Page 2 of
2 In China all history is
political By Kent Ewing
Zhu Ling's account of peasant
activist Yao Lifa's long struggle to bring fair,
democratic elections to a local legislature in
Hubei province, to Hu Fayun's This Is How It
Goes@SARS.com, the story of a woman whose
obsession with the Internet during the SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis
jeopardizes her relationship with a local
politician.
This week the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television took
the crusade for political correctness even
further, ordering satellite television networks to
show only "ethically inspiring
dramas" during prime time.
The order, which affects 48 national channels,
will be in force for eight months, starting in
February. It prohibits prime-time airing of
imported cartoons and dramas, programs involving
crime, sex, divorce or legal cases, and dramas in
local dialects or even local accents.
With the censors' ambit spreading so far and
wide, analysts point to one clear message:
Chinese leaders want to see nothing in the media
that could undermine President Hu Jintao's vision of
a "harmonious society" in the run-up to the
CCP's 17th congress this autumn. The congress
is the first to be chaired by Hu, and no one is
allowed to spoil the party.
Hu took over
the presidency from Jiang Zemin in 2003 and is
also the party's general secretary and head of the
army. The congress, which will witness substantial
changes in leadership posts and set the course for
the country's development over the next five
years, is expected to be a crowning moment for
him.
Ironically, when Hu assumed the
presidency touted as a reformer, there was hope of
a new openness toward the media. Indeed, in tandem
with his call for better economic management, the
new president encouraged journalists to play a
more aggressive watchdog role in society by
reporting on the epidemic of corruption and fraud
that has become a defining characteristic of
Chinese bureaucracy.
But the new attitude
was short-lived. According to the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists, Hu has presided
over "a major crackdown on the media".
That crackdown attracted international
condemnation last year with the jailing of New
York Times researcher Zhao Yan and the chief China
correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, Ching
Cheong. Zhao was sentenced to three years in
prison on what was widely considered a trumped-up
charge of fraud, and Ching was jailed for five
years for selling state secrets to Taiwan in a
verdict that was met with disbelief by many of his
fellow journalists.
Beijing's clampdown on
editorial staff who work for local media has
attracted less attention but is no less real. Last
year, editors were sacked from three newspapers
that dared to defy the censors' dictates - the
Beijing News, the Southern Metropolis News and the
Public Interest Times - and party propagandists
also temporarily closed Bingdian, a lively
four-page weekly supplement to the state-run China
Youth Daily, because of its coverage of
controversial issues.
In addition, the
popular Beijing-based weekly newsmagazine Lifeweek
received a reprimand from the Propaganda
Department for "defiance" of the party mandate not
to cover politically sensitive events. While the
department did not specify which event Lifeweek
was "guilty" of covering, it's a fair bet the
censure was related to the magazine's October 30
cover story on the 30th anniversary of the
Cultural Revolution, which featured a front-page
photo of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife and one of the
notorious Gang of Four who led the long and bloody
purge.
Authorities have also shut down
Internet blogs and chat forums that have crossed
the censors' line.
It's no surprise that
Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th out
of 167 countries in its world press-freedom index
last year. And while the country has promised to
grant foreign journalists unprecedented freedom of
travel and coverage when China hosts the Summer
Olympic Games in 2008, that promise means nothing
to Chinese journalists, bloggers and authors who
continue to be muzzled.
For a country that
likes to lecture Japan and other nations about
facing up to their history, China still has a deep
aversion to reckoning with its own.
Kent Ewing is a teacher and
writer at Hong Kong International School. He can
be reached atkewing@hkis.edu.hk .
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