China: the War is going on

The excellent Reuters article posted below raises an interesting question, what is a rumor?
The authors say: “China's crackdown on online ‘rumor-mongering’, widely seen as a tool to halt criticism of the ruling Communist Party, has chilled political discourse, with high-profile bloggers saying they have reined in sensitive posts for fear of detention”.
When read with a commentary of The Beijing Daily, entitled ‘Do Not Leave Space for Universal Values’, it makes it more frightening
On September 2, 2013, Beijing Daily advocated ‘ideological education’.
The article was later reprinted by many major State media.
The Beijing Daily argued that “if China does not engage in ideological struggle, it could disintegrate and perish, in the same manner as the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Block.”
For the past 2 decades, this has been the main fear of the leadership in Zhongnanhai.
The Beijing Daily goes very far by saying: “Especially for those people who preach the so-called ‘universal values,’ ‘constitutional democracy’, ‘freedom,’ and other fallacies, we cannot give any space or assistance at any time to those malicious attacks on the Party's leadership and the socialist system, to speeches that distort the history of the Party and the country, and to information that spreads rumors. We must take action to control what must be controlled, and punish those who violate the law.”
In other words, the Party is always right. It has never committed any crime, whether it is during the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen events or today when censures and suppresses its own people, particularly in 'minorities' areas such Tibet and Xinjiang.
The Beijing Daily admits that “today, the Internet has become the main battlefield for ideological struggle.”
Unfortunately, the Party sees a foreign hand everywhere (read the United States), even when the Chinese people try to express their concerns and aspirations, through the only means they have at their disposal, the Internet.
The article asserts: “The Western anti-China forces seek to advance this ‘biggest variable’ to ‘topple China.’ Whether we can hold up and win in the battlefield directly relates to the security of our ideology and the ruling Party's power.”
The Party leadership is so nervous to lose its grip on ‘the People’ that they consider the ongoing battle as a War for survival of the Party: “We do not see gunfire in this ideological struggle, but all the same - it is a matter of life and death. … Dare to fight and dare to show the sword. That is the choice we must make now!”
The leadership sees it like this.

Strengthen Faith in Marxism and Communism 
A week later (on September 9), The People’s Daily published an article on ‘the importance of propaganda and ideological work in China’.
According to the Party’s main mouthpiece: “The Key Is to Strengthen Most Party Cadres’ Faith in Marxism and Communism”
Luo Shugang, the Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, elaborates on Party Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech at the National Propaganda and Ideological Work Conference (on August 9).
Here are the five recommendations of Mr. Luo:

1) The key is to strengthen most Party cadres’ faith in Marxism and Communism; strengthen the entire Party, the nation, and the People of different ethnic groups’ faith in socialism with Chinese characteristics.
2) Resolutely obey the CCP Central Committee led by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and resolutely safeguard the authority of the CCP Central Committee.
3) Always adhere to principle of the Party's control of media. The Chinese Communist Party has the absolute leadership position over all media and communication channels at all different levels.
4) Punish those who spread ‘rumors’ and ‘harmful information’ on the Internet.
5) Guide people to look more at the bright side. Announce the full scope of authoritative information in a timely manner so as to suppress negative information and wrong views. Constantly reinforce the people’s trust and confidence.

Several questions remain, first how long can this work?
How long can the aspirations of the people for more freedom be suppressed? How long can the Party retain ‘absolute leadership position over all media’ in an economically freer society?
Last question: why are the Party’s leaders sending their kids for education in the United States?
The only thing which can be said is that the situation is not healthy.
I thought that China was aspiring to be a ‘normal’ great power?
Stalinist policies won’t help.

