“Anyone could be Deng Yujiao”

Chinese citizens have been expressing their anger with official conduct through online campaigns. Deng Yujiao is a 21-year-old who fatally stabbed a Communist Party official when he tried to rape her. Her arrest on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter created an online furor when it was publicized by a blogger. This week, the court ruled that she had acted in self-defense and released her from criminal liability.

“It’s about raising the public awareness of democratic ideas — accountability, transparency, citizens’ rights to participate, that the government should serve the people,” said Xiao Qiang, a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who tracks China’s Internet activity. “Netizens who are now sharing those more democratic values are using these cases, each time making inch-by-inch progress.”

China still exerts sweeping and sophisticated control over the Internet, employing thousands of people to monitor Internet traffic for forbidden material and using software to spot key words that hint at subversion. But the system is not infallible, and Internet users frequently find ways to skirt the censors.

The Tank Man

Unfortunately, studying for the bar got in the way of blogging today. I did manage to catch Frontline's program on "The Tank Man." The documentary was first aired a few years ago but they showed it again in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Tank Man was an anonymous protester who became internationally known when he was photographed standing in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square. The version here is from Jeff Widener of AP.

The whole program is available online.

On a related note, check out this post from Matthew Yglesias on China's new requirement that all PCs include internet-censoring software.

This also highlights why political developments in China are so crucial for the entire world. If, say, Iran tried to do this it almost certainly wouldn’t fly. But companies will fall all over each other to cater to the Chinese market. Then, once the technology is in place other autocracies can try to piggyback on work that’s been done in and for China. But absent China, almost all of world output would be happening in democratic nations, and it would be easy to structure the global economy in the kind of way optimists were hoping it would work for China.

June 4th: "Just Another Day"

James Fallows is blogging about the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre as it's being experienced in China.

In his first post, he discusses walking by the square on the eve of the anniversary:

There are more representatives in all categories -- soldiers, police, obvious plainclothesmen -- than I recall seeing even during the Tibet violence in early 2008 or through the Olympic games. Also many people whom you would normally classify as fruit vendors, tourists from the Chinese provinces, youngish white collar workers male and female, and skateboarder-looking characters wearing cargo shorts and with fauxhawk haircuts, were last night walking up and down the sidewalks with their eyes constantly on visitors and drifting up next to people who were holding conversations.

The way to avoid their attention is keep moving briskly along the sidewalk rather than stopping as if you think there is something particular to look at in the square today. The way to draw it is to stop and look around, to pay attention to the security forces themselves, or to have a camera in your hand. If the camera comes out, it may be pointed at one of the scenic highlights in the center of the square.

In his second post, he gives updates from various sources, including his wife (below). Fallows also notes that in other parts of Beijing and China, everything was "perfectly normal" and it was "just another day."

Lots of groups were obviously deputized young men who stood around watching, staring, following people like me at least 3 on 1 at any given moment. There were no women in this capacity. There was a clear absence of the usual "oblivious" quality of Chinese crowd movement, where people bump into you, brush against you, or cut in front of you if you happen to be in the path of where they're going. Everyone milling about was acutely aware of everyone else in his space. They seemed to have assigned space. Some deputies also wore group-colored shirts, all wore "badges" with the Chinese flag surrounded in gold, Many looked like the kids who volunteered at the Olympics. Clearly nationalistic. All young. I wondered if they were paid for the day.

I would guess about 85% of people on the square were there officially. You could tell that because the security lines were basically unpopulated, while all the "deputies" just walked around the screeners without being checked. There were very few tourists, foreign or otherwise. There were mostly uniformed and non-uniformed police. Some foreigners were taking pictures, seemingly unmolested. Any footage and photos will be dull-looking; the shots would look "normal". It was just the feeling of intense orchestration and deliberate crowd-building that gave it away. And also a distinct sense of high-tension, which carried around the front of the Forbidden City, but evaporated just around the corners.

