"Our whole country is now trying to realize the Chinese Dream. It is a dream in which the Chinese people pursue and enjoy a happy life. It is also a dream of human rights. With the realization of the Chinese dream, the human rights cause in China will witness even greater achievements." Wu Hailong, special envoy of Chinese Foreign Ministry, said.
Meanwhile, some western countries have accused China of what they called mass detentions, curbing Internet freedom and suppressing ethnic minorities.
In response, China said it was willing to work with other countries on human rights but firmly opposed those kinds of biased and malicious criticisms.
These screenshots were taken on October 23, and show that Baidu had banned users from setting up forums on its PostBar (贴吧 Tieba) to discuss human rights (人权), rights defense (维权), freedom (自由), speech (言论), and religion (宗教). Users searching for forums on these topics are told "Apologies, in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, this Bar cannot be opened at this time" (抱歉，根据相关法律法规和政策，本吧暂不开放。).
These screenshots were taken on October 24, and show that a search on Baidu for "Chinese Dream" (中国梦) returns a search results set off by special graphics, and users have been allowed to set up a "China Dream" PostBar.
On December 24, 2012, China's official news agency Xinhua published an article from Xinhua entitled "Xi Photos Show Growth, Career, Family." Some excerpts:
A picture taken in August 1987 shows Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan posing in front of a temple on Dongshan Island in Fujian.
Peng, a celebrated soprano, has described her husband as a "responsible" husband and father.
She said Xi likes swimming and mountain climbing, and sometimes stays up late to watch televised sports games.
The couple have a daughter named Xi Mingze, whom they hope will live an honest life and make a contribution to society.
A young Mingze, in one of the photos, is taken by her joyous father on the back seat of a bicycle when Xi worked in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian.
These screenshots show that, at some time between late June and mid August, 2013, Baidu stopped completely censoring search results for "Xi Mingze" (习明泽), and is instead only restricting search results to a broad white list of web sites based in China.
This screenshot shows that adding other terms to the search (in this case, by restricting results to wikipedia) yields apparently uncensored results.
However, as these screenshots show, Baidu continues ban discussion and questions regarding Xi Mingze on its PostBar (Tieba 贴吧) and Knowledge (Zhidao 知道) forums.
These screenshots show that after Baidu relaxed its censorship of Xi Mingze, Qihoo followed suit.
Sina Weibo, and Tencent Weibo continue to completely censor searches for "Xi Mingze."
These screenshots show that other search engines in China such as Sogou, Tencent's Soso, and Yahoo.cn, restrict search results either to a broad white list like Baidu, or a narrow white list comprised of about a dozen web sites operated by the central government and the Communist Party.
On October 18, 2013, the state sponsored Beijing Times published an article entitled "Cartoonist 'Rebel Pepper' Police Summons Supposedly Related to His Reposting Information on Yuyao Infant Starving to Death - Left Police Station After 7 PM Yesterday" (漫画家“变态辣椒”被北京警方传唤疑和传播余姚婴儿被饿死有关 昨晚7点多离开派出所). Some excerpts:
Shortly after 11 pm night-before-last, cartoonist Wang Liming (known online as "Rebel Pepper") was summoned by police from his home to appear at the Jiangtai Police Station in Chaoyang District. After almost 24 hours of inquiry police confirmed that his Weibo post regarding Yuyao floods were factually false but without malice, and allowed him to leave after 7 pm last night.
. . . .
Based on inquiries by the Beijing Times, the Weibo in question that Rebel Pepper posted at 12:12 am on the morning of the 13th has already been deleted, and at 12:30 pm on the 14th the Yuyao Communist Party Propaganda Department posted a notice on its official Tencent Weibo saying "Following an investigation, the contents of Rebel Pepper's Weibo are completely false," "It is hoped that Internet users will be able to view this disaster from a rational and objective perspective, and not believe or spread rumors."
. . . .