China crackdown on online rumors seen as ploy to nail critics
Reuters
By Megha Rajagopalan and Adam Rose
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's crackdown on online "rumor-mongering", widely seen as a tool to halt criticism of the ruling Communist Party, has chilled political discourse, with high-profile bloggers saying they have reined in sensitive posts for fear of detention.
Lawyers and activists called the crackdown a significant, if crude, expansion of powers to police the Internet and a blow to those who rely on microblogs to disseminate information that is often not monitored as strictly as traditional media.
"I am really scared now that any whistleblowing might lead to an arrest," said Zhou Ze, a rights lawyer with more than 165,000 followers on the Twitter-like microblog Sina Weibo. "We all have to talk less, and more carefully."
It is common for politically sensitive posts to be taken down by censors and for users to be blocked, but recent detentions have sparked fears of harsher punishments.
At the heart of the issue is a judicial interpretation by China's top court that says bloggers can be prosecuted for posting rumours seen by more than 5,000 people, or forwarded more than 500 times.
"If rumours can lead to detention or arrest, everyone will fear for themselves and become particularly scared about criticizing officials, which we are seeing less of on the Internet," Zhou said.
An estimate of data provided to Reuters by Weiboreach, a social media data analysis firm, shows that in a random sample of 4,500 highly influential users known as "Big Vs", those with a self-reported occupation in government or academia had a much higher rate of deletion in August than those in entertainment.
The data does not differentiate between posts that users had deleted themselves and those that were deleted by authorities.
MOVING TARGET
Analysts said the judicial interpretation specifically targeted the hundreds of Big Vs - "v" for verified - who send opinions, news and information to thousands or even millions of followers. Many are entrepreneurs, celebrities or academics.
Weibo users known for political and social commentary have been detained in recent weeks, enforcing fears that rumor-mongering is not the target of the law.
Wang Gongquan, an outspoken venture capitalist, was taken away by police on Friday on charges of disturbing public order after he helped lead a campaign for the release of another activist.
Well-known whistleblower Wu Dong, more commonly recognized by his online handle "Boss Hua", was taken into police custody in Beijing, the official Liberation Daily reported on its verified Weibo feed.
He said via Weibo on Wednesday that he had been released. His phone was off and he could not be reached for comment.
Wu, a watch lover, is one of many Weibo users who post about official corruption. He drew attention last year when he posted photos of expensive watches worn by government officials last year, helping to bring down one high-flying official.
Chinese-American venture capitalist Charles Xue was detained on charges of prostitution and appeared on state TV in handcuffs on Sunday to apologize, saying his status as a Big V had gone to his head.
"Freedom of speech cannot override the law," said Xue, who was known for outspoken comments on political and social issues online.
Spreading rumours is common on Weibo, and there is little protection against defamation.
"It's important that those who spread slander are held legally responsible," said Peng Jian, a lawyer with more than 100,000 followers on Weibo. "But if it's not implemented properly, it could suppress freedom of expression."
OPINIONS "SHOULDN'T BE SUPPRESSED"
The problem, lawyers say, is that the interpretation takes a broad view of what constitutes a rumor.
"The goal is pretty obvious, and it's certainly not to suppress so-called rumours. In some sense that's just an excuse," said rights lawyer Mo Shaoping. "Most of the things people post on the Internet are just opinions and views. Those things shouldn't be suppressed."
Mo said he had stopped using Weibo two years ago under pressure from officials.
Legal experts said that the court's interpretation amounted to a broadening of authority to police the Internet, as if Weibo were a physical public space.
"It's a significant expansion because it criminalizes postings that were not criminalized before, and not only rumours and libelous comments," said Nicholas Bequelin, of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Tong Zhiwei, a professor at East China University of Political Science and Law who has about 95,000 Weibo followers, said he had seen a rise in the number of his posts that had been censored in recent weeks.
"It's not so much the judicial interpretation per se that is affecting my comments," said Tong, who frequently comments on social issues from a legal perspective. "It's the atmosphere it has created."
Criticizing one-party rule was in effect forbidden already, Bequelin added.
"Nine tenths of the Internet population would be in prison if you were to apply this very strictly," Bequelin said. "But that is the root of China's regulation of freedom of expression."
The latest crackdown was also significant because it targeted Internet users who didn't see themselves as dissidents, said Sarah Cook of Freedom House, a U.S.-based group promoting political freedom and human rights.
"Now you're having a criminal judicial interpretation and then actual arrests of people who don't see themselves as political," Cook said. "The group of people being targeted is much wider."
(Additional reporting by Li Hui, Beijing Newsroom and Reuters TV; Editing by Nick Macfie)

China’s Marxist assault on the Internet

My article China's Marxist assault on the Internet appeared in NitiCentral.com.

