Now Executive Director of the China Media Project, leading the project’s research and partnerships, David originally joined the project in Hong Kong in 2004. He is the author of Dragons in Diamond Village (Penguin), a book of reportage about urbanization and social activism in China, and co-editor of Investigative Journalism in China (HKU Press).
[The Tragedy of the Cultural Revolution Could be Repeated] I recommend everyone read this long microblog essay.
The post includes a text-as-image file, or chang weibo, with an essay by writer Wang Sirui (王思睿):
The original Chinese post follows:
【文革悲剧还有可能重新发生】推荐大家看看这篇长微博
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 Hong Kong Economic Times reporter Lao Xianliang (勞顯亮) about riots earlier this week in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 7:47am Hong Kong time today, June 29, 2012. Lao Xianliang, whose Weibo account is “Williamontheway”, has just over 9,300 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
Lao’s post included an image of coverage of the Zhongshan riots by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, in which it is reported that a journalist with Apple Daily was attacked:
Apple Daily journalist attacked in Zhongshan.
The original Chinese post follows:
蘋果記者中山直擊
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.
In a case that recently drew intense interest on China’s internet, police in China’s northern Jilin province detained a man for 15 days and slapped him with a 3,000-yuan fine after they found a cache of “indecent” movies on the hard drive of his computer. Never mind that the search of the man’s home was about a totally unrelated matter. Faced with a tide of negative opinion online, the local police decided to reverse its punishment. The man would get his money back, but of course the damage was already done.
In China, we don’t have a ratings system for films and videos. That means that so long as the police or other authorities deem something to be pornographic or otherwise indecent, it is illicit. Technically, only the distribution of such materials is against the law. But try using that in the course of arbitrary enforcement. If unsavory DVDs are uncovered, or material is found on your computer, you can be punished whatever the explanation.
In the bigger picture, this man from Jilin province was very fortunate. Because his case happened to make the rounds on the internet and pressure was brought to bear, his punishment was revoked. But how many thousands of others meet a similar fate without any recourse whatsoever?
In developed countries, citizen’s residences — whether they are homes or hotel rooms — are sacrosanct. Without warrants from the courts, police are expressly forbidden from entering such places, and cases of unlawful search and seizure are serious crimes.
In our country, though, police can search wherever they please. Someone could burst right in while you’re sleeping sweetly and check your personal documents. In some places it’s a major problem if they discover a man and woman cohabiting without a marriage license. A big enough problem, anyhow, to merit a trip down to the police station.
In theory, if you’re in your own home but not in bed with your own partner, this too is a serious transgression. If, god forbid, several men and women were found together, this would be a major taboo, constituting the “crime of group licentiousness” (聚众淫乱罪).
Not long ago, someone informed police in the city of Nanjing that an assistant professor from a certain university was engaged in wife swapping. An investigation was carried out and he landed in prison.
If you’re watching sex videos in your own home, and watching them with your spouse, then the crime is somewhat lighter — and at the moment the risk of the police knocking down your door is minimal. But if you’re watching them with anyone else of the opposite sex and someone informs on you, there will definitely be trouble. Just as in the case of this man from Jilin, just finding videos on his computer was enough to detain and fine him, even though the police had no proof he had watched them with others, or even that he had watched them himself. And of course we still don’t know the nature of the videos and what standard of indecency was applied.
Our police can bully as they please.
Ultimately we must have a bit of privacy in this world of ours, secrets we don’t wish others to know. Sure, some things we keep in that private space of ours might not do us credit. But in China, unfortunately, this private space does not actually exist at all — particularly in the face of overbearing power.
In its insolence power views itself as the parents of the general population. Standing before the parents of power, the people must always be children, never growing up. They have the power to decide what you have a right to watch and what you don’t have a right to watch. They have the power to inspect your book bag, your bedroom and even your personal diary at will.
In the face of overbearing power, we are not a society of citizens. We are nothing more than ant people (蚁民), nothing more than shitizens (屁民).
Those who live under the constant threat of search, the constant threat of surveillance, have no real homes. They have only temporary lodgings, spaces where at any moment they might be harassed. This essay is a translated and edited version of a post made to Zhang Ming’s personal weblog on June 19, 2012.
Earlier this year, police in the southern city of Guangzhou began producing decks of playing cards featuring Guangdong’s most-wanted criminal suspects, with the hope that the public would come forward with information about them. The new method resulted in many suspects coming forward and turning themselves in. In the this cartoon, posted by artist Tian Cheng (天呈) to Sina Weibo, a most-wanted criminal bows his head with contrition as he holds his own most-wanted playing card, the King of Clubs, over his head. His shadow trails behind him, making out the Chinese characters for “confession,” tanbai (坦白).
This in fact is a deformed system of state capitalism in which the government completely controls economic and social development. From the problems in the building of high-speed rail we can see that the bubble miracle created by the “China Model” is right now shattering.
The following post by artist Huang Kui (黄奎) about riots earlier this week in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 11pm Hong Kong time yesterday, June 27, 2012. Huang Kui has just under 26,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
Huang’s post, which provides a link to a video on Sina.com that was still available as of 12:36pm on June 28, reads cryptically:
Zhong – Shan – Sha – Xi – Video: http://t.cn/zWLDnMC
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 Xu Ji (许骥 ) about expected public protests in Hong Kong to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the territory’s return to China in 1997 was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:50am Hong Kong time today, June 28, 2012. Xu Ji, a well-known Chinese academic, has just under 24,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
The post reads:
It is said a powerful typhoon is expected to sweep across Hong Kong on July 1. How many people will take to the streets on that day? The time has come to test the people of Hong Kong!
