Fei Chang Dao

Following up on previous posts about newly imposed censorship , as well as Sina Weibo and Baidu censorship, of information relating to New York Times August 26 article entitled " Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader " ( 总理家人隐秘的财富 ), here are some examples of related censorship by other major websites in China. On October 26, searches for the names of Wen Jiabao's mother (Yang Zhiyun 杨志云), son (Wen Yunsong 温云松), and wife (Zhang Beli 张蓓莉) on Qihoo return no results, just a censorship notice. At some time between October 26 and October 30, Sogou began censoring searches for the Chinese title of the New York Times article. A comparison of search results for "New York Times" in Chinese on October 27. Yahoo.cn only returns results from a whitelist of about a dozen websites operated by the government and the Party. Yahoo.com shows the New York Times home page as its top result. A comparison of search results for "Wen Y

Wen Jiabao (温家宝) is the Premier of China's State Council and holds membership in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. At around 5:00 am (Beijing Time) on October 26, the New York Times Published an article entitled " Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader " ( 总理家人隐秘的财富 ). An excerpt: Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives, some of whom have a knack for aggressive deal-making, including his wife, have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion. Searching for "Wen Jiabao" These screenshots, taken on October 27, 2012, show that Baidu restricts search results for Wen's name to its strict whitelist of approximately a dozen websites controlled by the government

At around 5:00 am (Beijing Time) on October 26, the New York Times Published an article entitled " Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader " ( 总理家人隐秘的财富 ). An excerpt: Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives, some of whom have a knack for aggressive deal-making, including his wife, have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion. . . . . Duan Weihong, a wealthy businesswoman whose company, Taihong, was the investment vehicle for the Ping An shares held by the prime minister’s mother and other relatives, said the investments were actually her own. Ms. Duan, who comes from the prime minister’s hometown and is a close friend of his wife, said ownership of the shares was listed in the names of Mr. Wen’s relati

At around 5:00 am on October 26 (Beijing Time), the New York Times Published an article entitled " Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader " ( 总理家人隐秘的财富 ). An excerpt: Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives, some of whom have a knack for aggressive deal-making, including his wife, have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion. The following screenshots show examples of new censorship that various websites instituted within 24 hours of the article's publication. Sina Weibo began censoring "NYT" Sogou began censoring "New York Times" (纽约时报) Qihoo began censoring "Wen Jiahong" (温家宏 - Wen Jiabao's brother) Youdao began censoring the Chinese title of artic

On October 24, 2012, China's official news agency Xinhua published a report entitled: "State Internet Information Office Convenes Deployment Meeting, Welcoming the Party's 18th Congress, Create a Surge in Online Propaganda" ( 国家互联网信息办召开会议部署 喜迎党的十八大 掀起网上宣传热潮 ). An excerpt: Wang Chen, deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department and head of the Central Overseas Propaganda Office and the State Internet Information Office, spoke at the meeting, and called on Internet propaganda offices in every locale to spare no efforts in meticulous organization, do a good job of propagandizing online the Party's 18th Congress, create atmosphere for expression that will facilitate the victorious convening of the Party's 18th Congress, and create a mass upsurge of online propaganda. . . . . The meeting stressed that news websites and commercial websites must further strengthen their sense of responsibility, and utilize the critical ideological guidance provided by D

On October 21, 2012, China's official news agency Xinhua published a report entitled " CPC Develops Democracy Over Last Decade ." And excerpt: The CPC attaches great importance to democracy. In his report on the Party's 17th National Congress, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of China Hu Jintao said the people's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism and developing the people's democracy is the CPC's consistent goal.  Therefore, democracy with Chinese characteristics is improving, both inside and outside the CPC. . . . . Although achievements have been made in democracy, it is far from enough in China, a country that was ruled by feudalism for thousands of years. More efforts are still needed to prevent arbitrary decisions from being made by a few people, rein in abuses of power and keep public interests from being ignored. These screenshots, taken on October 22, show that searches on Baidu's Tieba forums for "

On October 16, 2012, the state-sponsored Global Times published an editorial entitled: " Shan Renping: Exiled Dissidents Should Leave Hatred Behind " ( 单仁平：海外异见者需有走出仇恨的精神力量 ). An excerpt: Chinese dissident Liao Yiwu received the 2012 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In his speech during Sunday's award ceremony, Liao savaged China as an "inhumane empire with bloody hands." He also described China as "the source of global disasters" and an "ever-expanding garbage dump." In the end he cried out six times that "the empire must break apart." . . . . Germans probably think this award could exert some influence on China. But Chinese are used to Westerners using dissidents. Compared with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010, the latest book award will barely draw any attention. 一位出走德国、名叫廖亦武的中国异见作家获德国图书和平奖，在14日的颁奖现场，他在正式发言中把中国称为“灭绝人性的血色帝国”，并称中国是“地球灾难的源头”和“无限扩张的垃圾场”。他最后连续6次高喊“这个帝国必须分裂”。 . . . . 德