Here is the link...

On August 19, an important meeting was held in Beijing; President Xi Jinping is said to have ordered “in-depth propaganda and education in socialism with Chinese characteristics so as to hold people of all ethnic groups in the nation in unity and cohesion under the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Xi was addressing a national conference on ideology and propaganda attended by top central and regional party ideology officials, media censors and ‘regulators’.
Old gobbledygook, you may think, but for Beijing is seems to be a question of life and death. Xi pointed out that propaganda and ideological work are needed to consolidate the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field: “Party members and cadre should strengthen their belief in Marxism and Communism.” All Party schools and academies, institutes of social sciences, and universities should have Marxism as a required course and come to the forefront of Marxist study, research, and propaganda,” he announced. This appeal came at a time when the debate over the nation’s future is raging in China; observers believe that a decision may be taken during the Third Plenum, a crucial Party meeting in November.
Since the 18th National Congress in November 2012, reformists have praised the merits of constitutionalism – power remaining in the framework of the laws of the land – versus the supreme authority of the Party. Chris Buckley reported about the new campaign in the The New York Times: “Communist Party cadre have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society.” Buckley mentions an internal party memo, known as Document No. 9 which enumerates the ‘Seven Perils’; it “bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping,” says Buckley.
The first ‘Peril’ is of course ‘Western constitutional democracy’; according to Document No. 9: “Western forces hostile to China and dissidents within the country are still constantly infiltrating the ideological sphere.” It does not mean that everybody in China agrees. The South China Morning Post quoted a septuagenarian Communist Party scholar who strongly rejected the current anti-rumour campaign. According to the Post, Song Huichang, a professor at the Communist Party’s Central Party School in Beijing, “In a thinly veiled analogy, compared ‘some current leading cadre’ with the ancient King Li of Zhou, a despotic ruler of the central Chinese kingdom that preceded the Chinese empire in the 8th century BC. The decadent tyrant suppressed opposing opinions until a revolt of farmers and soldiers ended his rule and sent him into exile.”
Song added: “No matter what era, do not think that by holding onto power, one can do whatever one likes and gag the people’s voices.” The Marxism scholar published his views in an article published in the party school’s paper The Study Times: “Of course, this can work for some time, but in the end [such rulers] will be ousted by the people. …There are now some leading cadre with confused thoughts, their mindsets are even more backward than those of those wise feudal lords.” This comes after the clampdown had started and the popular Internet commentator Charles Xue, who has 12 millions followers on his Weibo microblog, was detained on charges of soliciting prostitutes. Zhang Xuezhong, a lecturer at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, has been banned from teaching “in violation of laws on teachers’ behaviour”, just because in June he published an article on Constitutional reform which was deemed ‘unconstitutional’.
Document No. 9 also had consequences for the media. Beijing has ordered three lakh journalists working in the State-run media to attend compulsory Marxism classes. The Global Times announced that between June this year and January next year over three lakh people working in the media industry are expected to receive training on journalism with Marxist values. Xinhua justifies the move, “The modern media field in China is more ‘complicated’ than ever before, and the media staff needs to take on more responsibility”. Parroting the party line, Chen Lidan, a Professor in journalism theory with the Renmin University of China stated: “Journalism has become a profession but some people in the industry don’t have a sense of professionalism. The media should report facts without bias.”
In India too, some politicians would like journalists to attend ‘reeducation’ courses. But based on which ideology? According to another Chinese publication, The Evening Post, Ding Renren, the boss of Zhejiang’s online security department warned Internet users that even information shared privately among friends could lead to prosecution. Particularly targetted is WeChat, a popular mobile messaging service with more than 200 million active users; it allows users to share information among ‘friends’. Nearly three weeks after Xi’s speech, The South China Morning Post affirmed that Xi’s remarks during the August 19 meeting were even harsher than earlier reported. The President would have spoken of building ‘a strong Army to seize the ground of new media”.
The Hong Kong publication says: “The wording of his speech relayed in internal briefings is far stronger. …Xi also ordered the propaganda apparatus to form a strong Internet Army to seize the ground of new media.” Are we witnessing the beginning of a new cultural revolution? Human rights groups have noted a strong increase in the detention of the Government critics and journalists since Document No 9 surfaced in April. In June, a notice by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate called on prosecutors to “resolutely crack down on activities …with the objective of subverting State power”. Human Rights Watch believes that The New Citizen Movement, a grassroots campaign demanding the respect of citizen’s rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution, is one of the main targets of the new campaign; its founder Xu Zhiyong and at least 16 of its members have been arrested.
In May already, the Chinese Press mentioned that a prominent Chinese law Professor had revealed in his Sina Weibo microblog that the party had imposed a policy on university professors instructing them not to teach seven subjects. Zhang Xuezhong teaching at East China University of Political Science and Law listed the taboo subjects (universal values, civil society, citizen rights, judicial independence, freedom of the Press, past mistakes of the Communist Party, and the privileged capitalist class). More or less the same than the ‘Seven Perils’!
Of course, Zhang’s Weibo account was soon after deleted and the “Seven Speak-Nots” are now blocked on major social media in China. Where has Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream gone? Paradoxically, in Volume II of Xi Zhongxun’s memoirs published a few days ago, the Chinese President’s father argues that “the Cultural Revolution did little good to China”. It is sometimes difficult to understand China!