Wang Lingming said that during their questioning police asked him how he posted the Weibo, examined the cell phone he used to make the post. Last night at 6:30 the police took Wang Liming to an interrogation room, and once against questioned him regarding the specifics of the matter. Wang Liming said that the police told him that their investigation indicated that, while the content of his post was false, it was not made with subjective malice, "its just there were social responsibilities." Afterwards, the police undertook to revoke Wang's summons. At around 7:30 pm last night Wang Liming left the police station, and exclaimed: "It feels really good to get my freedom back."
On October 16, 2013, the state sponsored Global Times published an English language article entitled "Official Calls for Restraint in Yuyao." Some excepts:
Cai Qi, head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Zhejiang Provincial Committee, called for residents in Yuyao to restrain from radical acts on his Tencent Weibo account Tuesday, saying that local government officials have been trying their best in disaster relief.
Many residents in Yuyao also called for rational reflection on the city's disaster warning and emergency response system instead of blind protest on Tuesday, while thousands of people gathered to criticize the government's ineffectiveness in the disaster relief work following Typhoon Fitow brought severe flood to the city.
The rally, organized by some residents through Weibo, text messages and WeChat, began early Tuesday morning in front of the city's government building.
These screenshots show that at some time on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning (October 15-16), Baidu and Sina Weibo began censoring searches for "Yu Yao Demonstrations" (余姚 示威).
These screenshots were taken on October 16, and show that the same search on Tencent Weibo returns no results, and Sogou and Qihoo are also censoring searches for those terms.
Li Xiaolin's Denial Posted on
China Power's Sina Weibo
On October 13, 2013, China's official news agency Xinhua published an article entitled "Li Xiaolin Responds to 'Suspicious Insurance Deals': Malicious Defamation" (李小琳回应“涉保险交易”报道：恶意中伤). Some excerpts:
Li Xiaolin was born in 1961, and received a Masters degree in power system and automation from Tsinghua University in 1988, and was a visiting scholar at the Sloan Business School of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. In 2008 she became Chairperson of China Power.
. . . .
According to overseas media, China Power International Chairperson Li Xiaolin was involved with a transaction getting foreign investment into China's insurance industry. On the evening of October 11 China Power posted an announcement on its official Sina Weibo stating that Li Xiaolin had never had any engagement with any insurance company, and the rumors posted online regarding suspected insurance transactions were malicious and base defamation.
Li's denial was presumably in response to an article published by the Telegraph on October 10 entitled "Daughter of 'Butcher of Tiananmen Square' Brokered Secret Deal for Insurance Giant."
The Xinhua article did not mention that Li Xiaolin is the daughter of Li Peng (李鹏) the former Premier of China.
These screenshots were taken on October 11, 2013 and show that Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, and Baidu's PostBar (贴吧 Tieba), were censoring searches for "Li Xiaolin" (李小琳).
These screenshots were taken on October 14, and show that, while a search for "Li Xiaolin" on Baidu's Knowledge (知道 Zhidao a Q&A product) returns no results, and a Baidu search for "Li Xiaolin site:zhidao.baidu.com" returns a censorship notice, the same search on Soso indicates Baidu in fact has hundreds of questions containing her name.
These screenshots show that Qihoo, Sogou, and Yahoo.cn were all censoring searches for "Li Xiaolin."
On October 11, 2013, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons."
These screenshots show that, while Baidu has updated its Encyclopedia (百科 Baike) entry for "Nobel Peace Prize" to include the 2013 winner, it has yet to record who won the prize is 2010.
On October 8, 2010, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."
These screenshots show that, some time during the last year, Baidu's Encyclopedia entry for the Nobel Peace Prize was also edited to remove reference to the 1989 winner, the Dalai Lama.
A Party member and chief engineer for a State-owned enterprise in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, died in suspicious circumstances Tuesday while being held for investigation by the city's commission for discipline inspection.
The People's Procuratorate of Wenzhou said the man, Yu Qiyi, "suffered an accident" Monday night and died in hospital at 3:15 am on Tuesday. However, Yu's family slammed claims his death was accidental, insisting photos circulated online show he had bruises and appeared to have been bitten.
