China has maintained rapid economic growth for three decades, and from 1992 to 2011 annual GDP growth surpassed 8 percent. But as social unrest and inequality are on the rise — and as the country faces a host of other problems, from poor food safety and substandard construction to dangerous pollution levels and environmental destruction — some people have argued that the cost of maintaining rapid economic growth is too high. Are the costs now outweighing the benefits? In the following cartoon, posted by artist Zhu Senlin (朱森林) to Sina Weibo, a hen is squeezed violently with a rolling pin simply to extract a single egg labeled “GDP.” The cartoon is titled: “Just for One Egg.”

Following several days of mass protests against two proposed petrochemical projects amid environmental and health concerns, officials in the coastal city of Ningbo announced late Sunday that the projects would be halted. The government’s announcement failed to deter protesters, however, who continued to gather outside the government offices Monday and demand that the city’s mayor step down.
Online, suspension of the projects was formally announced through the official social media account of the Ningbo government at 6:45 p.m. yesterday, October 28, 2012. The post read: “[We have] learned from a news spokesman from the Ningbo City Government that the city government has been decided after research with the project investor that: (1) the PX project will definitely not go forward; (2) preliminary work for the chemical refinery project will be halted and a scientific assessment redone.”

[ABOVE: Protesters outside the government offices in Ningbo on Sunday, October 28, 2012. Image shared by a Guangdong-based user on Sina Weibo.]

The halting of the project was also announced on the front page of today’s Ningbo Daily, the city’s official Party-controlled “mouthpiece.” Carried at dead center, the announcement read:

[After going] through [a process of] research
Ningbo Has Decided Not to Go Ahead with PX Project
经研究决定
宁波坚决不上PX项目

[ABOVE: The front page of today’s Ningbo Daily with an announcement of the termination of a PX project opposed by many residents.]
A second article on the front page did its best to frame the termination of the unpopular projects as an act of government grace.
After learning late Sunday of the government’s announcement, the article began, many residents “bounced off to pass the news along to their friends and relatives,” and “mass representatives” (群众代表) interviewed by the paper’s reporter felt “gratified” by the news, “feeling that the Party and government leadership had deeply listened to the voice of the people.”
These “mass representatives,” said the newspaper, also said they were certain the Party’s decision would “win the understanding and support of the masses.” They “hoped that everyone would as soon as possible return to normal, productive and orderly lives, working together for the economic and social development of Ningbo.”
A keyword search of “Ningbo” + “PX” in the WiseNews database returned just 10 articles in mainland Chinese newspapers today. Nine of these, including a report from the official China News Service, were based entirely on information provided by the Ningbo government. The tenth was an editorial in the Chinese-language Global Times newspaper sounding a worrying tone about the rise of street politics in China:

Some say that the people of Ningbo have won. But in our view, there can be no winners in a situation where this method of resistance by the masses on the streets and in the public square comes to decide such a complex matter as that of the fate of a major chemical project — and it seems even more that all of China is the loser.

In the second front page report today, the Ningbo Daily suggested local leaders had recognized to some extent that the recent protests were the result of a failure of communication. Leaders pledged to “increase the strength of information release [in the future], offering more explanations and removing the doubts and concerns of the masses.”
But as the limited choice of newspaper reports indicates, precious little information is still available on what is happening in Ningbo, and why. The “masses,” whether in Ningbo or anywhere else in China, are now left mostly in the dark on this story.
The difference between darkness and “mostly in the dark,” of course, is the sum total of shifting content on Chinese social media.
Many images and video posted to Chinese social media from the scene in Ningbo have already been deleted — and some users reported Sunday that Ningbo-based users were unable to post content. But Sina Weibo and other platforms remain the primary source of information on this story.
In a further illustration of how the propaganda game is shifting in China, Chinese authorities have found themselves levering the strength of social media to attack the reliability of social media — even as they choke off all reliable information not of government origin, thereby further fueling demand for “rumors” (true or not).
At 12:42 p.m. today, October 29, 2012, the following message was posted to Ningbo Public Security (宁波公安), the official social media account of the Ningbo police:

In recent days, in Ningbo’s Zhenhai District (镇海区) and Haishu District (海曙区), a number of persons have illegally assembled, blocking traffic. The city’s public security bureau organized police to encourage people to leave and get transportation flowing. In the midst of this, no malign incidents occurred. There were absolutely no deaths of any persons [as a result], and certainly not university students who died. The police once again call on the residents of the city not to believe rumors or spread them. In cases where the spread of rumors does harm to public order, the police will handle this firmly in accordance with the law.
近日，宁波市镇海区、海曙区有部分人员非法聚集、堵塞交通。市公安局组织警力劝离人员，疏导交通，全力维护社会秩序。期间，没有发生恶性事件，绝对没有人员死亡，更没有大学生死亡。警方再次呼吁，广大市民不信谣不传谣。对于散布谣言，扰乱公共秩序的，警方将坚决依法处理。 今天 12:42 来自 360安全浏览器 转发 (4659) | 收藏 | 评论 (2749)

