from his actions and accept it as due to his own action…. “].
… As a fundamental right of citizens, freedom of expression has the special character of not being subject to encroachment. But as we make sure the fundamental rights of citizens are not intruded upon we must also admit the conditionality of these fundamental rights. Marx once said [translated directly from Chinese]: “Freedom is the right to participate in activities that do not do harm to others.” The lines of all actions that do not do harm to others are determined by the law, just as boundaries on the earth are determined by boundary markers.
From the standpoint of constitutional law, this conditionality includes both intrinsic and extrinsic aspects. Intrinsic conditionality refers to restrictions on rights that come as a matter of course with rights themselves, limitations that reside within the rights themselves. The right by its own virtue assumes the limitation that the right cannot be exercised in such a way as to intrude on or do harm to the rights of others – this is the intrinsic conditionality of rights. This is to say, the exercising [of one’s personal] rights, must not constitute an infringement of the privacy, dignity or other freedoms or rights of another. It goes without saying that this is a conditionality that naturally accompanies freedom of expression as a right. Extrinsic conditionality is imposed from the outside, those restrictions allowed according to the objectives of the constitution. Restrictions of this kind are based on both the modern constitution and the notion of public benefit … and can be called the “conditionality of (public) policy”. Therefore, the personal rights of citizens must submit to the good of the country, society and the collective. When citizens exercise their rights and freedoms, they must not do harm to the legal rights of other citizens.
Once we understand what is meant by citizens’ freedom of expression, we discover that it is actually erroneous to regard the real-name Web registration system as a contravention of the principle of freedom of expression.
First of all, freedom of expression is, in and of itself, limited. Freedom of expression must always be accompanied by responsibility. Online posting, discussions and public diaries cannot be exempted [from this rule]. The [current] anonymous system of the Web means avoiding responsibility while exercising one’s rights. Implementing a real-name system, on the other hand, means a more reasonable marriage of the exercise of rights and the assuming of responsibility, and this means better ensuring the exercise of citizens’ freedom of expression. The Internet is a public platform, not a personal space. On this platform anyone can enjoy the public resources provided by the Web and express their own views publicly. But because this is a public platform, [users] must respect public rules and receive monitoring from the public – these are necessary if rights are to be equal. Lastly, the connection between rights and responsibility means that while protecting citizens’ rights we must not intrude upon the good of the nation and society, or the rights of other citizens. The rights and freedoms guaranteed in the [Chinese] constitution are rights and freedoms belonging to all citizens, not the rights and freedoms of any particular person …
Among the reasons for opposing a “real-name Web registration system” one finds a popular view that holds that everyone needs a true self and a virtual self. In the virtual world of the Web, we can say what we please and be ourselves. Perhaps we don’t need the law to regulate the “virtual world”, but the problem is that none of us can be sure that what we are talking about on the Web is purely virtual. It might in fact be exactly the opposite, people online using virtual identities and holding “real” discussions, criticizing actual things or people. In such a situation, using a public regulation to create boundaries for speech behavior on the Web is commensurate with the demands of society and the law.
The Web has provided a platform for citizens to exercise their right to freedom of expression. But it is a public platform, and so naturally it needs a definite public policy to keep it within bounds. As a routine management measure of modern public administration with few side effects, a “real-name Web registration system” is a necessary and reasonable limitation on actual exercise of freedom of expression, and does not violate the principle of freedom of expression …

[Posted by David Bandurski, December 7, 2006, 5:30pm]]

