Freedom of speech in China.

by fulltimestudent 3 Replies latest social current

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  fulltimestudent

  Today's Global Times (English, Internet Edition) has an interesting item:

  www.globaltimes.cn/content/745836.shtml

  The immediate question is whether Ren Jianyu's release is part of the unwinding of the administration of Bo Xilai in Chongqing. At the time that Ren was detained, Bo was still the CPC Secretary (effectively, the top administrator) in Chongqing. Bo, it seems was promoting, both in Chongqing and within the CPC a return to Mao Zedong policies.

  But much more interesting is the larger question of freedom to speak out within China. I won't enlarge on the historical reasons for restrictions, but they did exist. However, as one of my lecturers at Macquarie University pointed out in a lecture on that topic, some five years ago, there were by the year 2000, very few restrictions, mainly centering on a few topics. Now (in 2012) I'd suggest the only real restriction centres on the CPC itself.

  So over the past 30 years, freedom of speech has been widened until restrictions have almost disappeared. But China is a big place. Few in the West may appreciate the difficulties of running a country the size of China with a population of some 1400 million, and so many local languages. And, the concept of the rule of law, while quite old in Chinese thought, may not be comprehended in the same way in every place in China, or implemented in the same way.

  Undoubtedly the internet is bringing change too. Yes, the government has tried to restrict some topics, but with the largest internet population in the world, (some 500 million+, predicted to rise to 700 million plus in 2013) it is increasingly difficult to implement censorship.
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  fulltimestudent

  This post concerns the impact of modernising projects on the lives of individual Chinese. There are a couple of prior points to note. First, there is very little "private" land in China (maybe none, but I can't say that for sure). Land is, theoretically, the property of ALL the Chinese people and managed for them by the state. Individuals (or, corporations) who wish to use the land for some project (a Building etc), may apply for a lease over the land.

  This may be a difficult proposition for many ideologically minded Americans to accept, but it should be noted that it is a system in use in other places, for example it is the system in operation in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. A leasehold system, with a fixed term lease, was adopted for precisely the same reason that it is used in China, that is, that the financial benefits accrue to ALL, and not a few. It also has the benefit, that in cases where the state wishes to use the land for another reason (i.e. a railway) it is much cheaper to buy the remaining period of the lease back, than to acquire the freehold at market value. Buying freehold land at market value is the reason why new infrastructure projects become at almost unaffordable cost. Sydney (my city) badly needs more suburban rail lines, but with land value at over A$600,000 per 750 m2 block, you can see the problem.

  The second point to note (though this example does not involve housing) is that much of China's housing stock was, in 1949 (after 150 years of little work) in terrible condition. Re-building was akin to the recent slum clearance programs in many western cities.

  In the example below, the government proposes to build another section of the high-speed rail network covering China. This section from Beijing to Shenyang. Residents along the proposed route are objecting to the third environmental impact study just released.

  You can read it at:

  http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/745829.shtml
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  fulltimestudent

  Under yesterday's date-line, today's edition of China's GlobalTimes (English-web-edition) carries a report headlined:

  The Power of the whistle-blower

  The report tells of the activities of one Zhou Lubao who devotes his spare times to checking on the activities of local officials who are corrupt and exposing their wrong-doing. Zhou uses the official internet site weibo to publicse the results of his investigations.

  The report states that since the recent 18th national Party congress which expressed the government's determination to stamp out corruption there has been a surge in anti-corruption exposures.

  It also names six very prominent officials (mainly) in Guangdong who are now being investigated.

  the full story is at:

  www.globaltimes.cn/content/750856.shtml
• 

  fulltimestudent

  A village in China's Hebei Province (located near Beijing) have twice disrupted village elections. The row seems to be over the construction of a garbage incinerator taht the villagers are said not to want.

  This is the Global Times (English-internet edition) version of the story.

  Quote:

  Hebei villagers disrupt 'illegal' election

  Global Times | 2012-12-31 1:19:05 By Liu Linlin in Qinhuangdao

  Villagers from a village in North China's Hebei Province, who have seen two failed elections in a month, have vowed to petition higher level governments demanding punishment for those responsible for the most recent election on Saturday that they claimed had been rigged.
  
  More than 100 villagers in Panguanying village, Qinhuangdao city, crashed into vote-counting rooms at a local primary school, and disrupted the election for village head, which they deemed "illegal."
  
  "We don't recognize this election because the village election committee members were not recommended by us villagers. The committee cheated on the votes and threatened villagers," Pan Zuofu, a vegetable farmer in his 40s, told the Global Times.
  
  Pan Zuofu and dozens of villagers held a red banner saying "Please return the right to vote to villagers in Panguanying" at around 10:30 am, two hours after the election started, demanding Ru Xuejun, a town official in charge of supervising the election, explain why an election villagers considered unfair still went ahead.
  
  This is the second election in the village in a month since the last one was sabotaged by local gangsters taking away ballot boxes on November 29.
  
  The election has become key to the village's fight against the continuance of a garbage incineration project co-funded by the Qinhuangdao city government and environmental technology company Zhejiang Weiming, which villagers feared would lead to pollution since the environment assessment for the factory had been proved to be a forgery.
  
  Candidates vying for the position of village chief were reduced to two from seven in the last election. Pan Zhizhong, a 49-year-old farmer who is also the favorite candidate among villagers, and Ren Jun, who works at a local abattoir owned by the village's former Party secretary, were left to compete for the position.
  
  Pan Qingguo, a 50-year-old villager, told the Global Times that he was offered 100 yuan ($16) for each ballot for Ren. Most villagers confirmed his information but several of them denied that they had been approached with money in exchange for votes.
  
  "I trust the choices of villagers and I believe this election will be fair and transparent," Ren, who put up a notice on the wall of village committee promising to stop the construction of garbage incineration factory in the village and work for the villagers' benefits, told the Global Times before the election, without replying to inquiries about the alleged vote-buying.
  
  When the Global Times reporter tried to enter the site as village election committee members carried ballot boxes in, one member showed his staff ID and pushed the reporter out of the primary school.
  
  "I don't want to vote this time because Ru was unfair in the elections," Gao Ruli, a 61-year-old villager, told the Global Times, showing his consent paper to support Pan Zhizhong as the new village chief. More than 830 voters among the over 1,400 eligible voters in the village have signed the consent paper to support Pan Zhizhong.
  
  The villagers confronted Ru over the election.
  
  "If you have anything to report to the county, you all will be welcome in my office. But I can't announce that today's election is illegal," Ru said, ignoring the reports of numerous villagers.
  
  Villagers grabbed voting boxes from staff members and discovered there were 483 votes but only 250 voters' IDs registered.
  
  The disruption of the election at Panguanying village is not an isolated case in China, which introduced village elections in the late 1980s.
  
  Electoral fraud such as vote-buying has become a major complaint among villagers, whose awareness of their rights has been surging in recent years.

  Unquote.

  Reference: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/753122.shtml