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BBC BLOGS - James Reynolds' China

Archives for June 2009

A comical take

James Reynolds | 11:07 UK time, Friday, 12 June 2009

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Taking a ride through Chinese cyberspace to have a look at what people in China make of our coverage is often a pretty enlightening experience. A frequent opinion of the BBC - and sometimes of me in particular - is that we are a reactionary blackhands or imperialist running dogs (the phrase "running dog" carries much more punch in the original Chinese).

jamersreynolds_umbrella226.jpgOver the last year or two, a number of extremely well-edited videos kindly pointing out my many alleged failings as a reporter have also been posted on various websites.

The latest video - posted on China's version of YouTube - takes a slightly more comical angle of our recent encounter with Chinese security forces guarding Tiananmen Square...

Conflict of party and private lifestyles

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James Reynolds | 09:45 UK time, Wednesday, 10 June 2009

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China has no direct equivalent of Hello magazine - the celebrity magazine in the UK in which readers are invited to gaze at public figures doing everyday things at home such as clinking champagne glasses whilst lying on thick rugs.

As a result, we know almost nothing of the private lives of China's leaders. That means that there's huge amounts of interest here whenever anyone gets any kind of peek into the off-stage life of Communist Party politicians and their families. There's particular interest when someone's private lifestyle appears to conflict with the frugal existence officially preached by the party.

So, internet users here have been poring over photos of Bo Guagua - who's the son of the Politburo member Bo Xilai. Mr Bo jr is a student at Oxford University (a Chinese youth organisation recently named him one of the 10 most accomplished Chinese people living in the UK.)

Pictures posted on social networking sites appear to show Mr Bo jr enjoying all the standard (and occasionally archaic) pursuits available to a student at Oxford.

Some comments from Internet users...

"How come a modest civil servant in China has that much money to send his son to Oxford? I remain perplexed despite much thought."

"It's certainly good to be an official."

"Oh well, what can I say."

Trying to get into Tiananmen Square

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James Reynolds | 09:21 UK time, Thursday, 4 June 2009

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01:08 UTC, 4 JUNE: I'm writing this post late on the night of 3 June. My colleagues and I have just come back from a quick tour of the city - on the 20th anniversary of the moment that tanks were sent in to end student protests.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. Before sunset, the square was sealed off. Police officers stopped us from filming even from a street across the road. One plain clothes officer (wearing a green basketball jersey) told us in colloquial English that we would need special permission to film inside the square for the next two days.

Chinese police in Tiananmen Square at sunset

"You have to obey Chinese laws," he told us politely, "just as we would obey the Metropolitan police in London."

After dark, we headed to a street corner in western Beijing. We'd heard that a small group of elderly women were planning to hold a vigil. They wanted to light candles close to the spot where their sons were killed in June 1989.

But when we got there, there were no elderly women. Instead, a dozen or so police officers stood on the corner, checking the credentials of each of the journalists who'd turned up to cover the mothers' commemoration. A handful of passers-by watched us all from a distance.

"Keep moving," one police officer told us eagerly.

We then drove back along Chang'an Avenue, past Tiananmen Square, which remained sealed off.

From our experiences tonight, and from what we've heard from various campaign groups, it appears that - at the moment - the authorities in Beijing have managed to prevent any public commemoration of June 3/4 1989.

14:37 UTC, 4 June: Tried to get into Tiananmen Square just now. But the police stopped us. Plain clothes officers used a novel technique to stop us from filming - the umbrella treatment...

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Today's generation of young people

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James Reynolds | 08:24 UK time, Wednesday, 3 June 2009

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Still spookily quiet in Beijing. Have just written a quick piece about today's generation of young people...

For a generation that's never gone to war, never been through famine, getting crushed in the front row of a rock concert counts as fun.

Chinese fans at rock concert

On a Saturday night in Beijing, hundreds of teenagers cram up against each other to watch the band Twisted Machine. Many in this audience were born after 1989. To them, the most dramatic year in China's recent history is as distant as a saga from the Middle Ages.

Twenty years ago, young people and students spent their energy and their anger demonstrating in the streets. Their successors get it all out on the dance floor instead.

