Monthly Archives: January 2013

CHINESE students are rekindling an interest in politics thanks to a series of epic scandals and the advent of social media.

Students at an elite Shanghai high school told Fairfax Media they were cautiously following news of a rare journalists' rebellion at the newspaper Southern Weekend via microblog accounts, despite frenetic online censorship and fiery propaganda edicts.

And they are taking sides ahead of the ''trial of the century'', featuring maverick politician Bo Xilai, which authorities have signalled will begin soon.

Bo's family had received in-principle official approval to hire a high-profile lawyer, Shen Zhigeng, said a source close to the matter, and Xinhua news agency announced on Wednesday night that his file has been handed over to the judicial system.

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The former Communist Party boss of Chongqing municipality has been officially accused of massive corruption, abuses of power, illicit sexual liaisons and involvement in his wife's murder of Englishman Neil Heywood.

One student said Bo was ''a good guy'' because of the fight he led against mafia figures in his Yangtze River metropolis. Another said Bo was guilty of ''inner party'' misdeeds that would never be disclosed.

Pu Zhiqiang, a leading lawyer, said Bo's trial would not lead any closer to truth or rule of law because there was no prospect of it being anything but a piece of theatre for the purposes of ''political power struggle''.

However, even the prospect of the most show-stopping trial since Madame Mao is being overshadowed by the open media revolt against tightening censorship that began last week at Southern Weekend.

Unconfirmed reports say journalists at Southern Weekend reached a peace deal overnight, but not before the anti-censorship rebellion had spread to other key media outlets and the news had penetrated deep into Chinese society.

Excerpt from:
Censorship battle captivates Chinese students

A Chinese newspaper at the centre of a strike over censorship has been published after journalists and Communist Party officials appeared to reach a tentative agreement.

The Southern Weekly appeared as planned on newsstands in Beijing and Shanghai, though copies of the paper were not obviously available in its hometown, Guangzhou.

No mention of the three-day dispute could be found in the latest edition of the paper. Staff walked out on Monday in a rare strike, which quickly developed into an ideological debate over free speech in China.

The newspaper's journalists had been angered after the local Communist Party propaganda chief ordered officials to change an editorial they had written.

The original version of the editorial had called on the incoming Chinese leadership to push through political reforms. The censored version was a simple plaudit for the Communist Party.

Supporters of the journalists gathered outside the newspaper's office in Guangzhou for three days this week.

With remarkably unusual defiance, the group called for the overthrow of the Communist Party and the installation of a free media and independent judiciary.

Police watched and photographed them but, unusually, no attempt was made to shut down the protest. Some of the protesters removed masks in front of police to prove they had no fear of being photographed.

Temporary CCTV cameras were installed on trees outside the offices. Some protesters said they feared they may be arrested in the coming days once the dispute has died down.

The details of the deal that allowed the paper to be published are not clear, though it is understood staff agreed their editor-in-chief would be fired and in return they would not be punished for their protest.

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China: Censorship Row Newspaper Published

Published: Jan. 10, 2013 at 1:42 AM

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The events set off by the anti-censorship protest by the staff of a Chinese newspaper may force China's new leaders toward political reforms, says an expert.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said Chinese Communist Party authorities seem to have temporarily defused the mini-crisis brought on by the protest against the "ham-fisted censorship" at the Southern Weekly in Guangdong province.

Under a deal reached Wednesday to settle the censorship protest, whose details were not disclosed, authorities reportedly had allowed the highly popular Southern Weekend (also called Southern Weekly) to publish Thursday.

In return, journalists at the newspaper may have agreed not to publicly air their grievances about Tuo Zhen, propaganda head for Guangdong province, who had been accused of censorship. The journalists had threatened to strike over a New Year's editorial on political reform that was allegedly censored and rewritten by a local propaganda official.

The incident comes as the Chinese Communist party made its leadership transition at its congress last November, with the reform-minded Xi Jinping taking the helm, along with the six members of the powerful Politburo Standing committee.

Professor Pei wrote provincial party official have promised to relax some of the recently imposed censorship measures such as prior approval of reporting topics and examination of copy before publication and in return, the journalists would end their walkout.

"On the surface, this outcome may not seem worth celebrating," Pei wrote. "After all, the party did not meet a key demand of the protesting newspapermen: sacking the local propaganda chief who had allegedly eviscerated the newspaper's New Year editorial calling for constitutional rule in China."

Pei also warned local officials, despite the deal, may likely retaliate against the newspaper's editorial once the incident loses media spotlight.

"Nevertheless, the protest over censorship at Southern Weekly and the Party's modest concessions constitute an important development" since Xi became the new leader.

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Censorship incident tests leadership