China Clamps Down on Microblogs, Requires Account Holders to Use Real Names

Netizens see a new rule requiring users to register with their real names as a bid to muzzle criticism.

New microblog rules requiring account holders to use their real names are being rolled out in two other major Chinese cities following the first clampdown on Twitter-like services in Beijing earlier this month.

Seven major websites in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, began on Thursday to ask new users to register with real names, the provincial publicity department said in a statement.

Hong Kong Journalists’ Association Says Bad year of 2011: “The one-country element is increasingly overriding two systems”

Freedom of expression in Hong Kong, once home to a freewheeling and independent media, has deteriorated in the past year, a journalists’ group has said.

The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association said the year ending June 2011 had been a bad one for press freedom in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under an agreement aimed at protecting existing freedoms.

“The one-country element is increasingly overriding two systems in the way that Hong Kong is governed,” the HKJA said in a statement, referring to the “One Country, Two Systems” concept which underpinned the change of sovereignty.

NTD AP and Taiwan Chunghwa Telecom Renew Satellite Broadcast Contract

[Ruey-lan Chang, CEO of NTD Asia Pacific]:
“On behalf of all of NTD AP’s staff, I’d like to thank Taiwan’s main and opposition parties, and the support from various channels, in helping NTD AP secure service with the ST-2 Satellite, which has state protection.”

On Tuesday, CEO of NTD Asia Pacific Ruey-lan Chang announced the renewal of its contract with Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom. It was signed on Monday evening. It ensures that our partner station will continue to broadcast NTD’s programming to the region, and to parts of mainland China.

Freed China critic Hu Jia says wants to resume activism

BEIJING — Prominent Chinese dissident Hu Jia wants to resume his activism but he is weighing up the impact on his family, according to his first reported comments since being released from prison at the weekend.

During a phone interview with Hong Kong’s Cable TV, Hu stressed the importance of “loyalty to morality, loyalty to the rights of citizens”.

“You should be loyal to your conscience,” he said in a broadcast aired late Sunday.

One of China’s leading rights activists and government critics, Hu returned to his Beijing home early on Sunday, his wife Zeng Jinyan said on Twitter, after completing a more than three-year sentence for subversion.

Legislators Seek to Protect Independent TV Broadcasts to China

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers in the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan believe the Chinese Communist regime is responsible for a move that would potentially bar New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television from broadcasting to mainland China. They are asking the government of Taiwan to act to protect press freedom.

In a letter to Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher wrote, “The democratic government of Taiwan should be encouraging the spread of ideas favoring freedom and traditional values across the strait.”

‘Absolutely impossible’ that city Vancouver not pressured by China to remove Falun Gong

By Pete McMartin –

Last Saturday, I wrote about the City of Vancouver’s clumsy attempt to draft a bylaw that would effectively ban the Falun Gong from maintaining a 24-hour vigil outside the Chinese consulate on Granville Street.

To recap our story so far:

– In 2001, the Falun Gong begin their vigil to protest what the group claims is persecution by the Chinese government.

– In 2006, after five years of the Falun Gong’s peaceful vigil, then mayor Sam Sullivan decides the Falun Gong’s little shack and banners must go -not because of pressure by the Chinese government that they be removed, the mayor says, but because they contravene a street-and-traffic bylaw.

My friend, the dissident who ‘disappeared’ in China

You might think it gets easier to stomach news of a good friend or terrific individual ”disappearing” in China, given the rate at which it has been happening. But Yang Hengjun vanishing from Guangzhou’s Baiyun Airport hits deeper into the abdomen and rises further up the throat, I think, because it comes with an added feeling that the ground for everyone in China is shifting fast beneath our feet.

Nobody has heard from ”Henry” Yang since Sunday when the Sydney writer phoned a colleague to say he was being followed by three men. Australian diplomats, already struggling to cope with the growing list of detained ethnic Chinese Australians, say they are urgently trying to find him. Yesterday Yang’s legions of online followers voiced hope that this increasingly brutal system would not be so irrational as to ”disappear” him, rather than simply warn him that the censor’s red line was closing in.

China Charges Well-Known Internet Writer Ran Yunfei with Subversion

(VOA News) China has charged well-known pro-democracy writer and editor Ran Yunfei with subversion for his alleged role in calling for popular uprisings in China similar to those gripping the Middle East and North Africa.

Ran’s wife told VOA’s Mandarin service she received a copy of the formal charging documents Monday, and says they were dated last Friday. She said she will move quickly to hire a lawyer to defend her spouse, and expects formal court proceedings within two months.

In China, microblogging sites become free-speech platform

BEIJING — In a country where most media are controlled by the state, information is heavily censored and free-flowing opinions are sharply constricted, Chinese have turned to a new platform to openly exchange unfettered news and views: microblogs, similar to Twitter.

Microblogs — called “weibo” — seem to be one step ahead of China’s notoriously efficient censors, with a dozen microblogging sites, more than 120 million users and a million posts every hour. Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China. Sensitive broadcasts on BBC and CNN are blacked out. Even text messages with words such as “jasmine” and “revolution” may be bounced back as undeliverable.

