In Latest Upheaval, China Applies New Strategies to Control Flow of Information

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

BEIJING — In the wake of Sunday’s deadly riots in its western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government took all the usual steps to enshrine its version of events as received wisdom: it crippled Internet service, blocked Twitter’s micro-blogs, purged search engines of unapproved references to the violence, saturated the Chinese media with the state-sanctioned story.

It also took one most unusual step: Hours after troops quelled the protests, in which 156 people were reported killed, the state invited foreign journalists on an official trip to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital and the site of the unrest, “to know better about the riots.” Indeed, it set up a media center at a downtown hotel — with a hefty discount on rooms — to keep arriving reporters abreast of events.

It is a far cry from Beijing’s reaction 11 years ago to ethnic violence elsewhere in Xinjiang, when officials sealed off an entire city and refused to say what happened or how many people had died. And it reflects lessons learned from the military crackdown in Tibet 17 months ago. Foreign reporters were banned from Tibet, then and now. Chinese authorities rallied domestic support by blaming outside agitators but were widely condemned overseas.

As the Internet and other media raise new challenges to China’s version of the truth, China is finding new ways not just to suppress bad news at the source, but also to spin whatever unflattering tidbits escape its control.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/world/asia/08beijing.html?hp

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I have a really bad feeling about what has happened / will happen to the people of Urumqi.

The Chinese will use the violence as an excuse to kill and oppress them even more.

[keroro gunsou]

1. Karl Rove

consults with the Chinese? Who knew?

[xchrom]

2. this is how the chinese government does business.

they are very thorough in their attempt to put their spin on their brutal colonial occupations --

[madrchsod]

3. with the help of 4 US based corporations.

see that "google search DU".... that`s one of them.

[David__77]

4. Sounds like they're learning from U.S. authorities.

Smart move. The *appearance* of transparency is key. I do wonder what sparked the violence. Was it a response to police brutality? Or a premeditated rebellion? Or a combination of the two? Sounds like it was like the LA rebellion of 1992.

[xchrom]

5. the uighers have been wanting autonomy for a long time --

but the chines government has stepped up bringing han chines into the region -- so now there is greater competion
in an area that is poor any way.

the uighers are resentful of the increase in han chinese taking what the uighers see as theirs.

i think the paralells are like the colonialists in the 19th century and the unrest that happened then.

[David__77]

7. If China were smarter...

They would lavish more subsidies on the area. I know they do subsidize the economy now, but they should do so much more, raising the standard of living much higher. It would be a smart investment in national security. Materially content people do not rebel.

[xchrom]

9. it's true.

they could also give semi autonomy to ethnic regions along with greater economic investment and buy themselves some peace.

but they seem to be more interested in cementing 'chinese' culture in these regions -- whatever that means.

[Romulox]

6. Remember how "free trade" with China was supposed to spontaneously transform tyrants into democrats?

How's that working out? :rofl:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. They're learning how to treat reporters

Cheap rooms
Free food
Free booze
Free booze
Free booze

All the newsh tha's phht a prn.

:party: