Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

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China Media Censorship and Internet Freedom of Speeches

My teachers always asked me about China’s media censorship and its statue quo. I posted it from the materials for an assignment, but there are more and more cases and details not included in this post.

Nowadays, there are over 2,000 newspapers, 8,000 magazines, and 3,000 TV channels in China. People have no right of getting a license for a TV station, all the print and broadcast media belongs to local or central government. Therefore, censorship is everywhere, from blocking a piece of sensitive news to be published to shutting down newspapers, magazines.

I have a friend, who used to be editor-in-chief of 21st Century Worldwide Herald. But in 2003, after publishing an interview with Lirui, former secretary of Chairman Mao, the newspaper was stopped by the department of propaganda and he was removed from the chief editor position. And this year, Southern Metropolis Weekly’s managing editor, Zhangping, known as Changping, a renowned Chinese columnist lost his job over commentaries on unrest in Tibet which did not conform with the official line.

They are just among the cases of being censored or so-called “harmonized” media and journalists. The other circumstance is self-censorship from media. I remembered Changping said in one of his column article: “I am afraid of other people praising me as a brave newspaperman, because I know I am full of fear in my heart. I did write some commentaries on current affairs, and edited some articles that exposed the truth. I lost my job and was threatened for speaking the truth. However, in my various media positions in the past decade, what I’ve practiced most is avoiding risk. Self-censorship has become part of my life. It makes me disgusted with myself.”

While print and broadcast media (hereafter “traditional media”) have been strictly controlled by the government, online speeches enjoy a relatively larger space. Internet users are able to make online speeches anonymously. When Internet booms up in China, we hoped that anonymous and two-way communication platform – Internet can give more freedom of speeches to Chinese people. Is it another way to avoid the censorship? It seemed to be. People can talk about anything, as long as their speeches are not about politics and other sensitive topics. Comparing to traditional media, speeches on new media such as the Internet really enjoy more freedom.

But it is not.

Recent events also indicated that the government has regarded the Internet as media and started controlling and supervising it. According to government’s surveillance practices on traditional media, the Internet could also be converted into an official mouthpiece. In Xiamen’s PX protest, the famous online blogger Lianyue’s blog was blocked and he was asked to talk to the policeman.

All the events indicate that the government is considering further enhancing restrictions on online speeches. On the policy side, for example, the education network, which is composed of different university websites, is regulated as an internal network, and no external IP is allowed to take part in the discussions on campus BBS. For another example, no commercial websites are allowed to do independent interviews and news releases. And, as a hot topic, the Chinese government is brewing an online real-name registration system.

On the technology side, a good example is GFW (the Great FireWall). As the government gains more knowledge on technical skills, Internet portals and domain analysis, the censorship and surveillance on the Internet are expected to be tighter than on traditional media. The Internet policemen have been cultivated to track IP addresses, block sensitive speeches, and work closely with multinational companies, such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, and lots of other oversea website has been blocked in a period of time, especially on important moments, like Olympic Games, the National Congress of the Communist Party of China or the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference every year.

Tainted Infant Formula，Chinese Babies Worth Less?

I asked around anxiously to see if there is any friend who will go back to China recently, and can take a box full of Enfamil nextstep formula for my little daughter. Fortunately, there is one. Since the government still banned people shipping power items during the ending period of Olympics, we have no other choice.

I was shocked by the Sanlu tainted infant formula crisis, especially when watching the pictures on New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Those are vulnerable babies, who are eager to suck in formula. Why businessmen dare to poison the babies, the next hopeful generation in China. From this astonished issue, I was disappointed again by two aspects:

First and foremost, there is no transperancy in China’s media. Therefore reporters have no freedom of expression and the public has no freedom of knowing the truth. Here is a piece of news broadcast from CBS. In fact, on August.2, 2008, the Sanlu milk power has already caused infant kidney failure and death. But the news was “harmonized” in China because of Olympics.

Nowadays, companies, and the government figured out that more babies were in the danger of kidney-stones and they can not cover up the issue anymore. Then the breaking news came to the public. Chinese media used to read the red-headlined reports (红头文件) from the central government, and follow the censorship regulation every time. Otherwise, the media will be banned, and the editor-in-chief will be removed. But this time, they have to disclose the whole truth. To learn more on Chinese media censorship, please click here for another post of mine.

The two-standard system made me and other Chinese netizens angry about the government.

Li Changjiang said in a conference: “All products supplied to the Olympics and Paralympics was secure. We applied special scanning management procedures for all Olympic products. All stages of food product supplies–including milk products–was step-by-step strictly monitored by us, with no loopholes in the process. All products supplied to the Olympics were monitored from their source.”

Take a look at the forum, blogs and comments online. The anger was triggered by the disclosed fact that during Olympic Games, all the milk provided by Mengniu for foreign athletes were safe, without any Melamine at all. Does this mean Chinese lives are worth less than foreigners? Many netizens asked.They can only posted satire pictures to criticize Sanlu, which used to be a famous domestic formula brand in China.

Liuxiang: “O, coach, I drank the Sanlu milk, I cannot urinate now.”

Thanks a lot, my friend Tina and Xiang to bring back infant formula for my little princess. I hope my little Carolyn is fine and other Chinese babies can recover as soon as possible.

When Market in Trouble, Who Takes The Responsibility?