The Chinese Dream is Over: the Seven Perils

Xi Jinping and the Seven Perils

On August 19, an important meeting was held in Beijing during which President Xi Jinping called for a renewal of China's focus on Marxist ideology.
Xi was addressing a national conference on ideology and propaganda attended by top central and regional party ideology officials, media censors and media regulators.
Xi pleaded with officials to present a more cohesive Marxist message to cadres and the public.
This appeal came when the debate  over the nation's future is raging in China; observers believe that a decision may be taken during the Third Plenum, a crucial Party meeting in November.
Since the 18th National Congress in November 2012, reformists have praised the merits of constitutionalism - where power remains in the framework of the laws of the land - versus supreme party authority.
Chris Buckley for the The New York Times reported Xi's speech: "Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society."
An internal Party memo, referred to as Document No. 9 was mentioned; it enumerates the 'Seven Perils'. Buckey says that it "bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping."
The first 'Peril' is of course 'Western constitutional democracy'; others included promoting 'universal values' of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, ardently pro-market 'neo-liberalism', and 'nihilist' criticisms of the party’s traumatic past.
According to Document No. 9: "Western forces hostile to China and dissidents within the country are still constantly infiltrating the ideological sphere.”
Buckley says that he had verified the authenticity of the Document with four sources close to senior officials, including an editor with a party newspaper.
It does not mean that everybody in China agrees.
The South China Morning Post quoted a septuagenarian Communist Party scholar who strongly rejected the current anti-rumour campaign.
According to the Post, Song Huichang, professor at the Communist Party’s Central Party School in Beijing, "in a thinly veiled analogy, compared 'some current leading cadres' with the ancient King Li of Zhou, a despotic ruler of the central Chinese kingdom that preceded the Chinese empire in the 8th century BC. The decadent tyrant suppressed opposing opinions until a revolt of farmers and soldiers ended his rule and sent him into exile."
Song added: "No matter what era, do not think that by holding onto power, one can do whatever one likes and gag the people’s voices."
The Marxism scholar published his views in an article published in the party school’s paper The Study Times: "Of course, this can work for some time, but in the end [such rulers] will be ousted by the people. ...There are now some leading cadres with confused thoughts, their mindsets are even more backward than those of those wise feudal lords. They thoroughly believe in the following creed: if you have power, you have everything, whoever holds onto power, can decide everything."
This comes after the clampdown had started and the popular internet commentator Charles Xue was detained on charges of soliciting prostitutes.
According to another Chinese publication, The Evening Post, Ding Renren, the boss of Zhejiang’s online security department warned internet users that even information shared privately among friends could lead to prosecution.
Particularly targeted is WeChat, a popular mobile messaging service with more than 200 million active users; it allows users to share information among 'friends'.
Human rights groups have noted a strong increase in the detention of government critics and journalists since Document No 9 surfaced in April.
In June, a notice by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate called on prosecutors to “resolutely crack down on activities ...with the objective of subverting state power”.
Human Rights Watch believes that The New Citizen Movement, a grassroots campaign demanding the respect of citizen’s rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution, is one of the main targets of the new campaign; its founder Xu Zhiyong and at least 16 of its members have been arrested.
In May already, the Chinese press mentioned that a prominent Chinese law professor had revealed in his Sina Weibo microblog that the Party had imposed a policy on university professors instructing them not to teach seven subjects, including freedom of the press, past mistakes of the communist party, and citizen rights.
Zhang Xuezhong teaching at East China University of Political Science and Law listed the taboo subjects (universal values, civil society, citizen rights, judicial independence, freedom of the press, past mistakes of the communist party, and the privileged capitalist class). More or less the same than the 'Seven Perils'!
Of course, Zhang's Weibo account was soon after deleted and the “Seven Speak-Nots” are now blocked on major social media in China.
Today, The South China Morning Post affirms that Xi's remarks during the August 19 meeting were even harsher than earlier reported.
The President spoke of building 'a strong army to seize the ground of new media".
Are we witnessing the beginning of a new Cultural Revolution?
Where has the Chinese Dream gone?
Paradoxically, in the Volume II of Xi Zhongxun's memoirs published a few days ago, the Chinese President's father argues that 'the Cultural Revolution did little good to China'.
It is difficult to understand China!