"I like this band," says a teenager in the audience. "Their songs express their dissatisfaction with society. It's a kind of emotion we all need to let out. For me it's a very good way to let it out."

In 2009, you can make as much noise as you want, so long as you don't attack the government. For the members of Twisted Machine - Liang Liang and Lao Dao - it's a point of great frustration.

Twisted Machine band member"In China, there's a taboo," says Liang Liang. "A taboo on people's minds, they kill it in the bud. You can't tell this to the public, this is wrong. They judge you, and they just tell you that what you think is wrong, you have to reform."

"When we try to express our yearning for freedom, it's not allowed," adds Lao Dao. "They don't allow you to express your desire for freedom, the urge to overthrow.

"'It is what they tell you it is' - that's what they say. And it's not like we can discuss it."

But in the furthest corner of China, one man is starting a discussion. He Weifang is a law professor from Beijing. In December he signed a charter calling for greater freedom in China.

Shortly afterwards, he was packed off to teach at a university in China's remote Xinjiang region.

But getting a transfer to China's version of Siberia hasn't kept him quiet. He lectures to a class of more than a hundred students on the need for an independent judiciary in China.

Professor He Weifang"Fellow scholars," he tells the class, "you all know the phrase 'knowledge changes destiny'. It applies to individuals; it also applies to countries as well. Knowledge can change a country profoundly."

In 2009 in China, you can't call for the entire system to be overthrown. But you can call for it to be improved.

"I think that we're now reforming, reforming means we can discover the shortcomings of this system," says the professor. "We make criticisms in order to make this system better, not to make it worse.

"Though sometimes my comments are very fierce, some officials may not like them, but on the whole, I don't think I've been in too much trouble for what I say."

The professor's words have already had an effect on a generation brought up without hearing any kind of debate. The students follow every word and every joke of his lecture.

"His lecture has taught me that we learn about the law in order to respect human rights," says Liu Qiong. "We have to pay attention to this as law students. If we learn the law, but fail to respect human rights, no matter how good we are, it will be pointless."

Professor He and his students

"His classes have taught me a lot about China's legal system and how it should be reformed," says Li Junhong. "What should be eliminated and what should be perfected. It has opened our eyes."

In a small way, that is a change. The generation born in 1989 has mostly been brought up to keep its eyes shut.

Today's students know that they won't get what they want by massing in Tiananmen Square. If they choose to take on a system that makes them rich and keeps them quiet, they will have to find a different path.

At the end of Professor He's lecture on the need for reform, this group of students in the furthest corner of China does something unexpected. It gives him an ovation.

As if 1989 never happened

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James Reynolds | 13:03 UK time, Tuesday, 2 June 2009

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Two videos for you.

Each of them shows the same extract of a news bulletin which was broadcast on BBC World News at 0600BST on Tuesday morning.

If you were in China, this is what you'll have seen...

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In the middle of the news bulletin, the screen goes to black with no explanation. The blacked-out portion only makes sense when you watch the same bulletin, as seen by viewers outside China...

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As you'll have noticed, China's censors blacked out our piece about the photographer who took the famous picture of the lone protestor confronting a column of tanks in June 1989.

For this country's censors, this week has been a busy time. The Communist Party is trying to remove all references to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent massacre on June 3rd/4th.

An official chronicle of China's recent history may look a bit like this: 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 etc. In China right now, it's as if the year 1989 simply never happened.

In the last few days, we've noticed a handful of unusual things...

  • When my colleagues and I went to film in Tiananmen Square last Friday, we were stopped four times by the police (normally we're checked just once.) Officers told us that we were not allowed to use our camera tripod to do any filming - something we've never been told before.
  • In the embassy district in eastern Beijing, Chinese guards are currently wearing flak jackets or stab vests over their uniforms - something that I haven't seen before, and I've walked past these guards almost every day for the last two years.
  • When a colleague of mine mentioned Tiananmen Square during a mobile phone conversation, a Chinese voice interrupted his call for a few seconds.
  • We get The Economist magazine mailed to our office every week. The most recent edition arrived with a page torn out of it (The contents page shows that the missing page contained an article about the Tiananmen Square anniversary.)

If you're in China, have you noticed anything similar?

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