Riot police used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs to break up the 11-day occupation of the Letpadaung copper mine, wounding dozens of villagers and Buddhist monks early Thursday. The move risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for Thein Sein's government, which has touted Myanmar's transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.
In a visit scheduled before the crackdown, Suu Kyi met Thursday with company officials and protesters and was scheduled to meet with local officials and others Friday.
The mine is jointly operated by a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar's military, and activists say as the project expands, villagers have been forced from their land with little compensation.
Through state television, the government initially acknowledged using the riot-control measures but denied using excessive force against the protesters. In an unusual move, it later retracted the statement without explanation.
During discussions with Thwe Thwe Win, a protester who has demanded the complete shutdown of the project, Aung Min [Minister of the President's Office] said the deal was signed between the former military government and a Chinese company and so ceasing operations would entail a fortune in compensation.
"If China asks for compensation, even the Myitsone Dam shutdown would cost US $3 billion," he said. "But China still hasn't said a word about it. We are afraid of China."
Aung Min added that Burma should be grateful to China for its aid in 1988 when the Southeast Asian nation faced a food crisis due to nationwide unrest. He added that in the 1980s the former Chinese President Deng Xiaoping cut off support to the Communist Party of Burma that weakened the Marxist insurgency against the central government.
"So we don't dare to have a row with China!" said Aung Min. "If they feel annoyed with the shutdown of their projects and resume their support to the communists, the economy in border areas would backslide. So you'd better think seriously."
It will be a lose-lose situation for China and Myanmar if the project is halted. Only third parties, including some Western forces, will be glad to see this result.
Protesters first asked for more compensation, but now want to stop this project and are demanding that the Chinese company leave. There are definitely some Westerners and NGOs instigating these protesters. More importantly, however, Myanmar's political climate has changed and the government cannot control public opinion.
Similarly, some big projects have been halted due to public protests in Shifang, Qidong, and Ningbo in China. Companies cannot get their initial investment back. However, in Myanmar, people have much less ability to identify information than Chinese people. [...] Democracy promises to give everyone in the world equal rights, but this is only an illusion. Development is the last word, as Deng Xiaoping asserted more than 20 years ago. It is a value that applies to everyone in the world.
Issues such as relocation, compensation, environmental protection and profit sharing regarding this project were jointly settled through negotiations by the two sides and meet Myanmar's laws and regulations.
Democratic Voice of Burma has footage of the protests:
A picture of the protest on Monday, which appeared in the state-run Legal Daily newspaper, shows seven women standing outside a provincial government office, arms crossed defensively. They wear what look like giant underpants, each emblazoned with the Chinese character meaning "examine" – struck through with a red line.
The regulations that provoked the protest have been in force since 2005, and require women applying for civil service jobs to undergo invasive testing for sexually transmitted diseases and malignant tumours. Applicants have also been asked to provide information on their menstrual cycles.
[...] In March, the Beijing-based non-profit social justice group Yirenping Center sent an open letter to government agencies including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security protesting against the gynaecological examinations, but it received no reply.
The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
Guangdong Propaganda Department: The Qingyuan Discipline Inspection Committee has publicly announced they are examining former Yingde vice-mayor and Public Security Bureau director Zheng Beiquan, who is suspected of bending the law for personal gain and serious economic problems. Zheng has recently accepted an investigation by the Party organization. This case may be formally reported. (November 26, 2012)
GuangdongPropaganda Department: All media are not to investigate or report on the November 26 protest in Dongyong Town, Shanwei against the private sale of land. (November 27, 2012)
广东省委宣传部：对26日汕尾东涌镇村民游行抗议村官私卖土地一事，各媒体不采访报道。
Guangdong Propaganda Department: For the time being, all media are to refrain from reporting or commenting on the issues that have recently come up with Guangdong's electric bicycle annual pass program. (November 27, 2012)
广东省委宣传部：近期对广东省机动车年票制相关问题，各媒体暂不做报道、评论。
Guangdong Propaganda Department: The Guangzhou Sports Administration has recently issued notices about the unexpected emergency situations involving two participants in the Guangzhou Marathon. If reporting on the incidents, all media are to strictly adhere to the information issued by the Sports Administration, and must downplay the news. Do not lure readers to the story or put it on the front page. Do not make replays of the incidents. (November 28, 2012)
There will be 41 operating nuclear power units in China by 2015 or a little later, Zhang Huazhu, chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, told a seminar in Zhuhai City of south China's Guangdong Province.
