Source: Carnegie
Reprinted from the Winter 2002 "Media Freedom in Asia" issue of Harvard Asia Quarterly.
Winter 2002
In July 2001, a small tin mine in Guangxi province flooded, trapping and killing
scores of miners. What followed became emblematic of a growing trend in China.
Amplified by the information revolution, the story itself became the story.
Neighborhood media outlets, cowed into silence by local authorities intent on
covering up casualties, e-mailed their version of events to regional journalists,
who scrambled to the city to investigate. Subsequently, regional papers began
to report on hundreds dead and missing, even while the official Xinhua news
agency remained silent. Those reports were circulated by Chinese Internet users
and web portals, allowing the story to spread nationally, until even the venerated
and politically correct People's Daily followed up on the story. The central
government ultimately felt compelled to send an investigative team, resulting
in the mine owner's arrest.(1)
It is clear that the role of the Chinese media has changed dramatically from
the days when it functioned strictly as an ideological Party mouthpiece and
government cheerleader. At the same time, its evolutionary trajectory remains
unclear. No longer simply part of the propaganda apparatus, the country's media
is still far from functioning as an impartial observer and commentator. Amidst
the economic and political aftershocks of WTO membership, the country's media
sector is struggling to reflect and keep pace with the changes sweeping the
country.
Foremost among the drivers of change for China's media is the information revolution,
whose impact has been significant and multifaceted. Although recent advances
in information and communication technology have both empowered and weakened
the state, they have undeniably made it more difficult for the government to
hoard and control information resources. With the breakdown of the government's
monopoly on information, traditional and Internet-based media have capitalized
on the opportunities made possible by new technology. By making available a
wide range of news stories from geographically diverse locations, for instance,
Chinese web portals have been encouraging competition between news organizations.
This competition means that small, local news organizations are increasingly
pushing the boundaries of acceptable reportage, pressuring larger national organizations
to follow. News often appears on the Internet either exclusively or before traditional
media outlets can publish it. Even stodgy, official media organs such as the
People's Daily view their web sites not merely as an extension of the newspaper,
but as separate entities with their own corporate culture and often a more progressive
mode of operation.
Of course, most people still rely on traditional media to obtain information.
An October 2000 survey conducted by China Market and Media Research examined
media consumption in 20 cities, and found that an average of 12.3 percent of
urban residents were using the Internet. Yet a majority of those polled still
read newspapers and watched television to get their news. Data obtained from
the China National Readership Survey in 2000 shows that television achieved
a penetration rate of almost 100% in the 30 cities polled. Meanwhile, Internet
penetration is growing at a fast pace. China's official Internet Network Information
Center estimated the country's Internet users hit 33.7 million at the end of
2001, although outside observers argue that this estimate is inflated.
Despite the statistics, history shows that new trends in the media sector are far from irreversible. Wide-ranging changes may be undone by a shift in central government policy. Hence, while the information revolution may indeed be an unprecedented development that has taken hold in China, it is still capable of being harnessed and directed by the central government to serve its own purposes, be they liberalization or increased control.
HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY
The PRC's policy toward reporters and intellectuals has oscillated, with periods
of state repression alternating with periods of openness.(2) As early as Mao Zedong's
"Hundred Flowers Movement" in 1956-57, in which he invited diverse
schools of thought to contend openly and criticize the Party, journalists were
encouraged by the Party to take greater editorial initiative and engage in investigative
projects in taboo areas. In Mao's subsequent crackdown, the most outspoken critics
of the Party were vilified and cast out of their professions.(3) Overall, however,
momentum toward less state domination of the media has been building since Deng
Xiaoping initiated wide-ranging economic reforms in the late 1970s.
Under Mao's totalitarian regime, the media's function was to serve the state
and impose ideological hegemony. His regime was characterized by vertical control
of communication, exemplified by a top-down media system that acted as a conduit
carrying Party thought to the masses. This was complemented by a telecommunications
system that was accessible only to elites.(4) In practice, ideological hegemony
was accomplished by overwhelming the citizenry in every aspect of daily life
with official information and interpretations of reality. Since Mao's Leninist
state required the appearance of unanimity, the mass media served the function
of explaining and justifying official policy, while still providing an important
staging area where various factions could wage surreptitious battle over policy
direction. Especially during the years of the Cultural Revolution, diversity
and independent opinion in the media were sharply discouraged.
