Politics

posts on political issues relevant to Greater China

Don’t expect kindness and humanity from dictators

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Source: China Digital Times (11/6/23)
Translation: “Don’t Expect Kindness and Humanity from Totalitarian Dictators”
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A fanciful and colorful illustration of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang, with regal robes, a jeweled headdress, and fiery purple eyes.

A fiery-eyed Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor (259-210 B.C.E.), who was famed for his book-burning and brutality.

A brief, fiery essay excoriating totalitarianism has been censored on WeChat, and appears to have precipitated the closure of a Jiangxi-based current- and legal-affairs blog. First posted on the public WeChat account 法制江西 (Fǎzhì Jiāngxī, “Jiangxi Legal”), the ten-paragraph essay—interspersed with photographs of contemporary strongmen and vivid illustrations of the brutal emperors of old—extolled the virtues of liberal democracy and argued for the “inevitable demise” of authoritarian systems. Some aspects of the essay echo, intentionally or not, the vision for a “Beautiful China” of rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who was sentenced in May to 14 years in prison for subversion. Soon after the essay disappeared from WeChat, the “Jiangxi Legal” public account announced, without any explanation, that it had been suspended and would cease posting updates. The account’s public profile described it as “a general news column, under the auspices of a legal-affairs Party media outlet, offering in-depth analysis and commentary on trending topics in the news,” and described the content as “a global perspective, a Chinese point of view, explaining current events and discussing all manner of things.”

On Chinese social media, there is routine censorship of content praising so-called “western values” such as democracy, rule of law, human rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. In recent years, there has also been an uptick in the censorship of content and works referring to failed or despotic emperors and other figures from antiquity, particularly if that content is viewed as being obliquely critical of Xi Jinping’s rule. In October, a reprint of the historical biography “The Chongzhen Emperor: Diligent Ruler of a Failed Dynasty” was pulled from bookstore shelves and online booksellers due to a cover redesign and promotional quotes that seemed to implicitly criticize Xi Jinping. (One blurb on the book’s wrapping read: “The diligent ruler of a failed dynasty, Chongzhen’s repeated mistakes were the result of his own ineptitude. His ‘diligent’ efforts hastened the nation’s destruction.”) The name “Chongzhen” and related topics were later search-blocked on Weibo, with searches only showing results from verified users. Continue reading →

Balloons float over Taiwan before an election

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Source: NYT (1/4/24)
Balloons Float Over Taiwan Before an Election. Experts See a Sign from China
Some analysts see the objects as a calculatedly ambiguous reminder to voters that Beijing is watching.
By Chris Buckley and Amy Chang Chien, Reporting from Tainan, Taiwan

Two soldiers in white uniforms fold up a Taiwanese flag in a plaza.

Folding a flag of Taiwan in the island’s capital, Taipei. The balloons from China do not appear to pose an immediate military menace. Credit…Chiang Ying-Ying/Associated Press

A surge in sightings of balloons from China flying over Taiwan has drawn the attention of the island’s military and struck some experts as a calculatedly ambiguous warning to voters weeks before its presidential election.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has reported occasional sightings of balloons floating from China since last month, and a surge in recent days, according to the ministry’s daily tally of Chinese military activities near the island. Official Taiwanese accounts about balloons were previously very sporadic.

The recent balloons have mostly stayed off Taiwan’s coast. On Monday, however, one flew across the island, according to the ministry’s descriptions of their paths. Of four spotted on Tuesday, three flew over Taiwan, and two passed through to the island’s east side, facing the Pacific Ocean. Another flew over the island on Wednesday.

The Taiwanese reports also noted some of the balloons’ proximity to the island’s military bases. Of the four reported on Tuesday, three were first detected 120 to 184 miles from the Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in the city of Taichung. Taiwan’s defense ministry declined to specify how close to the base they may have flown. Continue reading →

China Project closing?

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Happy new year MCLC.

I am wondering if anything more has come to light regarding the closure of the web journal “The China Project” which succeeded “SUP China.”

The China Project web journal was closed down in December for no clear reason, but there was some mention of withdrawal of funds. Were the financial support withdrawn to kill the journal? For what purpose?

We know that one of the key sponsors/financiers, Anla Cheng, who was closely involved and listed as founding the SUPChina journal in 2015, is also involved in both the socalled Committee of 100 Chinese in America, and in the China Institute in New York, neither of which has ever said anything, or permitted any kind of activity that touches on, let alone criticising the monstrous atrocities now under way in Xinjiang (East Turkestan).

