The Beginning of Aftershocks

One ordnance issued by the Central Propaganda department amid the Southern Weekend incident was demanding all news media to publish an editorial drafted by the official Global Times to denounce the rebellion as being manipulated by 'overseas enemy forces'. Most media complied, some reluctantly.

Some media did not bend over to the ordnance the first day. However, authorities issued a final notice, news media must either comply today, or be taken down.

Li Ning of New Capital Weibo-ed that he was awaken by phone calls from colleagues who were rushing to the newsroom in the middle of night to defend the newspaper as human shield. A vote was cast at the scene with unanimous support to refuse publishing the aforementioned article passed down from the Propaganda Department. However, authorities published the article by brute force. The publisher of the paper Mr. Dai Zigeng tendered his resignation in protest to Mr. Yan Liqiang, a Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department on Beijing. Chief Editor Mr. Wang Yuechun also offered his resignation in protest. It may sounds ironic, but in theory the Propaganda Department is the owner of all media in China.

According to New Capital Daily staff, the raid was ordered by the Director of Propaganda Department Mr. Liu Qibao, and was approved by Mr. Liu Yunshan, one of the seven standing committee of the Politburo, and carried out by Mr. Yan Liqiang on behalf of Mr. Lu Wei, Director of the Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department.

The New Capital Daily was specifically target partially because of its past. The paper was founded as a joint project between the Bright (Guangming) Group and the Southern Group in 2003. Because of Bright Group's national status, the paper had permit to cover stories outside of its registration city Beijing. Its first chief editor was jailed in 2004, and the successes chief editor along two associate chief editors were fired in 2005. In 2011, the paper was realigned under the Beijing municipal Propaganda Department and consequently lost national reporting permit.

There is a saying which had been passed down in generations among journalists in China. If you can't tell the truth, in the least you could shut your mouth instead of to lie. In China, they will make you lie one way or another; when necessary, they will lie on your behalf, and there is nothing you can do about that.

Tonight, the Propaganda Department made an even horrifying scene in many newsrooms across the nation by coercing them to publish the official article using physical forces. It made the triggering event itself a pat on the wrist. The move could not be justified by any practice reason or logistic necessity. It is nothing but a pointless and resentful show of force after Don Quixote having been crushed to pieces.

Update: Wall Street Journal Chinese has a detailed account on the night of sorrow by a New Capital reporter at the scene. The Journal inaccurately stated the New Capital was operated by the Southern Group.

Southern Rebellions Labelled As Such

The Central Government listened to demands from the Southern Weekend editors and reporters, and ruled against them.

Further more, the protests over Mr. Tuo Zhen, the provincial Censor Czar in Guangdong, was labelled as insubordinate. 'Overseas enemy forces' was cited as the black hand behind the social turmoil. This is very close to calling it a treasonous act.

In a sense, the timing and the trigger of the rebellion are puzzling. Censorship is no secret in China. People on left and right see the censorship critical to the survival of the regime. You won't believe a regime can last forever on lies, but you know it faces immanent collapse without telling lies. Anyone really expect the CCP to give up on censorship and sign its own death warrant?

Before pro-democracy intellectuals went all in on this otherwise routinary offense to civil liberty, how did they anticipate it to unfold? It seems there is no counter measure at all after the central government made the decision, and the paper was left high and dry. Pig Bay?

There Is a Weatherman in Every Woman's Heart

It seems that all in a sudden every A-list Chinese actress develops interests in the weather business.

Li Bingbing posted a Weibo (micro-blog): Weekends are no longer weekends, but Monday is still Monday. There is no heating down the South. Take care, while anticipate the coming of spring at this prohibitive cold winter.

Yao Chen, the No. 1 popular celebrity with 316 million followers, forwarded a Weibo of the Chinese Meteorological Administration, and wrote, it's so chilly down the South.

Zhang Ziyi also forwarded another remark with her own comment, 'Good morning Dreams!, in reference to the title of the altered editorial of Southern Weekends.

As 'Southern Weekend' became a 'sensitive phrase' and being filtered, the online community are creating innovative references to the paper without mentioning its name to fly under the radar of aggressive censorship. The cold weather is used to imply the chilly political repression against the Southern Weekend.

Chinese actors are mostly business as usual.

No wonder there is no A-list Chinese actor. Unfortunately, as it appears, in China, (only) females have back bones.