Xi Jinping rallies party for propaganda war on internet
South China Morning Post
September 4, 2013
Cary Huang and Keith Zhai
President's battle cry against 'rumour-mongers' in speech last month is revealed, with call for a 'strong army to seize ground of new media'
President Xi Jinping has issued a call to arms against the country's unruly internet, ordering the Communist Party's propaganda machine to build "a strong army" to "seize the ground of new media".
Xi's remarks, made during a national meeting of propaganda chiefs in Beijing last month, came just as the central government was stepping up its campaign against internet "rumours" and reining in influential online celebrities who can command millions of followers.
The August 19 speech was reported the next day by the state agency Xinhua, but it is only in recent days that some of Xi's more combative remarks have come to light.
The comments were confirmed by senior media sources who were summoned to internal briefings on the keynote speech in the past week.
"The wording of his speech relayed in internal briefings is far stronger," said a source. "The most impressive [point] is that Xi said the Communist Party should be combative, instead of being passive, and it should wage a war to win over public opinion. Xi also ordered the propaganda apparatus to form a strong internet army to seize the ground of new media," he said.
The speech laid the ground for recent events that shook the new-media world.
On August 20, Beijing police detained several people connected with Beijing Erma Interactive Marketing and Planning, including internet celebrity Qin Huohuo , on suspicion of rumour-mongering.
On August 23, Chinese-American businessman Charles Xue Biqun , better known to his 12 million Sina Weibo followers as Xue Manzi , was detained on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes.
For the past two weeks, state media have rolled out one commentary after another warning "big V" internet celebrities - people whose identities have been verified by social media companies - not to misuse their influence by spreading rumours. Media sources said Xi's August 19 speech ordered officials to "unite all intellectuals". The remark was interpreted as meaning mustering as many intellectuals as possible to back the party's agenda.
"It is a continuation of the style during the Maoist era to set intellectuals apart from the public," one senior state television journalist said. Another media source said Xi also highlighted the ban on the media spreading the "universal values of the West", because there are "no such things as universal values".
Mainland universities have been banned from teaching "universal values", such as press freedom and civil rights, since March.
Xi also called for the revival of an "ideological purification" campaign initiated by late leader Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s by upholding "four cardinal principles", said a website of the publicity department of the party's Central Committee.
The principles call for the upholding of the people's democratic dictatorship, the socialist path, the party leadership and Marxism-Leninism and "Mao Zedong thought".
"It shows the controls will get stricter and the room for media will dwindle further," the second media source said.