At one point, she suggested to the South China Morning Post that the mass atrocities is only a problem of different “perceptions” (!), not reality (see here), and refused to clarify.

Given this context, it is very difficult to avoid speculating that the CP closure had something to do with a desire to silence the good work of the China Project journal, in regularly featuring several knowledgeable writers on the Chinese atrocities in Xinjiang (East Turkestan).

Magnus Fiskesjö,  <magnus.fiskesjo@cornell.edu>, or: <nf42@cornell.edu>

Unfit for Chinese eyes, part two

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Source: China Digital Times (1/2/24)
The Top ███ Chinese ██████s of 2023 (Part Two: Comedy to Tragedy)
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In part two of our retrospective on the most sensitive topics of 2023, as selected by our Chinese team, we focus on dissent and disasters. In part one we covered long-standing taboos on discussions about Xi Jiping and the Tiananmen Massacre, as well as the increasingly explosive problem of youth discontent. The following six themes are not the “most censored” words of 2023 but rather some of the more important censored themes. Each section will lead with censored terms and then follow with a brief explanation of their provenance and context. For more on many of these themes, see CDT’s newly launched ebook, “China Digital Times Lexicon: 20th Anniversary Edition.”

Dissident Leanings

Censored terms: Chizi, Wang Yuechi, Slap, Lew Mon-hung

Comedy proved a notable avenue for dissent in 2023. Chinese comedians performing abroad broke new ground with politically minded stand up routines. Many of them have paid a price for their humor. Wang Yuechi, known by his stage name Chizi, had all his Chinese social media accounts deleted after performing a North American stand-up tour during which he touched on human rights, Xinjiang, and the changes to China’s constitution that have allowed Xi to indefinitely extend his tenure as state president. One stand up comedian in China was issued a lifetime ban for an innocuous joke about the People’s Liberation Army and his dogs. Revitalized corps of “culture cops” stirred further anxieties that the space for humor is now even more tightly closed. Continue reading →

Xinjiang’s Ominous ‘Looking Back Project’

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Source: Bruce-humes.com (12/30/23)
回头看工程 — Xinjiang’s Ominous “Looking Back Project”
By Bruce Humes

Uyghur poet’s memoir recalls the Xinjiang administration’s retrospective hunt for unPC content in textbooks once commissioned, edited and published by the state:

Following the Urumchi incident in 2009, the regional government had initiated the Looking Back Project. The Propaganda Department organized special groups to go over Uyghur-language books, newspapers, journals, films, television shows, and recordings from the 1980s to the present. These groups were tasked with identifying any materials that contained ethnic separatist themes or religious extremist content.

. . .  Several years later, as one result of these investigations, half a dozen Uyghur intellectuals and officials were arrested for editing Uyghur literature textbooks for grades one through eleven. The textbooks had been used in schools for over a decade before the “problem” with them was discovered in 2016.  

Word spread that similar “problems” had been found in nearly all Uyghur historical novels, and that they would soon be banned. The government had even banned a popular historical novel by Seypidin Ezizi, the highest-ranking Uyghur official in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. If the work of such a trusted party veteran could be banned, there was little question what the future held for other Uyghur writers.

(Excerpted from Waiting to be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua  Freeman)

Unfit for Chinese eyes

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Source: China Digital Times (12/29/23)
THE TOP ███ CHINESE ██████S OF 2023 (PART ONE)
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The following themes, and the six to be covered in part two, are not the “most censored” words of 2023 but rather a retrospective of topics that the Party-state deemed unfit for Chinese eyes, selected by our Chinese team. While some of the censored terms themselves are new, they touch on familiar issues: the personality cult around Xi Jinping, the 1989 democracy movement and its suppression, ongoing youth dissatisfaction, unlikely dissidents, the privileges of the Party-connected, shoddy construction leading to the death of children, botched disaster responses, a cover-up, and protests. Each section will lead with censored terms and then follow with a brief explanation of their provenance and context. For more on many of these themes, see CDT’s newly launched ebook, “China Digital Times Lexicon: 20th Anniversary Edition.”