Chinese Activist Sentenced to Ten Years for Inciting Subversion; Essays Cited as Evidence

In a trial lasting less than two hours and marked with procedural irregularities, a Sichuan court sentenced Liu Xianbin (刘贤斌), a signer of Charter 08 and long-time advocate of democratic reform in China, to ten years in prison and two years and four months of deprivation of political rights.

Liu’s wife, Chen Mingxian (陈明先), who attended the trial and saw her husband for the first time since he was detained in June 2010, said, “The judge interrupted Liu many times and did not give him a chance to read his prepared statement. The judge also kept cutting off Liu’s lawyer when was presenting the defense statement.”  She added that after the verdict was announced, Liu declared: “I’m innocent. I protest!”

Congressional Battle Brewing Over VOA Mandarin Service (to China) Cuts

A fight may be brewing in the U.S. Congress over plans announced this week to end the Voice of America’s shortwave broadcasting to China.

Prominent conservatives have spoken out against the plan, which would see VOA move all its Mandarin-language services to the Internet. In addition, a Democratic member of Congress told VOA Wednesday he will urge the speaker of the House of Representatives to block the plan.

The proposal was part of the U.S. government international broadcaster’s proposed budget for the coming year, which also includes plans to shut down VOA’s Cantonese and Croatian-language services.

Chinese Journalist Chang Ping Who Defied the Censors and Wrote About Corruption Is Fired

SHANGHAI — A prominent newspaper columnist who challenged government censors by writing about corruption and political reform was dismissed Thursday by the Southern Daily Group, publisher of some of the country’s best-known newspapers.

The columnist, Chang Ping, said he was forced out because his bosses were “under pressure” from government propaganda authorities.

The executive editor, Zhuang Shenzhi, said that the publisher had decided not to extend Mr. Chang’s contract.

Chinese Nobel Prize Winner Supporters Rally on Christmas in Hong Kong

NTD TV, Dec. 25, 2010 –

A group of people marched in Hong Kong to demand the Chinese regime release jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo on Saturday (December 25), the one-year anniversary of his imprisonment.

Holding banners reading ‘Free Liu Xiaobo’ and dressed in Christmas costumes, some 30 supporters gathered at a police station and made their way to the communist party liaison office.

Under heavy police presence, the demonstrators chanted “Support Charter 08” and called for the release of Liu and other “prisoners of conscience.”

Imprisoned 10 Years in China, Epoch Times Editor up for Release

After spending the last 10 years of his life in a Chinese prison, Zhang Yuhui is scheduled to be released on Dec. 21. The former editor-in-chief of the China branch of The Epoch Times was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role with the uncensored, Chinese-language edition of the newspaper.

A photograph of Zhang, a letter to his wife, and a letter to the U.S. Congress, which were smuggled out of the prison by inmates in 2004, are among the few records of his life obtained over the last decade. Unable to contact the outside world or his wife and two children, his current condition is unknown. He is known to have been tortured by the Chinese authorities in the early years of his arrest.

Chinese woman arrested for tweeting intention to march with a banner praising jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner

Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 –

Chinese police seized a woman from her house in the middle of the night after she tweeted her intention to demonstrate with a banner congratulating jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo on winning the Nobel peace prize, a friend said today.

The news comes amid a crackdown on Liu’s friends and supporters that has raised questions about who will collect his award next month.

His wife Liu Xia, who is under house arrest, has invited more than 140 dissidents, activists and celebrities to accept the prize because she fears she will be unable to go.

Five other prominent Chinese activists locked up for criticising the government

(Excerpt) The Amnesty International –

The human rights defence movement in China is growing, but those who attempt to report on human rights violations or challenge politically sensitive government policies face serious risk of abuse. The authorities make frequent use of vaguely-worded charges to silence and imprison peaceful activists, such as “endangering state security”, “subversion of state power” and “separatism”.

Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia, became another victim of this crackdown when she was placed under house arrest after she returned home from visiting Liu in prison after he had won the Nobel prize.

Amnesty International profiles five other prominent Chinese activists who have been locked up for daring to criticise the government. (They are Liu Xianbin, Gao Zhisheng, Tan Zuoren, Hairat Niyaz, Dhondup Wangchen )

China: Lowest 8th ranking of 2010 World Press Freedom Index

(Excerpt) Reporters Without Borders, Oct 20, 2010 –

Asia’s four Communist regimes, North Korea (177th place), China (171st), Vietnam (165thj) Laos (168th), are among the fifteen lowest-ranked countries of the 2010 World Press Freedom Index.

Ranked just one place behind Eritrea, hellish totalitarian North Korea has shown no improvement. To the contrary: in a succession framework set up by Kim Jong-il in favour of his son, crackdowns have become even harsher.

China, despite its dynamic media and Internet, remains in a low position because of non-stop censorship and repression, notably in Tibet and Xinjiang.

In Laos, it is not so much repression which plagues this country of Southeast Asia as its single party’s political control over the whole media.

