The big breaking media story in China today concerns the “New Year’s Greeting” (新年献词) at Guangdong’s Southern Weekly, a newspaper with a longstanding reputation for harder-hitting journalism. According to accounts on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo, Southern Weekly‘s “greeting,” an annual tradition with notable precedents (including Chang Ping‘s 1999 letter, which is being actively shared today), was censored directly by propaganda officials without the knowledge or consent of editors.
We have not yet independently confirmed how the changes to the “New Year’s Greeting” as Southern Weekly occurred. But if the internal chatter among Chinese journalists is accurate, this direct interference by propaganda leaders is indeed unprecedented.
For some background on recent changes at the Nanfang Daily Group, which publishes a number of China’s most respected newspapers, including Southern Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily, readers may want to review our coverage last year [More on iSun Affairs report here].
The original Southern Weekly letter, written by Dai Zhiyong (戴志勇), was called, “China’s Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism” (“中国梦，宪政梦”). Playing on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s lately popular phrase “China Dream,” which he employed in a rather generalized way to talk about the dream of the “great revival of the Chinese nation,” the Southern Weekly letter called for a bold realization of the “dream of constitutionalism in China”, so that civil rights could be protected and power effectively checked:

Only if constitutionalism is realized and power effectively checked can citizens voice their criticisms of power loudly and confidently, and only then can every person believe in their hearts that they are free to live their own lives. Only then can we build a truly free and strong nation. . .

According to chatter on Weibo, there were three versions of the letter. The first was the original by Dai Zhiyong, from which the above translation comes. The second was the draft from editors at the newspaper. The third, the version that eventually went to print, contains further changes now being attributed to Tuo Zhen (庹震), Guangdong’s provincial propaganda chief, as well as an introductory message from Tuo Zhen.
Side-by-side comparisons of the Dai Zhiyong version and subsequent versions are being shared today on Chinese social media. Here is an example post on Sina Weibo [See image of the second version followed by the original version at the end of this post].
Posts online today suggest the original title for the piece was changed first to, “Dreams Are Our Promise of What Ought To Be Done” (梦想是我们对应然之事的承诺), and eventually to the more unctuous title, “We Are Now Closer to Our Dream Than Ever Before” (我们比任何时候都更接近梦想).
The headline of the separate introductory New Year’s message by the propaganda chief, Tuo Zhen, on the front page of today’s Southern Weekly reads simply: “Pursuing Our Dreams,” or zhuimeng (追梦).
The full story here is not yet clear. But it looks as though two egregious violations of propaganda protocol are involved here. First, Tuo Zhen seems to have single-handedly made changes to the second version of the “New Year’s Greeting” after editors responded to his objections to the original. The result is Tuo Zhen’s version three. Second, Tuo Zhen seems to have added his own separate text unilaterally to the paper by penning the “Pursuing Our Dreams” message.

[ABOVE: Images, posted to Sina Weibo today, of the print version of Southern Weekly, with the lead editorial, or “New Year’s Greeting,” allegedly written by Guangdong’s top propaganda leader without the knowledge of editors at the paper.]
While the original editorial is strongly worded, voicing the hope that China’s Constitution will “cut its teeth” and become the real foundation of freedom in the country, the final version is entirely toothless. The greeting begins:

Dreams are our own expectations. Dreams are our promise of what ought to be done. This is the 1,057th time we have seen you [i.e., the 1,057th edition of the paper], and it is the first time we have seen you this year. In the past, now and in the future, you have defended your lives and we have defended this newspaper. Here we extend our blessing and hope that in this new year we can all come a step closer to our dreams.

After a vapid passage about the important of China’s Constitution, the letter goes on to quote directly from the official editorial in the January 1, 2013, edition of the Party’s official People’s Daily: “We are now closer than we have ever been to this dream, thanks to livelihood promises (民生承诺) like “every person’s destiny is closely tied to the destiny of our nation and its people.”
Discussion of the changes to the “New Year’s Greeting” began very early this morning. Here is a post Murong Xuecun made to Sina Weibo shortly before 2 a.m., with a quip including his own tongue-in-cheek altered title:

The New Year’s Greeting at Southern Weekly was originally called “China’s Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism” (“中国梦，宪政梦”). After being censored by the propaganda department it was called, “The Dream of Constitutionalism, Wake Up” (宪政梦，醒醒吧).
《南方周末》的新年贺辞本来叫作《中国梦，宪政梦》，经过宣传部的审查，现已改为《宪政梦，醒醒吧》。

By early afternoon, many posts on the Southern Weekly “New Year’s Greeting” incident were being deleted from Chinese social media.
For the moment, it looks as though one of first idealistic cries of hope for 2013 we have seen in China’s media has met with one of the most egregious examples of Party interference we have seen in years.
As one user summed it up on Sina Weibo: “Southern Weekly‘s constitutional dreams have crumbled in the hands of propaganda leaders.”
Another account of the “New Year’s Greeting” incident can be found online here, quoting veteran Chinese journalist Luo Changping (罗昌平). Readers should also note the parallels between the message in the original Southern Weekly letter and the greeting published in the journal Yanhuang Chunqiu, which we translated yesterday.
Our selected translation of the original greeting follows:

