And I choose the word “deranged” carefully, as the policy serves no interest other than to protect the prickly old Party from looking bad.

News has always been a tough nut for Communist dictators. It happens unexpectedly, giving bureaucrats precious little time to prepare the correct ideological explanation; it often undermines whatever propaganda line the state is pushing, and if it happens to involve embarrassing events like riots, strikes, accidents or outbreaks of disease, it can make the party bosses look less than perfect.

The Soviet Union dealt with the problem with the infamous Article 70 of the penal code, which basically defined anything the state didn’t want people to hear as “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” Now China proposes to take the art of censorship a step higher with a bill that would severely fine news media outlets if they report on “sudden incidents” without prior authorization.

“Sudden incidents” sounds awfully similar to what most of the world knows better as “breaking news,” and in most countries it’s considered a core function of the news media.

I thought everything changed after SARS, and that the government now permitted, even encouraged, honest, swift reporting about disasters and threats to its citizens. Another big step back in the Age of Hu, and a decision that gives us invaluable insight into the party psyche: they’re still scared, power-drunk and willing to see citizens die to keep them looking good. They fool no one. (Or at least no one who thinks for himself.)

Update: For those of you who haven’t been following this story, here’s an update from the unlinkable SCMP:

A law that would allow the government to impose fines of 50,000 to 100,000 yuan on media outlets that run independent reports on public emergencies has sparked strong resentment among journalists despite officials’ assurances it would apply only if a report caused serious damage.

Outspoken journalism professor Zhan Jiang , from the China Youth University for Political Sciences, said the assurances by an official from the State Council Legal Affairs Office that the media would be encouraged to expose public emergencies covered up by local governments had failed to convince the media that the law was not aimed at restricting press freedom.

“The interpretation is not convincing. If that is really the case, they should have revised the draft of the law and inserted clauses that protect the rights of journalists,” he said. “There is not a single provision in the law to protect the rights of journalists, and they are talking about restricting the rights of journalists.”

Professor Zhan said another provision in the draft, which stipulates that information about public emergencies should be provided by the government, had also caused concern. Public emergencies include accidents, public health crises, social unrest and natural disasters.

No matter how the government tried to contain negative publicity after the content of the provision was released, the law was a clear case of intimidation of the media, Professor Zhan said.

Hu wants China to be a huge capitalist middle-class country, with no freedom of speech.

Kristof is actually okay today, if still his usual wishy-washy self. I love his points about Fox news and the WSJ’s editorial writers misrepresenting what was going on in Iraq.

Don’t Turn Us Into Poodles
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: July 4, 2006

With President Bush leading a charge against this “disgraceful” newspaper, and a conservative talk show host, Melanie Morgan, suggesting that maybe The Times’s executive editor should be executed for treason, we face a fundamental dispute about the role of the news media in America.

At stake is the administration’s campaign to recast the relationship between government and press.

(more…)

How sweet it is. Just read it. Then tell me Our Lady of the Concentration Camps has an ounce of credibility left.

Photo and Maglalang nicknames from this splendid site.

Long-time readers may remember my bringing up Philip’s name before. I find him brilliant, articulate, and something of an apologist for the CCP. He isn’t a party shill, but he’s not objective about them, either. The one thing that always bothered me about him was his eagerness to criticize America while treating the Chinese government with kid gloves. For those of you interested, you must vist this post and the ensuing comments thread. There is some really smart stuff there, and I have to say I’m delighted to see I’m not alone in my assessment of Dr. Cunningham. (That doesn’t make me right, of course, but it certainly feels good.)

This is one of those stories where all you can say is Yikes and then hope you never have to hear about it again because iIt’s simply too depressing.

Just as the Chinese people are among the main victims of global warming, mainly caused by the older industrialised ‘West’, China’s latest export wave – acid rain, air pollution and even more greenhouse gases – is a major threat to the global environment. Coal dust and acid rain caused by China’s power industry have fallen as far away as California, and belated moves to protect China’s forests have driven armies of Chinese loggers to Burma and Brazil….

Extreme weather conditions, environmental shocks and pollution scandals are grabbing the headlines in China, despite the ‘communist’ regime’s continuing tight grip on the media. There is a growing popular questioning of the regime’s pursuit of rapid but uncontrolled industrialisation, and the antics of corrupt officials who in cahoots with local and foreign capitalists are fast obliterating the country’s land, forests, rivers and other natural resources.

According to US environmentalist Elizabeth Economy, hundreds of millions of Chinese face “a life-threatening environmental crisis�. The poisoning of its rivers, into which largely untreated industrial waste and sewage is routinely pumped, means that 700 million Chinese drink contaminated water. China now produces as much organic water pollution as the US, Japan and India combined, which explains its high rates of hepatitis A, diarrhoea, and liver and stomach cancers. Of the 500 largest Chinese cities, 193 undertake no sewage treatment whatsoever, according to a report from the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). 30,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by drinking unclean water. The Ministry of Health openly acknowledges that environmental pollution is behind a 25 percent increase in birth defects nationwide since 2001.

That’s just for starters. Lots more, none of it very uplifting. There’s also air pollution and water pollution and….well, you name it, and China’s got it in spades. We’ve heard the horror stories before, but the twist in this one is that China’s pollution is not an internal problem: it threatens the health and safety of the entire planet. And that’s something for all of us to worry about.

Interesting observations on why Chinese athletes perform so well when it comes to gymnastics and diving, and not so well when it comes to soccer and baseball.

Nowadays, caring about the low wages of the poor seems so…quaint. So dreamy and bleeding heart. We have things to do that are so much more important, so much more noble, like ending the estate tax.

Working for a Pittance
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 3, 2006

“We can no longer stand by and regularly give ourselves a pay increase while denying a minimum wage increase to the hardworking men and women across this nation.”
— Hillary Rodham Clinton, to her fellow senators.

The federal minimum wage, currently $5.15 an hour, was last raised in 1997. Since then, its purchasing power has deteriorated by 20 percent. Analysts at the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities jointly crunched the numbers and determined that, after adjusting for inflation, the value of the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955.

For those who don’t remember, Eisenhower was president in 1955, the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and Barack Obama hadn’t even been born.

(more…)

Racism or a communications screw-up? You decide.

But what are the implications of this phenomenon? Obviously, lots more traffic and pollution and carnage on the roads. But no matter; buying a car in China now is a matter of pride, of self-assertion, of China rising up and finding its inherent greatness. Here’a an epic-length piecethat looks at China’s love affair with automobiles from just about every conceivable angle. Cars tend to bore me, but this beautifully written, panoramic article is nothing less than a page-turner.

I’m quite serious. We are now witnessing the far-right’s free-fall into madness. I have proof. You simply must see this post to understand why Michelle Maglalang and Assrocket and their cronies have lost their marbles. You have to read down to where the blogger brings up the articles on Clinton, and then read on to the updates. The post is a classic; it captures the veritable insanity of the far-right in all of its ugliness, with its calls to violence and shouts of treason and its thirst for vengeance. Malkin’s site is now on a level with Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer, and spare me any protests of Godwin’s law. This can be methodically and scientifiically proven; they find the enemy and then play on people’s most base and emotional fears, a never-ending three-minute-hate echo chamber. It used to be Jews. Now it’s liberal and the NY Times. Check out the post and see why it’s so scary that Malkin and Assrocket command such huge and loyal readerships and exercise such political muscle. They are bad news. They have declared war on sanity.