Sunday, September 9, 2012

Essay on Political Legacy of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao Disappears From Caijing, Title Censored on Baidu and Sina Weibo


In late August and early September 2012, the state-sponsored Caijing Magazine ( 财经杂志) published a three-part essay by Deng Yuwen (邓聿文 - vice editor of the Communist Party weekly Study Times 学习时报) entitled "The Political Legacy of Hu-Wen" (胡温的政治遗产). By September 5, Caijing had deleted all copies of the essay, and search engines and Weibos were censoring searches for the title.

These screenshots show that, at some time between September 3 and September 5, a post about the third installment of the essay on Caijing's official Weibo was deleted.

These screenshots show that, at some time between August 31 and September 4, a copy of the first installment of the essay posted Sina.com.cn was deleted.
These screenshots, taken on September 4, show that searches on Baidu for "The Political Legacy of Hu-Wen" and on Sina Weibo for "Political Legacy" returned no results, just a censorship notice.
Here are translations of Caijing's abstracts:

The Internet and the new media that depends on it have brought with them a singular result, which is to thoroughly alter China's social ecology, tremendously promoting and raising people's civil rights consciousness, and posing challenges to the control of the ruling party and the government. Generally speaking, the ruling party and the government (primarily basic-level governments) have yet to adapt in the face of these changes. 
网络及以网络为依托的新媒体出现,带来一个结果,就是彻底改变了中国社会的生态,极大地催生和提升了大众的民权意识,从而对执政党和政府的控制与治理构成了挑战。总的来讲,执政党和政府主要是基层政府在这种变革面前,还不适应

Deng's Essays Before They Were Deleted
Part 2 - August 31 
As for the Communist Party itself, the biggest and most pressing problem that needs resolving is that, while the Communist Party leads the people to overall health and properity, it is unable to address the ever-expanding wealth gap and increasingly-severe corruption, and implement effective social integration and satisfactorily hand over power to the people, with the result being that the Communist Party itself faces a crisis of legality of its rule. 
从中共自身来说,最大的也是最迫切需解决的问题,是中共在带领人民走向总体小康和富裕的同时,未能解决不断扩大的贫富差距、愈益严重的腐化,以及进行有效的社会整合和满足民众对还权于民的需要,致使中共自身面临着统治的合法性危机
(also originally available at http://yinsha.caijing.com.cn/comments/2012-08-31/112096412.html)

With respect to China realizing democracy, people basically have no objections, and the Communist Party consistently stresses that there can be no sociliasm without democracy. Disagreement arises as what kind of of democracy, and how to realize it. 
对于在中国实行民主,人们基本没有异议,中共一向也强调,没有民主就没有社会主义;分歧在于,实行什么样的民主,如何实行民主




Translation: Sun Daluo's Court Judgment for Sharing Books and Articles

The PRC government sentenced Sun Zhiming (孙志明, who wrote under the alias Sun Daluo (孙大骆)) to one year imprisonment for the crime of "di...