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Post tags: books, Evan Osnos, film, inequality, literature, materialism, urbanization, wealth gap
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Guangdong Propaganda Department: On the morning of May 17, a Huanan Agricultural University PhD student hanged himself and passed away. The media must not investigate, report, or comment on the incident. If necessary, cover the story in strict accordance with police wire copy. (May 18, 2013)

广东省委宣传部：5月17日早上华南农业大学一博士生上吊自杀身亡，各媒体不采访报道评论，必要时严格按警方通稿刊播。

Guangdong Propaganda Department: Regarding the planned Binhai power plant in Shenzhen and related issues; and the demolition and relocation of a public cemetery for victims of the Anti-Japanese War in Guangzhou, and related issues; the media must not report or comment. (May 18, 2013)

广东省委宣传部：对深圳滨海电厂规划及相关问题、广州拆迁抗日公墓相关话题，各媒体不报道不评论。

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

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Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, forced demolitions, Guangdong, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, suicide, World War II
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Wedding portrait

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Post tags: Mr. Wang
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Cui emphasized that China’s integration into international organizations must be met with a reform of outdated rules:

So we are ready to integrate ourselves into the global system, and we are ready to follow the international rules. Of course, these rules were set without much participation by China, and the world is changing. You cannot say that the rules that were set up half a century ago can be applied without any change today. But what we want is not a revolution. We stand for necessary reform of the international system, but we have no intention of overthrowing it or setting up an entirely new one.

[Source]

When Tepperman questioned China’s engagement on an international scale, Cui explained that interfering in other country’s matters is not China’s responsibility or the U.S.’s responsibility.  Tepperman said, “Americans sometimes wonder whether China is really willing to help solve key international problems” and pointed out that China “has not been very cooperative” in Syria. Cui explained:

If we are really serious about building a new type of relationship, we have to have mutual accommodation and mutual understanding. It’s not that we are just helping the United States, or that the United States is just helping us. We have to help each other. We must make efforts to see issues from the other guy’s point of view.  We certainly don’t want chaos and civil war in Syria or anywhere in the world. We understand there are political differences in the country. But we always follow the principle that the affairs of a particular country should be determined by its own people, not by us, not by outsiders. It’s not up to China or the United States to decide the future of the country. [Source]

When asked about Chinese cybersecurity threats launched at the U.S., particularly the case of threats against The New York Times, Cui pointed out there is no hard evidence against China, that the United States is the more powerful country in this regard, and that international rules need to be determined:

Cybersecurity is a new issue for the international community at large. First of all, the technologies are new, and the attacks are invisible. Traditionally, if you perceived a threat, it could be seen. It was physical. But not in cyberspace.  Second, very few international rules have been designed for these kind of problems. So we have to work out a new set of international rules for everybody to follow.

[...] if we look at the development of IT and at the industry itself, the United States is much more advanced than China. So logically, I think the weaker should be more concerned about the stronger. The stronger is in a better position both to defend itself and to maybe go on the offensive against others.  [...] I don’t think anybody has so far presented any hard evidence, evidence that could stand up in court, to prove that there is really somebody in China, Chinese nationals, that are doing these things. [Source]

On whether or not the U.S should take a stance on issues facing China and Japan, Cui echoed his previous stance on China’s willingness to interfere in foreign conflicts.  He said: “The most helpful thing the U.S. could do is to remain truly neutral, to take no side.”

In a recent conference held in New York City, the Committee of 100 Annual Conference, Cui also expressed his hope that the media would provide more “objective, accurate, and balance reports on China and China-US relations” to create “more positive energy for a stable and healthy China-US relationship.”

Cui Tiankai is the current Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. and previously served as the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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Post tags: cybersecurity, diplomacy, Japan relations, Syria, U.S. relations
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China’s environment ministry acknowledged that the dam would have an impact on the area’s highly biodiverse flora and fauna.

“The project will affect the spawning and movement of rare fish species, as well as the growth of endangered plants, including the Chinese yew, which is under first-class state protection,” the ministry said, according to Xinhua.