We hope that our Constitution cuts its teeth, that our Constitution can be realized [in practice] someday soon. This is the only way this ancient nation of ours can complete is arduous transition; this is the only way our nation and its people can stand strong once again on firm ground. We have already today a China where one can dream. And this is an age already in which dreams can be grasped.
We passed through the nightmare of the Cultural Revolution, and we have spent more than 30 years gruadually returning to reason and sense . . .
We came anew to a realization of what is real, what is deception, seeing right as right and wrong as wrong. Our love of justice was rekindled. . .
More than 170 years ago, we began our gradual awakening from the lunacy of [feudal] imperial rule. We faced defeat, first at the hands of Britain, then at the hands of Japan . . . With the Xinhai Revolution the rule of the Qing fell, and our forebears built Asia’s first republic. But a free, democratic and prosperous China under constitutional rule never followed. Instead, wars raged inside and outside our country; cruelty and suffering came unceasing. . .
Today, we dream not only of material prosperity, but even more of spiritual abundance; we dream not only that our country can be strong, but even more that the people of our country can enjoy dignity. . .
Only if constitutionalism is realized and [civil] rights preserved can the hearts of the people gleam like the sun and moon. . . Only then can the “urban police” (城管) joke cheerfully with small-time peddlers. Only then can our own homes truly become our castles . . .
Only if constitutionalism is realized and power effectively checked can citizens voice their criticisms of power loudly and confidently, and only then can every person believe in their hearts that they are free to live their own lives. Only then can we build a truly free and strong nation. . .

Yanhuang Chunqiu, a political journal associated with more liberal, pro-reform elements within the Chinese Communist Party, has published a bold and important “New Year Greeting” in its latest edition. The article, called “The Constitution is a Consensus for Political Reform,” argues that China’s Constitution already lays out the priorities to be addressed in carrying out meaningful political reform.
The article is listed on the online Table of Contents of the January issue, but an image of the issue’s cover issue is not yet available on the journal’s website.

[ABOVE: The December 2012 issue of Yanhuang Chunqiu. (The January 2013 issue is not yet available online).]
Without further ado, we offer a translation [in progress] of the “greeting.”