On the other hand, Vietnam’s Communist Party – soon to hold its own Congress – and its open season against freedom of speech is responsible for its worse than mediocre ranking.(more details from Reporters Without Borders)

In China, Even the Premier Is Censored

Wall Sreet Journal, Oct 18, 2010  –

From the outside, China can seem monolithic, run by Communist Party officials united by the prime directive of maintaining power. But every once in a while splits become visible and remind us that while China may now be the world’s second-largest economy, there’s a steep price for being a laggard when it comes to the free flow of information.

Consider Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He has called for political reform several times in recent months, but censors have blocked domestic reporting of his comments. This led to an open letter from 23 well-known Communist Party elders calling for free speech. The letter was posted last week in a blog area of sina.com, one of the country’s largest websites, and widely shared before being removed.

This letter is worth attention, both for its authors and its substance. The signatories include a who’s who of former Communist Party propagandists, including Li Rui, the former private secretary to Mao Zedong, and retired top editors of the People’s Daily (the party’s mouthpiece), Xinhua (the official news agency) and the China Daily (the state-run English-language newspaper)…….(Wall Sreet Journal)

This Nobel prize was bold and right – but hits China’s most sensitive nerve

Timothy Garton Ash Stanford, California, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 October 2010 –

Norway’s Nobel peace prize committee has done the right thing in awarding this year’s prize to Liu Xiaobo. The furious reaction of the Chinese state shows just how complicated doing the right thing will become as we advance into an increasingly post-western world.

Liu Xiaobo is exactly the kind of person who deserves this prize, alongside Andrei Sakharov, Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. For more than 20 years, he has consistently advocated nonviolent change in China, always in the direction of more respect for human rights, the rule of law and democracy. He has paid for this peaceful advocacy with years of imprisonment and harassment. Unlike last year’s winner, Barack Obama, who got the prize just for what he had promised to do, Liu gets it for what he has actually done.

China wages propaganda war after Nobel Price to Liu Xiaobo

AFP, Oct. 12, 2010 –

BEIJING — As soon as dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, China’s censorship machine kicked in to suppress the news, but not even that could muzzle web users, especially those on Twitter.

When the prize was announced on Friday in Oslo, the communist regime’s propaganda department moved quickly to prevent any mention in its media — television, radio, press, phone services and the Internet were all affected.

Those who attempted to send text messages containing Liu’s Chinese name found them blocked.

China threatening to kill me, Canada reporter says

By ANDREA WOO, Vancouver Sun, Canada,  September 22, 2010 –

A Surrey-based reporter says China’s Ministry of State Security is threatening his family, life and livelihood for his critical coverage of the Chinese government.

Surrey resident Tao Wang moved to B.C. from China in 2007 and began working as a local general assignment reporter for the Canadian branch of Falun Gong-affiliated New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) in July 2009.

Most of his assignments for the international broadcaster have been innocuous, on topics such as the opening of the Canada Line, the Olympics and the harmonized sales tax.

However, some of his reports have been critical of the Chinese government and its practices. NTDTV is one of the few networks with dissenting views that broadcasts in the Communist nation.

Hong Kong Businesspeople’s Recent Published Magazine Confiscated by Authorities in South China

Radio Free Asia, Sep. 21, 2010-

HONG KONG— Authorities in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen have confiscated the entire first issue of a recently launched magazine which details the dangers of investing in the mainland, according to the publication’s disgruntled co-founder.

Xue Baoren, who has campaigned for the rights of investors in mainland China since a legal dispute with Shenzhen officials over a factory he leased, said the printing operations of Investments and Pitfalls magazine has been moved to his hometown of Hong Kong, where it will be distributed free of charge.

“I had the magazine printed [in May] at a factory in Shenzhen, and then I had planned to have it shipped to Hong Kong,” Xue said. “It was supposed to arrive on Aug. 27 but it was confiscated by the authorities in Shenzhen.”

Chinese Printer of Book “The Great Migration” Arrested After the Author

Reporters Without Borders, Sep. 17, 2010 –

Zhao Shun, a printer from the northeastern province of Hebei, was arrested earlier this week by the authorities of Weinan, in the central province of Shaanxi. The reason for his arrest has not been announced, but it was Zhao who printed “The Great Migration,” a book by journalist Xie Chaoping that seems to have been the reason for Xie’s arrest in Weinan on 19 August.

“Two men are now being held for writing and printing this book about the human impact of the Sanmenxia Dam, which was built across the Yellow River during Mao’s Great Leap Forward in the 1950s,” Reporters Without Borders said. “When will the Chinese authorities accept that journalists and academics can write about contemporary Chinese history without posing a threat?”

The press freedom organisation added: “We appeal to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to intercede on behalf of Xie and Zhao and obtain their release without delay.”

Both Zhao’s family and Xie’s wife confirmed the arrest of Zhao, who printed Xie’s book in the form of a supplement in the newspaper Huohua (The Spark). More information about Xie’s detention: http://en.rsf.org/china-journalist-…

Xie’s lawyer said the police forced Xie to name the printer. Colleagues of Zhao have also been interrogated by the police.

A Chinese researcher specialising in journalists’ rights said the probable outcome of the arrests would be that those involved in publishing the book would be prosecuted on charges of “illegal commercial practices.”

– Reporters Without Borders