Xi Jinping’s New Clothes

Censored terms: Unanimous Election, 2952, The Second Coming of Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Eliminating The Emperor’s Cronies, Chongzhen, Big G, The One Who Should’ve Died Didn’t, Lil’ Bottle’ Wishes He Were Human, Too! 

On March 10, China’s rubber-stamp congress re-elected Xi Jinping to a third five-year term as President—an unprecedented move made possible by a 2018 revision to the Chinese constitution that repealed term limits. A massive surge of censorship followed. Banned terms included “unanimous election,” a phenomenon Party leaders including Xi himself had once criticized as undemocratic. People’s Daily even removed a 2011 essay it had published warning, “if the people’s will continues to be hijacked through ‘unanimous elections,’ it will fuel public resentment.” The number “2952” was also banned. Xi received 2952 votes for, none against, none abstaining. References to the 20th century dictator Yuan Shikai were also censored. 111 years earlier to the day, Yuan was elected president of the nascent Republic of China, only to later declare himself emperor. The term “The second coming of Yuan Shikai,” a pun in the original Chinese on the term “Anime, Comics, and Games,” was censored, as were simple “this day in history” articles about Yuan. Continue reading →

Omerta on history

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Source: China Digital Times (12/20/23)
Party-State’s Omerta on History Mutes Popular Book Series, Academic Discourse, and Genghis Khan
By Cindy Carter

Some recent restrictions placed on historical books, museum exhibits, and academic discourse have brought renewed attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to rewrite history, control the historical narrative, and combat what the Party perceives as “historical nihilism.”

Earlier this month, acclaimed historian and Xiamen University professor Yi Zhongtian’s 24-volume series on Chinese history was pulled from bookstore shelves after the publisher announced it was making revisions to the long-running series in order to “comply with official requirements.” “Yi Zhongtian’s History of China” (《易中天中华史》Yì Zhōngtiān Zhōnghuá Shǐ), which encompasses prehistoric China to the modern age, is the product of Yi’s decades of scholarship, as well as his popular history lectures on CCTV-10’s “Lecture Room” series. Overseas political analyst Liang Jing (梁京) once praised Yi Zhongtian for subverting the historical distortions of Chinese officialdom, and imbuing the telling of Chinese history “with the spirit and values of modern civilisation.”

An article from WeChat public account 进击的熊猫 (jìnjī de xióngmāo, “Attack Panda”) examines the political sensitivities behind the current “crisis” in the publication of history books, and suggests three possible reasons why the Party-state might have objected to Yi Zhongtian’s approach to Chinese history. The first is Yi’s argument that true Chinese civilization took hold approximately three and a half millennia ago, in contrast to the “5000 years of Chinese civilization” frequently quoted by state media and Party propagandists. The second is the fact that Yi’s assessments of historical figures and events often diverge from orthodox CCP interpretations, causing some to accuse him of “using the past to satirize the present.” The third reason is Yi’s lively, humorous, vernacular writing style, and his frequent use of contemporary slang and internet buzzwords to help modern readers relate to events in the distant, and not-so-distant, past. Some of Yi’s critics see this approach as disrespecting and belittling—or even distorting and tampering with—the serious business of Chinese history. Continue reading →

The absurdity of China’s speech limits

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Source: NYT (12/20/23)
An Egg Fried Rice Recipe Shows the Absurdity of China’s Speech Limits
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
A popular chef’s video was attacked as a jab at Mao Zedong’s dead son. But what if a recipe for egg fried rice was just a recipe for egg fried rice?
By Li Yuan

Credit…Xinmei Liu

The United States is entangled in an emotional debate about antisemitism and free speech on college campuses. The latest speech debate in China is about a chef’s video on how to make egg fried rice.

Egg fried rice is a staple of Chinese home cooking and one of the first dishes many Chinese learn to cook. Think of mac and cheese in America. That was probably why Wang Gang, one of China’s most popular food bloggers, has made multiple recipe videos about the dish in the past five years. His “perfect” fried rice recipes attracted reviews, and reviews of those reviews.

Then one of those videos drew the wrath of the official Chinese media and internet.