"At that time, China will be building nearly 20 extra nuclear power plants," he said at the seminar under the theme of "Nuclear Power and Environment" co-sponsored by two universities in Beijing and Hong Kong.
China now has six power plants and 15 working nuclear power units, producing nearly 3.5 percent of the world's total electricity generated by nuclear power, which also accounts for 1.85 percent of China's total electricity generation.
"With their good performances and the carefully chosen locations of the sites, China's nuclear power plants have little chance of repeating what happened in Fukushima," Zhang said, referring to the Japanese nuclear plant that was hit by massive earthquake and tsunami last year, resulting in meltdowns and the release of radioactivity.
Official media reported in September that China would resume building nuclear reactors in the fourth quarter of this year, and the latest estimate would account for 10 percent of the world's total output of nuclear power. The Diplomat's Zachary Keck points out that the 42 gigawatt figure exceeds the 40 gigawatt target indicated in a white paper published by the government last month, but is still significantly lower than the target referenced in the initial draft of China's current 5-year plan:
The failure to meet the 50 GW target is due in large part to Japan's Fukushima nuclear meltdown in March 2011. Since then the Chinese government has treaded carefully on nuclear energy, including instituting an initial six-month moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants in the wake of Fukushima. When the suspension was first lifted in October 2011, China appeared to embrace nuclear energy as eagerly as before, with one Chinese official telling the New York Times at the time that China would still meet the highly ambitious 50 GW target. It has since scaled back this estimate.
Besides reducing the pace of its nuclear expansion, the Chinese government has been careful to emphasize it has learned the right lessons from Japan's nuclear tragedy.
"With their good performances and the carefully chosen locations of the sites, China's nuclear power plants have little chance of repeating what happened in Fukushima," Zhang said on Wednesday.
This comment seems puzzling given that the State Council said last month that it would only approve the construction of nuclear power plants in coastal regions in the years ahead. This makes complete sense from an economic standpoint given the greater demand for electricity in China's economically dynamic coastal regions compared with more inland parts of the country. However, as Fukushima and Hurricane Sandy more recently (and less dramatically) demonstrated, nuclear power plants located in coastal regions are vulnerable to weather related disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes.
In June 2011, she stepped up her role, becoming a World Health Organization ambassador for tuberculosis and AIDS — even as her husband was heading for the top. Hood says it would be a loss of face for her to step down now. But China's first ladies have traditionally played a supporting role not much seen in public. So could China be paving the way for a new kind of first lady?
"I really do hope so," Hood says. "[Peng] is an incredibly talented woman. She's very well-educated, she speaks well, she's knowledgeable, she's powerful. And she's one of the perfect people to pave the way for a new role model."
But there is official nervousness about Peng already. Her name has become a forbidden search term on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, and several online stories about her have been deleted recently.
Given China's recent history, Peng's cultural and artistic background doesn't necessarily work in her favor. The last high-profile spouse in recent memory was Madame Mao — or Jiang Qing — the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong who dictated the country's cultural life for a decade, limiting cultural fare to a series of "revolutionary operas" and "revolutionary songs."
Jiang was subsequently blamed for the decade-long Cultural Revolution, and sentenced to a suspended death sentence as a member of the "Gang of Four." She committed suicide in prison in 1991, but her legacy is one that hangs over all subsequent first ladies, consigning them to the background.
Most have assumed that Peng would take on a more subdued role during Xi's tenure as China's leader, and Newsweek's Melinda Liu writes that she has scaled back her profile ever since her husband was tagged as the Communist Party's heir apparent:
In that sense, Peng, despite her celebrity status, is no different from previous political wives in post-Mao China who have largely shunned the limelight. This trend partly reflects a visceral backlash against the toxic legacy of Mao Zedong's last wife, Jiang Qing, a former B-grade Shanghai starlet who has been blamed for the bloody excesses of China's Cultural Revolution. It also partly reflects a longstanding Chinese tradition, which discourages women from dabbling in politics. "In ancient times, the empress was never allowed to cultivate her own supporters," said Li Yinhe, a sociologist and gender studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. "And communist culture hasn't given official roles to first ladies."
Peng has yet to appear in public since Xi was annointed earlier this month as China's new leader; there was no highly publicized "victory embrace" between China's new power couple, like the one Americans witnessed between Barack and Michelle Obama. Yet ordinary Chinese like the Xi-Peng narrative, especially her admission that Xi knew he wanted to marry her just 40 minutes after they met—even though her parents initially opposed the match. "They married for love; it wasn't arranged. And that's romantic," says Li. "Communist cadres are often seen as robotlike, but Peng is warmly accepted by people." That acceptance has bolstered Xi's popularity at a time of considerable uncertainty in China. Perhaps politics in the East and West aren't so different after all.
