Beijing reporters protest press controls

POLITICALLY CHARGED: Reporters at an outspoken Chinese newspaper staged a highly unusual strike after the Chinese government removed the editor from his job

AP , BEIJING

Reporters at a Beijing newspaper known for covering sensitive topics walked off the job after its editor was removed this week amid efforts to tighten press controls, employees said yesterday.

The informal strike at the Beijing News was highly unusual for China's entirely state-controlled media. It reflected tensions between Communist leaders and media outlets, which have pushed the limits of official tolerance in recent years, sometimes drawing punishment for aggressive reporting on corruption and other politically charged issues.

Reporters stopped filing articles on Thursday after the removal of editor Yang Bin, said employees contacted by phone. Yesterday, the tabloid was 32 pages, compared with more than 80 on a normal day.

"Most of the 400 reporters and editors are unhappy about Yang Bin leaving," said a reporter who asked not to be identified. "We don't know how many high-level officials might leave their post."

It wasn't clear how many reporters took part in the protest or how long it might last.

Employees said they didn't know why Yang was removed.

The Beijing News is audacious even by the standards of a new wave of Chinese newspapers that compete for readers with stories on scandals and other previously forbidden topics.

In June, it broke the story of an attack by armed men that killed six villagers who were protesting the seizure of land for use in building a power plant near the northern city of Dingzhou. The government arrested more than 100 people and investigated two local Communist Party officials after the report was picked up by other Chinese outlets and foreign media.

"I think the paper's outspoken style brought it this trouble," said Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer who has met Yang.

A spokesman for the Beijing News denied there was any protest.

"Everything here is normal," said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Luo.

Chinese media have been given limited autonomy in an effort to reduce their need for subsidies by letting them compete commercially. Editors are expected to work within censorship guidelines on specific stories, but are free to make their own decisions on other matters.

But the government has recently tightened controls, forcing the removal of respected editors who angered officials by reporting on graft and other issues.

Yang, the Beijing News editor, was reassigned by the Guangming Daily Group, a party-run publisher that is part owner of his newspaper, according to Hong Kong media.

Its partner is the Southern Daily Group in the southern business center of Guangzhou. That company publishes Southern Metropolis News and Southern Weekend, two of China's most aggressive sources of reporting on corruption and scandals. A former editor-in-chief and a former general manager of the Southern Metropolis News were jailed last year on what colleagues say were phony corruption charges. Another former editor was detained for five months but released without charge.

Several editors at Southern Weekend have been removed after reports that angered officials.

"Yang Bin inherited the outspoken style from the Southern Metropolis News, which annoyed some central officials in Beijing," Pu said.

Pu said the Beijing News' opinion section was told to suspend publication.

"This section is the most important part of the paper," he said.

Wu glum over cross-strait future

NOT BRIGHT: The MAC chairman said that the Chinese government's decision to keep ignoring Taiwan's elected officials is spoiling the chances of improving ties

By Shih Hsiu-chuan

STAFF REPORTER

Commenting on the future of cross-strait relations, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu said yesterday that there is little room for optimism if the Chinese government continues to ignore the Taiwanese government.

Wu made the remarks at an international press conference held to review the year's developments in the cross-strait relationship.

"Over the past year, the Chinese government has adopted very negative tactics when handling cross-strait relations -- avoiding all contact with us so as to achieve its goal of marginalizing the government and belittling its status," Wu said.

Conference snub

Wu said that when China held an international conference on preventing bird flu last month, it invited Taiwanese experts instead of ministers to attend. The health ministers from 18 other countries attended the conference.

This was just one example of many, he said.

"Furthermore, at the conference the Taiwanese representatives were not even given an opportunity to express opinions during the discussions," Wu added.

Wu urged China not to hold onto the illusion that it can dominate cross-strait relations by itself or that Taiwan will give China whatever it wants.

"The future development of cross-strait relations relies on both sides. The power to handle cross-strait affairs should be divided equally between Taiwan and China," he said.

Wu said that the government will continue to insist on its stated principles -- goodwill, active cooperation and permanent peace -- in handling of cross-strait affairs, and pursue mutually beneficial cross-strait relations no matter what the Chinese government does.

"We will continue to push for negotiations on such issues as the opening of Taiwan to Chinese tourists and cross-strait cargo and passenger charter flights," he said.

Negative effect

Wu also said that the pan-blue camp opposition leaders' visits to China without prior consultation with the government earlier this year had had an extremely negative effect on the nation's cross-strait policy.

"In the light of this experience, it is important in the future for all parties to reach a consensus regarding the nation's cross-strait policies," Wu said.

The nation's future is in our hands

By Huang Tien-lin

While celebrating the seventh anniversary of his inauguration, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou emphasized that he would seek to promote legislation for cross-strait direct flights in his capacity as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Ma also pointed out that he would try to open up Taipei's Sungshan Airport to direct flights from China and seek to set up direct transport links between other domestic airports such as Hualien's and major cities in China. Clearly, Ma is defining cross-strait direct flights as domestic flights, in which case negotiations between Taipei and Beijing are not a prerequisite.