The ministry proposed counter-measures to mitigate the environmental impact, such as “protecting fish habitats in tributaries, building fish ladders and increasing fish breeding and releasing”, Xinhua reported. The project is still awaiting a final go-ahead from China’s state council. [Source]

Reuters’ David Stanway notes that state power firm Guodian, a subsidiary of which will build the new Shuangjiangkou dam, has previously faced criticism from the government for starting work on projects before receiving final approval.

Large-scale hydropower is central to Beijing’s plans for greater use of fossil fuel alternatives. It faces strong and widespread opposition, however, because of its impact on communities, plants and wildlife, to say nothing of accusations that it can increase the risk of landslides and earthquakes. Another currently contentious hydropower project is the long-delayed series of dams on the upper Nu (or Salween) River. For more on the Nu dams and related environmental issues, see ‘Dams & Deforestation: Yunnan’s Water Woes‘ at CDT.

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Justice Gate sits at the intersection of Renmin Road (People’s Road) one of Kunming’s busiest thoroughfares. Large shopping malls sit across the intersection and a pedestrian commercial street leads to the site of the 5/4 protest. The police forces were lax in allowing the group to migrate southward to the gate, after all, it led the protest away from the government headquarters, but they were determined to not allow the crowd to shut down traffic at the Renmin Road. A human wall of police officers five-thick formed to prevent the mass from breaking through the gate. Underneath the shade of the great oak trees, the protester’s energy seemed to stall out. New tactics like singing the Chinese national anthem with the words “Rise Up! Rise Up!” “Forward on! Forward on!” reinvigorated the group. Elderly women sang Red Songs from revolutions soon to be forgotten. Outside of the gate, the blazing sun lighting up the intersection provided contrast to the shaded area occupied by the protesters.

It was at this moment that the movement changed. No longer were anti-PX slogans being shouted – the crowd shifted to “Oil Refinery Get out of Kunming!” Over and over. One woman shouted in Kunming’s local dialect, “Rise up Kunmingers! Rise up Yunnanese!” and the mass movement discovered a new slogan that hit very close to home. A new file of police rushed to prevent protesters from breaking out into the square, but their efforts were of no use. At 12:00pm the protesters broke through the police wall and shut down the busy intersection. Traffic going both ways on busy Renmin road reached a standstill. Storefront owners rushed out to see what was going on. Crowds gathered on shopping mall balconies to cheer on protesters and take photos. The movement had emerged from the darkness into the light and gathered new steam.

An article in the Guardian looks at the demonstrations as part of a rising tide of environmental protest in China:

The Chinese public are becoming increasing concerned about the state of their local environment and up to 80% believe that environmental protection should be a higher priority than economic development, according to a new survey. The survey, carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, measured the public’s attitudes towards environmental protection and how they rate the government’s performance.

Such protests appear to be often tolerated by the authorities and, like the Shanghai protests, are sometimes successful in their goals. Last October, a week-long series of protests in Ningbo in eastern China by thousands of residents was sucessful in stopping work on an oil and petrochemical complex.

The frequency of protests is rising as China’s increasingly affluent and middle-class society becomes more aware of environmental issues. The number of environmental protests rose by 120% from 2010 to 2011, according to Yang Chaofei, the vice-chairman of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences.

Yang a told a lecture organised by the Standing Committee of the National’s People’s Congress on the social impact of environmental problems that the number of environmental ‘mass incidents’ has grown an average of 29% annually from 1996 to 2011. He said that the number of incidents which involve concerns about dangerous chemicals and heavy metal pollution have risen since 2010. [Source]

Read more about the Kunming protests via CDT.

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Post tags: environmental activism, environmental protests, Kunming PX
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The United Nations health agency said a written statement on Friday that the four deaths were from cases that had already been identified in laboratories.

It said here had been no new cases of infection with H7N9 Since May 8.

The WHO reiterated that there was no evidence that the new strain of bird flu, which was first detected in patients in China in March, was passing easily from human to human. If such a feature emerged it could spark a pandemic.

