CURT PETROVICH:
Even some of China's most savvy netizens practice 'spontaneous' self-control
April 5, 2006 | More from Curt Petrovich
Curt Petrovich began his career with the CBC in 1986 as a program host, journalist and documentary maker on Baffin Island. In 1992, Curt joined Winnipeg's morning show as a writer-broadcaster. In 1995, he became Radio News' national reporter for Manitoba.
While there, Curt was on the front lines of the devastation caused by the Red River Flood in 1997. He was on the scene at the high school shooting in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. He also documented the first days of the Walkerton water catastrophe.
In 2000, Curt won the prestigious Michener award for meritorious for public service journalism.
Curt's other work has been recognized by the Canadian Association of Journalists, and the Canadian Nurses Association.
In 2001, Curt joined the Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa, and in 2005 he began work as CBC's national radio news reporter in British Columbia.
"Every citizen has the right and freedom to use the internet. … [But they must] consciously and spontaneously abide by the laws in order to safeguard the national social and collective interests."
– Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
In his annual meeting with foreign journalists last month, China's Premier Wen Jiabao gave a vague and unapologetic explanation about his government's control of the internet, saying it's not only necessary but "consistent with the established international practice.''
"Websites should convey the right message and refrain from misleading the public," the premier said.
 Young people in Beijing work at their computer stations inside an internet café on Feb. 15. China says its aims are benign - to protect its citizens, and especially children, from 'the immoral and harmful content; of the internet. U.S. technology firms are defending themselves against charges they collaborated with China to crush dissent in return for access to a booming internet market. (Associated Press)
"China exercises management over the internet, according to law,'' he said. "At the same time, we also maintain that the internet industries and businesses should exercise more self-discipline and exercise self-management in this field."
Ask users at Fei Yu, one of Beijing's bustling internet cafés, about the restrictions and you'll get a blank stare.
Computer time is free from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the sprawling basement enterprise. After that, using one of the 320 computers costs the equivalent of less than 50 cents an hour. And no one complains about websites they never seem to be able to access … websites that are heavy with trigger words such as Falun Gong or Tiananmen Square.
Results may be censored
The popular search engine Google hasn't really caught on yet. And even if you use it, the only way you know you're not getting all you asked for after hitting the enter key is a vague statement at the bottom of the page warning that the results may have been censored according to law.
The lack of user response in China may be because most of them are mainly into e-mail, game playing, entertainment and blogging. And bloggers, who've grown from a few thousand just five years ago to a projected 60 million by the end of 2006, aren't bothered by the fact that their pages have to be registered with the government.
It's the kind of control that Gao Zhisheng says is the hallmark of a government desperate to quell any political discussion.
Gao and I meet in the backroom of a Beijing tea house late one night. We haven't even been introduced and he lets fly. "You have to understand, the Chinese government is 10 times worse than the Nazis," he says. "The Nazis only used violence and slaughtered people but the Communist party, they not only destroy your body but also destroy your spirit."
Gao, a former soldier in the People's Liberation Army, is now a lawyer fighting the government from which he once took orders. Well, he was a lawyer, until he was put under police surveillance and stripped of his right to practice law.
'It's a tragedy'
One of his clients was college professor Zheng Yichun. After a three-hour trial, Zheng was found guilty of subversion for publishing dozens of articles on overseas websites, advocating the overthrow of the Communist state in China. He was jailed in December 2004 and is serving a seven-year sentence.
"It's a tragedy," Gao says. "I told my client the result is we were going to lose for sure. But this is a process to victory and the importance of this trial is to expose how ridiculous the Chinese judicial system is and, through constant effort and exposure of the process, it will be helpful for society."
Zheng's brother, Xiaochun, says the case shows China's control of the internet violates the country's constitution, which guarantees free speech.
"China has been very much attentive to ideology and authorities always tried to make 1.3 billion people share the same thoughts," he says. "China has been developing so fast in an economical way and the information has been spread so quickly so fast the authorities seem to be a little bit worried about the disturbance and disorder of the society. Because if people could just share only the same thought, the same one ideology, they would be obedient to the authorities."
But even some of China's most savvy netizens practice the kind of "spontaneous" self-control Wen talked about.
'We have no power to change anything'
Mu Zimei, a national celebrity for blogging about her sex life, readily agrees that if her diary had been an anti-government polemic, she'd have been arrested. But no one had to tell her that.
"As Chinese, from the time we are little we are not given much opportunity to approach political issues, so actually you don't have any right to participate in politics," she tells me at her office at one of China's leading internet companies. "So, gradually, we take up the habit of being unconcerned about politics, because we have no power to change anything. Gradually, we lose our interest in expressing our view point."
Remarkably, she doesn't think anyone in China has ever been arrested or imprisoned for posting anything political on the internet.
There are no definitive numbers. But writer Yu Jie, a member of PEN China, says his organization has determined that more than 60 writers and journalists are behind bars for posting their work on the internet.
 Commuters in Beijing crowd into a subway car near an advertisement for Yahoo.com on Feb. 28. The ad reads 'Yahoo Search Engine. Search And You Shall Know.' (Associated Press)
Journalist jailed for e-mail
And so, Yu says, people like his friend Shi Tao are behind bars. Shi sent an e-mail overseas that contained details from a government memo read out at an editorial meeting at his newspaper. The memo allegedly dictated how the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest could be covered. Shi was found guilty of divulging state secrets and sentenced last April to 10 years.
"People should enjoy freedom of speech in a country that has the rule of law," says Shi's lawyer, Mo Shaoping. "But I think the government wants stability and doesn't want an unstable society that could jeopardize their authority."
Chinese internet police see to that by scouring overseas websites looking for signs that someone from inside the country is trying to test the free speech guaranteed in the constitution, he says. And when they can't find them on their own, they insist foreign companies assist them, adds Mo, who is preparing to sue Yahoo for allegedly divulging Shi's identity to the Chinese government.
Google and Yahoo, he says, "should be responsible for the society not only interested in making money" especially when "their actions and activities are in conflict with their own country's constitutions."
But he admits it's hard to get people interested in these stories in China. "The Chinese public is restrained by the amount of information they can have access to. The public media wouldn't dare publish articles about these cases, you have to use special technology to get overseas websites, so intellectuals and lawyers who know these cases are calling for reform."
Google and Yahoo didn't respond to requests for interviews. But a senior manager of a large western-based internet firm doing business in Beijing, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, criticizes both companies: Yahoo, for allegedly turning in someone who faced real risk of prison for something reporters in Canada do everyday; Google, for not publishing the list of words it uses to filter search results.
But when asked whether his company would ever censor content at the government's request, he is just as quick to respond. "Of course," he says, adding that his company's shareholders aren't interested in getting involved in a country's politics or shaping its morality.
Neither are most people using the internet in China. And the government would like to keep it that way.
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