[ABOVE: A post made to the official police microblog in the city of Ningbo on October 29 urges citizens not to believe rumors that people were killed in clashes with police over the weekend.]
Among the rumors circulating on Weibo is one claiming that local “stability preservation” authorities in Ningbo have said the order to suspend the PX project came down Sunday from China’s security chief, Zhou Yongkang (周永康). There is no way to know whether this is true, but it certainly speaks to the sensitive timing of the Ningbo protests. With the 18th National Congress just around the corner, national leaders are no doubt eager to ensure that China looks to itself and to the rest of the world like a happy and harmonious place.
One of the most interesting dynamics we see again in the Ningbo PX case is the face-off between social media and “stability preservation,” in recent years the Party’s most robust method of dealing with social instability.
Rapid economic development in the absence of transparent and inclusive institutions in China has generated an upswell of social unrest. Party leaders have tried to balance this equation with massive spending on “stability preservation,” the mobilizing of domestic security forces against the population. But in some sense, social media are now upsetting this equation. Thanks largely to social media, the tactics of “stability preservation” are increasingly under scrutiny.
Perhaps nothing better expresses this dynamic than a cartoon shared on Sina Weibo in recent days, in which mobile phones face off against a phalanx of armed police with shields, clubs and rifles.

Mao Zedong famously said that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Surely, though, he never envisioned the mobile phone glaring back, the eye connected instantly to millions of others.

On October 26, 2012, residents in the coastal city of Ningbo demonstrated to oppose the construction of a chemical project in the city by a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. Riot police were mobilized to disperse the crowds, and images of violent suppression were shared rapidly across Sina Weibo and other social media platforms. Protests continued over the weekend, however, and Ningbo officials announced late Sunday, October 28, that the project would be stopped. Protests, and the mobilization of security forces to contain them, are now a common occurrence in China (READ ABOUT recent protests in Shifang and in Nantong). The above cartoon, drawn by an unknown artist and shared on Tianya and Sina Weibo, captures very well the sense of protest and violent crackdown as a part of life in China today. On the left side of the cartoon, named “Father and Son,” an old man is shoved to the ground by a policeman in riot gear and beaten with a club. As he lies on the ground, the old man calls his son in some other distant place (the frames are labeled “Place A” and “Place B” separated by a box that says “10,000 li apart”): “Son, where are you?” he asks. On the right, the old man’s son, dressed up in full riot gear, has apparently just beaten a protester who now lies prone on the ground behind him. “Dad, I’m out on a job right now,” the son says. “What is it?”

This post made to Sina Weibo by Micro Newspaper (微报纸), an account with 335,000 followers, invited a flood of responses that were subsequently deleted by censors. The post shows students at Huazhong University of Science and Technology using dominoes to make Party flag that reads “18th National Congress,” referring to the upcoming session of top Chinese Communist Party leaders. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
The original post, which not surprisingly remains undeleted on Sina Weibo, reads:

On the even of the Party’s 18th National Congress, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology uses dominoes to create an image of the Party flag and the words “18th National Congress,” expressing the ardent hope that the 18th National Congress will open successfully, and the sense of continued national blessing.

In one re-post that was deleted within an hour, user Qi Hongbo (漆洪波), wrote with a laughing emoticon:

Push them down! Push them down! Push them down! 推倒推倒推倒

Xu Ruiting (徐瑞延), a Weibo user with just under 12,000 followers who previously ran as an independent candidate for a people’s congress post in the city of Hangzhou, wrote:

Dominoes, push one down and they’ll all fall. 多米诺，一推全倒。

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.

Zhang Jianxing (张建兴), a self-identified “rights defender” from the village of Wukan in China’s southern Guangdong province, reports on his Sina Weibo account today that Zhuang Liehong (庄烈宏), a prominent member of the village’s democratically elected leadership, has publicly announced his resignation.
An outspoken youth leader during protests in Wukan last year over corruption and land grabs by local officials, Zhuang Liehong was detained on December 3, 2011, and held for 20 days. The standoff between villagers and local authorities worsened through December, until provincial officials finally intervened to broker a compromise resulting in free and transparent elections in March this year.
Zhuang Liehong was among those elected to the newly constituted village committee. Ahead of the elections he vowed to fight to get back village land that had been taken. As the Saturday Age reported:

“I will retrieve the land that rightfully belongs to Wukan villagers!” said Zhuang Liehong, 28, in a speech punctuated with fist-pumps that whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

According to today’s Weibo post by Zhang Jianxing, Zhuang submitted his resignation to the village committee on October 21 because he felt he was “unable to handle the wishes of the villagers from within the village committee.” Zhang added:

“Lately, the upheaval in Wukan is quite serious. Lin Zuluan (林祖銮) [the leader of the revolt, now the elected Party chief] avoids going to work. . . Is change happening all over again in Wukan?