On November 28 the chairman of the Internet Society of China said China was in the process of exploring and testing a system of “limited real-name registration” for the Internet capable of “balancing personal privacy, the public good and the national interests”. The announcement was an attempt to calm controversy over a proposed system many Web users feer could destroy the vitality of the Chinese Internet and trample the limited but growing speech freedoms online platforms provide in China, where the very idea of personal expression in a public forum is in its infancy.
This weekend, an editorial in China Youth Daily, a newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Youth League, said the debate over the proposed real-name Web registration system in China, while “animated”, had shown an unprecedented degree of civility, with emotions less prominent and more “reasoned criticisms approaching [the question] from a technological standpoint”. There is no clear indication yet as to whether the debate happening in traditional media and online will forestall or otherwise impact the registration system, but the frankness of the debate could itself be read as encouraging.
The China Youth Daily editorial is translated in full below:
“Real-name Web Registration System Should Go Forward Only With Extreme Caution”
China Youth Daily
December 3, 2006
Recently the Internet Society of China has proposed trying out a limited real-name registration system for the Web, so that when a user registers their account with a blog or bulletin board (BBS) site, they must provide their identity card, other necessary documents, their real surname, etc. But when they are onstage (在前台) they may use whatever name pleases them. This proposal has brought animated discussion from a number of quarters.
The real-name Internet registration system first became a hot topic in 2003 after a conversation involving Tsinghua University professor Li Xiguang was leaked, in which he advised the People’s Congress to prohibit anonymity online and roll out an Internet real-name registration system. At the time this proposition was strongly opposed by the vast majority of Web users. In recent years, as space on the Web and the population of Internet users has grown by leaps and bounds, the role of the Web in [China’s] daily work culture has become more obvious by the day. A number of things have also smeared the Web and had an increasingly negative impact — for example, insults and attacks appearing on a number of Web forums and blogs, pornographic materials hidden on personal Websites, etc. Given this situation and in the name of better regulating behavior on the Internet, the [idea of] a real-name registration for the Internet has floated to the surface again. Like before, [differing views on this issue] are at a deadlock. But what is different now is that the debate is so hot it burns one’s brain. Still, emotions are less a factor, and more people are offering reasoned criticisms approaching [the question] from a technological standpoint.
Lately, the Internet has entered a period of rapid growth. If the rules for the Internet are changed suddenly, this might actually worsen the situation. It can be said that the original beauty of the Internet lies in its anonymity. “Online, no one knows that you’re a dog”, “small dogs can bark as loudly as big ones” — these basic principles of the Web are the source of its vitality. They safeguard its vital force. But [the idea of] “anonymity onstage, true identity offstage”, while it may seem to allow Web users to avoid facing most people [online] using their own identities, [while it may seem] to preserve their freedom to write, actually means that at no time and in no place will they be free of scrutiny from a set of strange eyes. This [real-name registration] means essentially that the virtual world is dragged into the real world, and Web users forfeit the possibility of flying freely. What’s more, the creative potential of the Internet and the thirst to express oneself are both thrown into question.
If a real-name registration system for the Web is now implemented, and Web users must register in blogs and online forums, offering up their actual identity card numbers, surnames, addresses and other information, how is their safety to be ensured? Currently, there are more than 100,000 Websites available to the [Chinese] people. How will the government carry out its oversight of this vast group? And what government office is going to take responsibility in the event the personal information of Web users is compromised? We already have real examples of this in cases where Websites have sold the personal information of users for profit, doing damage to users’ legal rights. Because of the loss of personal information, people are now routinely pestered by commercial businesses [spam], their personal accounts plundered, the information on their computers pilfered, their personal privacy thrown to the winds – the problems are numerous. Considering the current state of the Internet and the management capacity of relevant [government] authorities, it would be difficult to avoid the abovementioned conditions [should a real-name system be put in place]. The plug all of the loopholes, moreover, would require significant resources and a great deal of time.
Aside from these [considerations], what is to ensure that once the Internet real-name registration system is put in place and the official notice sent out people will register their identities according to regulations? If [the system] doesn’t mean people have to go out and register in person, then what’s to prevent Zhang Three from using Li Four’s name to register? In today’s world, where honesty is not in plentiful supply, I’m afraid a real-name Internet registration system will descend into [worthless] formalities. And if registering for Web use requires us to register in the same way as we would to open bank accounts, well then how much more does that ratchet up the superfluous costs [of such a system]?
Summing up various opinions [on the topic] we can come to a conclusion about the long-term development of the Internet: before we are able to adequately eliminate the negative affects the real-name registration is likely to bring, the real-name Internet registration system can only go forward with great caution. Well then, can we think in some other way about how to address the original intention of better regulating Internet culture? Researching the current state of the Internet, we find that the vast majority of those expressing themselves through blogs or online forums are basically conducting themselves in a civil and ethical manner. They go online in order to get information, interact with their friends, come into contact with ideas, and to varying degrees they are able to find what they’re looking for. Only a very few people issue verbal attacks, or physical threats. But even this has to be looked at from two aspects. [First of all] if language of this kind is limited, then in the short term it does not pose serious spiritual [psychological] harm or have widespread impact – well then, let’s leave that issue to the Website operators and Web authorities (网管). [Secondly] if their language has already transgressed the limits of the law, endangering personal rights or social stability, then using technology already at hand, law enforcement authorities have sufficient means at their disposal to weed out these harmful elements and deal with them according to the law. That is to say, promoting [the idea of] taking responsibility for one’s language and ensuring order on the Web can be thoroughly accomplished through other technological means. It’s not necessarily the case that we must use the double-edge sword of a real-name Web registration system.
[Posted by David Bandurski, December 6, 2006, 1:07pm]