With the advent of economic reforms in 1978, the role of the media began to
change. No longer defined by the government as an instrument of class struggle,
the media was promoted as an instrument of economic development and social modernization,
with an emphasis on business information and entertainment.(5) Nonetheless,
advances and reversals in press freedom continued during the 1980s with some
regularity. For example, liberalization increased after the Third Plenum of
the 11th Party Central Committee in December 1978, but quickly retreated after
the crackdown on the Democracy Wall movement in 1979, as well as the campaigns
against "spiritual pollution" in 1983.(6) The period of relative openness
in the mid-1980s was followed by retrenchment after the events in Tiananmen
Square in 1989.
The Tiananmen crackdown was also perhaps the most seminal in terms of media
involvement in protest. Journalists had significantly contributed to the wave
of political activism sweeping student and intellectual ranks in the country.
As students marched through Beijing calling for democracy in May 1989, hundreds
of journalists staged a rally outside the Xinhua News Agency to protest the
firing of a Shanghai editor, while objecting to restrictions on their own coverage
of the pro-democracy movement. The protests were attended by reporters at smaller
publications as well as by employees of prominent national media organizations
such as the People's Daily and the English-language China Daily. Journalists
also joined student demonstrations in provincial capitals all over China. Semi-official
publications like the China Women's News and Science and Technology Daily, which
received state funding but were not wholly government mouthpieces, broke with
official instructions and covered part of the pro-democracy demonstrations.
Needless to say, following the June 4 crackdown the media paid a heavy price.
The entire editorial leadership of the People's Daily was replaced, numerous
journalists were arrested, and harsh regulations were imposed on all media organs.(7)
In recent years, amidst a liberalized economic environment and an increasing diversity of information sources for the general public, the media has continued to play a strong propaganda role for the central government, especially in setting the agenda for public debate on foreign affairs. The Chinese media's reporting of the Balkan crisis in 1999, including the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, shows that the media is far from free of state pressures to present the central government's version of overseas events. Chinese media painted the military campaign as part of a US-led plot to subjugate first Serbia and then the world under the guise of international humanitarianism, and barely touched upon Slobodan Milosevic's policy of ethnic cleansing. The Chinese media also waited two days before reporting President Clinton's apology following the bombing of the Chinese embassy on May 7, 1999. Subsequently, the press played a key role in fanning nationalism and anti-Americanism, at least until the end of July, when the central government ordered a stop in order to improve ties with the US to counter Taiwan's independence rhetoric.(8)
CURRENT TRENDS
Some posit that the trends of commercialization, globalization and pluralization
are combining to break down state control over propaganda dissemination or "thought
work."(9) While assessments of the state's "thought work" capacity
vary, most observers agree that the information revolution, embodied most tangibly
by the rapid spread of the Internet, has accelerated these trends. As a result,
it is becoming difficult for the Party to dictate and enforce the media's ideological
role. A decrease in state funding also means that outlets must now compete for
audiences and advertising, causing a shift from rote reporting of official visits
to livelier, more adventurous coverage.
Despite the hype associated with the Internet, traditional media still remain
primary sources of information for much of the public. Whether in the realm
of satellite television or local newspapers, trends previously limited to specific
geographic areas have been leveraged by technology into the national arena.
The general character of Chinese television, for instance, has been affected
by the growing availability of domestic satellite television channels. Although
China Central Television is still the most popular station nationwide, local
satellite channels are beginning to have a profound influence on the country
as a whole. A case in point is Hunan Satellite Television, which provides lively,
occasionally controversial content that has made it one of the most financially
successful television stations in the country. Its nightly news broadcasts skip
coverage of official steel plant visits in favor of investigative reports and
human interest stories, enabling it to expand beyond a strictly local audience.
Received by subscription only, the station claimed 200 million viewers last
year, and its Saturday evening prime time advertising rates are the highest
for any station in the country, including the national network CCTV-1. As with
many other business ventures in China, commercial success has helped mollify
officials who initially complained about its unorthodox policies, and other
stations around the country are now hoping to duplicate its success.(10)
Foreign media companies, too, play pioneering roles in China's television sector.
