Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIJING24242
2006-12-01 12:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

CHINESE MEDIA TREADS CAREFULLY IN COVERING RECENT

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KCUL SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
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O 011221Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WSHDC IMMEDIATE 2657
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 024242 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: CHINESE MEDIA TREADS CAREFULLY IN COVERING RECENT
UNREST

REF: A. BEIJING 22812

B. CHENGDU 1228

C. GUANGZHOU 32264

D. BEIJING 13858

Classified By: Classified by Political Internal Unit Chief Susan A.
Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 024242

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: CHINESE MEDIA TREADS CAREFULLY IN COVERING RECENT
UNREST

REF: A. BEIJING 22812

B. CHENGDU 1228

C. GUANGZHOU 32264

D. BEIJING 13858

Classified By: Classified by Political Internal Unit Chief Susan A.
Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Recent flashes of violent unrest have gotten
uneven coverage in the Chinese media. Although news
of a toddler's death that touched off a hospital
rampage in Sichuan appeared in local newspapers and
reports of student riots in Jiangxi aired on
provincial television, local press has remained mum on
other violent incidents. Journalists told us that no
new media guidance on reporting unrest has been issued
and, when it comes to coverage of local clashes,
provincial Propaganda authorities decide on their own
what to ban. While they made clear that reporting on
incidents touching on stability is risky for editors
and journalists, they argued that the spread of news
through informal channels is forcing some media
outlets to step up sensitive reporting. Regarding the
trend in unrest incidents, contacts we spoke with
dismissed recently released Ministry of Public
Security statistics indicating that the number of
protests has fallen this year, noting that the numbers
are structurally inaccurate and that instability will
not abate. End Summary.

Land Seizures, Health Care Trigger Protests
--------------


2. (C) Several violent protests have grabbed the
attention of Chinese and western journalists in recent
weeks:

-- College students in Nanchang, Jiangxi rioted
October 23-24 after they were told the government
would not recognize their diplomas (Ref A).

-- In Shandong province on November 5, thousands of
villagers and police clashed over the alleged corrupt
handling of a land compensation deal.

-- After a three-year-old boy died from pesticide
poisoning in Sichuan province November 7, thousands
ransacked a local hospital after learning that medical
staff allegedly refused to treat the boy without
advance payment (Ref B).

-- Villagers in Sanzhou, Guangdong province took some
300 officials and dignitaries hostage November 8, also

to protest land confiscation (Ref C).


3. (C) Only the Jiangxi and Sichuan incidents
received play in Mainland media, in both instances
mostly at the local level. News that Jiangxi students
trashed their vocational school's campus appeared on
provincial television, but the slant of the reporting
was to caution against further demonstrations and to
highlight the responsiveness of the local government,
contacts said. (Note: Dramatic photos of the riot
appeared on overseas Chinese websites. End Note.)
Similarly, the Guang'an Daily in Sichuan ran an
article about the boy's death and subsequent protest
that laid the blame for the events on the family and
on a "speculator" who urged them to demand
compensation. After several foreign news outlets
reported that medical staff refused to treat the
three-year-old without advance payment, the English-
language China Daily published a piece stressing that
the hospital provided adequate care and that blame for
the boy's death rests with the family.

No Propaganda Guidelines
--------------


4. (C) The Propaganda Department has issued no
blanket guidelines on how to handle unrest, said Zhou
Qing'an (protect),a regular contributor to The
Beijing News. When a flare-up receives intense
international attention, censors are likely to hand
down coverage rules, often with only the official
Xinhua News Service permitted to report developments.
Such was the case when a video emerged showing thugs
using lethal force to evict Hebei province villagers

BEIJING 00024242 002 OF 003


from wheat fields in June 2005. After the footage
appeared on the BBC and articles ran in Mainland
dailies such as The Beijing News, Propaganda officials
made Xinhua the sole conduit for news on the issue.
But for the most part, provincial Propaganda
Departments are supposed to take the lead in issuing
rules on a case by case basis, Zhou said. Despite
extensive foreign media coverage of the Sichuan
confrontation, Zhou said he is unaware of specific
rules from the central Propaganda Department relating
to the incident.