But it said: “Until the source of infection has been identified and controlled, it is expected that there will be further cases of human infection with the virus.” [Source]

Fears that the virus would morph into a global pandemic have eased as hospitals around the country have seen fewer new cases. From Quartz:

The passing of the crisis would be good news not just for Chinese citizens. Epidemiologists have long worried that bird flu could morph into a virus contagious between humans, which could give rise to a global pandemic. Experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) and other institutions have said that the possibility of human-to-human transmission in China’s recent outbreak is not confirmed but can’t be ruled out either. A total of 131 people in China have caught H7N9, and 36 people have died from it, according to the WHO.

But shutting down live poultry markets across the country seems to have slowed the outbreak’s spread. Warmer temperatures may also be helping. Zhejiang health officials said there have been no new cases of the virus over the past 28 days. They have also now released dozens of people who were being examined because of their contact with H7N9 patients in the province. [Source]

As fears have dissipated and with the help of government subsidies to the hard-hit poultry industry, the price of chicken is on the rise, according to People’s Daily:

The price per kilo of dressed chicken hit 13.51 yuan (2.18 U.S. dollars) on May 15, up from an annual low of 12.97 yuan on May 12, but the figure was still 4.2 percent lower than the same time last year, according to data from MOA.

The number of transactions in the poultry sector from May 6 to May 12 increased 25.6 percent from the equivalent period in April, but they were still down 67.2 percent year on year, the data showed.

The price rebound is the result of central government subsidy initiatives that involved pumping 600 million yuan into major poultry-processing companies and breeders nationwide to stabilize the industry, said Bi Meijia, MOA chief economist. [Source]

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fruits and vegetables

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Click here to view the embedded video.

The Guardian’s first look at the film gives a synopsis:

[...T]he film is [...] an angry, painful, satirical lunge into what the director clearly sees as the dark heart of modern China, and a real attempt to represent this to audiences elsewhere in the world. He sees China as a globalised economic power player suffering a new and violent Cultural Revolution of money-worship in which a cronyist elite has become super-rich in the liquidation of state assets, creating poisonous envy in the dispossessed who hear all about others’ wealth from the internet, and are supposed to gossip aspirationally about it on their mobile phones. A key scene in the film shows someone brooding over Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

It is a fractured and divided story, like shards of a shattered mirror. Different strands and characters and stories emerge, tangentially concerned with each other. Jia has taken his plotlines from newspapers, violent stories of criminal despair, and by meshing them together, these tales, often involving guns, build up a picture of China as a desolate Wild West of lawless violence and cynicism. A worker erupts with anger at how the mine-chief has somehow been able to afford a sports car and to lease a private plane. Three brothers coming back to their hometown for their mother’s birthday reveal themselves to be deeply unhappy in various ways, and the unhappiness somehow always manifests itself in violence. Two have handguns: one casually slays three guys who have attempted to rob him on the road. Another, who has been telling his wife he has been travelling the country looking for work, reveals himself to be an ice-cool armed robber who doesn’t scruple to murder women in cold blood for their expensive designer bags. Another is having an affair with a sauna receptionist (played by Jia’s longtime leading actor Zhao Tao) and this too ends in a bloody confrontation.

[Source]

The Hollywood Reporter looks at one Chinese web-user’s reaction to the trailer of a film that, “based on true events,” uses the drama of national news to inspire a scathing cinematic inquiry into modern Chinese society:

One Weibo user described the film as seeming “very audacious,” adding: “Judging from the trailer, it contains a lot of critical scenes based in reality that were created with no fear of the censorship system.”

Little was previously known about Jia’s film, but the trailer hints at several storylines based on widely discussed — but never filmed — Chinese social ills and political scandals, such as a notorious case from Hubei province in 2009, when a pedicurist named Deng Yujiao stabbed and killed a local bureaucrat after he reportedly slapped her in the face with a wad of cash and tried to force himself on her (based on the trailer, Jia’s wife and muse, Zhao Tao plays a woman placed in a similar predicament). Another scene features snippets of news footage from the 2011 high-speed train accident in China that killed 40 people and led to a major scandal over mismanagement of the country’s railway ministry – and yet another mentions Chinese laborers killing themselves in sweatshops, a likely reference to the wave of suicides that took place at the factories of Foxcon, the company known as the assembler of the Apple iPhone.