[Update - December 2012:  At some time after this post was published the Global Times restored this article.] On October 18, 2012, the state-sponsored Global Times published a report entitled "US Confirms Locke Visited Sichuan Aba, Urges Sina-Tibetan Dialogue" (美证实骆家辉访四川阿坝 敦促中国与藏人对话). An excerpt: On October 16, the United States State Department publicly confirmed that in September US Ambassador to China Gary Locke visited the Aba district of Sichuan, China, and met with local officials and residents. Aba has gained world attention because several incidents involving Tibetans self-immolating. The US State Department spokesperson said on the 16th that Tibetan self-immolations are continuing unabated, and the US is "deeply concerned," and urges the Chinese government to have further dialogue with Tibetans. . . . . Since a Tibetan self-immolation incident occurred in Aba in February 2009, overseas organizations have said that there have been 55 similar incidents

On October 11, 2012, Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 was awarded to the Chinese writer Mo Yan "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." Within two days the  Nobel Literature Prize article in Baidu's Baike (a wikipedia-like product) had been updated to include an biography of Mo Yan, an image of Mo Yan, and the following excerpt cut-and-pasted from a Xinhua article : Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee Member Li Changchun's Congratulations   Baidu's "Nobel Literature Prize" Baike Article On October 11, sent a letter to the Chinese Writers Association expressing his congratulations to the famous modern writer and deputy director of the Chinese Writers Association Mo Yan on his being awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. In his congratulatory letter Li Changchun said that, with China's swift devel

These screenshots show three examples of user posts on Baidu's Tieba Mo Yan forum that were deleted: "People are asking who is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner who is still imprisoned. Does anyone know who it is?" (有人问我世界上唯一一个诺贝尔奖获得者还在监狱里，谁知道他是谁) Original URL: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1915772535 "The Lama and Liu Xiaobo getting the Nobel are just garbage conspiracies, Mo Yan's getting one is a great breakthrough. - Hehe, that's what you call a two-faced nation." (喇嘛和刘晓拿诺奖就是垃圾阴谋 莫言拿就是伟大突破-呵呵 这就是两面的天朝) Original URL:  http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1916367957 "I'm going to let folks know who the last two Chinese winners of the Nobel were. - Most people  don't know what those two actually did." (给大家普及下前两位诺贝尔奖的中国人吧 大多数人都不知道这两个做过什么事儿) Original URL:  http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1916225592

On October 11, 2012, Chinese Nobel Laureate Mo Yan (莫言) told reporters during a news conference: “I hope [Liu Xiaobo] can achieve his freedom as soon as possible.” These screenshots, taken on October 14, shows that a search for "Hope Liu Xiaobo Freedom" (希望 刘晓波 自由) on Baidu news search returned no results from China's state sponsored media. The only relevant result is from the Chinese version of the New York Times. The same search on Baidu's web search restricted to the New York Times returns no results - Baidu says it is unable to find any. These screenshots, also taken on October 14, show that Baidu web searches for three different translations used by foreign media for the phrase "hope Liu Xiaobo can achieve his freedom as soon as possible" apparently return thousands of results, but Baidu's first page only loads 3-5 results (as opposed to the normal 10). BBC : 希望刘晓波尽快获得自由 Deutsche Welle : 希望刘晓波早日重获自由 New York Times : 希望刘晓波能尽快获得自由

On October 12, 2012, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Hong Lei had the following exchange with reporters at a press conference: Question : What is China's view of Chinese author Mo Yan being awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature? Answer : We express our congratulations to Mr. Mo Yan on his being awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. Mr. Mo Yan was recently awarded Mao Dun Literature Award, and his literary achievements are obvious to all. The Chinese people have a long history and magnificent culture, and these are the common treasures of all humanity. We welcome friends from countries around the world to better understand China's culture and to appreciate the charms of China's outstanding literature. Question : Is there any possibility that, two years after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Sino-Norway relations may soon take a turn for the better? Has China communicated with the Norwegian Nobel Committee about the winner of this yea

On October 11, 2012, China's official news agency Xinhua reported : Chinese authors and netizens congratulated Mo Yan on Thursday night after he became the country's first Nobel Literature Prize laureate. Mo's win brought joy to his supporters as no Chinese national has ever won the Nobel prize in literature in its century-long history."  On October 8, 2010, Xinhua reported : "Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to China's Liu Xiaobo desecrated the prize and could harm China-Norway ties, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu on Friday." These screenshots were all taken on October 12, 2012, and show that both Baidu and Sina Weibo censor searches for "Nobel Peace Prize" (诺贝尔和平奖) and "Liu Xiaobo" (刘晓波) but not for "Nobel Literature Prize" (诺贝尔文学奖) and "Mo Yan" (莫言). Baidu bans forums on "Liu Xiaobo," but not "Mo Yan" Baidu censors searches for "Liu Xiaobo," but not &qu