Signaling the birth of a new media policy buzzword, Politburo member Li Changchun, Hu Jintao’s top propaganda official, told a gathering of propaganda ministers over the weekend that China had to “strongly promote the building of harmonious culture” in order to create the proper ideological environment for the building of a Socialist Harmonious Society (社会主义和谐社会).
In 2002 it was Li Changchun who ushered in another of Hu’s media policy buzzwords, the “Three Closenesses”, which outlined a vision for savier, more approachable media products in China and a toning down of official rhetoric.
Introducing the term “harmonious culture”, which invokes Hu Jintao’s broader social policy of creating a “harmonious society”, is likely an attempt by top leadership to integrate and streamline its ideological positions on a range of domestic and foreign policies (“harmonious world”). The term encompasses another of Hu Jintao’s recent creations in the cultural sphere, the theory of “socialist honor and disgrace” (or “eight honors and eight disgraces”), a campaign of moral rectification setting out to raise the overall behavior of people at all levels of Chinese society. Some have said the “honor and disgrace” theory was created to mollify Leftist elements within the Party who have spoken out against the excesses brought on by China’s commercialization drive.
The rise of the “building harmonious culture” terminology can be seen clearly in the rapid increase in use of the term since the recent National CPC Congress:

[SOURCE: WiseNews Database, including 120 mainland Chinese newspapers]
The term, which does not appear until September 1, 2005, in an article in Henan Daily, Henan province’s official party mouthpiece, appears in just 8 articles in Q2 2006, but rises to 57 articles in Q3. In the current (incomplete) quarter, from October 1 to December 5, there are 1,032 articles in mainland newspapers using the term “building harmonious culture”.
The idea of a “harmonious culture” might be seen as the latest attempt to combine the media commercialization strain of the earlier “Three Closenesses” policy with the social harmony theme of the “harmonious society” and “honor and disgrace”.
Li Changchun made it clear in his speech that media control would remain the centerpiece of party media policy. He emphasized that propaganda leaders must “work hard to raise [the party’s] ability to guide public opinion, creating a postitive and healthy opinion environment”.
[Posted by David Bandurski, December 5, 2006, 1:20pm]

November 28 — A court ruling in what has been called “China’s first court case against a Chinese Weblog” held that popular Chinese blog portal blogcn.com must post an apology to Professor Chen Tangfa (陈堂发) on its homepage for 10 days, and compensate the academic to the tune of 1,000 yuan (US$120). Professor Chen sued the blog portal after colleagues alerted him to personal attacks against him that had been posted on the site in September 2005. Chen initially asked the operator of blogcn.com, Hangzhou Blog Information Technology Co. Ltd (HBIT), to delete the posting, but the company reportedly refused. A December 3 article in Guangming Daily, a newspaper run by China’s central propaganda authorities, hailed the court’s decision as a victory in the upholding of citizens’ rights (维权). [Chinese coverage here].
November 28 — According to a report by the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL), the number of internet users in China had reached 123 million by mid-year 2006. Of these users, roughly 15 percent were under 18. A CCYL spokesperson said it was a positive sign for creative talent for Chinese youth to be taking enthusiastically to the Internet, but stressed that the problem of Internet addiction among youth in China was also a serious social issue. According to a related Chinese study, about 17 percent of Internet users between the age of 13 and 17 show signs of Internet addiction. The vice-minister of China’s publishing industry overseer, the General Administration of Press and Publications, announced last July that “anti-gaming addiction systems” had been successfully tested on such popular online games as “Legends” and said the system would be rolled out nationally. Development of the “anti-gaming addiction system” was completed in September 2005. The principal idea behind the system is that an individual player’s ability to play is automatically inhibited once a certain length of play has been reached.
November 29 — The chairman of the Internet Society of China said China is exploring and progressively trying out a system of “limited real-name registration” for the Internet capable of “balancing personal privacy, the public good and the national interests”, Chinanews.com reported. But it was not clear from Chinese media reports how this newly announced approach to the proposed real-name registration system differs, if at all, from previous proposals.
December 1 — In a sign of increasing openness on the issue of Aids in China, Chinese media offered a variety of coverage to commemorate World Aids Day. China’s own battle with Aids began to attract international attention in late 2000, more than a year after a young Chinese reporter named Zhang Jicheng wrote the first expose on the Aids epidemic in Henan province, the result of illegal blood selling practices in the countryside. Chinese World Aids Day coverage this year underscored sharp differences in treatment between party and commercial newspapers.
December 1 — A journalist was sentened to seven years in prison by a court in Hangzhou for attempting to extort money from companies with the threat of negative news reports. Meng Huaihu (孟怀虎), the former Zhejiang bureau chief for China Commercial Times, a business paper published by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), was convicted for extorting 630,000 yuan from various companies and attempting to extort as much as 3.7 million yuan. [Renmin University Professor Chen Lidan Responds to Problem of News Extortion (Chinese)].
December 1 — Chinese actress Xu Qing dropped a libel suit against Guangdong’s Southern Daily Group, the publisher of Nandu Weekly magazine, and accepted an out-of-court offer by the media group pledging public apologies for an article for which it admitted it “had insufficient support”. Xu Qing filed the lawsuit against Southern Daily Group in Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court in October after Nandu, a magazine spinoff of Southern Daily Group’s Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, ran an article on August 30 about Xu Qing’s relationships with a number of famous personalities. Nanfang Daily Group has issed an apology to readers and to Xu Qing and her father, and Nandu Weekly’s entertainment section has posted an apology on its Website. [Chinese coverage here].

Gone are the days when China could pass World Aids Day with nary a mention of its own struggle against the disease. Seven years after a young Chinese reporter named Zhang Jicheng wrote the first expose on the Aids epidemic in Henan province, the result of illegal blood selling practices in the countryside, China is facing up to its Aids problem in new ways. But there still sharp differences in how the story of World Aids Day is treated in the Chinese media. And once again, the contrasts are most obvious when one sets party and commercial newspapers side by side. [BELOW: World Aids Day image on Page 4 of Southern Metropolis Daily]. [pdf_nanfang-daily-coverage.pdf: On the front page of Nanfang Daily, an Aids photo is hemmed in by official news].

Coverage of World Aids Day was missing today from the front page of People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the central party leadership. Both of the top stories are central party meetings, the first on a forum of top leaders and outside economic experts (attended by Hu Jintao), and the other on population control policy. [BELOW: Today’s front page at People’s Daily].

Coverage did appear on page five, however. The first half of the article follows:
People’s Daily
December 1, 2006, A5
December 1 is “World Aids Day”, with the theme of “Stop Aids. Keep the Promise”, and various places are holding many kinds of publicity events, including some news stories that have received attention and discussion. For example, relevant authorities in Harbin have held a special education program on Aids prevention and promoting the use of condoms for more than 50 women working in entertainment spots [sex workers], and have left a phone number [these women] can contact at any time.
Some people do not understand the work of getting involved with this group of entertainment workers at high-risk for Aids, and believe such methods … amount to [an unacceptable level of] tolerance or even acceptance of the existence of prostitution that might promote bad social practices. Prostitution is not permitted by the laws of our country. Actually, our normal activities in cracking down on prostitution and drug sales and drug use have never ceased. But due to complex social causes, these detestable occurrences can not be eradicated in the short term. A release from the Ministry of Health shows that during the first 10 months of 2006, drug use and sexual conduct were the primary means of [HIV] infection. The number of people infected through sexual conduct is on the rise. Prostitution has already become the primary means of transmission of Aids.
We must admit these facts, and must not, like ostriches, bury our heads in the sand to avoid danger. As we continue to press on to deal with these nagging social problems, we must work along both lines, using the necessary means of prevention to lessen the chance of Aids spreading to those people of dissolute social habits, and doing our utmost to mitigate the dangers to our society. Cutting off the means of Aids transmission can also reduce the enormous costs of treatment, and so this realistic and practical approach should be seen as social progress …

At The Beijing Times, the commercial spinoff of People’s Daily, World Aids Day gets a great big headline on the front page: “Number of People Infected with Aids Up 34% in Capital”. [BELOW: Today’s front page at The Beijing Times].

The Beijing Times gives readers more than three times as much World Aids Day coverage as People’s Daily by word count (8,000). Stories include:
1. A report on the current situation of Aids in Beijing that uses a city health bureau report saying Aids cases were up 34 percent during the first 10 months of 2006.
2. A report about Aids activists and students with Aids in China protesting cases of misuse of World Aids Day’s trademark red ribbon for commercial purposes.
3. A story about a “No condom, no sex” drive in the city of Lanzhou and efforts nationwide to promote condom use among sex workers.
4. A special interview with a World Health Organization official taking part in Aids prevention and condom distribution programs in the city of Lanzhou.
5. Coverage of a recent The Public Library of Science Medicine report which said Aids may become the world’s number three cause of death.
Moving south to Guangdong’s Nanfang Daily, the mouthpiece of top provincial leaders, coverage of World Aids Day does in fact appear on the front page. There are no reports on the front page, but the photo at center is of a baby born in Guangzhou to a mother with Aids (See PDF above).

The photograph refers readers to a larger story on page 3 about the Aids mother and her decision to have a child despite the risks. On the front page, the lead stories deal with economic development. The top story is about a 45 percent increase in patents registered in Guangdong province for the first 10 months of the year. The story to the immediate left of the Aids photograph is a news brief about an “economic work” conference held by top Chinese leaders. The story below that is about US-China trade talks in Beijing. Immediately to the right of the Aids photo is a story about 14.1 percent GDP growth in Guangdong for the first 10 months of 2006. The story below: “9 Provinces Sign Cooperation Agreement to Accelerate Tourism Promotion”.
Page 2 of Nanfang Daily includes an editorial on World Aids Day, “Looking at Aids Prevention with New Concepts”, partially translated here:

Nanfang Daily
December 1, 2006, A2
Today is the 19th “World Aids Day”. This year the theme is: “Stop Aids. Keep the Promise”. While the theme has not changed, a number of new things have appeared – for example, we have moved away from our ignorance of Aids prevention, and people have began to look more openly at Aids and this special group. Of course, the struggle between ignorance and general knowledge goes on as ever in our country, and the outcome of this [struggle] will impact the social management concepts used [in China to combat Aids].
Measured by traditional concepts, the examples below are perhaps rebellions against orthodoxy: On October 11, 50 female sex workers in the city of Harbin received education on Aids prevention and the use of condoms openly and publicly for the first time, making clear their identities and profession; Guangzhou has officially opened a “Work Team for Aids At-risk Groups”, which not only has held more than 30 free Aids education events, giving out more than 30,000 free condoms, but has also offered training to those managing people working in the sex industry (性从业人员的管理者).
[History of illegal blood selling in China and “Aids villages”]
Aids poses a risk to all humankind, and governments bear responsibility for prevention, opening up attitudes, gathering resources and changing management mindsets. First it requires the media disseminating information to the people about Aids and accepting people with Aids. Next it requires creating a comprehensive and efficient national network for monitoring and preventing the illegal selling of blood products. Thirdly, it requires strengthening the system of public monitoring, taking action strictly against blood stations, putting an end to illegal blood selling. Fourth, we must face head on those groups most at risk, using effective means of lowering their risk of contracting Aids. On this “World Aids Day” we need not just to ensure the health of our own bodies, but also need to cure those diseases of thought, using an attitude of light (阳光的态度) to face the risks of the spread of epidemic disease, treating those with Aids and their families with kindness, and in this way building a new social management system appropriate to the situation we face to create warmth for those with Aids and open a new chapter in social health.
Another story on page 3, below the story about the Aids mother, refers to a study of 423 gay men in Guangzhou that found 7 infected with HIV, an infection rate of 1.65 percent. The report said Guangdong province would launch a program of education and free condom distribution among high-risk groups in 2007, including drug users, sex workers, migrant laborers and college students. The report said Guangdong had reported an 8 percent rise in Aids cases during the first 10 months of this year.
At Southern Metropolis Daily, a commercial spinoff of Nanfang Daily much further along the commercial spectrum than The Beijing Times, World Aids Day gets major play, including a prominent image on the front page. Of the first nine pages of the newspaper, five pages focus on Aids and four are advertisements. The newspaper includes a full 25 articles dealing with Aids in nearly all sections of the paper, with a total of nearly 25,000 words of coverage (more than three times that of The Beijing Times).

Southern Metropolis Daily coverage includes editorials, scientific reports on Aids, reports focusing on Aids prevalence among migrants, a feature about a Website for gay men in Guangdong, entertainment coverage about an MTV special on Aids. The newspaper’s editorial on World Aids Day is partially translated below:
Southern Metropolis Daily
December 1, 2006, A2
Today marks the 19th World Aids Day. The theme of 2006 is “responsibility”, and the slogan is: “Stop Aids. Keep the Promise”. From utter ignorance to consciousness marked with looking but not seeing, from discrimination and prejudice to contact and assistance, from cold uncaring to enthusiasm about prevention – as Aids and information about Aids has spread, humanity has at last learned to face Aids head on, taking a proactive approach.
The theme and slogan [of World Aids Day] is full of the spirit of civility, but actually in many ways is merely an ideal. The road to facing Aids head on, to universal knowledge of its prevention, to making prevention and treatment work routine, is still very long. In China the government and the people have only just begun to accept the fact that Aids exists and is spreading. The taking of responsibility, the keeping of promises, everything has just begun.
Our country’s Ministry of Health recently sent out a release saying that up to October 31 this year China has 183,733 cases of Aids. Just five years ago the government was still keeping silent about the Aids situation; three years ago, the Ministry of Health was still not publicizing accurate figures for the number of Aids cases in China; two years ago, media reports on Aids were still frequently being stymied by local governments. Not only have national officials gone themselves to visit Aids villages and care for those infected with Aids, but the “Ordinance of Aids Prevention” was passed earlier this years and took effect in March. As a public health issue Aids has already entered the government agenda with much more fairness …
… Even though China has only recently taken the road to facing Aids head on, even though it is still a long way from the beautiful wish of taking responsibility and keeping the promise, when all is said and done everything [needed to get there] has already begun. Just like that child just born yesterday to a mother with Aids, even though his life is already faced with extraordinary difficulties, we can hope that by the time he has grown up Aids and all of its problems will no longer cast a shadow over his life. In their fight against Aids, China and the world can back out of the lows and begin to move toward the light.

[Posted by David Bandurski, December 1, 2006, 6:20pm]

The chairman of the Internet Society of China said yesterday that China is exploring and progressively trying out a system of “limited real-name registration” for the Internet capable of “balancing personal privacy, the public good and the national interests”, Chinanews.com reported. But it was not clear from Chinese media reports how this newly announced approach to the proposed real-name registration system differs, if at all, from previous proposals.
During yesterday’s “2006 Convention on Promoting Information Technology in China” (二00六中国信息化推进大会), held in Beijing, Hu Qiheng (胡启恒) said: “In the past the recognition of personal privacy has tended toward absolutism. But now not only China but the whole world recognizes that there needs to be a balance between personal privacy and national interests, and we should not make personal privacy absolute”. Hu Qiheng did not specify the particular shifts in global views on privacy to which he was referring.
Addressing the recent wave of public opinion against the proposed blog registration system, Hu Qiheng said China’s “limited” registration system would involve only “backstage” registration (后台实名) – that is to say, users would be required to provide their ID cards and the “necessary documents including their real name” when registering accounts on blog or bulletin board sites (BBS). But when they were “onstage” (前台) users would be free to use whatever aliases they wished. This is unlikely to appease opponents of the real-name registration, many of whom have pointed out that the vitality of China’s Internet and protection of privacy require that users feel their participation is free from government intrusion.
Other Sources:
The Real-Name Blogger Registration System (ESWN)
[Posted by David Bandurski, November 29, 2006, 11:20am]

November 20 [not included in previous almanac] — China’s primary broadcast overseer, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), announced it would tighten controls on so-called “legal programming” (法制节目) in China, a category that deals generally with programs showing law-enforcement activities such as police raids. Programs of this kind (resembling the “COPS” series in the United States) have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years. SARFT said regional “legal programming” had problems in 11 categories of behavior, including “leaking of secrets, violence and content of a sexual nature”. [Chinese coverage here].
November 21 — The resignation of top CCTV sports commentator Huang Jianxiang drew attention to the political workings of the state-run network. Rumors circulated in the media and on the Web said Huang had been forced to resign by an internal letter of criticism from a colleague at CCTV.
November 21 – China’s official People’s Daily reported the launch of the Communist Party’s annual “Three Points” program for indoctrination of young reporters and journalism students in the spirit of party journalism. The annual “Three Points” forums, which tour major cities in China, are designed to familiarize journalists with such concepts as the Marxist View of Journalism, “correct” public opinion guidance and other major party media policies. [Chinese coverage here].
November 23 — A prominent Chinese columnist for Southern Weekend, Dang Guoying (党国英), took the opportunity afforded by Chinese President Hu Jintao’s recent public praise of Vietnamese reforms at the APEC meetings in Hanoi to issue an understated challenge to the president to speed up political reforms in China. The editorial suggested that any leader of a large nation (such as China) who led the drive for political reform would ensure his place in history. Such use of a public statement from a political leader to safely write what might otherwise be regarded as too bold is called in Chinese jieti fahui (借题发挥), or, translated roughly, “using a current topic of conversation to put out one’s own ideas”. [Chinese article here].
November 24 — As two scandals in China’s entertainment industry topped the news in China, Southern Metropolis Daily turned in its editorial page from the more superficial aspects of the stories to ask what kind of action, if anything, would be taken to address serious issue lurking behind the news.
November 25 — Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao reported a record number of former propaganda officials taking up provincial party secretary appointments in China. The article, re-run in scores of Chinese newspapers, implied this new group of “news officials” pointed to a shift in central party appointments and said the officials were working to improve public relations for the regions they represented. CMP sources called the logic of the Ta Kung Pao report misplaced, and said it is not unusual to find officials with media or propaganda department backgrounds — notably, Bo Xilai (薄熙来), China’s current minister of commerce. [Chinese report here].