We can interpret Ma's remarks as meaning that he does not regard Taiwan as a nation, and that he seeks to formulate his China policy based on the principle that Taiwan is a province of China. It is even more absurd that Ma believes that the opening of cross-strait direct flights will enable Taiwan to become a springboard for foreign companies intending to enter China's market and therefore boost the nation's tourism industry, and that Taiwan will end up a loser and marginalized if it does not seek to integrate with China and utilize business opportunities presented by the rise of China.

Ma even warned President Chen Shui-bian that if the government does not push for the normalization of cross-strait flights, then he will end up achieving nothing during his eight years in office.

Ma's argument is typical of how the pan-blue camp views China's economic development. If we study pan-blue perceptions of China's economy, we find that their view of China has everything to do with their greater China complex and wishful thinking about China, for they believe that China will one day unify the world by force and become a great economy.

No matter what motivated Ma to make such a statement, history has taught us that in war everyone is a loser. In the 13th century, Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty, chose Beijing as the capital of his Mongol Empire in order to consolidate his control of China. Unfortunately, the Mongol Empire fizzled out after ruling for only 89 years. In short, the empire would not have been so short-lived if it was not determined to conquer China. In the 17th century, ambitious Emperor Shunzhi of the Manchu Qing Dynasty led his troops in the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty. However, after immersing themselves in the lifestyle and customs of the Han Chinese, the homeland of the Qing Dynasty and its eight clans ended up as nothing more than three provinces of China.

Luckily, Taiwan has been independent from China for 50 years and is considered to have achieved an economic miracle. Taiwan is an affluent country and is world-famous for its high-tech industry and abundant capital. Unfortunately, the specter of the Greater China complex looms large over the nation. With pro-China media outlets sparing no effort in promoting China, more and more enterprises are moving their factories or headquarters to China. That is how "China fever" has developed.

Many Taiwanese businessmen who are working in China feel complacent, for they receive red-carpet treatment wherever they go. The empires established by the Mongols and Manchus all ended after they ignored the importance of giving back to their homelands. It seems that Taiwan is now following in the footsteps of these empires, as its economic performance is gradually being overshadowed by China's growing "magnetic effect" in luring foreign investment. Only a few industries have heeded the government's "no haste, be patient" policy, and they carry the burden of improving Taiwan's economy.

If Ma is hell-bent on promoting legislation for cross-strait direct flights, we can conclude that a number of Taiwanese conglomerates will benefit from such a policy. In the decades to come, our descendants will be told how Ma led Taiwanese companies to invest in China when pursuing corporate profit, making Taiwan a springboard for investment in China and how ultimately, with the advent of yet other economic miracle, it became a province on the fringes of the communist Chinese empire.

Whether Taiwan intends to remain a sovereign state and maintain its prosperity or become a province of China all depends on the choices Taiwanese people make now.

Huang Tien-lin is a national policy adviser to the president.

Sorry Mao: China, not the US, is a paper tiger

By Cao Chang-qing

In 1956, then Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong made a bold statement about the US by saying that: "In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger."

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Mao's death. History has contradicted his famous statement, for the US is the leader of the democratic world and its only great power, while the dictatorial communist nation of China is experiencing a decline in power.

Freedom House, an independent non-governmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, published its annual report last week, in which it said that 28 nations have made democratic improvements this year, while only nine nations have regressed. The findings are the most positive since Freedom House began its annual assessment of democracy around the world in 1972.

According to the report, a total of 122 nations currently hold democratic elections, an increase of three nations from last year's statistics. However, there are still 2.3 billion people living in societies that are completely without freedom, and China (with a population of 1.3 billion) is home to more than half this number.

The 122 democratic nations together lay claim to about 90 percent of the world's wealth, while the remaining 10 percent is in the hands of China and other dictatorial nations.

Although the US has only five percent of the world's population, it is responsible for about 40 percent of the world's technological advances, 50 percent of the world's research and development efforts, and 28 percent of the world's income. Although China continues to see economic growth, as of today, it only contributes four percent of the world's economy -- about one-seventh that of the US, or the same as the economy of the state of New York.

The economic figures published by Chinese authorities are regarded with suspicion by most Western economists. Some believe that real growth in China is only a third of what it is claimed to be. Sun Dawu, a Chinese entrepreneur, said in his speech at Beijing University that even if you cut the figure published by the Chinese government in half, it is still likely to be an exaggeration.

Unemployment in China stands at 20 percent. According to the statistics compiled by the UN, 60 million Chinese people subsist on an annual income of US$75, while 47 percent of people living in China, or 615 million people, earn less than US$2 a day. Last year, a total of 70,000 protests took place in China, or 200 (reported) cases of rural unrest per day.

China's economy depends on foreign trade, with the sum of its total exports amounting to 75 percent of its GDP. (By comparison, US exports account for 16 percent of GDP while Japan's exports account for 25 percent of GDP.) This year, China's trade surplus with the US will reach US$200 billion, a record high indicating its growing reliance on the US market. According to the IMF, China's banks are hamstrung by between 35 percent to 50 percent bad debt, accounting for 40 percent of China's GDP.

In recent years, China has attempted to strengthen its military. However, China cannot rival the US on this front, much less the combined might of the democratic nations. The US' annual military expenditure is US$400 billion -- equal to the amount spent by the 15 nations ranked after it.

Although China's economy is booming, its development remains at risk as long as Beijing declines to promote democracy. Ironically, it is China, and not the US, that is the paper tiger.

Cao Chang-qing is a writer based in New York.