Yanhuang Chunqiu, No. 1, 2013
New Year Greetings
“The Constitution is a Consensus for Political Reform” (宪法是政治体制改革的共识)
From the editorial department
Through 30 years of reform, the fact that political reform has lagged behind economic reform has become more and more manifest, and factors contributing to social unrest have continued to gather. Promoting political reform is a task of pressing urgency. And yet, to date, there is great divergence over this issue, and no consensus has been reached on how to carry out political reforms. There is an old saying: plan first, act later (谋定而后动). But without a consensus how can plans be laid. And so, there is a great deal of “playing it safe” (稳妥) with political reform these days, and not enough “motion” (积极).
Actually, [a basis for] consensus on political reform already exists. This consensus is the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. While the Constitution presently in force is by no means perfect, if only we can carry it out in full political reform in our country will take a huge step forward.
Article 57 of our Constitution says that “the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China is the highest organ of state power.” Article 62 says that the National People’s Congress (NPC) has 15 functions and powers. Article 63 says the NPC has the power to recall or remove from office the President, Premier and other national leaders.
The Constitution also states that national administrative authority (行政机关), auditing authorities (审计机关) and procuratorial authorities (检察机关) all emerge through the NPC, are responsible to it and are monitored by it. The armed forces of the nation belong to the people, and the armed forces are led by the State Central Military Commission (国家中央军事委员会). But we must candidly admit that the National People’s Congress has not in fact become the highest organ of state power, and none of these stipulations in our Constitution have been put into practice.
Article 13 of the Constitution states that the “state protects the right of citizens to own lawfully earned income, savings, houses and other lawful property.” If this article were to be put into effect, we would not have the constant barrage of vicious incidents we have today stemming from violations of personal property. [NOTE: This is a reference primarily to unrest arising as a result of land grabs by government officials.]
Article 33 of the Constitution states that the “nation respects and protects human rights.” If this article were put into effect, we would not see such rampant use of “violent administration” (暴力执法) and “violent interception” (暴力截访) [of citizens petitioning for redress of wrongs against them].
Article 35 of the Constitution states that the “citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.” If this article were put into effect all the various types of limits placed on our news media would not exist. What’s more, we would no longer have cases in which “words incriminate” (以言治罪). With freedom of speech and press we would also have public opinion checks on corruption.
Article 37 of the Constitution states that the “freedom of person of citizens of the People’s Republic of China is inviolable.” If this article was put into effect, we would not have such things happening as the “strike black” [anti-crime] campaign in Chongqing [under Bo Xilai] or black jails run by firms like Anyuanding that persecute petitioners.
Article 126 of the Constitution states that the courts “shall, in accordance with the law, exercise judicial power independently and are not subject to interference by administrative organs, public organizations or individuals.” If this article was put into effect, we would not have so may [unwarranted] rejections of lawsuits, and we would not have so many cases in which people are falsely and unjustly accused.
Political reform is about building a system in place than can check power, and that means conscientiously protecting the rights of citizens. There is much language within our Constitution that preserves human rights, and that limits the power of the state. If we compare and contrast our Constitution and our reality, we discover that the system, policies and laws currently in force create a massive gap between the Constitution and the conduct of our government. Our Constitution is essentially void.
Any nation governed by rule of law must take its constitution as the basis for the design of its political system. Making the Constitution void is not only a breach of the promise made to the Chinese people, it is also a breach of the promise made to the international community.
Without trust a nation cannot stand, and the situation must be changed with regard to this breach of promise over the Constitution. Ever since the 12th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP Charter has read: “The Party must operate within the scope of the Constitution and the law.” This is what is meant by “the Party under the law” (党在法下) . . . Achieving a “Party under the law” would avoid the occurrence of various abuses resulting from conflict between the nominal system in effect and the actual system.
The Constitution is the most basic and most important of our country’s laws (根本大法). There is no higher authority than the Constitution, and there will not, nor should there be, any controversy about promoting political reform according to the Constitution.
As the Constitution provides the consensus for political reform, we must all spring into action, turning our voided Constitution into real political and legal systems — and that means we must change all current systems, statutes and policies that violate the Constitution, so that [laws and systems] accord with the Constitution. In this sense, political reform is really a “movement to preserve the Constitution” (维宪行动).
The law alone does not suffice (徒法不足以自行). To put the Constitution into effect, [we] must have related institutional guarantees, for example building a system of constitutional review (宪法审查制度), building a constitutional court (宪法法院), or creating a special committee within the National People’s Congress, or making the Constitution a matter of judicature (将宪法司法化). Building a system to put the Constitution into effect is an important task in carrying out political reform.
Even though the Constitution currently in effect is not perfect, if we make this Constitution real this would mean huge progress for political reform. On this foundation of political progress, we can in the future amend our constitution and then work these amendments into the political system. In this way we can promote reform in a gradual way. This gradual reform is all about using the Constitution as a means to improve the political system.
The voiding of the Constitution for so many years has not only meant huge advantage for the few, but it has also created complicated and deep-rooted interest groups. This “movement to preserve the Constitution” will come up against numerous obstacles. General Secretary Xi Jinping said during his recent tour in Guangdong: We must “dare to take on the tough challenges, and dare to navigate the dangerous shoals. We must have the courage to break through our mental obstacles, and the courage to break down the fences of entrenched interests.” If we only have this spirit, everyone working together from top to bottom, this “movement to preserve the Constitution” will surely succeed.
As this new year begins, we have a new group of leaders, and certain changes in the way these leaders operate have been cause for encouragement. In this new year, what we hope among a multitude of other things is that there can be real action to make our Constitution real.
——————–
《炎黄春秋》2013年第一期 新年献词
宪法是政治体制改革的共识
本刊编辑部
经过三十多年的改革，政治改革滞后于经济改革的弊端日益显露，社会不安定因素逐渐积累，推进政治体制改革是当务之急。但政治体制改革如何进行，众说纷纭，迄今没有共识。古语云：谋定而后动。没有共识，何以定谋？所以，我们当今的政治改革“稳妥”有余，“积极”不足。
其实，政治体制改革的共识已经存在。这个共识就是中华人民共和国宪法。虽然现行宪法并非十全十美，但只要把它落到实处，我国政治体制改革就会前进一大步。
《宪法》第57条规定，“全国人民代表大会是最高国家权力机关”； 第62条规定了全国人民代表大会有15项职权；第63条有罢免国家主席、国务院总理等国家领导人的权力。《宪法》还规定了国家行政机关、审计机关、检察机关都由人大产生，对它负责，受它监督；国家的武装力量属于人民，国家中央军事委员会领导全国武装力量。我们必须坦率地承认，全国人民代表大会并没有成为最高国家权力机关，《宪法》的这些规定没有落实。
《宪法》第13条规定，“国家依照法律规定保护公民的私有财产和继承权”。如果这一条落实了，就不会有层出不穷的侵犯私有财产的恶性事件。
《宪法》第33条规定，“国家尊重和保护人权”。如果这一条落实了，“暴力执法”、 “暴力截访”等恶劣行径不会如此猖獗。
《宪法》第35条规定，中华人民共和国公民有言论、出版等多项自由。如果这一条落实了，对传媒的种种非法限制就不会存在，更不会“以言治罪”。有了言论、出版自由，对权力腐败也就有了必要的舆论遏制。
《宪法》第37条规定，公民的人身自由不受侵犯。这一条如果真正落实，就不会有重庆式的“黑打”和北京安元鼎式的迫害访民的黑监狱。
《宪法》第126条规定，法院依照法律规定独立行使审判权，不受行政机关、社会团体和个人的干涉。如果这一条落实了，就不会有那么多不受理、不立案，就不会有那么多冤假错案。
政治体制改革就是要建立一套对权力制衡的制度体系，就是要切实保证公民权利。《宪法》中有很丰富的保障人权、限制国家权力的内容。将《宪法》和现实对照，就会发现现行的制度、政策、法令和很多政府行为，和宪法的差距十分遥远。我们的宪法基本上被虚置。
任何一个法治国家，在政治体制的设计上都必须以宪法为依据。将宪法虚置，不仅是对中国人民的失信，也是对国际社会的失信。国无信不立，宪法失信的状况必须改变。十二大以来的党章都有规定：“党必须在宪法和法律的范围内活动”。这就是“党在法下”。 “党在法下”是重要的宪法原则和政治原则。做到了“党在法下”，就能避免宪法层面的名义制度和运行层面的实际制度相悖而产生的种种弊端。
宪法是国家根本大法，宪法的权威至高无上，依照宪法推进政治体制改革，不会、也不应当有争议。
既然宪法是政治体制改革的共识，我们就应当行动起来，将虚置的宪法变成现实的制度体系、法律体系，就应当将现行一切违反宪法的制度、法令、政策改变过来，使其与宪法一致。在这个意义上，政治体制改革实质是一场“维宪行动”。
徒法不足以自行。落实宪法，必须有相应的制度保证，例如建立宪法审查制度：或者建立宪法法院，或者在人大设立专门的委员会，或者将宪法司法化。建立落实宪法的制度，本身就是政治体制改革的重要内容。
尽管现行宪法并不一定完美，但是，只要我们将这部宪法落实了，政治体制就会前进一步。在政治进步的基础上，将来修订宪法，再将新的宪法修订条款落实到政治制度中。如此这般，就是渐进式改革。这种渐进式改革，就是通过宪法途径不断改善政治制度。
多年将宪法虚置不仅给少数人带来了巨大的利益，还形成了盘根错节的利益集团。“维宪行动”必将遇到重重阻力。习近平总书记最近在广东视察时表示：我们要“敢于啃硬骨头，敢于涉险滩，既勇于冲破思想观念的障碍，又勇于突破利益固化的藩篱”。只要有这种精神和魄力，全民努力，上下互动，“维宪行动”一定会成功。
新的一年，新的领导集体，新领导人一些新的作风令人高兴。在新的一年，千头万绪中我们最为期盼的是，在落实宪法上有切实的行动。

In Hans Christian Andersen’s parable of power, pride and slavish self-deception, The Emperor’s New Clothes, the emperor is himself among the suckers duped into believing the “uncommonly fine” fabric made for him by two swindlers is the real stuff. As everyone doubtless knows, the tale ends with the emperor making a grand procession before the townsfolk without a thread to conceal his nakedness. The act of deception — “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection?” — might have worked had a child not cried out the innocent truth: “But he hasn’t got anything on!”
In China, Andersen’s story (long familiar to Chinese) is now being re-enacted inside out. The emperors, the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, are party to the swindle. And the audacious act of deception is to convince the townsfolk that despite all outward appearances, Party leaders are not mantled with wealth and privilege — they are, in fact, naked.
Since he became General Secretary in November, Xi Jinping has made an extreme public relations makeover the centerpiece of his game plan. He wants to convince Chinese that the CCP’s fifth generation of leaders is down-to-earth, spurns ostentation, that it is engaged with the pocketbook concerns of the general population — but most of all that it is clean.

[ABOVE: China’s new Politburo Standing Committee lineup, introduced to the world in November 2012. Are these seven men and their families really open to scrutiny?]
Corruption is a major, life-and-death issue for China’s ruling Party, and this is not the time for the Party be seen, like the emperor in Anderson’s story, wearing “the finest silk and the purest gold thread.”
In recent weeks, China’s state media have been full of accounts of modesty and austerity on the part of top leaders. Working meetings that cut down on speechmaking and posturing and actually get down to business (though there are few down-to-earth reports of what business they got down to). Talk of how Xi shook hands and mingled with the public on his trip to Shenzhen. And on December 31, a Xinhua piece plastered across the top of major internet portals: “Xi Jinping Visits Poor Families in Hebei: Dinner Is Just 4 Dishes and One Soup, No Alcohol.”

[ABOVE: A photograph of the simple menu reportedly prepared for General Secretary Xi Jinping’s official visit to Hebei.]
But this public relations campaign is about more than seeming spartanism; it is about seeming openness. Leveraging state media and the Party’s power to “channel public opinion” — the Xinhua pieces on humble Xi, remember, are promoted to the top of web portals by official order — the new generation of Party leaders is pushing the perception that they are open to public scrutiny.
This is the fable of the Party’s “nakedness.” The most powerful seven men in China are being paraded “naked” in all their finery before the townsfolk, who exclaim: “Look at how exposed our leaders are! They are ordinary men, just like us!”
The grandest procession of “nakedness” came on Christmas Day, as the official Xinhua News Agency rolled out a red-carpet tribute to the Party’s new General Secretary, Xi Jinping, and the other six members of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee. The Xinhua series, “The New High Level CCP Line Up” (中共高层新阵容), included lengthy profiles of the Party’s top seven. How did they get to be where they are today? What did they accomplish along the way? [More coverage on the series from Bloomberg and the SCMP.]

[ABOVE: A series rolled out by the official Xinhua News Agency on December 25 shares personal profiles of the seven members of the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee.]
Chinese media vaunted the Xinhua series as an unprecedented show of openness. In a piece hopefully headlined, “High-Level [Leaders] Set Up Model for Political Openness and Transparency” (高层为政治公开透明树立了典范), the China Youth Daily wrote:

The series of character profiles released in recent days from Xinhua News Agency . . . has resounded both at home and overseas, online and offline. The assessment heard most commonly in the media is that this is something ‘rarely seen’: photos from their lives as rarely seen, personal biographies as rarely seen, family information as rarely seen and life details as rarely seen.

The China Youth Daily story pointed out that what the public generally expects to see through news reports are “leaders in official speeches, going through diplomatic formalities or in the television lens.” But now, “thanks to this feature series,” Chinese can now see “a group of leaders with more personal charisma and more feeling who are much closer to us.”
The importance of the Xinhua series, says the paper, goes beyond the details themselves. The profiles are “profound models for the promotion of reform in a top-down fashion.”
There is little question that the Xinhua series is, in a sense, unprecedented. There is a personal edge and tone to the series quite out of line with the serious and cautious (i.e, “dull”) treatment of state leaders that has been par for the course in China for decades. According to the Party’s orthodoxy, leaders are not supposed to stand out. They are supposed to reflect the Party’s consensus-based politics. Charisma is delicate word, synonymous today with the Party’s fallen star, former Chongqing chief Bo Xilai.
But the profiles are by no means a treasure trove of information. The “political achievements,” or zhèng jì (政绩), of the Standing Committee members form the bulk of this revelation of “personal details.” In fact, there is little real information at all. One veteran Chinese journalist I spoke to called it “pathetically sparse.”
What is new is the personalization of these paltry details. The past “achievements” of Standing Committee members are presented by Xinhua as “personal political achievements” (个人政绩), or geren zhengji. And leaders are generally portrayed in more “personal” contexts. There is Xi Jinping joining in farm work on a tour in the Fujian countryside in 1988; he is smiling, a hoe slung over his shoulder. There is a youthful Xi Jinping on an “overseas tour” of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
The Xinhua profiles also talk about the families of the various leaders, a departure from usual practice. At the tail end of the Xi Jinping profile, there is mention of his marriage to singer Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛), followed by a laudatory list of her accomplishments.
Here is one of the personal moments in which we see the Party’s General Secretary in the role of husband:

In Peng Liyuan’s eyes, her husband is at once a distinguished person and an ordinary person. He enjoys eating home cooking from Shaanxi and Shandong, and when he gets together with friends he will drink and be lively with them. He likes swimming, hiking and watching basketball, soccer, boxing and other sports matches. Sometimes he’ll watch sports programming on TV late at night.