Yu, born in 1971, was the chief engineer of the Wenzhou Industry Investment Group.
He was being held under shuanggui, a procedure in which Party and government officials are asked to confess to wrongdoings for serious violations of Party discipline and State laws.
. . . .
The hospital listed the cause of Yu's death as drowning, noting he was unconscious when admitted for treatment, his father said.
This screenshot was taken on October 8, 2013, and shows that Baidu has banned users from establishing forums on its PostBar (贴吧 Tieba) forum on the subject of "Shuang Gui" (双规).
Yu Zusheng, father of the deceased official, told the Global Times on Monday that the police ignored requests from the family to have a third party present, and performed the postmortem examination on their own at around 9:30 am on Sunday.
. . . .
"I don't understand why the police are being so secretive and want to keep us out of this. It has been seven days since the death of my son. There is more than enough time to find out when the death occurred and who are the potential suspects," said Yu Zusheng.
Pu Zhiqiang, lawyer of the Yu family, told the Global Times that his client will challenge the legitimacy of the autopsy and whatever evidence came out of it in court because it was not conducted independently.
On September 4, the Global Times published an article from the state-sponsored Beijing Times (京华时报) entitled "Wenzhou Official Dies During Shuanggui After Having His Head Repeatedly Pushed Under Water" (温州官员双规期间被纪委人员反复按头闷水致死). Some excerpts:
On April 9 of this year, Wenzhou official Yu Qiyi died under unusual circumstance while under shuanggui. Beijing Times reporters learned yesterday that his case will be adjudicated in another jurisdiction - the Intermediate People's Court in Quzhou, Zhejiang. On August 30, the Quzhou Procurotorate filed indictments in Yu Qiyi's case against six Communist Party cadres. The indictments claims that five of the six are officials with the Discipline and Inspection Office, while the remaining individual was seconded from the Procurotorate. The Procurotorate claims that in order to force Yu Qiyi to disclose information, they repeatedly stuffed him into a ice-filled bath, resulting in his death, placing them under suspicion of murder.
. . . .
The indictments say the six defendants are Cheng Wenjie, Wu Zhiwei, Li Xiang, Nan Yu, Gu Chenfu, and Zhang Fangchao, that Gu Chenfu was on secondment from Wenzhou Procuratorate to the Wenzhou Municipal Discipline and Inspection Office, and that the five others were all cadres at the Wenzhou Municipal Discipline and Inspection Office. The six defendants are all Communist Party members, and three are "80's" generation cadres.
. . . .
April 20, Cheng Wenjie, Li Xiang, and Nan Yu were subjected to criminal detention by the Quzhou Public Security Office, and were officially arrested one month later.
May 15, the other three were criminally detained, and were officially arrested on June 20.
. . . .
Wu Pengbin [lawyer for Yu Qiyi's widow, Wu Qian] said that two days ago he filed an application with the Quzhou Intermediate People's Court asking to be allowed to review the case files, and the Court's clear response was that no review would permitted during the trial period. He was similarly rebuffed last week when he made an application to review the files with Quzhou Procurotorate.
. . . .
Wu Pengbin said that he had been retained by the family to advocate on behalf of the victims, and had received permission to participate in the trial, but that because he was unable to review the files, "there was absolutely no way for him to express any opinions, and there is no way for the rights and interests of the victims to have any guarantees."
The following video was made on September 15, and shows that, of the top ten search results on Baidu for the Beijing Times' article's title, it has been deleted from every page except this one: http://news.china.com/3g/11143958/20130904/18031528.html.
These screenshots show that, between September 5 and September 9, all information relating to Yu Qiyi's death had been deleted from Baidu's Encyclopedia (百科 Baike) article on Yu Qiyi. The article ends with the statement that he was placed under shuanggui in March 2013, but makes no mention of the fact that he is dead or the circumstances surrounding his death.
