08

Nov

China imposes tighter cyber control as prominent IT companies agree to increase scrutiny

Chinese netizens will find it harder to find information with “sensitive keywords” as prominent IT companies have agreed to increase their censorship of the online content, BBC reported on Monday.

The 39 Internet companies including the country’s largest search engine Baidu and microblogging site Sina Weibo (the equivalence of Twitter in China) have agreed to “curb rumours” and the spreading of “harmful information”.

The agreement reached after the company heads attending a three-day session presided over by Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office (the government’s online propaganda department).

BBC said the move came “just weeks after Communist Party leaders agreed a list of ‘cultural development guidelines’ included increased controls over social media and penalties for those spreading ‘harmful information’”.

The Chinese government has been intensifying its effort to censor contents on the Internet since September and the police is said to have begun detaining and punishing people for spreading rumours online.

State-own Xinhua News agency reported last month that several detentions had been made, including a university student from southwest Yunnan Province who has been accused of disseminating fake information on a local murder.

Xinhua’s report did not mention how many people had been detained or when these detentions were made.

Ealier October, party newspaper in Beijing called for a real-name system to be imposed on all China’s microblogging service.

Famous Chinese blogger Anti said the government was not likely to close down microblogging services but the might have been tipping the IT companies to impose tighter self-censorship.

China’s now has 485m net users and 195m microblog users, according to a report of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in July.

By Luna

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08

Nov

State-own newspaper in China accuses Ai Weiwei of illegal fund-raising

Global Times, China’s most nationalistic state-own newspaper, accused Ai Weiwei’s act of openly borrowing money from the public as illegal fund-raising on its Monday editorial.

The editorial said: “some experts have pointed out this could be an example of illegal fund-raising. Since he’s borrowing from the public, it at least looks like illegal fund-raising.”

The editorial later rebutted foreign media’s interpretation that Chinese people see the donation as a support to Ai’s special protest against the government by saying that “the donations will not change the public’s attitude towards Ai’s case,” and his supporters “are an extremely small number” and “cannot stand for the mainstream public”.

More than 20,000 sent in money and the total amounted more than 5.6m Yuan (£560,000) by 10 pm Monday according to Ai Weiwei’s assistant @Duyanpili.

@Duyanpili also disclosed that the largest amount received was 900,000 Yuan (£90,000).

Touched by the generosity of Chinese netizens, the artist told the New York Times: “Over the past three years, during all the efforts I’ve made, sometimes I felt like I was crying alone in a dark tunnel”.

“But now people have a way to express their true feelings. This is a really, really beautiful event,” he added.

Strangely the English version of editorial said “Ai was only detained for around 40 days” while its Chinese version said the detention lasted a little more than two months.

Ai Weiwei, once described as the most powerful art figure in the world, was charged of tax evasion and ordered to pay 15m Yuan (£1.5m) tax bill earlier this month.

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04

Nov

Ai bond becomes the hottest investment among Chinese netizens

President Hu Jingtao might have been discussing with his European counterparts about buying their debts during his French visit, but the Chinese netizens certainly have found a more invest-worthy option, the “Ai bond”.

“Ai bond” or “Ai share” is the money people lent to Ai Weiwei, the most influential contemporary artist, to pay off his £1.5m tax bill. It is the latest by-product of the million-pound-worth tax bill.

People called it “Ai bond” or “Ai share” as if it was an investment but most loaner made it very clear that they would not ask the artist to pay back the loan.

However, “Ai bond” is a very good investment option. Mr Ai promised his loaner 10% annual interest, which is significantly higher than the 3.5% official interest rate and moderately profitable if the inflation rate was taken into consideration.

The market (mostly Chinese netizens) warmly welcomed the launch of the “Ai bond”, Mr Ai raised some £110,000 by midnight 4 November Beijing local time.

“Duyanpili”, a volunteer working for Ai Weiwei, tweeted: “ever since we gave the detail of our Alipay account, within 12 hours, the number of @aiww’s debtor has reached 5232. Among them, 4596 people send in the money via Alipay, 210 people via Paypal, 405 people via China Construction Bank account, 15 people by cash and 10 people via post office transfer. The total debt counts 1,106,248 Yuan.”

The warm welcome from the market proved a huge embarrassment for the Chinese government. Some netizens compared the difficulty of fundraising for state Red Cross Organisation and the popularity of “Ai bond” to show that the government had lost its credibility.

Ai Weiwei’s Sina Weibo (China’s equivalence of Twitter) account @Aihuzi was temporarily closed and later resumed.

“Sina has closed @Aihuzi and @Tuijingban. Well, we still raised 1,100,000 within around ten hours. Thanks, Sina”, Ai weiwei  tweeted.

Earlier November, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei received a £1.5m tax bill from Beijing’s local tax bureau. The tax bill is widely seemed as Chinese government’s revenge to the outspoken artist.

