CHINA MAKES PERMANENT THE LIMITED,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 004230

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/14/2033
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL PROP KOLY CH
SUBJECT: CHINA MAKES PERMANENT THE LIMITED,
OLYMPICS-RELATED, RELAXATION OF CONTROLS ON FOREIGN
REPORTERS

REF: A. OSC CPP20081018001001

B. 07 BEIJING 318

C. 06 BEIJING 24239

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey
Carlson for reasons 1.4 (B/D).

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


1. (C) Foreign correspondent and Chinese media
contacts praised the October 17 announcement that the
temporary, Olympics-related, relaxed rules governing
foreign journalists were made permanent, though
several interlocutors noted China remains a difficult
place to work for reporters of all nationalities. The
October 17 decision by China's leadership makes
permanent the Olympics-related regulations allowing
foreign correspondents to travel and work in China
without first seeking permission from provincial
Foreign Affairs Offices. As under the temporary
regulations, Tibet remains off-limits, and our sources
predicted that China's security apparatus will
continue to use surveillance and other means to keep
reporters away from sensitive areas. One media
scholar told us the decision to make the Olympic rules
permanent was made after the State Council Information
Office concluded that allowing foreign journalists
more freedom of movement did not significantly
increase negative media coverage of China. Several
domestic reporters argued that the newly permanent
rules, while not applicable to the Chinese media,
demonstrate China's commitment to greater openness.
Chinese reporters, meanwhile, remain frustrated by
official interference in their work, and one editor
commented that the newly permanent rules increased the
contrast between the less restricted working
environment enjoyed by foreign correspondents and the
continued restraints binding domestic journalists.
End Summary.

A Last-Minute Announcement
--------------


2. (U) In a late-night press conference October 17,
MFA spokesperson Liu Jianchao announced the
implementation of new permanent regulations governing
foreign journalists and news organizations in China
(ref A). The regulations, signed earlier that evening
by Premier Wen Jiabao, replace 1990 rules and make
permanent the temporary rules governing foreign
reporters leading up to, during and after the Olympic
Games that went into effect on January 1, 2007 (ref
b,c),and expired October 17, just minutes after Liu's
announcement. The most significant changes from the
1990 rules include:

-- Permanently eliminating the requirement that
foreign journalists seek permission from local and
provincial Foreign Affairs Offices (FAOs, known in
Chinese as "waiban") before conducting reporting
activities outside Beijing and Shanghai. The Tibet
Autonomous Region (TAR),however, remains an
exception, and journalists, Liu explained, will still
need to seek permission from the TAR FAO to travel
there.

-- Reducing red tape related to credentials and
temporary accreditation for short-term or non-
permanent correspondents;

-- Explicitly allowing importation of "wireless
communication gear" (such as satellite equipment);
and,

-- Eliminating the polemics that foreign journalists
must not "distort facts," "fabricate rumors," or
"endanger national unity." The new rules simply say
foreign journalists should respect "professional
morals" (zhiye daode) and report "objectively"
(keguan) and "fairly" (gong zheng).

Chinese Employees Cannot Be Correspondents
--------------


3. (C) The newly permanent regulations also grant
foreign news organizations the right to hire local
staff through the Diplomatic Services Bureau (DSB),an
organization under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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(with branches in many provinces) that provides
employees to foreign embassies, consulates and news
bureaus. (Note: The 1990 rules made no reference to
the hiring of local staff.) At the press conference,
however, Liu clarified that Chinese citizens can only
work for news bureaus in a supporting role and cannot
function as reporters themselves. Contacts at several
foreign news bureaus in Beijing told PolOffs the new
language simply codifies existing practice whereby
foreign news organizations hire local staff and then
register the new employees with the DSB. Yu Xiaofei
(protect),a Chinese employee at the Beijing bureau of
the UK newspaper The Times, told PolOff that bureaus
sometimes do not bother to register employees with the
DSB. The only disadvantage of not joining the DSB,
she said, is that unregistered employees are often
denied credentials for the National People's Congress
and similar official events.

Low-Risk Liberalization
--------------


4. (C) Tsinghua University School of Communications
Professor Zhou Qing'an (protect) told PolOff October
28 that the Chinese Government decided to make the
Olympics-related relaxations permanent after
concluding that the old restrictions had little
meaning. Foreign journalists, he said, have long
ignored the rules that they must seek permission from
local FAOs before traveling. In September, according
to Zhou, the State Council Information Office
completed an internal report that concluded the
negative portrayal of China in the foreign news media
did not measurably increase in the last two years
despite the greater freedoms given to foreign
reporters under the temporary rules.


5. (C) The report, portions of which Zhou said he
read, also argued that the implementation of controls
over foreign journalists was itself generating
negative news stories. Zhou said the report
specifically cited the deadly August 4 attack on a
People's Armed Police unit in Kashi (Kashgar),
Xinjiang. International reporting of the incident,
Zhou cited the report as saying, was overwhelmingly
sympathetic to China until police assaulted two
Japanese reporters trying to cover the attack. Zhou
said the report was instrumental in the decision to
make the temporary Olympics rules permanent. At the
end of the day, Zhou said, Party leaders decided there
would be little downside to making the temporary
regulations permanent ("foreign journalists will talk
to dissidents no matter what the rules say") and the
move would improve China's international image. Zhang
Xiantang (protect),a senior reporter at the China
Economic Times, said the decision was ultimately a
"face" issue for the Chinese leadership. With so much
attention focused on China, Zhang said, it would have
been "stupid" and "embarrassing" to restore
restrictions on foreign journalists so soon after the
Olympic Games were over.

