Reports - 47. page

In recent years, a main impression of Western governments or research institutes on China’s change has been that the proportion of the private sector’s role in China’s economy has dramatically increased. In considering such trends, however, it is important to keep in mind that in Chinese society, the concept of a private enterprise is quite different from its Western counterpart. In particular, the influence of the ruling Communist Party in the management of China’s private enterprises cannot be neglected. “Private” enterprises are often equipped with elements of the Party structure and its organizations, including having Party leaders heading the Board of Directors or serving as the CEO of a private enterprise. In addition, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also been recently strengthening the Party’s influence in private enterprises, raising questions of how free from government influence such enterprises actually are. Below are excerpts from an article from the official publication of the CCP’s Central Committee, Qiushi. [1]

To conduct the construction of the Party system well and promote the organizational role of the Party in private enterprises, thereby facilitating the positive and rapid development of the private sector of the economy, is a major theoretical and practical issue concerning the Party’s governing capacity for construction and the socioeconomic development of China. With this question, we walked into the SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (SHIC-LTD) of Hunan.

SANY has more than 19,000 employees—among them are more than 2,000 Party members—and is the private enterprise in Hunan with the highest Party membership. In 2002, the company’s Party Committee was established. There are now 3 general Party branches and 19 subordinate branches. It is among the first batch of trial units for building grassroots Party organizations in the company. A representative of the Party’s 17th Congress and the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, Liang Wengen, always takes “being fair and faithful with gratitude in heart” as his own motto, and uses “managing honestly to return to the society” to express his gratitude to the Party. Walking into SANY, the huge slogan of “Gratitude in Heart” is very eye-catching.
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One: Always Take Construction of Party Organizations as the Crucial Step in Human Resource Management

The first is to have Party play a role in uniting the employees. The employees of SANY have a strong affection for the company, which cannot happen without their attention to constructing the Party organizations and having the Party play the role of uniting people. Since the establishment of the Party organizations in 2002, employees who are Party members have had their own organization, which generated a strong feeling of being at home.
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The second is to use the Party members’ education and training to strengthen human resource management. The top management of SANY believes that Party members are excellent sources of talent. Therefore, to strengthen human resource management, the top priority is to enhance the education and training of the Party members. Since 2003, the company has incorporated the training of Party members into the company’s overall training plan by setting up “the system of training and educating the newly recruited Party member employees.” Meanwhile, it has implemented the double-training project to “train excellent employees into Party members and train Party members into excellent employees.” In recent years, there have been a few hundred young employees actively getting closer to the Party organization each year. Among the newly accepted Party members, more than 80 percent are the managerial technical backbone of the company. Meanwhile, they have established a study system of the Party members, initiated educational campaigns of Maintaining the Advanced Nature of Party, founded a Party school in the company, and trained the professional skills of the Party members, etc. These versatile training and cultural activities of Party members have achieved remarkable effects.

The third is to promote the guidance and incentive role of the Party members, thereby achieving “human resources being maximally utilized and talents being maximally elicited.” The Party committee of the company examined the Party members, setting the highest requirements. Thus, the overall Party members will maintain their advanced nature and do their own jobs well in a unified manner, strive to develop top working skills, maintain top work proficiency, and achieve top work performance. These incentives have made the Party members fully play their roles. At present, more than 90 percent of the general committee members and branch committee are principal managerial cadres in their departments, and 26.8 percent of the middle level managerial cadres are Party members.

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Two: Integrate the Construction of the Party with the Development Of Enterprise

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The basic requirements for each Party member can be summarized as “four ‘are’s and four ‘aren’t’s”: There are Party members at critical positions; there are Party members to face hardships; there are Party members in moments of urgent events; and there are Party members in research projects. There aren’t accidents with Party members; there aren’t defective products produced by Party members; there [isn’t] wasting by Party members; and there aren’t violations of rules by Party members.” The Party committee has also set up a “model Party member position” in committee branches and group, to sufficiently promote the Party members’ advanced role models.
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Since 2002, the company has copied the organizational structure of the Party to the company’s management, as a way to form the company. To combine the construction of the Party organizations with the building of the managerial team, the company promoted excellent Party member managers to be the Party workers, and recommended excellent Party workers into the managerial decision-making team. Thus, the leadership of the Party committee and the enterprise managerial layer are crossed and are taking dual responsibilities.