Though understandably welcome to some for their symbolism, these details are not evidence of greater openness in China’s politics. If anything, their preciousness makes the closed nature of Chinese politics even more apparent — like drops of water in the desert that only make one’s thirst that much keener.
The Xinhua series should remind us too that publishing information about state leaders remains a special right and privilege enjoyed by Party-run media. Other media, including commercial metro newspapers like Southern Metropolis Daily or The Beijing News have no right to do so, and would attempt such coverage at grave risk.
One of the most revealing facts since the series came just over a week ago is that these “details” cannot be freely discussed on Chinese social media. While posts about the series have been shared on platforms like Sina Weibo, many comments have been deleted, signaling that the leadership has little interest in inviting real scrutiny.
The bottom line, of course, is that real exposure of information about leaders can only happen in a more open society, where politics is competitive, and where truly independent monitoring by the media can happen. In politics, can there be anything revelatory about self-revelation in the absence of independent pressure? That’s doubtful. Openness has to mean that details are revealed, and that the truth is told, against the objections of political leaders.
The Xinhua series on China’s leaders reminded me of the comic story in Boccaccio’s Decameron of Capperello da Prato, the scoundrel with a lifelong tapestry of misdeeds who on his deathbed confesses trifling sins to the priest so theatrically that the Church declares him a saint. The Xinhua profiles are tell-alls that tell us nothing about the true characters or deeds of China’s most powerful men. But the fawning follow-up coverage by state media makes it look like China’s top leaders are being sainted for humbly confessing that they are in fact men, not saints at all.
In China’s present-day fable, The Emperors, No Clothes, foreign media play the role of the disbelieving child who sees through the obvious artifice. Examples of real journalism like Bloomberg’s “Revolution to Riches” series, and David Barboza’s ongoing revelations in the New York Times about China’s Party elite, tell a very different story.
The emperors are not naked. They are, as ever, enrobed and protected by a closed political system subjected only to self-scrutiny.
There is always the hope, of course — I’ve heard it insistently over the past decade I’ve spent watching signs in China’s media — that these symbolic gestures point to deeper change to come. As the official China News Service wrote in its rosy assessment of the Xinhua series:

This group of character features differs from past official text, revealing many details and filling the rest of the world with surprise. Public opinion at home and overseas has had a largely positive assessment of this. The general view is that this is the first time official media have actively ‘released material’ [about leaders]. Aside from projecting an image of leaders close to the people, this sends some signal of political reform (一些政改信号).

Perhaps China’s new top leaders are serious about political reform — the only thing that can ensure real openness and accountability, and deal effectively with corruption. Xi Jinping has showered us with apparent surprises, with changes of tone and style. And who can say with certainty that more substantial surprises aren’t in the works.
But until then, I suppose, we can only savor the paltry “details.” And enjoy the emperor’s parade.
Below is a partial translation of the Xinhua profile of General Secretary Xi Jinping:

Character Feature: “The Masses are the Source of Our Strength” (人物特稿:”人民群众是我们力量的源泉”)
—— Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China

[Xi Jinping, second from left, in Shaanxi’s Yanchuan County (陕西延川县) in 1973, during the era of educated youth being sent into the countryside. Xinhua News Agency]
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 23 —— On December 7, 2012, Xi Jinping, who had been elected General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party just 23 days earlier, left the capital for the first time to tour other areas [of the country as General Secretary]. He went to Guangdong, the province on the leading edge of economic reform and opening, and made Shenzhen his first stop. On this trip, he traveled without pomp and connected directly with the masses, having close exchanges [with them].
On December 8, he arrived at Shenzhen’s Lianhuashan Park and laid flower at the feet of the statue of Deng Xiaoping as crowds of tourists looked on. After that, Xi Jinping moved among the people, shaking hands and waving.
During his tour of Guangdong, he emphasized that the whole Party and the peoples of the whole nation must steadfastly take the strong nation road of reform and opening, giving greater priority to systematic, complete and coordinated reforms, achieving continued reform and opening.
There is profound meaning in the fact that the route taken by Xi Jinping on this trip to Guangdong is one Deng Xiaoping traveled 20 years ago in his tour of the south. [At the time] media remarked: This is a leader who brings a news leadership style, who is steadfast in carrying out economic reform and opening, and who leads the Chinese people toward achieved the Chinese dream (中国梦).
On November 15, 2012, 59 year-old Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the 18th National Congress of the CCP, becoming the first top CCP leader to have been born after the founding of the new China.
. . .
As China enters a decisive stage in comprehensive building of a moderately wealthy society, Xi Jinping strides to the center of China’s political stage and takes the baton of history. At the same time, as the leader of the world’s second-largest economy, he stands also at the front of the world stage.
All China, and all the world, have their eyes on Xi Jinping:
—— How will he lead the world’s largest ruling political party, with 82 million members, toward better serving the people?
—— How will he lead the 1.3 billion people of China toward winning the struggle toward the two great goals of “completely building a moderately wealthy society by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP [in 2021], and achieving a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious modern socialist nation by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the republic [in 2049]”?
—— How will he lead China in contributing to world peace and development?
. . .
At midday on the final day of the 18th National Congress, as Xi Jinping met more than 500 foreign journalists, he took up his heavy burdens with candidness, summarizing the mission of central Party leaders as three responsibilities: responsibility to [China’s ethnic] groups (对民族的责任), responsibility to the people (对人民的责任) and responsibility to the Party (对党的责任).
This solemn promise shows that Xi Jinping will define a historical responsibility to the Chinese people as the guiding concept and pursuit of his personal leadership.

[Xi Jinping in 1972 returning to Beijing to visit his family after joining a production team. Xinhua News Agency.]
“The people’s yearning for a good life, that is the goal of our struggle.”
“The people’s yearning for a good life, that is the goal of our struggle.” In his first speech after being elected general secretary, Xi Jinping clearly expressed his unfailing confidence in leading the Chinese Communist Party to govern for the people.
After taking his new post, he took part in the “Road to Revival” exposition with other members of the Politburo Standing Committee and said: “Right now, everyone is talking about the Chinese dream. It’s my view that achieving the great revival of the Chinese people is the greatest dream of the Chinese people in modern times.”
All along, Xi Jinping has taken the dreams of the people and made them his dreams. 43 years ago, he joined a work brigade in Shaanxi as an educated youth, and spend seven years there. His first “official rank” was Party branch secretary of the production brigade, what was then the “cell” of the Communist Party organizational system. In 2007, after years of toughening work at the local level, Xi Jinping was elected a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, serving as a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Party School. He later served as a Deputy Secretary of the People’s Republic of China and as Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Over the past five years, he has directly taken part in the study and formulation of fundamental Party and government policies, and has taken part in the organization and implementation of major decisions and deployments.
From Shaanxi to Beijing, from Hebei to Fujian, from Zhejiang to Shanghai, from poverty-stricken areas of the west to the cultural and political center of the country, from undeveloped areas of the east to developed coastal areas, Xi Jinping has experience at the village, county, city (prefecture), province (municipality) level as well as experience at top Party and military posts. . .
The Chinese Communist Party is the core leadership carrying the Chinese people toward realization of the Chinese dream. Before he became the top Party leader, Xi Jinping long served in local Party posts. Once he entered the central Party leadership he led the daily work of the Central Secretariat, in charge of Party affairs, and he knows only too well the importance of the building of the Party. He prioritizes the strengthening of regulations within the Party, and he has led the formulation of many regulatory documents within the Party.
He has continually emphasized that the Party must continue to manage the Party, that the Party must be run strictly. On November 17, he pointed out during the first collective study session of the 18th Central Committee of the CCP that, “When things rot, the worms take hold.’ The facts overwhelmingly tell us that when the problem of corruption grows more and more severe, it just ultimately mean the destruction of the Party and the nation! We must remain vigilant!”

As New Year’s approaches, China’s leadership seems to be making its case for tougher internet controls in 2013.
Earlier this month, the country’s new propaganda chief, Liu Qibao (刘奇葆), said China must “deeply research the strengthening of the building, operation and management of the internet, singing the main theme online.” Singing the “main theme” refers explicitly to staying in line with the ruling Party’s political, social and economic priorities and does not, as the Wall Street Journal‘s recent translation suggests, refer blandly to “mainstream online themes.”
Since Liu Qibao’s remarks there have been a number of editorials in state-run media calling for a tougher stance on internet governance. While these editorials have talked about the need to address legitimate concerns such as the protection of personal data online, they have also cast a wider net over unspecified issues like the spread of “rumor.”
On December 18, a front page piece in the Party’s official People’s Daily warned that while the internet “facilitates social interaction” it brings such “complications” as “business fraud, malicious attacks and the spreading of rumors.”
On December 24, an editorial on the official web platform of the People’s Daily recapitulated the arguments made by the December 18 piece, this time referring to rule of law as a “bind” — or a “tight hoop,” jingu (紧箍) — needed to restrain the internet for the good of all. The editorial said “lines of conduct” should be stipulated and supervision enhanced online in order to “restrain irresponsible rumors, restrain the leakage of personal information, and make the internet clean again.”

[ABOVE: Is a restraining “ring” of “rule of law” needed to make China’s internet healthier? That’s what a recent editorial on People’s Daily Online argues. Photo a composite of China map and image by Kyz available at Flickr.com under Creative Commons license.]
This language sandwiches the relatively clear-cut agenda of personal data protection between moral and political goals that are harder to define and are probably code for increased political controls on the internet.
What exactly are “irresponsible rumors”? If, as some have reported, new regulations for China’s internet are in the offing, how exactly will they define “irresponsible rumors” and other “harmful” information?
A full translation of the People’s Daily Online editorial follows:

Putting the “Binds” of Rule of Law on the Online World (给网络世界套上法治“紧箍”)
Ma Bi (马碧)
December 24, 2012
People’s Daily Online
For many people in today’s society the internet is as essential as the air they breathe. Amid the flow of positive, constructive and healthy information there are rumor, cheating and scandal mixed in. People are deeply moved by the “good stuff,” such as the scene of a street worker blowing his partner’s hands warm after she finished shoveling snow. They are panicked by the “bad stuff,” like the “apocalypse rumors.” And “bad stuff” like the sale of personal information online are a threat to public safety and damage the interests of ordinary people.
The internet is a free and open stage. It is precisely because of this freedom, in which everyone can speak freely, that some active users can gain a large number of fans. But absolute online freedom does not exist, and online there must be a basic line, which is to not impinge on the freedom of others. We must accept moral restrictions, and respect laws and regulations. After all, no one wishes to live in an actual world in which there are no rules and no order, and no one wishes to live in a virtual world in which there are no rules and no order.
The real world and the virtual world are inseparable, and harm done to individuals online does not exist in the virtual world alone. The pain of those victims whose rights are infringed, who are cheated or attacked, is no less keen than that felt in traditional forms of harm. Particularly in the face of the information power wielded by online criminals, ordinary web users are little more than fish and fowl to be snared. As the whole world is now linked together in this way, strengthening supervision and management of the internet is not just a need but a matter of urgent necessity.
The internet is public space, and public order and good customs require the common efforts of web users, demanding that each web users “purify themselves” (自我净化), recognizing from the bottom of their hearts that the internet is not a utopia where they can do as they please, that it is not a “Garden of Peaches of Immortality” [i.e., a paradise] existing outside the law. But on this massive platform comprising 538 million web users and more than a billion mobile users, it is impossible byrelying on self-discipline alone to achieve regulation and order (规范有序) and to eliminate every single person with ulterior motives (别有用心者) or every doer of mischief (恶作剧者).
Without wings, the bird of freedom cannot fly high. Without rule of law, a free internet cannot go far. Today’s society reveres rule of law, and just as our actual society needs rule of law, so does our virtual society need rule of law. Cleaning up the online world demands the self-discipline of web users, but even more it demands the interventionist discipline (他律) of rule of law. Only by putting the “binds” of rule of law on the internet, by stipulating the lines of conduct and adding supervision according to the law (厘定行为边界，依法加以监管), only by making violators of the law bear the burden of illegality [as opposed to victims of crimes], only then can we possibly restrain irresponsible rumors, restrain the leakage of personal information, and make the internet clean again.
“It is the most splendid and the noisiest . . . ” This way of describing the internet is how many people feel. An open China requires a healthy online world governed by law. Only by putting the “binds” of rule of law on the internet can our internet be more civilized, healthier and safer, and only then can we increase the share of the “good stuff,” casting out the wicked and cherishing the virtuous.

The following post by Sina Weibo user “Youth Is Humanity and Heroism” (有仁有侠是青春) was deleted sometime before 8:09 a.m. today, December 20, 2012. The post is a comment on a previous post, also translated below, about a visit by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences scholar Yu Jianrong (于建嵘) to a resident of Changsha whose home faces demolition. “Youth Is Humanity and Heroism” currently has just over 5,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]

The people must unite in rebellion!// @10 YearsHexi10YearsHedong (@十年河西十年河东0: //@YuJianrong (@于建嵘): Just now when I said goodbye to Old Peng, he hugged me and wept bitterly. I am so sad [he said]. The property developer won’t offer compensation, won’t even negotiate. In the black of night they come and knock the walls down. They use criminal gangs to vandalize your car. Call the police and they don’t even bother. The government doesn’t show its face. What is the government for?![NOTE: This is Yu Jianrong’s comment]

This post is a response to the following as-yet-undeleted post by “Social Robin Hood”, which includes an image of Yu Jianrong with the property holder facing demolition: “Professor @YuJianrong came especially from Beijing to Changsha to see this old warrior fighting against the forced demolition of his home.”

The original Chinese-language post follows:

人民只有联合起来暴动了！ //@十年河西十年河东: //@于建嵘:刚才与老彭告别时，他抱着我痛哭。我非常难过。开发商不赔偿、甚至不谈判，黑夜挖别人墙角、利用黑社会砸人家的车，报警警不管，政府不出面，你这个政府是干吗的？！

NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.

The following post by Sina Weibo user “Hong Kong Cheng Dong” (香港成东1) was deleted sometime before 8:13 a.m. today, December 20, 2012. The post shares a post made to the China.com website that purports to show images from a protest, apparently (if true) in September this year, by members of the South China Sea Fleet (南海舰队). According to the post, officers of the South China Sea Fleet have protested the sale to a private developer of land set aside for affordable housing for the fleet. The post is unverified, and a number of responses on Sina Weibo, also deleted, called for confirmation. “Hong Kong Cheng Dong” currently has just under 35,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]

Big things are happening at the South China Sea Fleet, with hundreds of officers making trouble — It’s said that South China Sea Fleet transferred a section of land given to the fleet for the building of affordable housing for officers to a private boss building an auto parts warehouse, and this has prompted resistance from officers who do not have housing. http://t.cn/zjCmxeY

The original Chinese-language post follows:

南海舰队出大事了，数百军官闹事 – 据说南海舰队把给军官建经适房的一块地转让给了老板建汽配城，从而引发了没有住房的转业军官的抗议。 http://t.cn/zjCmxeY

NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.

China’s Communist Party leaders are matchless masters of formalized bluster and braggadocio. This is true for the basic reason that learning to live and work (and think) within the Party’s linguistic framework is an absolute necessity for any Chinese official. The Party’s political culture is conditioned by the language officials use — by its tifa (提法), or what we might call its “watchwords” or “New China Newspeak.”
In recent weeks, media have hyped Xi Jinping’s professed drive to reshape the Party’s rigid “working style”, or zuofeng (作风), and its exasperating “language style”, or wenfeng (文风), which puts slavish parroting of Party slogans above down-to-earth speech. And there is now fresh talk in China’s state media about making news coverage of official Party and government activities less rigid and more accessible.

[ABOVE: Is Xi Jinping the cool, casual new task-master of the Chinese Communist Party. Or will he recast the Party’s image in the same old mould?]
But what does this campaign — which of course has its own slogans — actually mean? Are Xi’s apparent efforts real, or is this another flavor-of-the-month Party mobilization, doomed to fizzle into the old, familiar formalism?
Is Xi really a “casual communist” out to shake and remake a rigid bureaucracy increasingly distant from the lives of ordinary people?
Real change is impossible to rule out. But it may be most helpful to refresh our memories about the Party’s history on this issue of language and style — which makes Xi Jinping’s Party makeover at least seem far less fresh.
This is not the first time Party leaders have talked, in the lofty tones to which they are so conditioned, about “reforming language style” (改文风). The talk goes back at least to the Yan’an Talks in 1942, where there were high-minded ideas about “opposing subjectivism to rectify the style of writing” (反对主观主义以整顿文风).
More than 30 years ago, in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, a new sense of alertness to the “fake, exaggerated and empty” nature of media during this decade of terror was the primary driver behind media reform. There was a new emphasis on shorter news stories grounded in facts. This sort of journalism, including critical news reporting and more serious discussion of social issues, was pioneered by papers like China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League, and by Shanghai’s World Economic Herald.
In the midst of Xi Jinping’s “new” approach to the walk and talk of Chinese politics, this old phrase, jia da kong (假大空), has popped up again.
An article in the Party’s official People’s Daily on Monday remarked changes in “working style” at the Central Economic Work Conference held over the weekend. There were no flowers on the dais, and fewer officials were seated there. Discussions, officials told the paper, were focused on practical questions. Bao Kexin (包克辛), chief executive of the China Grain Reserves Corporation, remarked:

Everyone already abhors things that are false, exaggerated and empty (假大空), so changing our style of work and our style of speaking is a popular sentiment.

In fact, the issue of changing the Party’s “language style” has returned to the official People’s Daily with stubborn persistence over the past three decades.
Back in 2001, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee issued a “Decision” — written, naturally, in the Party’s uniquely obscure political discourse — in which the issue of “strengthening and improving” the Party’s “working style” was addressed.
On November 23, 2001, the People’s Daily relayed the lessons propaganda leaders had drawn from the buzzword-laden “Decision”:

The Core Group of the Central Propaganda Department learned much from the “Decision,” and it deeply recognizes the importance and urgency of strengthening and improving the Party’s building of its working style. Everyone believes that working style is inextricably linked to language style, that working style determines language style and language style embodies working style. On the basis of serious research into the actual situation regarding propaganda work, they raised a number of specific measures for grasping working style, changing language style and avoiding and opposing formalism (形式主义) — these included opinions on the improvement of news reports on [Party] meetings and leaders events, an area in which breakthroughs have not been made over many years.

This article from more than 11 years ago acknowledges that the Party had tried, and failed (repeatedly), to change the way it works and talks.
That failure is not surprising when you understand CCP discourse as core to the way the Party works. Sloganeering is key to the mobilization approach that drives China’s vast bureaucracy. Leaders define priorities, which are then drummed through the bureaucracy, from the top all the way to the bottom, through slogans that encapsulate those priorities.
When Hu Jintao made pronouncements about “building soft power” in the 2007 political report, even local township leaders jumped on the soft power bandwagon. Now that Xi Jinping has pronounced his intention to make the Party look and feel more in touch, is it any surprise that everyone is jumping on his anti-bandwagon bandwagon?
In Chinese politics, everyone needs to be on the same page. And that’s difficult to accomplish when everyone is reading from a different phrase book. That’s important to remember for those who feel so sure Xi Jinping is throwing that book out the window.
But who knows? Perhaps if enough Party cadres heed Xi Jinping’s call . . .
As a reader’s letter to the People’s Daily said on July 25, 2001, when talk of a change of “style” was also the prevailing weather of the day: “Language style is a kind of ‘breeze,’ and changing our language style demands more than just blowing the breeze. It requires the real and long-term efforts of everyone.”

An article on the front page of the official People’s Daily today serves as a cautionary note to Chinese: the internet is as much a tool of rumor and misinformation as a platform for information sharing, and everyone must be as responsible and law-abiding online as they are offline.
The article, which appears in the “Today’s Topic” column, is at the bottom of the People’s Daily front page. The article is written by “Mo Jinjin,” almost certainly a byline standing in for an official government department.

[ABOVE: In China, those going online should remember there are lines that cannot be crossed, cautions today’s People’s Daily. Photo by “eviltomthai” posted to Flickr.com under Creative Commons license.]
The People’s Daily article has no new significance as a reflection of the Party’s policy on media and information, but it does serve as a reminder that the internet and social media are now a core focus of media controls in China. The article follows a statement earlier this month by the new propaganda chief, Liu Qibao, that China must research ways to strengthen internet controls.
Perhaps the most interesting line in the article (underlined below) is its admission — a rather moderate position on China’s media control spectrum — that it is “impractical” to expect people always to say the “correct” thing.
A translation of the article follows:

“The Internet is Not Outside the Law” (网络不是法外之地)
People’s Daily
December 18, 2012
Page One, “Today’s Topic” column
By Mo Jinjin (莫津津)
“It’s the greatest, but it’s also the most clamorous . . . ” Many people would sympathize with these words as a description of the internet. As a brand new platform, the internet facilitates social interaction, providing information, the sharing of points of views and other things, but at the same time it causes many complications, such as business fraud, malicious attacks and the spreading of rumors.
Rapid development and ease of use, combined with the virtuality and anonymity of the online space, have driven many people to participate online “without giving it any thought.” We must recognize that the online world is not a space beyond the law. Our words online can, whether intentionally or unintentionally, violate the law. Because the damage caused to individuals or to society [by actions online] is not limited to the virtual world. Those who are subjected to fraud, those who are the victims of infringements or attacks, suffer no less than those who harmed in traditional ways.
An open China requires a civilized and healthy online world governed by rule of law. Everyone, whether supervising government bodies or the masses of internet users, must treasure this platform. Demanding that people all use the correct means to say the correct things is not practical, but they must have a consciousness of the law and take responsibility for their words — this is a must. Because regardless of whether online or offline, this is the foundation on which public order and good habits are built.

The following post by Simon Zhou (我是西蒙周), a journalist for Hong Kong Commercial Daily, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:33pm yesterday, December 16, 2012. The post is one of a number, all deleted, sharing photos from Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States in February 2012. Simon Zhou currently has just under 70,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]

[Not such old photographs] Wait a minute . . .

The original Chinese-language post follows:

【不太老的老照片】等一下……

NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.