It includes the following map showing the trajectory of the tropical storm.
The original Chinese post follows:
据说七一当日有强烈颱风过境香港。当天还会有多少人上街？考验香港人的时候到了！
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.
Emerging in the 2000s as a term preferred by internet users to refer to
corrupt officials who had already located their family members overseas, “naked
official” began entering the more formal media discourse of anti-corruption in
2010. On February 22, 2010, the Ministry of Supervision issued a document
called “Highlights
of the Work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2010” (国家预防腐败局2010年工作要点), the first government document to make supervision
of so-called “naked officials” a priority.
On March 5, 2011, Ma Ma (马馼), deputy secretary
of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said China would begin a
registry for “naked officials” that year. In a media interview in
2016, Ma stressed that, “I personally believe that under reform and opening
officials and citizens are the same, and sending sons and daughters overseas
should not be a special right officials have.” Asked to estimate how many “naked
officials” there were in China, Ma said: “I’m afraid we can’t arrive at these
numbers right now.”
In 2017, the profile of the term “naked official” was further raised as
it appeared in the Chinese TV
drama “In the Name of the People” (人民的名义), a series based on the online novel written by Zhou Meisen (周梅森) that tells the story of a prosecutor who works to uncover corruption
in a fictional Chinese city.
The following post by Ye Kuangzheng (叶匡政), sharing a post from low-volume Weibo user about the problem of urban benefits for migrants in China’s cities, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 6:15am Hong Kong time today, June 27, 2012. Ye Kuangzheng, a well-known Chinese academic, has just over 141,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
The original post, from a user called “A_FloatingOnTheNorthWind_hkc” (@A北风飘飘_hkc), reads:
Chinese people have the right to move freely on their own home soil. Beijing is a city belonging to China, and I’ve been admitted here [for work], so a school desk should be provided for my child. It is right and unalterable for children to live with their parents!
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.
As we approach a crucial handover of power at the Party’s 18th National Congress, perhaps no issue is of more critical concern to senior Party leaders than the CCP’s control of the country’s armed forces.
Earlier this year there were rumors that Chinese President Hu Jintao, also head of China’s Central Military Commission, was struggling internally for control of the military agenda. Other rumors suggested that one of the PLA’s most senior generals, Zhang Qinsheng (章沁生), was under investigation for his alleged support for nationalization of China’s armed forces.
The hints of division were given some credence in early May as a strongly-worded editorial in the People’s Liberation Army Daily warned against “international hostile forces” advocating that China’s military be commanded by the state rather than by the Party.
The “nationalization” issue claimed its first media casualty in late May, as one of China’s top investigative reporters, CMP fellow Yu Chen, was removed from his post at Southern Metropolis Daily. Chen’s removal stemmed from a social media post calling for nationalization of the military that was re-posted from the official Weibo account of the paper’s “In Depth” section, where Chen was an editor.
Yesterday, an editorial in the official People’s Daily by a top military official again reiterated the point that the pro-nationalization argument is “erroneous.” The editorial, “Actively Fostering Core Values Among Modern Revolutionary Military Personnel”, addresses the practical issue of how to ensure Chinese military commanders and troops fall into line with the Party.
The editorial is written by Yang Yuwen (杨玉文), identified as “a military commissar for an enterprise group within the Jinan Military Region.”
Yang’s editorial calls for a more vigilant attitude toward the ideological training of military personnel. Its headline on the international website of China Central Television brings the crux out more forcefully: “We Must State Clearly that ‘Nationalization of the Military’ is Wrong.”
Yang writes:
[We must] lead commanders and troops to be even more steadfast in their belief in the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Faced with noise and static in the ideological sphere, we must persist in using scientific standpoints, views and methods to state clearly from a theoretical standpoint why such views as ‘the non-Party nature of the military’ (军队非党化) and ‘nationalization of the military’ (军队国家化) are erroneous.
Yang goes on to prescribe a range of methods to ensure that Chinese military commanders and troops are properly indoctrinated. First of all, the military must “create effective platforms”. Yang explains:
In the modern era, mobile phones, the internet and other [tools] are daily becoming the primary platform by which commanders and troops (官兵), and an important cultural and lifestyle space. This demands that we actively occupy the spiritual and cultural position that is the internet, working hard to raise the influence and contagiousness of core [Party] values among contemporary revolutionary military personnel. . . In recent years, we have developed and improved our [offering of] a vital, healthy and upright study and entertainment platform, including more than 20 offering such as red animation [programming], online classrooms, online [information about] military history, military website-hosted blogs and chatrooms for military personnel.
Finally, in addition to effective online tools and training for military personnel, the Party must maintain tight-fisted control over the ideas to which members of China’s military are exposed:
Third, we must enhance information controls. In order to guard against the influence of harmful information on commanders and troops, we must build and perfect the release and censorship of information, and related systems such as for holding those responsible for harmful information to account, grasping information dynamics in a timely way, enhancing channeling of public opinion and cleansing the online cultural environment.