His offense? He posted an egg fried rice video on Nov. 27, two days after the anniversary of the death of Mao Anying, son of the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong. Mao Anying was killed in the Korean War while, legend has it, cooking egg fried rice. Continue reading →

Lit Mag closes

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Source: China Digital Times (12/8/23)
Lit Mag Announces Sudden Closure after Cover Seemingly Satirizes Xi Jinping
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A popular periodical featuring essays and nonfiction writing announced that it is suspending operations after 35 years. The announcement followed online chatter that the December cover was an oblique criticism of Xi Jinping. Xi is sometimes sarcastically referred to as the “Compass in Chief,” for his frequent pronouncements “pointing the way forward” on issues as niche as the marine economy and as grandiose as the progress of human society. The latest (and last) cover of “Selected Essays” (《杂文选刊》, Záwén Xuǎnkān) seems to reference that oft-censored appellation. The cover features a suit-wearing arm pointing the way forward. Miniature faceless masses sprint along the arm only to plunge over the end of the index finger into darkness. At China Heritage, Geremie Barmé published the cover art with a short note:

The cover of the December 2023 issue of “Selected Essays” features a pen-and-ink illustration of colorful, faceless human figures sprinting along a giant suit-clad arm, and leaping off the index figure into the abyss below.

Note: One of Xi Jinping’s many sobriquets is ‘Emperor Indicator’ 指明帝 [zhǐmíng dì]. State media frequently uses the expression ‘[he] shows us the way’ 指明方向 [zhǐmíng fāngxiàng] when referring to Xi Jinping’s latest policy directives. [Source]

The magazine, which was published by Jilin People’s Press (吉林人民出版社, Jílín Rénmín Chūbǎnshè), gave no explanation for its suspension of operations. In a message to readers, editors wrote: “The mountains are high, and the rivers are long. Take care.” The choice of words implies that the suspension was not the editors’ choice. Journalists for Anhui’s Dawan News reported that the magazine headquarters’ phone line had already been disconnected. Continue reading →

Policing pessimism

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Source: China Media Project (12/14/23)
Policing Pessimism, and Everything Else
By David Bandurski

The latest notice from China’s top cyberspace control body is clear about just one thing — the absurdity that ensues when an authoritarian system tries to be specific about everything it wants to erase, and everything it doesn’t.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has struck again. In the latest move in a “clear and bright” (清朗) campaign that has unfolded relentlessly this year, the country’s top internet control body said Tuesday that it would target a range of undesirable attitudes and values in short videos.

The release from the CAC outlines three broad types of content, including “fake information” (虚假信息), “misconduct” (不当行为), and “incorrect concepts” (错误观念). And while some of the language points vaguely to instances of misbehavior that could have real implications for the public, much of it looks like regulatory compulsion from a system that simply cannot stop clarifying itself — to the point that nothing is clear.

The section on fake information begins with what might seem legitimate prohibitions, such as against using AI technology to make fake short videos that impersonate others. Immediately, however, political demands crash onto the scene. The third caution, dealing with “reckless falsification and fabrication,” says short videos must not “alter or take out of context authoritative information issued by government offices.” Continue reading →

China’s rebel influencer is still paying a price

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Source: NYT (12/12/23)
‘I Have No Future’: China’s Rebel Influencer Is Still Paying a Price
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
Li Ying used social media to help tell the world about last year’s protests. Now in exile, he has been threatened and lost his livelihood for his defiance.
By Li Yuan

An illustration of a set of stone feet on a stone platform facing a chaotic scene that includes flames, candles and flying papers.

Credit…Xinmei Liu

In November 2022, Li Ying was a painter and art school graduate in Milan, living in a state of sadness, fear and despair. China’s strict pandemic policies had kept him from seeing his parents for three years, and he was unsure where his country was heading.

In China, after enduring endless Covid tests, quarantines and lockdowns, people staged the most widespread protests the country had seen in decades, many holding roughly letter-size paper to demonstrate defiance against censorship and tyranny, in what has been called the White Paper movement.

Then Mr. Li did something that he never anticipated would become so significant: He turned his Twitter account into an information clearinghouse. People inside China sent him photos, videos and other witness accounts, at times more than a dozen per second, that would otherwise be censored on the Chinese internet. He used Twitter, which is banned in China, to broadcast them to the world. The avatar on Mr. Li’s account, his drawing of a cat that is both cute and menacing, became famous.

His following on the platform swelled by 500,000 in a matter of weeks. To the Chinese state, he was a troublemaker. To some Chinese, he was a superhero who stood up to their authoritarian government and their iron-fisted leader, Xi Jinping.