Chinese investors felt relieved after the department of treasury announced the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last Sunday.

China paid close attention on the government bailout of the two housing mortgage giants, because about 10 percent of China’s gross domestic product is invested in the two troubled companies. If the two companies went into the process of brankcruptcy, the 200 billion investment will be gone with the wind.

I went to the Crain’s New York Business Breakfast Forum with Gov. Paterson Tuesday morning, in which he said that it was good news that the government bailed out U.S.’s two biggest home mortgage companies.

New York was severely impaired by the national financial crisis with a possible economic recession and a struggling Wall Street. Gov. Paterson supported the government’s rescue action. He also said his solution to economic slowdown was cutting spending rather than raising taxes.

“We are now just getting into the financial crisis.” Gov. Paterson said in the breakfast forum at Hilton Hotel in midtown New York City, because he believed the public has not been aware of the seriousness of the economic crises.

The U.S. economic downturn increasingly battered Wall Street financial institutions, which contributed 20 percent of the revenue to the New York State government. Gov. Paterson strongly praised the Treasury’s decision, because it will stabilize the financial system and the two big companies, which account for almost half of the U.S.’s $11 trillion home mortgage market.

“The Treasury Department’s actions highlight the need to reassess our nation’s regulatory system to ensure that our financial institutions remain sound and we protect consumers.” Paterson said in a statement released by the State.

Inflation in New York hit a 17-year high annual rate of 4.7% this month, and a monthly job loss of 3500 made life much harder for residents.

To reduce the $5.4 state government deficit, Gov. Paterson insisted on cutting spending, not taking the tax addiction. He talked with teachers unions a few days ago in Albany about cutting the educational budget. On Sept.5, Gov. Paterson directed government agencies to a zero-growing budget plan for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Economic difficulties in the U.S. also impacted other places in the world, such as the European economy and also emerging economies like China, India, Argentina and Venezuela. In the speech, Gov. Paterson pointed out some New York companies that have already relocated manufacturing jobs back to the state and other places in the U.S. There are still severe economic problems to address in the future, he said.

Additionally, American people are aware of global economy’s impact on their daily life. They bought made-in-China goods, which leads to China’s trade surplus. Then China invested on the U.S. market via buying treasury bonds, asset-backed securities, which allowed American people to afford the housing mortgage. Nowadays, here comes another problem: when the market comes into trouble, who should take the responsiblity of rescue?

Read more on China’s investment in the ailing U.S.: Will Washington’s big creditor turn away? from SFGate.

Somewhere Something Waiting to Be Known

NASA Launches Fellowships to Explore Other Planets

Kate Zhao

NASA is looking for the next generation of explorers to learn more about other planets.

The Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, announced Wednesday, named after the legendary astrophysicist, will reward four to five talented young scientists to follow Sagan’s path to study exoplanet worlds, or planets outside the solar system.

The fellowship program, announced when at the Museum of Natural Science in New York City, will award stipends of approximately $60,000 per year, for a period of up to three years, to selected postdoctoral scientists. International candidates can cover topics ranging from techniques for exploring on the solar system, to search for the important ingredients of life in other planetary systems.

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Decades ago, long before any exoplanets had been found, the late Carl Sagan imagined such worlds, and pioneered the scientific pursuit of life that might exist on them, according to NASA’s report.

“There is an explosion of interest in the field,” said Charles Beichman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Now we are going down a scientific path that Carl Sagan originally blazed, torch in hand, as he led us through the dark.”

Before his death in 1996, Sagan warned that the Earth is under potential risks of global warming. He believed stay away from stating what someone believes – you should say he said greenhouse gas would eventually make Earth a hot and life-hostile planet, the same as Venus or Mars. The solutions for human beings would be moving to other planets to live in.

Carl Sagan is a “real scientist” of his scientific contribution and public communications about astrophysics, said Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium.

He remembered in his first meeting with Sagan at Cornell University, the professor offered him accommodation at his home as it was snowing heavily.

“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known,” Sagan once said. The Sagan family wants his words to come true.

“That this knowledge will be pursued in his name, as he joins a triumvirate of the leading lights of 20th century astronomy, is a source of infinite pride to our family,” said Ann Druyan, the 59-year old widow of you don’t need to say late because you already said up higher that he died Sagan.

Druyan has been working for a few years as the collaborator for the new Cosmo series, covering wider scientific subjects in astrophysics. She is also working on a film about global warming. “I think different country’s interests should not be ignored, but respected.” Druyan said. She said the challenge to compete with greenhouse gas relies on the transition of particular national interest to the one world.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan brought us a beautiful journey of the planets, solar system and origins of life via Cosmo TV series 28 years ago. Here is an introduction clip from the early Carl Sagan.

NASA’s Beichman addressed some new research results at Wednesday’s news conference, such as mapping weather on a distant planet, looking back at earth from space and the census of planets around the nearest stars.

Beichman quoted a Greek philosopher talking about extraterrestrial worlds 2,500 years ago: “We must believe that in all worlds there are living creatures and plants and other things we see in this world.”

He concluded future opportunities would exist to search for other and life on the assumption of the ingredients of life are widespread.

NASA will also launch a survey with millions of nearby stars for Earth-like worlds, he said. The main factors are water-friendly living zone and oxygen percentage on the planet.