China ratchets up control on expression

Last summer a set of editors resigned from the Economic Times citing a loss of the paper's core values. A plan by China Youth Daily to tie reporters' salary bonuses to the degree of praise by party officials was narrowly scotched. Last week the monthly magazine Bai Xing, whose readership is similar to that of Beijing News, was told to remove its interactive web commentary, its investigative news department, and the magazine's slogan, "recording China in change."

Bai Xing editor Huang Liangtian was quoted in the South China Morning Post as saying that "we are required to focus more on culture and lifestyle topics."

Blogs, college message boards, and cellphone text messages have been censured or shut down. Just Monday a new policy was announced that will require some 200 million Chinese to provide proof of identity before buying prepaid cellphone cards.

The controlling share of Beijing News is owned by a conservative southern media group whose flagship is the conservative and often cash-strapped Guangming Daily. Editors from that paper took control after Yang and at least one other top deputy editor were forced out. Beijing Daily staffers worried that the unusual combination of letters to the editor - a rarity in Chinese papers - and stories about official corruption and official apologies, would sour the public on their paper.

In the past 10 days, two Chinese journalists in prison for alleged violations of state security laws are reportedly being prepared for trial. The cases of Zhao Yan, an assistant for The New York Times, and Ching Cheong, a veteran Hong Kong reporter, have languished for months, but now may be heard within six weeks. Numerous press freedom groups, including the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, have vigorously protested the charges, as well as the chilling effect it has on the work of ordinary news gathering. Mr. Ching was arrested in China while on a trip to procure manuscripts from the late premier Zhao Ziyang, who until his passing a year ago lived under house arrest after opposing violence at Tiananmen square in June 1989.

"The Communist Party leaders have a strange way of celebrating the end of the year," noted the Paris-based Reporters without Borders. "After announcing that Zhao Yan and Ching Cheong are to be tried, the Beijing authorities have decided to kill off one of China's most popular and liberal newspapers. We affirm our solidarity with the staff of the paper."

Beijing Daily staff members, mostly ordinary reporters, tried to mount a serious strike at the paper, something almost unheard of in the obedient ranks of Chinese journalists.

But after the new editors threatened immediate dismissal, there was not enough cohesion to sustain the effort. Instead, reporters phoned and e-mailed friends and colleagues, with one writing with traditional Chinese heroic fatalism, "There is no way to retreat, so we won't retreat. The butcher's knife is already raised ... we're going to die so let's make it a beautiful death."

A more artful and indirect protest statement came on the weather page of the paper Friday, in the form of a photograph of birds flying into the distance. Underneath were the words, "A bird leading its flock flies across the sky. Although the sky is not so clear, they fly far away, carrying their goals in their hearts."

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