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In addition, the company also guided the cultural development of the enterprise with the excellent traditions of the Party, and instilled advanced cultural ideologies into the enterprise’s culture, so that will eventually become the enterprise’s spirit and the values of all the employees.
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Three: Introducing modern science and technologies into construction of the Party organizations

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Managing the organization activities of the Party using the Internet is highly efficient. With the IT strength of the enterprise, the Party committee of the company developed a network management system, established the website of “Party Construction in SANY” and the “Managerial System of the Database of Party Members.” Today, the “Party Construction in SANY” website carries comprehensive data and materials, becoming an important platform for the Party committee to strengthen the education and management of the Party members, and for all Party members to study and communicate together. The company also adopted a new form of the Party membership fee management system by using banking accounts management. In the past, because the Party members were not well organized, there were many difficulties in collecting Party membership fees. After serious study and discussion, the Party committee has changed from centralized collection to decentralized collection with centralized management. According to the situation of the company, the Party committee has made set rules regarding the payers, timing, standards, and requirements for using membership fees. Collection of the fees is managed by the banking accounts system. The company has a specific bank account for timely collection of Party membership fees.
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Four: The Fruits from Construction of Party Organizations in the Company

As highlighted in the working report of the CCP’s 17th National Congress, adhering to and perfecting the basic economic system that uses public ownership as the mainstream and meanwhile developing various non-public economic sectors; unswervingly consolidating and developing the public economy; and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding non-public economic sector development,  with equal guarding of property rights. Thus a new pattern is formed in which a variety of economic sectors compete on an equal footing and with mutual promotion. “Two unswervingly” and “two equal” not only indicated the Party’s clear attitude to promote the non-public economy in the new era, but also raised new requirements on how to enhance the Party’s ruling capacity.
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The achievements of Party-building greatly facilitated the development of the various causes of the enterprise
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These achievements cannot be separated from the close attention and sufficient trust of the Party to private enterprises. As the Chairman of SANY Liang Wengen stated: “SANY’s success is based on the development of China as a whole. The development of SANY can be attributed to the good policy of reform and openness. Otherwise, the development of SANY will be just like water without a source, and trees without soil.” In an interview, the general Party committee secretary of the company and the Executive Chairman Xiang Wenbo said with a deep feeling: “The Party’s long-term ruling will be the guarantee for China’s development, and is the important backing for future development of private enterprise.” [1]

Endnotes:
[1] Qiushi, No. 4, 2008.
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20080216/GB/qs%5E473%5E0%5E11.htm

On October 12, three days before the 17th Party Congress, the Forestry Bureau of Shaanxi Province published the breaking news of a precious wild species, the extinct South China tiger was discovered; and. a photo of the tiger was released. A local peasant provided the picture, which triggered a series of questions on the authenticity of the picture and the news. On February 4, 2008, the aforementioned Bureau released a statement, apologizing for its negligence in the handling of the news and the picture, which was believed by many to be the picture of the tiger taken from a calendar. The following is the translation of a report from the Voice of America (VOA). [1]

Today we are comparatively introducing the debate, regarding the report that the South China tiger was found in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China. The people are searching for the truth through the Internet and calling for the honesty of their government.

It has been one month since the publicity of the photos of the extinct-for-more-than- 20-year-South-China tiger. Debating on the validity of the news, two large troupes: “Hunt the Tiger” and “Save the Tiger,” have emerged. “Hunt the Tiger” troupe mainly consists of the force from the grass-root civilians, while “Save the Tiger” troupe members are composed of the powerful government and its official media.

Hunt the Tiger troupe’s principal forces are the Internet media and the Internet forums with the assistance from the famed South China Daily for its hit-home tactics and the other reformist media. Along with the media from the foreign countries and the non-governmental organizations that are independent from the Chinese government. After the appearance of the tiger’s photos, they are not satisfied with the official information. They have been continuingly raising suspicions, asking for the officials to provide further details, and making unremitting efforts to search for the truth.