[Source]

The putative use of sensitive headlines to inspire a film that is, by many accounts, filled with the pulp violence of a Tarantino flick, begs a question — what will Beijing’s censors make of this film? The Globe and Mail reports on Jia Zhangke’s confidence that his film, co-produced by a state-funded company, will hit screens in the mainland:

Of course, a Cannes premiere is no guarantee the film won’t get banned: It happened to Lou Ye’s 2006 Cannes competition film, Summer Palace. But Jia’s film has a couple of things in his favour. A Touch of Sin (the title alludes to a 1971 martial arts film, A Touch of Zen) is co-produced by Jia’s production company and the state-backed studio, Shanghai Film Group, which virtually assures its release.

At yesterday’s press conference, Jia seemed confident his film will be seen by its home audience: “The film has been approved by the censor board and we hope it will be released in autumn.”

In China, where Django Unchained, Skyfall and Cloud Atlas were all recently shown with minor cuts, perhaps officials are finally ready for their homegrown brand of vigilante payback.

[Source]

More quotes from Jia’s press conference on censorship, sensitivity, and his intended audience were reported by The Record:

Jia — whose film 24 City played at Cannes in 2008 — said he became preoccupied by the increasingly frequent stories of violence he saw in the media, and wanted to dramatize the stories for Chinese moviegoers.

“In society people often hear about these violent events, but they quickly forget,” he said. “It’s not by turning your back on violence or hiding violence that you make progress.”

Jia said he didn’t think the topics he depicted “are particularly touchy or secretive in any way, because they were already covered in the Chinese press and on the internet.”

But the director also was careful to stress — and the censors no doubt happy to hear — that the stories were timeless, not the product of modern politics, economics or technology.

[Source]

The only Chinese-language film to have won the high prize at Cannes was Chen Kaige’s 1993 masterpiece Farewell My Concubine, and so far Chen is the only Chinese national to have taken the prize.

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Several days ago, a 24-year-old employee of Ogilvy in Beijing died from sudden cardiac arrest, which initial reports say occurred after the employee worked overtime for one straight month. His last post on Sina Weibo went viral, drawing countless comments from other overworked netizens, many of whom noted that China had become the number one country in the world for death by overwork.

Studies show that many Chinese are unhappy with their jobs — or lack thereof. This year, millions of Chinese students are graduating and face what is reportedly the worst job market in the country’s history. Even if they are able to find a job, their worries will not end. A recent Regus study showed China ranked first among 80 countries in workplace stress.

A video produced by Tencent News depicted sources of anxiety felt by Chinese in the workplace: financial troubles, interpersonal relationships, and endless overtime. While the short video included facts and figures about stress in China’s workforce, it focused on individual stories — a 26-year-old who believes he will never be rich enough to buy a house, and a low-level office worker who dreams of emigrating. Chinese increasingly see their anxieties and dreams as individual matters, rather than collective issues.
[Source]

The video depicts the anxieties of those in Chinese workplaces. For those just graduating from China’s universities, finding a job itself is becoming increasingly stressful. As the Financial Times reports:

According to the ministry of education, 6.99m students will graduate from university this summer, 190,000 more than last year and the most since records began in 1949.