When the government abruptly ended the Covid policy last December, Mr. Li and other young activists faced a question: Was their protest a moment in history, or a footnote? Continue reading →

Mongolian production cancelled in China (1)

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This follows the real slap in the face that is the Gengis Khan exhibition in Nantes right now — an exhibition which took six years to prepare without Beijing, after the Chinese had in the same way tried to forbid the use of “empire” in relation with either the Xiongnu or the Mongols in the exhibition and the catalogue. As it is, with objects from all over the world, including private collections, the exhibition is a feast, including heretical maps – one delightfully showing “the silk roads in the time of the Mongols.”

Brigitte Duzan <chinese_shortstories@yahoo.fr>

Mongolian production cancelled in China

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Source: Bruce-Humes.com (12/12/23)
“Tamgagui Tur”: Mongolian Theatrical Production Abruptly Cancelled in China
By Bruce Humes

The Mongol Khan: Banned in China, live in London (Photo: Katja Ogrin)

After completing a record-breaking 151 sell-out performances at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a planned run of performances in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot were abruptly cancelled by the Chinese authorities in September 2023.

Not to be deterred, the stage production, entitled The Mongol Khan for British audiences, began a two–week run at the London Coliseum (Nov-Dec 2023). The Mongolian original is known as Tamgagui Tur, literally “State without a Seal,” and the Chinese adaptation (失传玉玺) means “The Lost Seal.”

Set some two millennia ago in the early days of the Xiongnu Empire, the fictionalized story — a tragedy — depicts the heroic Archug Khan’s struggles to build a lasting dynasty by ensuring his heir is legitimate and worthy of his throne.

According to a report (失传玉玺) by Anand Tumurtogoo, on the eve of the performance in Hohhot, the Chinese side suddenly informed the cast and crew that they were to be moved 300 kilometers away to Ordos for the show. Just before the first performance was to begin there, the power supply was reportedly interrupted, and in the end, the show did not proceed.

“The terms ‘Xiongnu Empire’ (匈奴帝国) and ‘Khan’ (可汗) seem to have aroused the concern of the Communist Party of China,” said a spokeswoman for the theater group, according to Tumurtogoo’s report.

For a review of the London performance, see here.

Agnes Chow sources

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There’s been a stream of reports and discussions after Agnes Chow gave interviews to Japanese media in Japanese and in English. Here’s the Japanese interview.

Part 2 in Japanese, free with registration.

See here for the English interview (NHK).

In the stream of news about the drama of the last few days, this article in the Diplomat nicely sums up the significance of Hong Kong police’s disgusting treatment of Agnes Chow. This piece includes a photo by Agnes Chow of the pitiful exhibit she was forced to see in Shenzhen.

The Collective HK in its podcast invented the term of “being vacationed” (被旅行):

In addition to the BBC News report posted here a few days ago, these articles are also good:

“I’m Concerned about My Personal Safety” (The Guardian) Continue reading →

Agnes Chow says HK is a ‘place of fear’

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The momentous news of Agnes Chow’s escape to Canada and her regaining of freedom of speech (see below) comes at the same time as her colleague, Tsang Chi-kin, famous for escaping death by police bullet in Hong Kong, has been put up for a grotesque TV confession arranged by HK police. A place of fear indeed. —Magnus Fiskesjö, magnus.fiskesjo@cornell.edu

Source: BBC News (12/7/23)
Agnes Chow: Fugitive activist says Hong Kong is now a ‘place of fear’
By Kelly Ng, BBC News, Singapore

Hong Kong is now a “place full of fear” for pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow, who says she has no plans to go home. Getty Images.

Hong Kong is now a “place full of fear”, pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow, who recently jumped bail, said. Ms Chow was under investigation for “collusion with foreign forces”, but had been allowed to study in Canada.

The 27-year-old is now a fugitive in Toronto. She told the BBC that she does not intend to return home.

Hong Kong authorities say that they will “spare no effort” in pursuing her for the rest of her life if she does not turn herself in.

A controversial national security law, which gives Chinese authorities expansive powers over political and civic activity in Hong Kong, has been widely used against activists like Ms Chow.

Ms Chow ran Hong Kong pro-democracy group Demosisto with fellow activists Nathan Law and Joshua Wong and was one of the leaders of large-scale anti-government protests held in 2012, 2014 and 2019. Continue reading →