Chinese Great Firewall 'upgraded': No Good

Search for this blog on greatfirewallofchina.org

The Great Firewall of China is become higher and larger.
It has been 'upgraded' as the Global Times says.
As a blog on The New York Times put it: "China blocks online searches of politically sensitive terms, smothers embarrassing news events, blocks online messages from dissidents and simply deletes any microblog posts that it dislikes."
I am not sure in which category my blog falls, but for the past two years or so, I failed every tests on the greatfirewallofchina.org.
Yesterday, I mentioned that China is years in advance vis-a-vis India in terms of infrastructure development (particularly raiways), but as far as individual freedoms are concerned, India is eons ahead.
Small mercies!
Anyway, Merry Xmas to all, in China, in Tibet and elsewhere.

Adding More Bricks to the Great Firewall of China
December 23, 2012
MARK MCDONALD
HONG KONG - China appears to have reinforced its Internet firewall in recent days, blocking some of the leading services that allow people on the mainland to access forbidden sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

International business transactions also are being affected, Internet analysts said. The New York Times Web site remains 100 percent blocked on the mainland, along with the Chinese-language edition of The Times and Rendezvous.
At least three foreign companies - Astrill, WiTopia and StrongVPN - have apologized to customers whose virtual private networks, or VPNs, have been slowed or disabled. VPNs are used to circumvent the Communist government's firewall. The companies, meanwhile, were suggesting some work-arounds.
The daily newspaper Global Times, affiliated with the Communist Party, acknowledged the firewall had been "upgraded," but it also warned that foreign providers of VPN services were operating illegally.
China blocks online searches of politically sensitive terms, smothers embarrassing news events, blocks online messages from dissidents and simply deletes any microblog posts that it dislikes.
The firewall also blocks countless Web sites that are openly available to users elsewhere around the world - from pornography sites and commercial come-ons to news reporting, political activism and religious proselytizing. Users on the mainland thus have to use VPNs to reach the banned sites.
Liu Xiao Ming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, told the BBC on Friday that there was "a misconception about the Internet and development in China."
"In fact, the Chinese are very much open in terms of the Internet," he said, quoted in an article in The South China Morning Post. "In fact, we have the most number of Internet users in China today."
An estimated 600 million Chinese have access to the Internet.
Foreign businesses also use VPNs not only to safeguard their transactions but also to keep government censors and rival companies from seeing their corporate communications.
Global Times quoted an anonymous executive at a foreign technology company operating in China who said the lack of a VPN would damage the firm's operations.
Josh Ong, China editor of the tech monitoring site The Next Web, said in an interview with the Voice of America that international companies were reporting disruptions in their corporate VPN services.
"A lot of companies have a general policy that they must use their own proxy network in order to transfer data, especially into and out of China," Mr. Ong said. "So you are looking at banks or e-commerce companies, anyone who is transferring very sensitive information, a lot of them use corporate VPNs."
Mr. Ong suggested that the tightening of the firewall could be tied to the recent leadership change in the Chinese Communist Party.
"It is certainly possible that some of it is just a general flexing of might, kind of coming in with a strong arm to really show who's in control," he said. "But there is definitely something intentional happening when these VPN services are being restricted."
As Bill Bishop wrote recently on DealBook, China's management of the Internet "has not been encouraging for those who want to believe the leadership will push reforms."
"I have lived in Beijing since 2005, and these have been the most draconian few days of Internet restrictions I have experienced," he said last month.
"Indiscriminate blocking of major parts of the global Internet is not going to help China in its quest to internationalize the renminbi and make it a reserve currency," Bill said. "Internet controls at the level of the last few days may also deter foreign firms from moving their regional headquarters to China."

Barbara Demick of The Los Angeles Times bureau in Beijing offered this cautionary tweet:

Note to Chinese censors: if you pull our vpns, main Asia news bureaus will have to move to Tokyo. Not good for China.
- Barbara Demick (@BarbaraDemick) 6 Nov 12

My colleagues Sharon LaFraniere and David Barboza wrote about similar concerns over China's Internet censorship last year, and they spoke to Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, an investment and strategy consultancy based in Beijing.

It has been double the guard, and double the guard, and you never hear proclamations about things being relaxed," said Mr. Clark, a 17-year resident of China. "We have never seen this level of control in the time I have been here, and I have been here since the beginning of the Internet."