The Media and

State-Society
Relations in
China

City University of HK March, 2011

Dr Willy Lam
THE PARTY LINE : Unity is
Strength??
Same face appears on all
Chinese newspapers
News reporting:
Chinese Style
The Net can be used to express
nationalism – including xenophobic
sentiments
 Sichuan Earthquake
When the power of
the Net – and a
nascent civil society
– is harnessed

Ai Weiwei beaten up by police

“Tofu buildings” in
Zhao Lianhai, activist who
represents parents of victims of
milk power scandal, sentenced to
two-and-a-half years in jail in 2010

Zhao’s wife
in court Zhao’s case censored in official media
but is much talked about in blogs
Feb. 2011: Beijing takes
precautions against
possible spread of the Net-
empowered “Jasmine
Revolution” to China
 State Domination of the media
★ Control of info and propaganda as a key to
maintenance of party power [other weapons
being the army/police; “united front” tactics]
★About 2,000 papers, 10,000 magazines, 50
main TV channels: all affiliated with
party/state organs
★Controlling units: Dept of Propaganda, State
Council Information Office, National Press
and Publications Administration, Ministry of
State Security, the Police, etc
 Journalists as Social Activists
★ Largest group of journalists in the world:
250,000 registered news professionals; 3
times as many are not registered. 42% of
reporters are female
★ As of 2009, 24 journalists, in addition to 70
“cyber-dissidents, are in jail
★ While almost all journalists work for “official
units,” many perform a function akin to that
of NGO activists (There are 400,000 NGOs in China,
but they are subject to government control).
 Track record of journalists
The media has exposed the following:
★ Official corruption (within limits)
★ Government inefficiency/dereliction of duty
e.g. “tofu buildings” during the Sichuan quake;
made-up statistics
★ Social inequality, esp. the sins of the super-rich and their kin
★Plight of the underclasses, e.g., raging inflation; members of
post-80 generation who cannot afford to buy flats
However, quite a number of journalists have been caught
accepting bribes for advertizing products or for covering up
scandals such as mining disasters.
 Taboos and landmines
★ Dozens of taboo areas where journalists are
not allowed to touch, e.g., “high-level” decision-
making processes; private lives of leaders/their
kids; policies against dissidents.
★ Media can report on corruption cases, but not
those of officials above a certain rank
★ Murky definition of “state secrets”: several
reporters/NGO activists imprisoned for
reporting prohibited information
★ Activities of top leaders can be reported
only by Xinhua/CCTV/People’s Daily
 Foreign/Hong Kong reporters
operating in China
☆Foreign reporters under “supervision” of
Foreign Ministry/Ministry of State Security
☆Hong Kong journalists report to Hong Kong &
Macau Affairs Office; recent “guidelines” on
reporting procedures
☆Cases of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong
& Ming Pao reporter Xi Yang
☆Foreign/HK reporters & their “Chinese
sources”
☆No foreign media allowed to set up shop in
China despite the country’s accession to WTO
New ball game in the Internet Age?
 China has 420m Netizens, 3.68 million
websites and over 100 million blogs
 Semi-official and private web-sites as well
as blogs/U-Tube/Twitter have challenged
state monopoly on information
 Ministry of Public Security has hired more
than 50,000 Net police throughout country
 Recent closure of tens of thousands of
websites on charges of pornography, etc
 450m netizens as “activists”
 NGOs have used the Internet/blogs on various
campaigns to protect citizens’ rights, notably those
related to the environment
 Asymmetrical warfare: Charter ’08 Movement has
garnered adherents all over China via the Net
 Dissidents can communicate relatively freely with
counterparts in the Western world
 There are chinks galore in the so-called Great Firewall
of China
 However, the Internet has also become a hotbed of
nationalism; e.g., anti-French protests in ’08; anti-U.S.
protests of 2010
 Human Flesh Search:

Netizens have a million-and-

one means to find out -- and
expose – the lurid details of
even anonymous faces on
papers, TV or the new media

There are regulations trying to

ban such searches, but to no
avail
Zhang Ya’s personal info was exposed
after she posted a message dismissive
of Sichuan earthquake victims

Corrupt official exposed: caught

smoking a 150 yuan-pack cigarettes
Will the media-related “public sphere”
expand in the 2010s?
 The bulk of media resources still in the hands of the ruling
elite (= “unholy alliance” between the CCP and big business
groupings)
 “Disadvantaged sectors” such as farmers or ethnic
minorities have no access to media power
 Whether the party-state will open up the media has become
the litmus test for future reforms
 In this information age, the CCP’s continued monopoly
on information could prove self-destructive over the
long haul.
 Goals such as boosting productivity & innovation could
remain illusory in a climate of tight media control
Implications of the Google Drama

Hackers of the World Unite??

 Virtual Battleground of the 21st Century

 China’s Net cops vs. Google, Yahoo!, etc.

Hackers “linked to 2 top universities”
 India the biggest beneficiary of potential pull-
out of U.S. IT firms from China?
 Civilian/PLA authorities setting up an U.S.-
style “Cyber Command” (Pentagon’s Net-
warfare wing has 88,000 IT personnel)
 Win-Win?? Beijing advised to establish
global Cyber protocol with the West