5. (C) Cai Wei (protect),who writes for the popular
magazine Sanlian Life Weekly, observed that local
officials will sometimes use the media to promulgate
their side of a given story or to expose misconduct of
rivals and score political points. Cai surmised that
in the Sichuan hospital episode, the reporting that
appeared was meant to tamp down rumors. Propaganda
authorities may have even written the copy of the
articles themselves, Cai said. As for the China Daily
piece, the newspaper's role is to present the position
of the Chinese government to the outside world, not to
engage in aggressive journalism, remarked Wang Feng
(protect),a journalist at the influential bi-weekly
Caijing Magazine. Wang said the China Daily article
was meant as a rebuttal to the foreign coverage, which
focused on problems in China's medical system. The
China Daily piece, by contrast, "blames the poor
family" for the poisoning, Wang remarked.

Sudden Incidents Law Still In Draft
--------------


6. (C) A draft law that would strictly limit
reporting on protest incidents is controversial and
faces numerous hurdles before being approved by
China's legislature, the National People's Congress,
our contacts said. Under the proposed legislation,
news outlets would be required to obtain local
government approval prior to running related stories
or risk fines of up to RMB 100,000 (USD 12,500).
Reporting "false" news could incur similar penalties.
Wang of Caijing said deliberations on the law are
progressing slowly, adding that contacts have told him
NPC members are divided over how to proceed. (Note:
Media outlets greeted the announcement of the draft
law with vocal opposition, including in print. See
Ref D. End note.) In the meantime, reporting on some
stories that would squarely fall under the "sudden
incident" category, such as mine accidents, continues.
Our contacts have broadly defined "sudden incidents"
as disasters, health crises or social unrest.


7. (C) When a protest or accident occurs, word gets
out in the local population via phone and text
message, said He Jiangtao, an editor at Citizen
Magazine. The local press is then compelled to
publish a report, even a partial one, to retain a
degree of credibility among readers. In He's view,
people are sophisticated enough to know that what
appears in print isoften only the official side of
the story. This fuels more rumors about what is
really happening, he said. Meanwhile, student
demonstrations are a growing worry for the censors,
claimed Zhou Qing'an. Students are so tech savvy
these days that they post descriptions and digital
photos of protests on blogs and overseas Chinese
websites, using proxy servers to navigate around
firewalls, almost instantly -- and well before
authorities can impose restrictions.

Social Frictions Not Waning
--------------


8. (C) Government claims that social unrest in China
is waning were dismissed by scholars and journalists
we spoke to as unlikely. At a November 7 press
conference, the Public Security Bureau announced that
the number of so-called "disturbances of public order"
in China has declined in 2006 by 22.1 percent, but
contacts criticized the figures as structurally
inaccurate. They ascribed the upbeat statistics to
underreporting on the part of local officials who are
under pressure from central authorities to prevent
conflicts in the face of increased protests. Contacts
we spoke to, on the contrary, posited that social
unrest is not waning, but increasing. The issues that
generate protest activity -- corruption and abuse of
power, land seizures, environmental degradation and

BEIJING 00024242 003 OF 003


failings in the health and education systems -- are
not being effectively addressed.


9. (C) In this vein, the Sichuan hospital incident
did not come as a surprise to Ma Rong, director of the
Sociology Department at Beijing University. "Everyone
hates doctors these days," he said, commenting that
medical fees are exorbitant no matter what a patient's
income is. He added that while elimination of
agricultural taxes and school fees has boosted incomes
in the countryside, access to reliable health care
outside urban areas remains spotty. Li Dun, a
professor at Tsinghua University's Center for the
Study of Contemporary China, separately made a similar
point, emphasizing that close to 90 percent of China's
rural residents are uninsured. What would happen if
an epidemic broke out, Li wondered, suggesting that
the strains on the health system could give rise to
major social frictions.

Comment
--------------


10. (C) The Chinese leadership clearly continues to
view press reporting on controversial issues as a
threat to social stability. As such, even if the
draft law limiting media treatment of "sudden
incidents" does not move forward, propaganda
authorities will strive to keep a lid on reports about
social unrest or to spin stories so as to bolster
public confidence in the authorities and tamp down
resentment. The ability to manage this, however, is
already spotty and, several contacts predicted, will
get more difficult over time.
Randt