Ai Weiwei, who is very keen on public affair, had been secretly arrested for 81 days earlier this year. The Chinese government said his arrest was related to tax-fiddling.

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04

Nov

Chinese netizens help pay off Ai’s tax bill

The £1.5m tax bill from the Chinese government may just prove to be the latest inspiration for Ai Weiwei’s performance art.

The world famous Chinese artist recently called for his social network followers to load him the money to pay off a £1.5m tax bill which was issued by the local tax bureau in Beijing.

Replying a tweet from a fellow decedent Ai Xiaoming (@Xiaocao07) which called on all Ai Weiwei’s followers to loan the artist money, Ai Weiwei wrote: “lend me the money, and I would pay you back whether win or lose. There are one Ai Weiwei and six thousands of you. What should we be afraid of? ”

On Sina Weibo (Twitter’s Chinese equivalence) the artist wrote: “Originally, I didn’t want to borrow the money (to pay off the tax bill). I know what people’s attitudes are and how hard they work, so I decide to borrow the money.”

Many of Ai’s followers sent in the money and posted the remittance receipt. The loans are mostly 1522 Yuan (£150) or 152.2 Yuan (£15), which alludes the 15.52m Yuan (£1.5m) tax bill.

Some people compared the tax bill to “ransom”, suggesting that the Chinese government was trying to take the outspoken artist as hostage.

Famous Chinese decedent Hu Jia sent the artist 1000 Yuan (£100) and called on others to help Ai Weiwei to overcome the hardship financially. “We can’t stand back and let Ai’s wife Lu Qing to go to jail, and the 15.22m Yuan ransom has to be paid instantly,” he wrote.

Mr Ai’s mother and brother issued a statement saying that they will mortgage their Siheyuan (typical Beijing style house with a yard) to provide the deposit for administrative appeal on Wednesday.

Under China’s law, the artist needs to have enough deposit to pay off the tax bill to make an administrative appeal.

Earlier November, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei received a £1.5m tax bill from Beijing’s local tax bureau. The tax bill is widely seemed as a revenge to the outspoken artist who has been very keen on public affair.

By Luna

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01

Nov

Fine for fight: Ai Weiwei recieved million-worth fine

Famous artist Ai Weiwei received 6.7m RMB (about £670,000) fine from the Chinese government today.

Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, the artist’s design company was ordered to pay £1.5m for their back taxes and overdue fine from 2000.

The local tax bureau’s statement said Fake should pay the back taxes and overdue fine within 15 days from 2 November otherwise a three percent overdue surcharge will be applied.

It is know that the legal representative of the company Lu Qing (Mr Ai’s wife) has refused to sign in the statement and told the tax officials that the fines are groundless, as the accounting documents of the company had not yet been returned by the police.

Mr Ai told the Guardian the fine was a game the Chinese government plays all the time and he will challenge the fine.

He added: “they (the Chinese government) needed an excuse to take me away for 81 days.”

The artist was arrested by the police earlier this year and secretly detained for 81 days. During the detention, Mr Ai was under 24/7 watch and was unable to contact with the outside.

Ai Weiwei is a world-renowned artist who has in recent year been advocating for social progress and criticising the Chinese government on many occasions.

By Luna

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30

Oct

Fatal car accident hushed up in Beijing

Chinese websites are under pressure to hush up a fatal traffic accident in downtown Beijing in which a high-ranking Chinese army official’s car has allegedly involved.

Pictures of the accident scene including a close-up shot of the license plate that read “Beijing V02709” were widely circulated and were later deleted from many websites, so did many Weibo (Twitter’s equivalence in China) tweets discussing the accident.

When typing “Beijing V02709” as keyword into Weibo’s search engine, the return displayed “accoring to the local laws, regulations and policies, the searching result is not shown.”

From past experience, it was a sign that websites were under pressure form the central propaganda department to remove information relating to the accident.

Tuesday’s Beijing Morning Post reported that a black Audi with a license plate starting with “Beijing V” hit a cyclist around 9:30 pm on 23 October.

The cyclist, a middle age woman, was said to bounce five metres and immediately lost consciousness. The woman, lying in blood, was later taken to hospital by an ambulance.

Beijing Morning Post’s report did not confirm whether the woman is dead or alive, but according to tweets from alleged witnesses the woman died on the scene.

Weibo user “Ximige” tweeted: “just walked pass Yonghegong Lama Temple and saw a car with Beijing V02 licence plate hit a passer-by…  the passer-by died lying 10 metres away with her face down. There was lots of blood. The police was handling the accident, and there were some people taking pictures of the accident.”

Another Weibo user “Mengjinghui Shine” uploaded some pictures allegedly taken from the scene including a close-up of the license plate that read “Beijing V02709”.