Sources have identified the Tibetan man as Wangdhen Khar, 21 years of age.
"Martyr Wande Khar set himself on fire on Wednesday, November 28 at around 7 pm (local time) in Tsoe region of Kanlho, eastern Tibet," Zoegey Kangtsa Jampa, an exiled Tibetan told Phayul citing sources in the region. "He later succumbed to his injuries,"
[…] Also yesterday, around 500 Tibetans in Tsolho, eastern Tibet, publicly displayed a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and carried out a mass prayer service for the Tibetan spiritual leader's long life and for all the Tibetans who have self-immolated.
Sources have identified the Tibetan as Tsering Namgyal, 31, a father of two, from Zamtsa Lotso Dewa region of Luchu.
"Tsering Namgyal set himself on fire near the local Chinese government office in Luchu earlier today for the cause of Tibet," Sonam, a Tibetan monk living in south India told Phayul, citing sources in the region. "Tsering Namgyal passed in his fiery protest."
[…] Tsering Namgyal is survived by his wife Choekyong Tso, their two children, Dorjee Kyi, 7, and Kalsang Dolma, 3, and his parents.
The crux of the dispute lies in the increasing discomfort within the government-in-exile over the self-immolations by Tibetans inside Tibet (almost 80 till the beginning of this week) that has triggered a debate in the exile community about the usefulness of continuing with the Dalai Lama's middle way approach. Most of those who immolated themselves had been demanding complete independence and the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. Those opposed to the Dalai Lama's policy said Mr. Ngabo irked the government-in-exile by encouraging open discussions on various options for Tibet's future, including outright independence.
His removal was preceded by several interactions between government-in-exile officials and RFA head Libby Liu.
Jamyang Norbu, a prominent Tibetan intellectual whose contract with the RFA was also cancelled, wrote in his blog this week: "It is an article of faith in the Central Tibetan Administration that if somehow all independence activism and discussion were halted or contained, then Beijing would agree to the "genuine autonomy" solution proposed in the Dalai Lama's Middle Way policy; or would, at least, resume the negotiations it terminated two year ago." He went on to say that given the extremely sensitive situation prevailing in Tibet as a result of the immolations "it would not be unreasonable to assume that Beijing wants Dharamsala to stop the "splittist" messaging from exile, particularly from RFA broadcasts, which it firmly believes is fuelling the immolations and protests within Tibet. Dharamsala in turn probably shares Beijing's concerns as the self-immolation crisis in Tibet and the resignations of the Tibetan envoys have placed extreme pressure on the TGIE leadership's signature Middle Way policy."
Proposed changes would allow for urban couples to have a second child, even if one of the parents is themselves not an only child, the China Daily cited Zhang Weiqing, the former head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, as saying on Wednesday.
Under current rules, urban couples are permitted a second child if both parents do not have siblings. Looser restrictions on rural couples means many have more than one child.
[…] President Hu Jintao dropped a standard reference to maintaining low birth rates in his work report to the ruling Communist Party's five-yearly congress in early November, a break which some experts see as evidence of an imminent change to the one-child policy.
Demographers warn that the policy has led to a rapidly graying population that could hamper China's economic competitiveness.
The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
"May the radiant sun General Kim Jong-un shine forever!"
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
Central Propaganda Department: Use only Xinhua wire copy with regards to the reopening of the investigation of the cheap sale of Wu Ying's property. (November 26, 2012)
Central Propaganda Department: Do not reprint, report, or comment on the female Heilongjiang TV anchor reporting a People's representative to the authorities. (November 27, 2012)
Central Propaganda Department: Do not reprint, report, or comment on the paean to Kim Jong-un carved into a mountainside by North Korea. (November 27, 2012)
A 548-meter slogan in praise of Kim Jong-un has been carved into a mountain in North Korea. Each word is 20 meters high, spelling out the slogan, "May the radiant sun General Kim Jong-un shine forever!"