Tough competition and slackness in China’s economy have made 2013 what many in the media have described as the “hardest” yet for graduates looking for jobs. According to Shanghai Evening Post, the situation is even more severe than it was in late 2008, when the global financial crisis was at its height. [Source]

Amid all this doom and gloom, ChinaFile published a roundtable discussion looking at what China is getting right, which generated a range of responses from Michael Zhao, Orville Schell, James Fallows, and Danwei’s Jeremy Goldkorn. From Fallows’ response:

It’s this difference of tone and attitude, more than any specific contrast in investment patterns or growth percentages, that to me represents “what is going right in China.” Like anyone who has been in China recently, I can give you a hundred-item list of serious problems for the country and its institutions. But so far, I’ve always been able to list of a hundred-plus-one strengths, assets, and ambitions expressed by individuals and organizations there. I was in Beijing again last week, and, in addition to being reminded of all the crises, I was exposed again to a sense of national movement and ambition. That may seem a vague reed on which to rest an assessment of a nation, but I think it’s unignorable, it’s important, and it’s part of why it’s foolish to bet against the Chinese system’s ability to cope with its challenges. [Source]

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A documentary by State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has revealed how the Dalai Lama clique manipulated self-immolations in China’s Tibetan-inhabited areas.

The documentary, which was aired on Thursday evening, was created through in-depth research and interviews conducted by CCTV reporters in areas where the incidents took place.

In March, Banmajia, a 26-year-old villager, attempted to carry out a self-immolation in Seda county, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, but was stopped by police.

Local police found a suicide note written by him together with dozens of photocopies of the note. Banmajia said he wrote the suicide note in accordance with the so-called Self-immolation Guide, which circulated on the Internet.

[...]CCTV said there is no doubt that the guide is irrefutable evidence of the Dalai clique’s manipulation of self-immolations.

[Source]

Back in February, CCTV aired a report blaming U.S.-government funded Voice of America for “fomenting” Tibetan self-immolations with their broadcasts. By citing Tibetan blogger Woeser and looking to the CCTV special report, The South China Morning Post shows how CCTV’s media campaign is an effort to gain leverage in global perception of the Tibet situation:

The half-hour news feature is part of recent efforts by Chinese state media to change the narrative of Chinese control over Tibet. It is the fifth such video aired over the last year, writes Beijing-based Tibetan activist Tsering Woeser in a tweet.

[...]The report also accuses foreign media of perpetuating the symbolic suicides. “By continuing to speculate about immolations, Radio Free Asia and other foreign media participate in their propagation in Tibetan areas,” it claims.

To back up its claims, it – somewhat bizarrely – quotes a German language lecturer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

“It’s a problem of the Western media and it’s a problem of the interests of the exiled Tibetans who … it’s a fact, the more trouble there is in Tibet, the more money they get,” says Otto Kölbl.

[Source]

More on the contents of this newest CCTV report and its aspirations to reach a global audience from the BBC:

The documentary, which will also be released in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian, is aimed at letting “the international community recognise the truth about self-immolation incidents”, CCTV says.

A transcript of the documentary outlines how “Dalai clique” members of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India allegedly posted “self-immolation instructions” on the internet to incite Tibetans in China to set themselves alight.

[...]“There is no doubt that this ‘self-immolation guidebook’ is irrefutable evidence on the Dalai clique planning and inciting Tibetan self-immolations,” the documentary asserts.

[Source]

The Dalai Lama himself has made efforts not to comment either for or against the practice of self-immolation, which has been used in Beijing’s campaign to emphasize the spiritual leader’s responsibility. A post from the Council on Foreign Relations “Asia Unbound” blog looks at the politics behind the Dalai Lama’s decision:

If the self-immolations have failed to galvanize international support, why hasn’t Dalai Lama used his moral authority to issue a public statement asking for Tibetans to stop the practice? It is widely believed that self-immolation cases would drop significantly if he makes such a move.  But Dalai Lama is facing a major dilemma over this issue. As a voice of peace and reason, he privately does not support self-immolation. Indeed, from the outset, he was said to be skeptical of how effective this approach would be.  But he has refrained from calling for an end of self-immolation. While he is still the unrivaled spiritual leader among Tibetans, his Middle Way Approach to resolve the Tibetan issue—which does not accept the status quo or political independence—through nonviolent means is increasingly challenged by the young generation, as represented by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest NGO in the exile community.  They are increasingly frustrated and many have been radicalized by the lack of breakthrough in the negotiation between Dalai Lama’s representative and the Chinese central government that began in 2002.  Against this backdrop, self-immolation has been viewed by some as an extreme form of collective frustration and anger among the Tibetans.  Unless Dalai Lama is able to offer a viable alternative, his call for ending the practice would likely alienate his supporters, even draw backlash from the radical wing of his own constituency.  It’s because of this that he has expressed respect for the courage and motives of the self-immolators, despite his general disapproval of their behavior.[...]