In 2001, the world's largest media company, AOL Time Warner Inc., signed a landmark
deal with the Chinese government to broadcast a Mandarin-language cable channel
into southern China. The deal marked the first time that an American media corporation
was able to participate in China's cable television sector, which has always
been classified bureaucratically under the propaganda apparatus and subject
to special ideological considerations.(11) Meanwhile, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation maintains a stake in the well-connected satellite broadcaster
Phoenix Television. Phoenix has been cautiously testing the limits of politically
acceptable information, by reporting events such as the election of Chen Shui-bian
as the new president of Taiwan in March, 2000.(12)
Yet foreign and domestic broadcasters are, on the whole, still not willing to
overtly challenge the government on the limits of acceptable speech. Phoenix
has been able to get away with its programming partly through the high-level
connections of its chairman and principal owner, who is a former Army propaganda
officer, and partly because only relatively elite, affluent households can afford
its signal. Moreover, media investor Murdoch has taken great pains in recent
years to stay on China's good side. After inflaming Chinese leaders in the early
1990s by characterizing satellite television as a threat to totalitarian regimes,
Murdoch subsequently dropped BBC news programming from his Star TV satellite
network in an attempt to mollify officials and curry favor. New television ventures
that lack the right clout are not likely to generate significant envelope-pushing
content. Even AOL executives concede their new channel will feature only politically
and culturally inoffensive programming, although reportedly it will include
contemporary dramas and sitcoms from Taiwan and Hong Kong.(13)
Newspapers, both local and national, are also feeling market pressure to commercialize
and provide more reader-friendly content. Many are doing so through their web
sites, which often address topics considered too politically sensitive for traditional
newsprint. The People's Daily, for instance, maintains a strong web presence
that is significantly livelier than its print counterpart, and offers an increasing
mix of sports and lifestyle reporting, enhanced with popular, nationalistically-themed
forums and chat rooms that compete with similar forums run by private companies.
The site also caters to local audiences throughout China by picking up news
from local papers, which are often more daring in their investigative reporting
than papers geographically and ideologically closer to Beijing.(14) The People's
Daily has also used its web site to post news that is unavailable through traditional
outlets. For instance, while Chinese television and newspapers excised the portions
of US Secretary of State Colin Powell's August 2001 television interview that
dealt with human rights, the full text was eventually posted on the People's
Daily website, reportedly in response to Washington's protest over the cuts.
However, although the People's Daily's website features a more liberal atmosphere
than that found in the print version, it nonetheless fits into the government's
plan to build a large, coordinated online propaganda system. The US spy plane
incident on Hainan Island in 2001 touched off a flurry of nationalistic sentiment
on the People's Daily "Strong Country" web forum, set up earlier by
the newspaper after the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Similarly
angry postings also rose in volume following the September 11 attacks on the
US. The government has historically used nationalism to bolster public support
and divert attention from domestic problems. As a result, much official news
on domestic websites features a nationalistic tone - although this can be altered
to suit the policy objectives of the central government. For instance, while
nationalism was fanned following the Belgrade embassy bombing, it was deliberately
dampened in January 2002, following the discovery of bugging devices on Jiang
Zemin's American-produced plane. Many felt that this was done to preserve good
ties with the US in the run-up to an upcoming presidential summit. Hence, while
the Chinese government hopes that cultivating nationalism will boost its legitimacy,
it is also aware that overly militant public opinion could constrain its policy
choices, and in the worst case scenario, turn against the government.(15)
Some of the most interesting media developments have taken place on new commercial
web portals, which inject some - though not all - formerly taboo issues, from
homosexuality to environmental pollution, into the public debate. Such forums,
which permit users to read, circulate and respond to news and opinions, generate
discussions previously impossible in the public sphere and on a nationwide level.
Many Western advocates of freedom of expression point to these developments
as a sign that the information revolution has catalyzed an irreversible stream
of politicized thought that, once unleashed, will inevitably lead to demands
for political liberalization. Others argue that the Internet and other new technology
help create a chaotic space filled with apolitical content and atomized individuals,
a space that ultimately will not contribute to the formation of an independent
civil society.(16)
It seems more likely, however, that the government is allowing the Internet
to be used as a pressure valve, preemptively allowing the broadening of acceptable
discourse in order to prevent a buildup of mass frustration. While still ambivalent
about open political debate, the Chinese government appears to be tacitly encouraging
a degree of public throat-clearing in the relatively controlled environment
of Internet chat rooms rather than in areas outside state purview.
It would be a mistake to characterize the online environment solely in terms
of growing openness and diversity. Internet-based news gathering by non-official
organizations is prohibited, and even that which is permitted exists under a
slew of restrictions adapted from traditional media regulations. Although the
scope and scale of online commentary has been expanding, most users still practice
some form of self-censorship, generally avoiding obviously politically sensitive
web sites (such as those promoting Taiwanese independence or highlighting Chinese
human rights abuses) and the expression of controversial opinions on politically
sensitive topics. Commercial Internet portals refuse to see themselves as part
of the Chinese media per se; they prefer to think of themselves as information
aggregators, not interpreters or providers. In fact, many of China's up-and-coming
Internet entrepreneurs see a substantial regulatory role for government in the
Internet sector. Though often heralded in Western media as democracy's pipeline-builders,
these businesspeople usually have visions for Chinese Internet development that
are pragmatic and complementary with state strategy. While many entrepreneurs
note that their relationship with government is increasingly consultative, giving
them some form of input into the policymaking process, few are willing to push
the state on politically sensitive topics such as those relating to press and
speech freedom.