The following is a copy of Zhuang Liehong’s letter of resignation, posted to Weibo by Zhang Jianxing.

The forced demolition of properties and removal of residents, or qiangzhi chaiqian (强制拆迁), is a major ongoing problem in China as cities continue their rapid expansion, and as the confiscation and development of land remains the major source of revenue for most city governments. The above cartoon, a poster drawn by “Easy Home Zhu Shimao” (轻松家朱时毛) and posted to Sina Weibo, speaks out against forced demolition. The man with a goatee and sunglasses is Zuo Xiao (左小), a well-known Chinese singer whose home in the city of Changzhou now faces demolition. He sits atop his home, which is labeled “condemned,” and clenches a fist in defiance. He holds a megaphone that labeled “microblog,” suggesting that like many others facing demolition Zuo Xiao is now turning to social media to make his case known. Behind Zuo Xiao is a sea of other megaphones. The large white characters on the poster read: “Opposing forced demolition concerns both you and me.” The Weibo post reads:

He’s held so many concerts before, but this time he [Zuo Xiao] really needs web users to sing along with him: opposing forced demolition concerns both you and me! You need to care today about someone else facing demolition because tomorrow it could be you going up against the heartless digging machine! Old Zhu [the artist, Zhu Shimao] drew this picture especially to support Zuo Xiao. If we don’t have the protection of a roof over our heads, then our fate is to be hogs!

Ever since Chinese novelist Mo Yan (莫言) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on October 11, Chinese media have gone into overdrive reporting on the choice, often as a national victory for Chinese culture. Since Monday this week, at least 1,201 articles mentioning Mo Yan have appeared in China’s domestic newspapers. The vast majority of these are from commercial newspapers, but many provincial and city-level Party newspapers have also run coverage about Mo.

In today’s edition, the Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily runs an interview with Mo Yan. He is asked for his thoughts on the honor, how the prize has changed him or his outlook on his work, for his views on contemporary Chinese literature.

At the end of the interview the People’s Daily asks Mo the question we all would like an answer to: “In your December 10 acceptance speech, what will you say?”
Mo Yan responds:

I will say things that are real. I will speak the truth. Actually, I have two acceptance speeches. One is five minutes long, another is 45 minutes long. I’ve not entirely prepared them. The next things I need to think about are these speeches. Some people have admonished me, saying I need to say this thing, and some have tried to inspire me to say that thing. As for me, well, I want more to use my own way to talk about what I aspire to, and to talk about the things I’m sincere about. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has stipulated that before November 5 I must inform them of the topic of my speech. Before November 12, I must deliver a copy of my speech to them. This allows them the time translate it, because the speech will be simultaneously translated over the 5 minutes.

Some Chinese commentators — including, for example, Larry Lang, a well-known economist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong — that China suffers from an irrational optimism about its own present and future that is conditioned by state propaganda and a deep-seated propensity toward denial. Lang argues in his most recent book, China’s Economic on the Brink of Danger, that China’s arrogant denial of systemic problems in its economy and political system is one of its greatest weaknesses. In this cartoon, posted by artist Kuang Biao (邝飚) to Sina Weibo via his latest account (many previous ones have been removed), China is represented by a figure covered from head to toe in bandages, crippled by a thousand cuts, injuries and ailments. The only part of the figure’s body that is unscathed is its right hand, which it uses to paint a red smile over its mouth with a pen.

The following post made by the official Weibo account of the duty office at China Central Television’s news channel (CCTV News), was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 9:12 a.m. yesterday, October 16, 2012. The post simply reports breaking news about the death of two police officers in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, on October 15. The CCTV News duty office currently has just under 178,000 followers, according to Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

[Two Police in Kunming’s Yiliang Sacrifice Their Lives On Duty] After 5 a.m. today, two policeman on duty in the Police Substation in the Old City in Kunming’s Yiliang County sacrificed their lives going out [to answer a call]. The China Central Television reporter has already verified this information, and relevant details of the case are presently under investigation. (CCTV journalist Liu Wenjie）

It is not clear why this Weibo post from CCTV News would be deleted by censors at Sina Weibo. News stories about the death of the two police officers are still available online, including this report on a Yunnan news site.
The original Chinese post reads:

【昆明宜良两民警出警后不幸牺牲】今日凌晨5点多，昆明市宜良县古城派出所两值班民警在接案出警后，不幸牺牲。目前央视记者已核实该信息，相关案情正在调查中。（央视记者 刘文杰）

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.