The so-called “Four Basic Principles” (四项基本原则) are a hangover from the Maoist era in China and a symbol of the power still wielded by leftists. At every juncture of reforms, political conservatives in China have attacked reforms as violations of the “Four Basic Principles.” Taking the capitalist road, they say, has weakened the party, abandoned […]
As October’s 17th National Congress draws closer, the word “democracy” (and its numerous permutations) is being tossed around like a hot potato in China’s media, from official party journals to more liberal commercial papers. Not long ago, an article from Asia Times suggested the late-breaking debate in China over political reform was flash-in-the-pan, “unlikely to […]
By some Chinese accounts, “fake news”, or xujia xinwen, has plagued news media in China since at least the Cultural Revolution, at which time media fabricated news to suit the political purposes of the Gang of Four. It is an extremely fuzzy term, and obviously, while it may be used by Chinese officialdom in campaigns […]
Cases like the beating death of reporter Lan Chengzhang earlier this year, and the controversy surrounding the Foxconn Case in August 2006, have underscored the growing problem of media ethics and press corruption in China. A crucial point often overlooked in coverage of this issue is the relationship between problems in the Chinese media and […]
So far, editors at China’s leading business magazine, Caijing, have not come forward to comment on the pulling of the publication’s latest issue this week [WSJ coverage]. But the word on the street, according to a CMP source within the financial media, is that an insider at Caijing tipped propaganda authorities off to the existence […]
The one-year anniversary of the shutdown of Freezing Point passed in silence last week. Meanwhile, the editorial page team at Southern Metropolis Daily, a commercial spin-off of Guangzhou’s official Nanfang Daily, were putting together the next few installments in their editorial series commemorating the 15th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour”, which in 1992 accelerated […]
January 9 — Chinese commercial media voiced various opinions on the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The coverage came as national television media in China were told to tread carefully around news of the execution, making reports only according to Foreign Ministry statements and without expressing sympathies for any particular party. January 9 […]
There has been a great deal of speculation over the last several days about possible fallout for bolder southern Chinese newspapers following up on the case of Gao Qinrong (高勤荣), the reporter who was released from prison on December 7 after eight years in jail [read about the case at ESWN]. There has been, according […]
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 […]
After news late last week that a reporter brought an information non-disclosure lawsuit against a government office in China’s financial center of Shanghai, some media in China asked whether this might push China toward a more open society. The reporter was using “Shanghai Municipal Government Ordinance on Openness of Information”, a local ordinance on government […]