Chinese leaders themselves attempt to shape current trends in media development,
often resulting in ambiguous messages. Few see a totally independent role for
the media. Jiang Zemin, describing the power of the information revolution in
an August 2000 speech, extolled the speed and scope of free-information flows
while simultaneously warning against the dangers of so-called harmful information
and calling for an international treaty to regulate it.
An August 2001 campaign to clamp down on the media included a list of "Seven
No's" banning media involvement in seven broad areas. These include disclosure
of "state secrets," interference in the work of the Party and the
government, and negation of "the guiding role of Marxism." Similar
rules exist for news and information made available on the Internet, and many
are simply new iterations of past media regulations.
The recent deluge of regulations, some conveyed unofficially, show that the
government is attuned to the effects of the information revolution and other
pressures on the media sector. The influence of the information revolution,
alongside urgent commercial pressures, has helped give birth to another period
of relative openness and liberalization in the Chinese media. This has not been
an insignificant development, and institutional and ideological structures have
been shaken at a fundamental level. Yet new organizations such as the State
Council's Internet Propaganda Administrative Bureau have been created specifically
to guide and coordinate the news content of Chinese websites, and are intended
to develop a "healthy direction" for the dissemination of online news.
Even as the government encourages new technology as a stepping stone for economic
development, it continues to advocate their "healthy and orderly development,"
which is a commonly used official expression used to indicate development at
a government-dictated pace.
Moreover, China's history shows that periods of relative openness are often followed by periods of retrenchment, and it may be that recent media restrictions, such as the "Seven No's", represent part of such a process. With a change in leadership looming, the future direction of media sector reform is up in the air. What seems certain is that the government will continue its attempts to ensure that the information revolution empowers the media to serve state interests.
ENDNOTES
1 Sophie Beach, "Running in Place," CPJ Briefings: Press Freedom
Reports from Around the World, August 2001. http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2001/China_aug01/China_aug01.html
2 Lynn T. White III, "All the News: Structure and Politics in Shanghai's
Reform Media," in Chin-Chuan Lee, ed. Voices of China: The Interplay of
Politics and Journalism (New York, NY: Guildford Press, 1990), p. 88.
3 Judy Polumbaum, "The Tribulations of China's Journalists After a Decade
of Reform," in Chin-Chuan Lee, ed. Voices of China: The Interplay of Politics
and Journalism (New York, NY: Guildford Press, 1990), p. 36.
4 Daniel C. Lynch, After the Propaganda State: Media, Politics and "Thought
Work" in Reformed China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999)
5 Yuezhi Zhao, Media, Market and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line
and the Bottom Line (Univ. of Illinois Press, 1998) p. 34
6 Lee, Voices of China, p. 7.
7 Judy Polumbaum, in Chin, Voices of China, pp. 37-38.
8 Willy Wo-Lap Lam, "China: State Power Versus the Internet," in Louise
William and Roland Rich, eds., Losing Control: Freedom of the Press in Asia
(Australian National University: Asia Pacific Press) pp 38-39.
9 Lynch, After the Propaganda State.
10 Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Hunan Style Television: Spicy and Crowd Pleasing,"
The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2000.
11 Mark Landler, "AOL Gains Cable Rights in China by Omitting News, Sex
and Violence," The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2001.
12 Allen T. Cheng, "Phoenix Rising," Asiaweek, March 9, 2001.
13 Mark Landler, "AOL Gains Cable Rights in China by Omitting News, Sex
and Violence," The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2001.
14 Interviews with Chinese officials, Beijing, June 2001.
15 Some argue that while nationalism can be manipulated by Chinese officials,
it may also, if properly directed, help create a more vibrant public sphere.
See Jack Linchuan Qiu, "Chinese Opinions Collide Online: U.S.-China Plane
Collision Sparks Civil Discussion on Web," USC Annenberg Online Journalism
Review, April 12, 2001. http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?id=561
16 Lynch, After the Propaganda State.
Ms. Kalathil is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace in Washington D.C. and co-author of a forthcoming book on authoritarian
regimes and the Internet.