Late Decision Indicates Controversy
--------------


6. (C) Contacts differed over whether the decision to
make the temporary regulations permanent sparked
serious debate within the central leadership.
Dissident scholar Liu Junning (protect) told PolOff
that he heard of a "split" within China's propaganda
apparatus, with the Party Propaganda Department
opposed to making the Olympics regulations permanent
while the State Council Information Office supported
doing so. Wang Chong (protect),an international
affairs columnist for the China Youth Daily, said the
last-minute announcement of the new regulations
indicated that there was opposition to the decision.
Some bloggers, meanwhile, have speculated that China's
security apparatus opposed permanently relaxing travel
restrictions on foreign journalists. Zhou Qing'an of
Tsinghua, however, discounted the idea that there was
heated debate over the decision. While there may have
been difference of opinion between agencies, Zhou
noted, CCP Politburo Standing Committee member Li
Changchun has firm control over the propaganda
agencies and the regulations would not have passed if
Li had objected.

TAR Leaders Oppose Opening Tibet to Reporters

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--------------


7. (C) Zhou, who has participated in several Tsinghua
University programs to train Tibet cadres in media
relations, said the decision to continue to restrict
foreign journalists' access to Tibet was primarily a
result of resistance from TAR officials. TAR leaders
believe categorically that "all foreign journalists
are spies," Zhou said, and the State Council
Information Office continues to defer to the TAR
cadres on this question. No Beijing official wants to
risk advocating greater media access to the TAR, Zhou
said, because they would be blamed if "a few
journalists really did turn out to be spies."

Still Many Ways to Control Foreign Press
--------------


8. (C) Chistopher Bodeen (protect),a correspondent
for the Associated Press, told PolOff the new rules,
like the temporary Olympics regulations, do not mean
Chinese authorities will give up on attempts to
control foreign reporters. Following the March 14
Lhasa riots, Bodeen noted, China's security forces
blocked international journalists from traveling to
Tibetan areas of Qinghai and Gansu provinces even
though these areas were technically "open." When
major events happen, he said, Chinese authorities will
continue to block access in the name of "ensuring
journalists' safety." Tsinghua's Zhou offered a
similar prediction, saying state security agents will
continue to use wire tapping, surveillance, and other
"extra legal" means to keep tabs on the international
media. Nevertheless, Bodeen and other foreign
journalists said the lifting of the FAO permission
requirements is helpful. A reporter with the British
Broadcasting Corporation told PolOff in August that
the relaxation "changed the power dynamic" between
reporters and local officials. Journalists no longer
need to hide from authorities, he said, "because we
have a right to be there."

Frustrated Chinese Reporters Benefit Indirectly
-------------- --


9. (C) Domestic journalists we spoke to believe the
newly permanent regulations, though having no direct
impact on their work, reinforce the concept that all
journalists have a right to report the news. Several
local media contacts said the right to travel to the
scene of breaking news has particular resonance with
Chinese journalists following official interference in
the coverage of two recent mine-related disasters in
Shanxi province: an August 1 landslide in Lifan that
occurred when a tailings pile collapse killed at least
41 people, and a September 8 mudslide in Xiangfen that
killed over 250 people and was caused by the failure
of a reservoir holding mine waste. In both cases
local police attempted to prevent reporters from
reaching the scene. (Note: In Lifan, officials
originally portrayed the accident as a natural
disaster and covered up the real death toll. The
truth came to light weeks later when a journalist for
the magazine Oriental Outlook (Liaowang Dongfang)
broke the story on his personal blog. Several
contacts told us attempts by the mainstream press to
cover the accident were censored.) Zhang, of the
China Economic Times, noted that reporters of local
newspapers are most vulnerable to such restrictions
because they are technically not allowed to report on
news in other provinces. Journalists for national
media outlets, he said, typically can go where they
want.


10. (C) Lu Yuegang (protect),a reporter for China
Youth Daily who was demoted in 2006 from his job as
deputy editor of the paper's outspoken "Freezing
Point" supplement, praised the permanent relaxation of
restrictions on foreign journalists and said domestic
reporters will benefit indirectly, especially when
reporting on "sudden incidents" like the recent Shanxi
disasters. If Chinese authorities are unable to
restrict foreign journalists from entering a disaster
area, Lu said, then they will also be less able to
justify keeping domestic reporters out. Chen Hao
(protect),the Editor-in-Chief of the International
Herald Leader, a paper run by the Xinhua News Agency,
told PolOff the newly permanent rules show that China
is slowly moving toward greater openness. The

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international media, Chen added, has had a positive
effect in pushing China toward greater press freedom.
Chen, however, said he felt a tinge of bitterness
because the new rules also highlight the increasing
contrast between the relatively free working
conditions enjoyed by international correspondents and
the myriad censorship rules imposed on China's own
journalists. Wang Chong echoed Chen's pessimism,
saying the foreign reporter regulations "mean nothing"
for domestic reporters who remain frustrated at the
slow pace of liberalization. "It is tiring being a
journalist in China now," Wang said, adding that he
often thinks of quitting the China Youth Daily and
finding work with a financial news service, which
would mean "more pay and less aggravation."
RANDT