This screenshot shows the history of the edits on Yu Qiyi's Baidu Baike article, with the final entry on September 9 saying: "Deleted content with invalid reference materials or lacking supporting reference material" (删除失效参考资料以及没有参考资料支持的内容).
On September 19, Zhang Lifan (章立凡) published an article on his blog entitled "Record of Court Proceedings in the Attack of Yu Qiyi (Prepared by Pu Zhiqiang)" (於其一被害案庭审纪录（浦志强整理）). The article, originally available here - http://blog.caijing.com.cn/expert_article-151497-59125.shtml - purported to be a record of the September 17 proceedings at the Intermediate People's Court in Quzhou, Zhejiang. These screenshots show that the article was subsequently deleted.
Some excerpts:
Li Xiang Defense Counsel #2: Today by convening this hearing we wanted to examine the facts in order to determine each of your reletive positions and roles. Right now I would ask you a question, which the prosecutor and your own defense counsel has already asked, which is that, when you recommended Li Xiang to Liu Xianfeng . . . oh, excuse me, I accidentally spoke the name of your leader, they had interviewed and chatted, he was the director of your supervision office, correct? Can you please directly tell the court the name of the director of your supervision office? Cheng Wenjie: His name is Liu Xianfeng. Li Xiang Defense Counsel #2: On the afternoon of April 8, do you remember the content of the brief meeting? Cheng Wenjie: About the circumstances of meeting that afternoon, I've already given an explanation to the police, and its all recorded in the case file. Li Xiang Defense Counsel #2: Defense counsel asks that you clearaly explain it to the court. Judge: This court has already heard it, you don't need to say anything on the matter. Pu Zhiqiang Interrupts: As legal counsel we demand the court allow him to explain, all of you have the case file, we're the only ones who don't have the case file, you can't have this kind of speaking in riddles during a hearing. Judge: Counsel will observe discipline in this court, it is not your time to speak. Pu Zhiqiang: But we don't have the case file, we have a need to know, the court should let him explain! Judge: This court has decided not to allow you to speak! Respect order in the court! Pu Zhiqiang: Your court must respect the law! How can you not allow us to see the case file?!
. . . . Judge (approximately 11:05): This morning, just now, the prosecution and defense counsel have put questions to the defendant Cheng Wenjie, and the Court has heard everything, and therefore, the court will not entertain any further arrangements for the legal representatives to question the defendant. . . . Wu Pengbin: How can you not let us cross-examine? We have dozens of questions here to ask him, and I can assure you that the questions we want to ask won't be repetitive of those asked by the prosecution and defense counsel! Why won't you let us cross-examine? Pu Zhiqiang: The law gives the victim rights, how can you deprive us? What is it you're afraid of? Judge: I must ask legal counsel to observe order in the court! You will show this judge respect! Pu Zhiqiang: They you must respect the law! That is the emblem of our nation behind you! Your authority comes from the law, and you have no authority to walk all over it! Judge: This court will no longer permit you to speak! The court has rendered its decision, and no more questioning of the defendant will be permitted! Pu Zhiqiang: So that's the way it is! Well! Have it your way! I once request you recuse yourself! Judge: Watch your attitude and tone when speaking to the judge! This court has already decided that you will not be permitted submit another application for recusal!
(Wu Pengbin shouts, in the visitors' gallery all of the 60-70 observers are relatively quiet, except for Yu Qiyi's father, widow, and brother-in-law, who stand up and shout their objections.)
(About a dozen police officers arrive, and gather behind Pu Zhiqiang and Wu Pengbin.) Pu Zhiqiang: Whether the judge believes it or not, there will come a day when you will find yourself sitting down here!
(Pu Zhiqiang picks up the microphone on the desk and tosses it back down, the microphone had never been turned on.) Judge: Officers! Remove legal counsel from the courtroom!
These screenshots were taken on October 24, and show that a search on Baidu for "Chinese Dream" (中国梦) returns a search results set off by special graphics, and users have been allowed to set up a "China Dream" PostBar.