Do you hear the people sing? Asked Li Jingrui, who is traveling in NYC with her husband who is visiting Columbia University. Li is one of best Chinese writers, and like Han Han, gained fame in her early age after winning a national writing competition.

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Update: Taiwan actress Yi Nengjing (Annie Yi) was summoned by political police after she posted support to Southern Weekend's fight against censorship. Yi wrote, on some occasions, keeping silence can make good people accomplice of evil forces. Yi's Weibo account was closed.

She posted a last message after being released and before her account was canceled regarding her experience with the authority: your anger proved my choice; your disguise boosted my confidence; your craziness reflected my sane; your slaughter testified my survival.

Southern Rebellions

Perhaps a misjudgment on weather led to a showdown between a newspaper the Southern Weekends and the Chief of the Propaganda Department of Guangdong Province.

The editorial board of the Southern Weekends demands resignation of Mr. Tuo Zhen, the chief of the Propaganda Department of Guangdong Province. The editors and reporters must have counted on the breeze of openness and democracy since the once a decade power transfer. But it seems the wind was not in their favor.

Dozens reporters and editors accounts were suspended at the Sina Weibo, the popular Chinese knockoff of Twitter. The official Southern Weekends Weibo account was taken over by the Propaganda Department. Searching of the term 'Southern Weekends' is banned.

Editors and reporters mounted pressure from outside. Dozens former employees issued a statement supporting the fight for journalism. Dozens public intellectuals from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan jointly urged Mr. Tuo be fired. Hundreds of interns signed a open letter asking Mr. Tuo's departure. Other medias, including TV, newspaper and Internet media showed sympathy or support.

The focus stays on an individual, Mr. Tuo. The newspaper is not protesting the censorship itself, but rather a procedural abnormality in the censoring process. Editors and reporters revealed a record of 1,034 articles either changed or withdrawn by the Propaganda Department in the year of 2012, which converted to a shocking 19.88 articles per issue. However, the change made on the New Year Special was an outlier. The Propaganda Department changed major part of the newspaper without editors and reporters's awareness.

By definition, the Southern Weekends is a mouthpiece of Chinese Communists Party (the Chinese literal translation is "Journalists are the Party's Throat and Tongue"). By law, all Chinese news agencies falls into this definition. In particular, the Southern Weekends is published by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of CCP. However, the Southern Weekends has made itself an advocate for democracy and openness. Although the managerial level officials had been shuffled many times, the newspaper attracted mostly freedom-leaning reporters and editors in the past few decades. Although a chief editor was jailed after the newspaper broke out a story of torture death of a young man in a police 'rescue camp', which led to the abolishment of such camps across the country.

Mr. Tuo was born in a propaganda family in 1959. Before the current assignment, Tuo was the deputy director of the official Xinhua News Agency. Mr. Tuo's father Tuo Wenzhong was the Director of the Propaganda Department of Nanyang Prefecture of Henan Province. Mr. Tuo Zhen's sister Ms. Tuo Jun is the Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the CCP Nanyang Prefecture of Henan Province. Mr. Tuo Zhen's daughter Ms. Tuo Yannan "Kelly" is a senior executive with the China Daily's Japan office. Mr. Tuo Zhen's sponsor at the top is Mr. Liu Yunshan, a member of the seven people Standing Committee of the Politburo. Liu was also implicated in the recent Ye Junqing scandal.

The newspaper cited the Constitution on rights of journalism and publishing. On the other hand, official identities and public perception of journalists are still the mouthpiece of the Party. How do editors and reporters in China find peace between their inner urge to freedom and the strips on their official uniform is beyond human comprehension. Equally puzzling, the newspaper seems to have no problem with censorship, which on paper does not exist in China, but have a big problem with Mr. Tuo, who is not only the head of the Propaganda Department but also the chief of the newspaper's official publisher. Conflicts between the media and the censorship are no secret, but the clash of this scale is totally unexpected.

Chinese Businesses Busted in Russia and North Korea

A Zhejiang businessman asked the central government to intervene when his forest harvesting farm was confiscated by the Russian government.

Mr. Fu Jianzhong a forest farm in Russia in 2003. According to the news report by 21CN, Mr. Fu obtained the operation of the farm through a stock transfer (no money involved). A RMB 230 million ($40 million) loan from the Chinese National Development BanK was used to improve infrastructure. At the same time, due to price change on the international market, value of the farm raised from RMB 7 billion ($1.2 billion) to RMB 15 billion in 3 years.

Fu's trouble started when a driver was stopped for stealing stock from another farm. The Russian authority found the driver worked for Fu's farm. Fu disputed the accusation. Four more charges were thrown at Fu's farm, citing varies violations in operation. Russian taxation authority forced a bankruptcy because of back taxes.

Within a few month, Fu was severed from the farm, and as a result, 'Ten Billion Estate Vaporized.'

This incident mirrored a case in North Korea. Mr. Zhou Furen claimed he lost RMB 240 investment in a mine he operated in North Korea, after the mine was taken over by the Korean government.

Zhou signed a contract with a Korean firm in 2006 to set up a joint venture. Zhou holds 75% share with technology, management and cash valued Euro 36 million. The Korean side gets 25% with mine valued Euro 12 million.

The project was completed in April 2011. One hundred fifty Chinese workers worked along 500 Korean workers. Projected revenue was RMB 5 billion per year.

Things turned the opposite way in June, when the Korean side piled up new fees and profit sharing demands. When Zhou attempted to fight back with suspension of production, Korean workers who had already learned the rope restarted the mining on their own.

Korean authorities accused Zhou's venture started operating without many required approvals. Also, many documents including contracts and approvals were forged. Zhou disagree with the findings, but said it would be impossible to prove one way or the other due to the gray area in which his company was operating because of Korea's political status.

Both cases took place in extreme high-risk areas where corruption are abundant under volatile political systems. Both cases involved natural resource that Chinese business obtained at unreasonable low price. Mr. Fu paid literally nothing for a forest farm worth in his own words US $2.5 billion. Mr. Zhou paid some labor cost and electricity bills for a mine which in his own words could bring US $900 million net profit a year. In both cases, the companies were taken away by foreign governments moment after they were fully operational. In both cases, the accusations employed by foreign governments were shady at best, but the Chinese businesses still had trouble to prove their own innocence.

Now, the billion dollar question is: what are they complaining about?

Blaer

Jefferson once warned that, 'the natural progress of things is for Liberty to yield and Government to gain ground.'

People in Iceland have plenty to choose from regarding a baby's name. Specifically, 1,712 names for boys and 1,853 for girls. One girl, Blaer Bjarkardottir has been fighting this pointless regulation for 15 years because her chosen name 'Blaer' was not approved. In Icelandic, 'Blaer' means 'light breeze'. For 15 years, and until a resolution can be reached, Blare does not have a name, for real. In all of her official documents, such as school records, banking, passport, Blaer are referred to as 'Stulka (a girl)'.

Chinese, on the other hand, enjoy broad freedom in name choices.

On the other hand, the 'Southern Weekends', an influential newspaper is protesting censorship to its special new year's edition. After the paper had been sent to the printing plant, the Propaganda Department of Guangdong Province made a number of major changes, on the title, the package, the editorial and many reports. None of the reporters and editors were informed of these changes. Some employees who discussed these online found their Weibo accounts suspended.

"Even during the Occupation, Japs did not write editorial for Chinese newspaper," commented a reader.

For a while, it seemed the Xi-Li administration was bringing in new hope since they assumed the reign as new generation Party leaders last November. The 'light breeze' of the power transition lasted less than a month.

Update: At the daily press brief held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 4th, spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated there was no news censorship in China, in response to a question regarding the 'Southern Weekends incident' from a Japanese reporter.

New Laws

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) passed two laws last week.

The Seniors Rights Protection Act mandates adult children to visit their parents, besides providing cares. No specifics is spelled out though.

While the move is welcome by many as a return to traditional values, some worried it's a back step from modern society.

The NPCSC also passed a new rule to mandate real-id for online activities. Sina's Weibo, the Chinese knock off edition of Twitter, stopped overseas registration as a temporary measure before details of implementation can be ironed out. Mobile companies are also required to authenticate cell phone usage.

Not long ago, South Korean Supreme Court declared the country's real-ID law unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy. It also found the law failed to reach its goal of protecting privacy.

While Chinese government is cracking down on online criticism of the Party, international companies are weighing whether to leave China due to increasing limits on critical communications such as VPN.