#1 posted by on 02 April 2008 at 12:22 PM
Stop media censorship in China, boycott the olympic games.
Towards Beijing: March 2008 update
01 April 2008
© AI
By Antony Loewenstein
Human rights activists have dubbed the Beijing Games the “Genocide Olympics” over concerns of China’s involvement in the Darfur crisis. The situation there is worsening by the day. Human Rights First claims that China is arming the conflict.
The recent resignation of filmmaker Steven Spielberg as an artistic advisor to the event only heightened fears that China’s rapid push towards economic development has come at the cost of human lives around the world. Human rights group Reporters Without Borders says that, “the influence of China in African affairs has been very toxic for democracy”.
One Chinese blogger sarcastically praised the regime for successfully shielding its citizens from the realities of his country’s foreign policy. The Communist regime is desperate to keep politics and sport diametrically opposed. Human Rights Watch has publicly stated that this is impossible.
The internet has allowed Chinese citizens the opportunity to challenge some of the strict doctrines in the daily media. China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, was recently forced to run a rare apology after doctoring an image of Tibetan wildlife grazing near a high-speed train. Web users spotted the deception and caused a massive online campaign against the use of Photoshop. It was just one example of the relatively new Chinese public phenomenon of activism, albeit of the non-political kind.
The international community is increasingly concerned over the role of Western multinationals in China’s web filtering. The European Union is currently discussing the imposition of trade barriers for firms that conduct business in nations that restrict free speech. A number of Chinese dissidents, based in the United States, have announced they will sue Yahoo!. The men claim that the internet company removed their names from search returns without legally valid reasons and they risk arrest if they return to the homeland.
Bad publicity is clearly a worry for Yahoo! The company’s Chief Executive, Jerry Yang, has written to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and asked the Bush administration to lobby the Chinese regime to release dissidents imprisoned after the collusion of his company. The firm spent US$1.6 million in 2007 pressuring the American government in relation to the foreign jurisdiction over US companies.
The Chinese regime fears an avalanche of negative publicity in the coming months. The recent explosion of Tibetan protests both inside Tibet and China itself – with a growing number of young Tibetans rejecting the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” towards China - led to a predictable Chinese media onslaught against the uprising. Numerous websites were blocked, including YouTube, and Yahoo! and Microsoft (briefly) appeared to assist the regime in searching for “suspects” in the demonstrations. The vast majority of Chinese bloggers supported the crackdown but an international poll found many global citizens were critical of Chinese policies towards Tibet.
Tightening the limits of free speech online is the officially favoured method of social control. It is bound to fail, not least because users have developed their own language to circumvent the filtering. But the regime is determined, nonetheless. Witness this recent announcement:
"News from the Ministry of Public Security is that 13 Chinese ministries have been taking a joint action since last month to regulate online order, with the emphasis being given to the cleaning out of such content as candid snapshots, nude pictures and "unhealthy" adult literature."
"During the campaign, the Chinese ministries will focus on cracking down on four kinds of illegal behaviour, including spreading abundant erotic information to make profit by taking advantage of Internet and mobile phones; launching bawdry websites in a foreign country to spread unhealthy content to and develop members in China; organizing obscene online performances or prostitution-related activities; and committing such crimes as online fraud, theft, gambling and sale of forbidden goods."
"In addition, the ministries will clean out vulgar content such as candid snapshots, nude and adult literature from websites and shut down blogs that help transmit erotic graphics and text. They will ask search engine service providers to take measures to block unhealthy content within the given deadlines and completely eliminate those erotic websites."
Australia’s former Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM, told a conference in Taiwan in late February that China had pledged to improve its human rights record but there was no evidence to support this idea. In fact, the opposite was occurring. He listed the various ways in which citizens were denied basic civil and political liberties – including the refusal to hold open and free elections and the lack of freedom of speech – and put forward a number of demands that Beijing could adopt. These included:
- The cessation of hostilities against Falun Gong practitioners.
- The withdrawal of economic and political aid to the Sudanese government.
- The granting of amnesty to all political prisoners.
- A moratorium on the death penalty in 2008.
Although the regime has recognised the importance of citizens engaging with officials – netizens were allowed to post questions and advice for Premier Wen Jinbao in early 2008 - these developments are minimal. The success of China’s internet repression is due to a savvy combination of societal pressure and self-censorship. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been employed to manage “security” during the Games. Curiously, the BBC English website became available in late March after years of censorship.
Rumours are currently circulating that engineers with some of China’s biggest technology companies have been tasked to unblock internet access during the August Games, allowing foreigners an unfiltered experience at some internet cafes and conference centres and through access jacks in hotels. The coming period will reveal the lengths to which the Chinese authorities will go to hide its crackdown on dissidents, journalists, human rights activists and the poor. The initial signs are not encouraging.
Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based journalist, blogger and author.
#2 posted by n h r mahanga on 02 April 2008 at 12:27 PM
Any government which utilises outright disinformation among its people and via the media throughout the world, along with violent actions rightly fears the avalanche of bad publicity it is now facing and will continue to confront throughout the world.
The Chinese government’s abuses of human beings in Tibet and within its own borders is appalling. The Chinese regime is an unjust and cruelly repressive government and their contining ethnic genocide of the Tibetan people (culturally etc) is shameful and all who are fortunate to live in relative freedom elsewhere should speak out.
This is essential now, especially in the period before the olympics take place. After the olympics are over there will be little consideration given to what we, the people’s of the world think. We need to speak out now.
