Saturday, August 2, 2014

Baidu Relaxes Censorship of "Bo Xilai Zhou Yongkang" - After State Media Begins Writing About Their Connection

On July 30, 2014, the state-sponsored Global Times published an editorial entitled “Zhou Case Shows Firm Anti-Graft Resolve” (周永康有负党和国家,更愧于人民). Some excerpts:
The CPC Central Committee announced on Tuesday that Zhou Yongkang, former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and former secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee, had been put under investigation.

This announcement was embraced with applause from the public, but without surprise. This was because there have been several publicized cases of corruption in which his relatives and underlings were involved, all of which pointed to Zhou. Public opinion already presumed that Zhou was the big tiger behind the scenes, and the announcement is the first official response to such presumptions.
. . . .
Zhou's case still deserves to receive a lot of attention as follow-up details are revealed. Chinese judicial organs showed a certain transparency to the public when they dealt with Bo Xilai's case, and we hope they can improve this in regard to Zhou's case. Western public opinion tends to distort China's anti-corruption progress, and timely revelations and a trial exactly according to the law are the best responses.

Zhou's investigation shows the gravity of corruption in Chinese society, but more importantly, it reveals the zero tolerance stance of the Chinese leadership toward corruption. This requires a joint effort by both the central government and society, coming up with a new consensus to fight corruption.

中共中央29日宣布,鉴于周永康涉嫌严重违纪,由中共中央纪律检查委员会对其立案审查。这是一个令中国全社会鼓掌的决定。

周永康被立案审查,中国公众已不感到意外。他的亲属和他在职时的一些下属纷纷因贪腐出事,不断强化舆论对他本人也有问题、并终将被立案审查的预期。昨天的重大消息是对这一预期的回应。
. . . .
中央刚刚宣布由中纪委对周永康立案审查,此案的后续情况公众仍将高度关注。薄熙来案实现了相当的透明性,相信周永康案能做得更好。西方舆论一直有对中国反腐败进展做歪曲性解读的恶习,及时有效的信息披露和严格依法依规的审理过程是对它们最有力的回击。 
对中央立案审查周永康,社会一方面看到腐败的严重性,但更多看到的是中央“零容忍”反腐败的坚定决心。全社会在与中央的这一决心互动,周永康、徐才厚、薄熙来等大案成为一个又一个冲破“刑不上大夫”的范例,新的制度文化和对红线的共识呼之欲出。
On July 31, 2014, the People’s Daily posted a series of images on its website under the titled “The Mysterious Oil Barons Behind Zhou Yongkang” (周永康背后的石油系神秘富豪). The images, which it had copied from the Hexun website, included the one below, which had a row stating
“Clique: Petrochemical System, close ties with Jiang Zemin and BoXilai”
石化系统,与江泽民,薄熙来熟识

The People’s Daily subsequently deleted the series (original URL here - http://energy.people.com.cn/n/2014/0731/c71661-25376495-12.html), but it remains available on Hexun here: http://money.hexun.com/2014-07-30/167112921_1.html.

These screenshots show that when a user searched for “Bo Xilai Zhou Yongkang” on July 31, Baidu told the user that it had ten pages of results, but in fact only provided 2 pages, with a total of seven results.
These screenshots show that when a user did the same search the following day, Baidu was able to locate hundreds of thousands of results.


Below is an example of the new search results Baidu began displaying on August 1: a series of photos from China.com headed “Informative Images: Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai.”

These screenshots show how Baidu’s News search results for “Bo Xilai Zhou Yongkang” changed between July 29 and August 2.







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