“Save the Tiger,” the opposite troupe is represented by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (CCPCC,) the local government of Shaanxi province and its central and local propaganda media. In the beginning, the government insisted on that the 71 photos of the tiger taken by the peasant, Zhou Zhenglong, were all authentic. However, in the overwhelming public opinions and the questions rose from the foreign media, and they have begun to recede and started to leave room in their public comments. For example, in the Chinese Central Television (CCTV) interview program. There is a widely quoted comment, “It is not important whether the tiger is authentic or fake, the essential issue is to protect the endangered wild animals.”
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A Global Concern and Discussion RE the Debate on South China Tiger

Foreign media have been paying close attention to the debate on South China tiger. The Science, a U.S. authoritative journal, recently reported: “A few weeks ago, the tiger researchers celebrated the news that an extinct-for-more-than-20-year-South-China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) has been spotted and photographed by an elderly peasant in the wilds of Shaanxi Province. But the worldwide netizens, especially in China, have concluded that the tiger is a “paper tiger” after scrutinized the only two officially released available pictures.” [2]

“On October 12 2007, in Xian at a press conference, Zhou Zhenglong, a former hunter, told the rapt audience of his discovery of the tiger. Moreover, the inconceivable story was: he managed to shoot 71 photos as he crawled within 20 meters from the beast—not till the camera was accidentally bumped and the flash went off.–the tiger roared once and ran away.

“The skeptics cited that the factors such as the tiger’s tame-looking expression and the unreal coat color as well as the fact that the two photos portray exactly the same tiger but with different positioned foliage. It’s more likely that someone planted a cardboard tiger in the bushes. Fu Dezhi, a botanist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, added that the plants are not on the scale in relation to the tiger. Zhou was paid 20,000 Yuan (US$2,666) for the photos. He said, “I bet my life on it that the photographs are authentic.”

“The Shaanxi Forestry Bureau is pushing ahead with plans for a thorough survey and a tiger reserve. ‘It’s the tremendous exciting news if it could be substantiated,’ said the tiger expert, Gary Koehler of Washington State’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. ‘They needed to look for the hair particles or animal droppings first for genetic verification.’” [2]

The comparative news also include an editor’s comments from the Save the Tiger Fund, headquartered in Washington, D.C.: [Ed: As mentioned in the first appearance of this report, if verified this would indeed be a surprise to conservation biologists who haven’t seen the South China tiger for 20 years – what this article describes is the huge financial incentive for a peasant farmer to fake the photos, a wildlife photographer myself I would love to know how he got that close to a tiger without a costly 500mm zoom lens without being attacked]. [3]

In Shaanxi province after the new pictures of the South China tiger was announced at the press conference, “Hunt the Tiger, and Save the Tiger” troupes have debated heatedly on the authenticity of the photos for more than one month,. Both troupes provided evidence for themselves without convincing each other. Until on “November 16, 2007,” a day the Chinese Internet bloggers called, “An Historical Event Day” on Internet history. A blogger left a message on a Photographing Technique forum on a website. The blogger mentioned: “In his house, there’s a calendar picture on the wall, in which the tiger is extremely similar to the tiger photos publicized by the Shaanxi Forestry Department.” From then on, bloggers in other parts in China also reported calendar pictures of the tiger.
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A reporter from The South China Daily made further investigations and found out the publishing company of the calendar picture is inYiwu City, Zhejiang Province. Besides, he located the sample of the calendar picture of the tiger on the homepage of a publishing company. It is known that many people in China like to have tigers printed on calendars that emit powerful energy from the tiger. The picture of tiger might be the one used to fake the photos by the Shaanxi peasant, which was published in 2002.

The kind of news that copying a calendar picture and took the cardboard tiger as a wild South China tiger, and the peasant was awarded 20,000 Yuan from the Shaanxi Government should not be a big deal in China nowadays. At least, it is just a piece of interesting social news. However, it has now evolved into a piece of disgraceful political news.

The strictly controlled political media have chosen to ignore this piece of news, called by Chinese bloggers an “Ostrich Policy.” But some Teflon media that are good at hitting home runs, like the South China Daily, have keenly captured the enormous social implications behind this news that an ordinary peasant suspected of fabricating fraudulent news.

Media Adhere to Justice and Challenged the False News with Bravery

In the editorial of The Southern Metropolis Daily on November 17, 2007, titled “It’s a Shame to Hide and Distort the Truth,” which stated, “The emergence of a series of new evidence has brought us closer to the final confirmation on the forgery of the tiger picture; only the last nail is left under the hammer to get the project done. Up till now, a lot of misgivings in the dispute of the tiger picture have been dispelled, and all others that continuously cooked up evidence and insisted the tiger picture was true might fall into a shameful condition.”

