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WUKONG When 'foreign intervention' is
welcome By Wu Zhong, China
Editor
HONG KONG - The standard reaction
of a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson to any
harsh criticism of the country by a foreign
government or organization is: "We are resolutely
opposed to any intervention in China's internal
affairs by any foreign force." But there have been
exceptions to China's resistance to "foreign
force".
When Deng Xiaoping launched
economic reforms in the late
1970s aimed at turning the
Stalinist-style command economy into a
market-oriented one, he did not start with
privatization of state assets, knowing that this
would meet with strong resistance. Instead, he
began with the introduction of foreign investments
into the country.
The inflow of foreign
investment forced China to restructure its
socialist legal, economic and even political
systems. In this sense, it can be said that Deng
made use of a foreign force - capital - to
spearhead economic reform and opening up.
Even today, when China is no longer short
of capital, the government still wants to lure
foreign investors with an eye on their expertise
in corporate governance and management. For
example, a regulation of the China Banking
Regulatory Commission stipulates that no license
will be issued to a new bank unless it has foreign
shareholders. The banking watchdog also encourages
state lenders, when restructuring themselves into
joint-stock banks, to have strategic foreign
investors.
And now the current Chinese
leadership, headed by President Hu Jintao and
Premier Wen Jiabao, is making use of another
outside force - foreign journalists - to change
rigid rules restricting the freedom of the press,
by using the opportunity of Beijing hosting the
2008 Summer Olympic Games.
A new
regulation signed by Wen, "The Regulation on News
Coverage by Foreign Journalists During Beijing
Olympic Games and Its Preparatory Period", came
into effect on January 1, leading to a relaxation
of decades-old restrictions and giving foreign
media people more freedom to travel and report
across the country. In fact, it virtually grants
foreign journalists freedom to report news
according to international standards.
After the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen
crackdown, Beijing imposed immediate tighter
control on news coverage by foreigners in China.
Foreign journalists had to apply for permission on
a case-by-case basis to travel and conduct
interviews outside Beijing and Shanghai. This
requirement has been a major hurdle for foreign
reporters afraid that the information provided in
their applications might be used to block news
sources.
The new regulation lifts all such
bans from January 1, 2007, to October 17, 2008,
immediately after the closure of the Beijing
Olympics. It remains to be seen whether the
regulation will be rescinded and bans reimposed
after the Games.
"Foreign journalists will
no longer need to apply to provincial
foreign-affairs offices for permission to carry
out reporting in all provinces of China ... but
need only prior consent of the organizations or
individuals they want to interview,'' Foreign
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in December.
"It is crystal-clear that as long as the
interviewee agrees, you can do your reporting."
Nor is there any restriction on issues to
be covered by foreign journalists, although the
regulation pertains to the Beijing Olympics and
"related matters". The only exception is that
foreign reporters are advised, while traveling in
Tibet, not to touch the sensitive issue relating
to the Dalai Lama.
Cai Wu, director of the
State Council's Information Office, made it clear
that the government does not intend to restrict
the scope of
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