[Source]

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Post tags: CCTV, Dalai Lama, external propaganda, self-immolations, state media, Tibet, tibet politics, Tibet protests
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He drew a rough map of his hometown from memory, before posting it on “Bring Lost Babies Home”, a Chinese website devoted to locating missing children through the help of volunteers.

Soon afterwards, a volunteer wrote back with valuable information – a couple from a small town in Sichuan’s Guangan city had lost a son 23 years ago. The time matched Luo’s abduction perfectly.

Luo searched for pictures of the Sichuan town and found they looked familiar to him. To confirm his suspicions, he turned to the satellite version Google Maps. The minute he zoomed in on an area called “Yaojiaba” near the Sichuan town, Luo recognised the two bridges.

“That’s it! That’s my home,” shouted Luo, in tears.

[Source]

This case bears a striking resemblance to a similar case of an Indian orphan who used Google Maps to find his hometown after being adopted by an Australian family. See also previous CDT coverage of child trafficking in China.

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Post tags: child trafficking, Fujian, Google, human trafficking, Sichuan
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister that Beijing is closely monitoring EU investigations into China’s solar-panel and wireless-network products, according to state television. Mr. Li also called for Greece to try to persuade the EU to use caution in applying any trade measures.

At a news conference also on Thursday, Shen Danyang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said China would take necessary measures to defend its mobile-telecommunications equipment companies against any sanctions taken by the EU.

Mr. Shen also said new tariffs on Chinese solar manufacturers, which are set to be announced next month, were akin to “picking up a stone to drop on one’s foot.”

[Source]

The EU claims that Huawei and ZTE receive subsidies from the Chinese government that enable the companies to sell products below cost and gain market share on global competitors, practices that both companies have denied. From The China Daily:

Huawei, the world’s second-largest telecom equipment maker by revenue, said in a statement: “Huawei is disappointed that the European Commission has taken the unprecedented step of deciding in principle to open the first ever ex-officio dumping and subsidy investigations.”

The company said it always plays fair and wins business and trust through innovative technology and quality service, rather than via pricing or subsidies.

Dai Shu, a spokesman for ZTE, said his company has yet to receive any official letter from the EU and insisted it receives no illegal subsidies to do business in the region.

[Source]

The Commerce Ministry spokesman added that China had made a recent proposal about the telecoms situation to an EU delegation but had not received a response, according to Reuters:

“This makes one cast doubt on the sincerity of the EU to resolve conflicts through consultations,” Shen said.

EU officials said on Wednesday they have had an open-door policy to the Chinese authorities for more than a year at China’s own request, but that the response had been disappointing so far.

“As we made clear yesterday, the European Commission counts on our Chinese partners to take up the offer of negotiations in a serious manner to find an amicable solution to resolve this situation,” EU trade spokesman John Clancy told Reuters on Thursday.

[Source]

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Protesters in Kunming. View more photos from today’s events at CDT Chinese. (@明明悠阳)

Central Propaganda Department: Without exception, do not republish, report, or comment on the assembly of the masses in Kunming to protest the construction of a PetroChina oil refinery.

中宣部：对昆明群众反对中石油云南炼油项目聚集一事，一律不转不报不评。

State Internet Information Office: All websites are asked to remove text, images, and video related to the protest of over 1,000 people in Kunming city center against the Anning PX construction plan. Interactive platforms must strictly monitor activity. (May 16, 2013)

网信办：请各网站删除关于昆明上千市民聚集市中心抗议安宁PX项目的文字、图片、视频等相关信息。互动环节要严格把关。

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

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Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, environmental protests, Internet censorship, Kunming, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, protests, Yunnan
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