“During the entire tiger-picture incident, there is a huge gap between the official side and civilians’ side in terms of the attitude towards the truth. It can be said that the former is so eager to dominant the right to explain the truth that it completely ignored the power of the united Internet users who took part in finding the evidence, which also was ignored the historically-proven rule that truth would finally come out, regardless of the fact that a handful of people tried to manipulate it. Similar patterns exist in other fields and in the social incidents as well.”

“If the tiger picture is proven fraudulent, it implied there might be questions and blames. The despicable shall be left in shame; otherwise, the preciousness of the truth will be neglected sooner or later. When trying to find the truth of the nature, there should be a premise; in other words, the truth of society as well as people’s attitude towards truth must first be rectified. The act of manipulating the truth at will; not only prevents us from searching for the miracles of nature, but also degrade the moral values in our society.”
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In an article on The Guangming Daily’s website, it stated: “If the Zhou tiger has been tested by experts and confirmed that it was taken from a calendar picture, Zhou Zhenglong shall be suspected of being involved in fraud. The local judicial organ should not only recover his 20,000 Yuan award but also prosecute him and bring him to justice. In addition, the local government officials and the related experts should be questioned one by one because they are involved in malfeasance and jobbery. If there is a profit chain behind the ‘Zhou-Tiger’ incident, the problem will become more serious: For what purpose the shoddy farce was directed? Who will pay the bill for all kinds of resources used and the different costs paid? The related government departments, however, have not taken any actions, and ignored the will of the people by saying the testing of the picture is beyond their duties. The existence of South China tiger is undoubtedly important, but the public opinions and the query from the people about the tiger picture are no less important than the existence of South China Tiger itself. Under such circumstances, paying no attention to the public opinions is neglecting public opinions, which will harm the feelings of the public.”

According to Chinese media, when challenged by the New-Year-Tiger picture, the Bureau of Forestry in Shaanxi Province said it would not make another statement regarding the validity of the South China Tiger. It was reported that an information source inside the Bureau of Forestry claimed that the leaders of the Bureau already came to a final conclusion that the “Zhou Tiger” was a real, wildlife tiger on November 9, 2007. According to Wang Wanyun, Director of Wildlife Protection Department in the Bureau, the leaders of the Bureau would not make more comments on this matter, as they would not change their conclusion made on November 9, 2007. The Xinhua News Agency reported that Mr. Yuan Chunqing, Governor of Shaanxi Province made the following statement while he was visiting Hong Kong: “We may not be able to have a conclusion for the Tiger incident immediately. It is necessary to investigate this matter. It was not wrong for the government to award Zhou. Searching for South China Tiger is more important than finding out whether the picture is true or fake.” (The Xinhua News Website, November 17, 2007)

The “No more comments” policy persisted by the Bureau of Forestry in Shaanxi Province, as well as the statement by the Governor: “Searching for South China Tiger is more important than finding out whether the picture is true or fake,” greatly infuriated the Internet readers in China.

The following quote is what conveyed in a review report from the Guangming Daily’s website: “What a sharp contrast it is between their active involvements before and their passiveness today!” compared the blatancy of the staff from the Bureau of Forestry when the Tiger picture was publicized with their current reluctance to make any comments when the truth is about to surface.
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Chinese Cyber Users See History in the Making
 
An Internet user posted his opinion:  “It does not matter whether the picture is genuine or fake!  The existence of the extinct South-China tiger is unimportant!  What does matter is the government has not yet made any explanation to this group fraud!  Shaanxi government has not been the least apologetic, and the Central Government has been totally silent!”

Another Internet blogger pointed out: “Since the authenticity of the photos were so unimportant:  Why on earth at that time, for the doubtful photos, the Forestry Department of Shaanxi spent two days appraising the photos; a press conference was held; a reward of 20,000 Yuan was awarded to the photographer; the CCTV broadcast the news during prime time; and the photographer Zhou reported to the National Forestry Bureau; reporters nationwide interviewed Zhou; the officials as well as the photographer bet on their lives; Mr. Guan Ke, Director of Propaganda Center, the Forestry Department of Shaanxi, addressed Zhou as “a national hero;” Shaanxi television interviewed Zhou’s entire family on TV.

All these were just for the doubtful photos! The Department was willing to waste so much time for the questionable photos. It really did not matter whether the photos were genuine. I thoroughly realized that there’s no lower limit to some persons’ shamelessness and stupidity!”