Licence plates starting with Beijing V027 are known to be exclusively allocated to cars from central military departments and especially official cars for high-ranking Chinese army officials. In 2009’s National Day Parade, President Hu Jingtao reviewed the troops on a car with a “Beijing V02009” license plate.

By Luna

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29

Oct

China media proposes tighter control over microblogging

State media in Beijing called for a real-name system to be imposed on all China’s microblogging service, signalling the ruling Communist Party’s growing irritation against Social Network Service (SNS).

An editorial published on 17 October’s Beijing Daily, one of the most prominent party newspapers in China, criticised the fast-growing microblogging service for circulating rumours and proposed a South Korean style real-name system to regulate the country’s SNS.

“A basic measure to safeguard the integrity of the microblogging service is to establish a real-name system, whereby bloggers are required to show their real identity when they openly publish information or express their opinion”, the editorial claimed.

The editorial later added that the proposed real-name system would encourage people “to be responsible for themselves as well as for society”.

However, the country’s netizens expressed quite different views over the proposal.

“Ironically, the editorial that suggesting the implement of a real-name system was written by people who used coded names,” one reader commented below the editorial, satirizing the double standards of the newspaper.

China’s famous blogger Anti said that the real-name system would not work but might pose a great threat to people’s privacy and the safety of their personal data.

Using the examples of South Korea, he added that the hackers could easily get hold of people’s personal information such as identification card numbers, contact numbers, addresses, blood types and personal photos.

More than 10 million Korean netizens’ personal data had been illegally acquired by hackers in the 2008 during their attacks on the popular online commerce website Ebay.

Anti said the editorial is a signal of the increasing discontent against microblogging from the high ranks of the ruling party.

“The Beijing Daily is very close to the central propaganda department. In fact, one of the vice minister has worked in the Beijing Daily for many years. The editorial can reflect the attitude of the central propaganda department,” he said, adding “but it does not necessarily mean that they are closing down microblogging service.”

In the past, the party hierarchy had been using editorials on party newspapers to rally support and to indicate actions. The 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing was supressed after being denounced as an anti-revolution movement by an editorial of the People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper.

Since August, suggestions on Internet regulation have been repeatly proposed by the country’s state media.

The website of China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency published an article on 25 August criticising the internet especially microblogs of being the seedbed of rumours. The article suggested the government to get rid of online rumours by imposing tighter regulation.

Earlier September the overseas edition of the Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily published an article which analysed the online public opinion and concluded that the government should improve its management of the internet.

China now has the largest population of net users.  According to the China Internet Network Information Center’s July report China now has 485m net users and 195m microblog users.

By Luna

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28

Sep

Migrant Workers Remains to be Settled as Beijing’s Reconstruction Undergoes

More than sixty thousand migrant workers in suburban Beijing Shijingshan District are said to be losing their lodgings as the Chinese capital’s reconstruction project progresses, the Beijing News reports.

Migrant workers living in in-city villages are confronted with the dilemma: to find other lodgings or to return their home town.

Lu Jiehua, a professor from Peking University’s Sociology Department, warned that the accommodation and the employment issues involving migrant workers if not sophisticatedly and timely resolved could endanger the stability of the society.

Local government of Pingguoyuan Subdistrict (in Shijingshan District) introduced a new approach, the mutual helping service stations, to deal with the floating population in the area. The mutual helping service stations are self-governing institutes founded by local officers, landlords and tenants.

The services include registering Temporary Residential Permit, helping with free school children enrollment and giving out “Love Service Card” which entitles cardholders to free medical registration.

Despite the cheerful success of this new approach was neutralized by the reconstruction of in-city villages and the moving out of migrant workers. Prof. Lu admitted that the indisputable solution to this dilemma has not yet emerged.

In spite of Shijingshan local government’s effort of preinforming the relocation project and helping with the registration of Temporary Residential Permit and other license for the industrial and commercial sector, returning home has become an increasingly popular option.

Wei Yingyuan, a decoration work living in the relocation-involved village, feared that large scale relocation would bring about a wave of home-returning among migrant workers.

However, Ma Xiaoduo, an NGOer who set up a kinder garden for migrant worker kids expected most migrant workers would stay in Beijing for keeping accustomed life styles. These people tending to keep their renting expense relatively low ended up living in more distant areas, according to Ma.

“Thus, migrant workers in Beijing are more marginalized and impoverished,” Ma worried.

Though the local government promised that all students involved in the relocation project would be able to transfer to other schools, Ma said that frequent resettlement could affect children’s psychologically.

To solve the problem of migrant workers involved in the relocation, Prof. Lu suggested the government to provide career-training to migrant workers so that they could find other occupations easily after the resettlement.

Recently, more than 40,000 recent Chinese graduates who are living in Tangjialing Village have to find new lodgings as the Beijing Municipal Government started reconstructing 50 in-city villages, which have more tenants than local residents, to create a better living environment in the Chinese capital.

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