I found her comment about the young, nationalistic volunteers pretty interesting in light of some statistics I read in the paper today. In today's Express (the Washington Post's free paper) that because discussion of the 1989 events is "virtually off-limits" in China, the 200 million "post-1980" kids are most apolitical. Apparently 75% of Chinese college students hope to join the Communist Party. Of those, 56% think it would "boost their chances of finding a good job." In any case, it turns out that many young Chinese no idea what happened 20 years ago.

Slate's "Explainer" is about what the official government line is on Tiananmen Square.

This week marks the 20^th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Western media characterize the incident as a brutal government crackdown on peaceful protesters. What does the Chinese government say about it?

Very little. Neither the 1989 protests nor the ensuing massacre is included in Chinese textbooks, and many students today have never heard of these events. For the most part, the government avoids discussing the issue at all. The government does acknowledge that the People's Liberation Army intervened after seven weeks of demonstrations and that people were killed. But the official line is that, rather than crushing a peaceful protest, the military simply defended itself—and the country—against violent counterrevolutionary elements. ("Counterrevolutionary" is used in China in much the same way as "anti-American" in the United States.)

"The Democratic Spirit" in Iran

Andrew Sullivan has a great post on the election campaign in Iran.

I don't know whether you have been reading the various press accounts of the election campaign in Iran. I know that the candidates' list is fixed, but I can also see democratic spirit when it is bang in front of me. There appears to be a genuine fight for votes; and the images from the Mousavi rallies look more like Obama rallies than assemblies in a totalitarian state. Notice how young these people look, and how unafraid.

Does anyone doubt that if this kid of peaceful campaigning were happening in Iraq, it would be regarded as a sign of a nascent democracy?

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But we should not be blind to change when it emerges. Ahmadinejad has discredited himself in the eyes of many Iranians. They are looking for change they can believe in. This is the target audience for Obama this Thursday. He needs to reach out to the democratic forces in that country and remind them that America is their ally.

(Image from a pro-Mousavi rally from the Charlotte Observer.)

China Censors Tiananmen Information

On the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square revolt, China is censoring information about the event.

Reporters Without Borders said this week that Chinese media cannot refer to the incident, which took place June 4, 1989, and information has been suppressed so effectively that most young Chinese are unaware of the event, which led to the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators.

When Internet users look for information on "4 June," Baidu, China's most popular search engine, displays a message saying: "The search does not comply with laws, regulations, and policies," Reporters Without Borders found in recent tests. Video search for the date leads to a message that says, "Sorry, no video corresponds to your search."

An earlier post about Human Rights Watch's video, "The Tiananmen Legacy," is here. Another post, on the memoirs of a Chinese official who was involved in discussions about the crackdown on demonstrators, is here.

Facebook Blocked in Iran

In the weeks leading up to the election in Iran, Facebook has been banned. President Ahmadinejad denies calling for the ban.

Asked whether he would order that access to Facebook be reinstated, Ahmadinejad responded that he would "see if there is a complaint" that may be presented to the judiciary.

The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency reported over the weekend that the Iranian government had blocked Facebook amid political jockeying for the June 12 presidential election.

Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi -- a former prime minister considered a threat to Ahmadinejad -- has created a Facebook page for his campaign and has more than 5,000 supporters on the site.

Those attempting to visit Facebook were receiving a message in Farsi saying, "Access to this site is not possible," according to CNN personnel in Tehran.

The news agency reported the Masadiq Committee, made up of representatives from Iran's intelligence ministry, judiciary and others, had ordered the action. After a few hours, the block was lifted, but then reinstated later, the agency said. No reason was given.

"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions," a Facebook spokesperson said in a written statement. "We are investigating these reports.

"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a countries' cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides."

UPDATE, 5/26: Iran has reportedly restored access.

"The Tiananmen Legacy"

In anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Human Rights Watch has released "The Tiananmen Legacy" on ongoing persecution and censorship in China. The related video is below.

The government's ongoing efforts to censor history, crush dissent, and harass survivors stands in stark contrast to the impressive economic and social developments in China in recent decades. The Chinese government should recognize that 20 years of denial and repression have only caused the wounds of Tiananmen to fester, not heal.

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

(An earlier post, on the memoirs of a Chinese official who was involved in discussions about the crackdown on demonstrators, is here.)