More Stuff from the Chinese Propaganda Office

Here's an article in the New York Times about instructions to news editors during the recent NPC/CPPCC meeting.

What Chinese Censors Don’t Want You to Know

A set of Chinese government censorship guidelines recently leaked to the Internet provides a rare and intimate window into the thinking of propaganda officials. The list of prohibitions issued to editors ranges from the extremely broad, such as the injunction against “negative news,” to the bizarrely specific, such as the ban on the blooming of a particular flower in southern China.

Following are excerpts from media guidelines that the Communist Party propaganda department and the government Bureau of Internet Affairs, conveyed to top editors before this month’s annual sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

...

1. For news on the electoral law during the two meetings, only use articles from Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily.

2. Do not report on news of people from all walks of life demanding that officials make financial disclosures.

4. Do not feature news articles on the diary of a bureau director. News must not carry photos of related figures or contents relating to individuals’ private matters from human flesh searches and the like.

5. No negative news allowed on the front pages of newspapers or the headline news sections of Web sites.

10. During the two meetings, do not feature or sensationalize news about petitioners.

12. Do not sensationalize or feature reports on the joint editorial of 13 newspapers advocating reform of the household registration system.

15. Do not report on cases of detention center inmates dying during sleep.

17. Do not hype or feature news of Li Changjiang and Meng Xuenong resurfacing at the two meetings. [Mr. Li was ousted as head of quality control in 2008 after a scandal involving tainted baby milk powder that killed six and sickened 300,000 children. Mr. Meng resigned as governor of Shanxi Province after 267 people died in an iron ore mine disaster. Both have since assumed new posts.]

Pathetic. How these people can call themselves "news" editors is beyond me. Yet they have the chutzpah to complain about government censorship in Western media.

BTW, #4 was talking about this (from EastSouthWestNorth):

A director of a tobacco monopoly in southern China has been suspended after his diary was published online detailing his sexual encounters, drinking binges and taking bribes, a Guangzhou newspaper reported today.

Han Feng's diary has become a hit in online forums across the nation, according to Information Times. Han was suspended from his sales director job with the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on February 22, said a bureau director surnamed Liao.

In 140 entries between September 2007 and January 2008, Han describes his life and work, listing his lovers, income and health. One entry read: "As to playing women, Xiao Pan is hooked, Tan is regular, and Mo is in the queue. This year I had abundant romantic encounters but had to pay attention to my health."

Since this is a family blog, I won't share what he wrote but you can click on the link to read yourself. Basically he doesn't do much work, gets drunk almost every night, sleeps with a bunch of women (he is married), and takes bribes. Probably typical of most government officials and appointed company executives in China.