Central Propaganda Department: With regards to online discussion of the vulgar Chongqing photos implicating six other officials, use on information issued by authoritative departments, and do not exaggerate. (November 27, 2012)
中宣部：对网传重庆不雅照还涉及其他6名官员，只采用权威部门发布的信息，不炒作。
Central Propaganda Department: All media are to maintain a positive spin on the national civil service examination. Do not independently report or comment on the situation surrounding test-taker Xuan Hai (who is visually impaired). (November 27, 2012)
Central Propaganda Department: Traditional media are not to reprint, report, or comment on online rosters of CCP Central Committee member posts. (November 28, 2012)
Central Propaganda Department: All media are to report in accordance with the scope of Xinhua copy the death of J-15 Chief Designer Luo Yang. (November 28, 2012)
Countries as far away as Mozambique in Africa and the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific as well as Myanmar, Laos and other Chinese neighbors are felling rare hardwoods and other trees at unsustainable rates to fulfill Chinese demand, said the report from the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based activist group.
In some countries, the EIA found that Chinese buyers were undermining international agreements to stop illegal logging and the exports of rare species by making payoffs and using smuggling networks.
"These investigations reveal how Chinese traders thrive on crime, corruption, the purchase of political patronage and poor forest governance in the producer countries from which they source," said the report. It later said "China's government has done virtually nothing to curb illegal imports, while putting in place policies to ensure supply from some of the worst illegal logging hotspots in the world."
Chinese government agencies declined initial comment, saying they had not seen the report and asking for questions be submitted in writing. In the past, the government has responded to criticisms that China is preying on developing nations' raw materials by saying the trade is mutually beneficial, generating income and jobs for the suppliers.
The full EIA report can be downloaded here. They have also produced a video on this topic:
This is not the first time that China has been accused of enabling illegal logging practices. In 1995 the WWF issued a report which claimed Chinese demand was decimating forests around the world. Read more about logging and deforestation in China and globally, via CDT.
In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the "Beijing Internet Instructions" series to the Censorship Vault. These directives were originally published on Canyu.org (Participate) and date from 2005 to 2007. According to Canyu, the directives were issued by the Beijing Municipal Network Propaganda Management Office and the State Council Internet management departments and provided to to Canyu by insiders. China Copyright and Media has not verified the source.
4 July 2006, 11:42, Network Management Department, Duty manager
Everyone: the content of the Jinghua Times article concerning "Beijing Communications University Training Class Fakes Overseas Chinese Students" is untrue, everyone must not reprint this, where it has been reprinted, it must be immediately deleted.
All websites are requested to reprint the Qianlong Net article "5.1 Scale Earthquake in Wen'an, No Destruction or Damage Created in Beijing" in the middle or top part of the important news section (http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2006/07/04/134@3282333.htm), when reprinting, the title may not be changed, no news trackers may be opened, no short messages sent. Please immediately delete all articles related to the earthquake apart from Xinhua copy. No special subject sections may be set up for this matter.
4 July 2006, 16:50
Chen Hua: The publication of all blog commentaries is ceased.
8 July 2006, 17:20
Chen Hua: Do not play up the matter of the China International Trade Stimulation Association Vice-Chair and Party Group Vice-Secretary Zhang Zhou committing suicide, please put it in the domestic section, do not set up special subject sections, do not open trackers, use standard copy.
8 July 2006, 19:06
"Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau Requires that Internationally Networked Work Units and Individuals Must Conduct Filing" is false news, forums, channels, old and new communities, and special columns may not reprint or comment it; where it has been published, delete it without exception.
11 July 2006, 15:17, Chen Hua
All websites are requested to make "Fire Phoenix," "World Connect" (software name), "Use News to Influence Today – A Chronicle of Freezing Point," and "A Record of the Storm" (book name) into keywords. Please make "12 Springs and Autumns" (book name) into a keyword, and strictly filter search results;
It is stressed again: do not play up or speculate about the civil servant salary system reform, it is strictly prohibited to translate, edit, and transmit foreign media information and comment related to this reform and standardization work without authorization, strengthen management over forums, news trackers, blogs and other interactive columns, timely delete all sorts of harmful information not conform to requirements.
Do not play up the two cases of Huang Jing and Gao Yingying, do not put news on the case process in the important news section, do not set up special subject sections, do not open two-sided debates, close attention must be paid to discussion trends in interactive segments, delete discourse attacking the judiciary and the cadre system.
11 July 2006, 17:34
Today, some websites issued the 21st Century Business Herald information "Anhui Vice-Governor He Minxu Put Under Shuanggui, Central Discipline Inspection Committee Enters Anhui for Inspection." At present, reports on this matter have not yet been approved by the relevant departments, websites may not publish this without exception, news articles and posts that have been published must be immediately deleted. All localities and all websites must strengthen management over forums, blogs and other interactive columns, and timely block and delete this kind of information.
11 July 2006, 21:08, Lu Chao
News and posts that have emerged on Public Security Bureau investigation methods may not be uploaded.
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