#3 posted by on 02 April 2008 at 01:00 PM
Dear Amnesty
A friend recently wrote to me from Beijing, after I sent him some human rights material about Tibet:
“...It’s been a frustrating few weeks here in China - trying to access information about Tibet on the internet and TV is really difficult as China keeps blocking internet sites such as new sites, wikipedia and youtube and regularly blacks out new coverage on sensitive issues.... This morning’s news bulletin on CNN was blacked out 4 times in the first 5 minutes, because of Tibet coverage. The whole protests in Greece have not been shown nor reported here.
...they control the education system, they re-write history where necessary, they block access to many internet sites, and slow down others - effectively controlling the internet, they limit and black out foreign new coverage, and control all Chinese language media...”
Thanks Amnesty for this new engaging and timely initiative.
CHINA’S BLINDING TORCH
How ironic that the torch’s sacred flame bears its light across this Square of “Heavenly peace” with the image of Mao as the backdrop - a ruthless dictator responsible for 10 million deaths in the Cultural Revolution - a toll exceeding Hitler’s holocaust.
How ironic that this torch relay be named the “journey of harmony”, while millions of China’s own citizens are still subjected to religious repression, public executions, illegal human organ harvesting, suppression fundemental rights, and more.
How ironic that a 9 year Genocide of the peaceful Falun Gong mediators escalates with thousands arrested before the Olympic Games with the slogan of a harmonious and peaceful society.
How ironic that we should allow a torch, symbolising the great virtues of our humanity, to become a light raised to merely blind us to the worst of China’s ongoing human rights atrocities.
Thank you Amnesty for shining a Torch on the Chinese communist regime.
#5 posted by on 03 April 2008 at 08:46 AM
Yes China does have an awful human rights track record, and it is concerning. But you guys are doing things over the top, and you are NOT BEING HELPFUL.
Any change to the Chinese political system/government will have to come from within. No NG0s or international bodies or foreign governments can or should be able to influence the change. In order to change from within, you need the support of the Chinese people.
The chinese people however, are mostly in support of Olympics in China. Your shaming campaign based on the Olympics is just going to antagonise the Chinese people and turn them against the NGOs, the international community and foreign governments. That means they will become more aligned with the Chinese government.
What is my evidence that the Chinese people will be antagonised? As an ethnic-Chinese in Australia myself, I think I would know. From family friends, to my parents, to my relatives, to the local Chinese media (which is NOT censored), the antagonism is obvious.
#6 posted by n h r mahanga on 03 April 2008 at 02:11 PM
In response to jimy237’s comments - Sorry you feel we, ‘you guys’ are not helpful re focus on the Olympics vis a vis abuses of human rights in China. We have freedoms people in totalitarian societies lack & care deeply in the face of the atrocities being perpetrated.
Yes, change must come from within China but its difficult because of lack of freedom to speak freely & lack of access to events outside the people’s own communities. We need to use best means possible to reach the people of China. The Olympics are possibly the most effective way we can make our concerns known.
I believe the ordinary people of China, given knowledge of the abuses perpetrated in their name would want to do something to end them. Thus may Governments be forced to listen. I believe our focus on the Olympics, which China sees as of such importance, may help to effect chantge. This is my hope, with respect, to the peoples of China.
We are a global nation all interdependent on each other now. The Chinese have been brainswashed from cradle to grave now for 60 years about the USA and other demcocratic countries and at the helm is the Ccp who control all information that goes in and out to keep their power at all costs.
Why do es the Ccp censor the net ,why do they persecute people who follow the Law of rule , why do they torture confessions and then execute?.
Why does the Ccp maintain slave labour camps ?
Surely you do not want to live under that regime with everyone so afraid to speak out against the injustices and wrong doings?
I agree that it is the Chinese people who must make that decsion to turn its back peacefully on the Ccp.
As for us outside of communist led China you cannot seriously expect us to ignore the Chinese people crys for help in liberation and exposure of the Ccp’s crimes?
#8 posted by on 07 April 2008 at 09:11 AM
Dear Jimy327
This is NOT a shaming campaign, this is not anti-Olympics campaign, nor is it an anti-Chinese campaign. This is a pro-human rights campaign, the messages we are delivering at this time are the same as always with China - end the death penalty, end torture, free human rights defenders and allow freedom of expression. I agree, change from within is a powerful thing and our requests have the support of many Chinese people. It is very difficult for change to happen when people are denied the right to express their opinion, ask Hu Jia, Shi Tao, Gao Zhisheng and the many others presently imprisoned in China.
You say there is uncensored media in China. Really? I would like to know which stations or publications? Since they are all state owned the message is very controlled and i doubt that true images from the streets of Lhasa, Gulja or even Beijing in 1989 were projected into the lounge rooms of Chinese people.
#9 posted by on 07 April 2008 at 10:05 AM
Dear Jimy327
It’s recognised by all that China can be a force for great good, by challenging the unilateralism of George W. Bush in particular.
However, when Chinese writers like the satirist Wang Shuo upset Chinese authorities by his parody of the Beijing Olympics ("Please don’t call me human"), his work was simply banned. Likewise, the herbivorous and mild-mannered Falun Gong has been ferociously suppressed, not because Beijing is afraid of their content of their meetings. It is afraid of anyone meeting at all, due to China’s history of revolutions organised by secret societies and religious sects. The authorities are more worried about Chinese people talking to each other, than about information coming into China, writes Leonard.
To be pro-human rights is to be pro-Chinese, so that the Chinese can talk freely to each other, and the rest of the world.
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