A tale of Tiananmen intrigue

Chinese leaders today unswervingly state the Tiananmen bloodletting was a necessary price for taking the path of economic reform that has made China famous for low-cost manufacturing and new wealth. Officials argue that democratic reform must come gradually. Indeed, two days ago Xinhua released a statement saying that Chinese must one day prepare for more diverse views. Yet currently, those who disagree openly and advocate democratic reforms are jailed or silenced.

While Chinese media are more diverse and lively, these changes do not extend to coverage of subjects like politics, religion, ethnicity, and many current affairs.

"The new Hu Jintao regime has by no means relaxed as outsiders once hoped it would," argues Mr. Link in a recent essay on former Chinese journalist He Qinglian's study of Chinese media. About 34 journalists now reside in Chinese jails - making China the largest incarcerator of media in the world, according to Human Rights Watch.

Foreign correspondent clubs exist in Asian cities as fixtures of press solidarity; they occupy prominent addresses in Hong Kong, Japan, Bangkok, and Seoul. But no formal foreign media club is allowed in Beijing. Currently, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, which has more than 180 members from media groups around the world, meets in restaurants and hotels. It is not technically legitimate, and could be closed anytime.

In the past year, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China made three separate representations of concern to the Chinese Foreign Ministry about treatment of foreign journalists, and its executive board (of which this reporter is a member) is sending a letter on the Ching case Friday. The three cases the club has formally protested include:

• The severe beating last August of a foreign-based photographer trying to photograph Chinese soccer fans after China's loss to Japan in the Asian Cup finals.

• The arrest in September of New York Times assistant Zhao Yang, who was charged with giving out state secrets shortly after the Times broke a story on Zhang Zemin's departure as head of China's military. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence, but new charges of fraud were levied this week.

• A January incident where plain-clothes security officials barged into a press conference of Korean lawmakers, switched off the lights, and roughed up Japanese and Korean journalists.

Press groups often point out that the 2008 Olympics, hosted by Beijing, will bring droves of Western reporters to China, and thus de facto force changes toward greater openness. Yet few major changes have been so far spotted.

If anything, foreign journalists here say that official problem incidents are on the rise, and it will be simple for China to manage the media in 2008.

Last month, it came to light that the Chinese government had entered into an arrangement with the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. The prestigious foundation, whose mandate is to expand press freedoms, had agreed, for pay, to conduct training sessions for Chinese officials who will interact with foreign media.

Many Nieman alumni felt such sessions ran "directly counter to the Nieman's ... core mission," as one put it. The foundation has withdrawn from the venture.

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