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Leaked memo
highlights CCP fear of Taiwan
LIKE KRYPTONITE The memo told Chinese Internet
commentators to ‘play down the existence of Taiwan’ and ‘circumscribe the
influence’ of Taiwanese democracy
By J. Michael Cole / Staff Reporter
Leaked internal directives from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provincial
authorities to Internet commentators issued in the past week highlight fears in
Beijing of the potentially “negative” impact of closer contact with democratic
Taiwan.
The leaked memo, posted by the China Digital Times on Friday last week,
instructs Internet commentators in China to exercise caution when discussing
sensitive matters such as Taiwan and the US.
“In order to circumscribe the influence of Taiwanese democracy, in order to
progress further in the work of guiding public opinion, and in accordance with
the requirements established by higher authorities to ‘be strategic, be
skilled,’ we hope that Internet commentators conscientiously study the mindset
of netizens, grasp international developments, and better perform the work of
being an Internet commentator,” the notice says.
This call for caution is followed by a series of guidelines that Chinese
Internet commentators are encouraged to follow.
“To the extent possible, make the US the target of criticism and play down the
existence of Taiwan,” the first instruction says.
“Do not directly confront [the idea of] democracy; rather, frame the argument in
terms of ‘what kind of system can truly implement democracy,’” the directives
say.
To the extent possible, Internet commentators are encouraged to “choose various
examples in Western countries of violence and unreasonable circumstances to
explain how democracy is not well-suited to capitalism.”
“Use America’s and other countries’ interference in international affairs to
explain how Western democracy is actually an invasion of other countries and
[how the West] is forcibly pushing Western values [on other countries],” the
memo says.
To stir up pro-CCP and patriotic emotions, commentators are also instructed to
“use the bloody and tear-stained history of a [once] weak people [ie, China] to
stir up pro-Party and patriotic emotions.”
Lastly, commentators are encouraged to increase exposure to “positive
developments inside China” and to “further accommodate the work of maintaining
[social] stability.”
In addition to the directives, a “very long list of keywords” are currently
banned on Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media platforms, which
counts more than 140 million users. Some of the banned keywords included Ai
Weiwei (艾未未), the artist who was released from jail last week, and “Ai Wei”
(艾未), “Wei Wei” (未未), “Ai” (艾), “Wei” (未), “future” (未來), which are characters
similar to Weiwei, as well as nicknames for Ai, such as “Fatty Ai” (艾胖子),
“fatty” (胖子) and “Half Moon Son” (月半子).
The China Digital Times, a fully online publication offered in both Chinese and
English, is run by the Counter-Power Lab out of the School of Information at the
University of California, Berkeley. It receives financial support from the
Catherine MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the National
Endowment for Democracy, among others. The publication did not mention how it
obtained the leaked instructions.
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