From the Guangming Daily columnist’s observation: “On the surface, it was Zhou who provided the photo for 20,000 Yuan. In addition, Shaanxi forestry department’s declared that the photos were real and called the press conference, announcing that the South China tiger was found in Zhengping, Shaanxi Province. Once these were confirmed as fraud, our feelings are inevitably hurt. While a peasant’s words may be disregarded, can we also place much credit in those high-level officials of the Government?

A blogger hoped that following the truth of the South-China tiger photos, other fabricated news and history would be rectified. This blogger commented that a calendar picture of the tiger revealed the falsity of the South-China-tiger photos and exposed the shamelessness of the Government officials. The truth of other historical events will also come to light as research deciphers more files not just the fake tiger.”

Another blogger pointed out the incident is related to current political system. “Once a farce had ended, there will be others as long as dictatorship rules the country.”
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Blogger, Peter Yang published an article, analyzing the roles of the local and central government in this South-Tiger incident. He argued that local officials distorted the central government’s good intentions. The article said that, “General Secretary Hu already very explicitly proposed a change in governmental functions, emphasizing on a harmonious society rather than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and focus on social justice than the uncontrolled economic growth. As a western province, Shaanxi’s desire for development is good. However, with the development of information technology, it is inappropriate to seek conservation funds with a fake photo. As the situation gets worse, more high-level officials will be punished. The actions of Shaanxi officials are totally against the people’s will. Not only does it undermine the entire society’s good faith, justice and harmony, it is completely against General Secretary Hu’s policy.”

However, other Chinese bloggers considered the above viewpoint too naive. One raised the question of whether one can find a simple truth under the current system. “We need not worry about South-China tiger. We should pay attention to things that concern us the most; that is: Can the current system still function?”

This blogger added: “We must know the truth.  Have morality and integrity gone extinct among our officials?  Have surveillance organizations of the country gone extinct? Have media conscience gone extinct? Have the strength and spirit among Chinese intellectuals gone extinct?”

This blogger pointed out a very important phenomenon. In the era of the Internet, the days when the government had absolute control of the media were gone. Chinese today are lucky, because they can finally obtain the truth. This blogger proudly said that we have proved that we do not need the bureaucrats or the non-conscientious media or the experts with weak- character. We ourselves, the people, can find out the truth.”
 
This is the power of the Internet. The role of the Internet is highly appraised. He added that with the Internet, we can lay out the truth for those leaders and then aloofly explain it to them. “Cyber friends” are no longer fictitious. They are outstanding achievers from all walks of life. They are the invincible force that safeguards our social justice.”

Another cyber friend was also amazed at the power of the Internet. He said, “The fake news, starting as the trivial news ends up a big scandal. The Internet is magical.

Another posted that the fake-tiger incident shows that it is no longer possible for this worse-than-fascist criminal organization, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to rule the country with lies.
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The tiger incident is not about the photographer Zhou Zhenglong.  The Southern Metropolis Daily published an editorial that this incident shows that the era when people blindly believe what the Government says is over. The time when even if the people do not believe the Government, they do not dare, are not able to, and have no way to speak out, question or validate those claims is over. The time of a silenced society is over.

The Boxun News Website published an article that the triumph of the paper tiger incident is that the people can question the Government’s conclusion on some matters.  Even though the independent thinking is growing and maturing; however, it may not be applied to many other major events. These include, “the June 4,” the formation of the Democratic Party and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.  Nevertheless the author believed that as more people became courageous to stand up and tell the truth, all the lies will be exposed and the truth will surface.

Endnotes:
[1] VOA news, Nov 23, 2007
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/archive/2007-11/w2007-11-23-voa41.cfm
[2]. Science, Vol. 318. no. 5852, p. 893, November 9, 2007 http://www.sciencemag.org.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/cgi/content/full/318/5852/893a?maxtoshow
=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=south+china+tiger&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
[3]. Save the tiger fund website, October 18, 2007
http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News_Headlines&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7234

On February 18, 2008, Outlook Weekly, a Xinhua News Agency magazine, published a group of articles about China’s Internet. One of them was about the Internet police. The Chinese government’s control of the Internet is well known. Internet police are one of the main means of controlling the Internet. Because of the nature of the special work done by the Internet police, outsiders seldom know what they do. Now that the article below has been translated, our readers may come to understand the Communist Party’s description of Internet control in China’s official media descriptions. [1]

Outlook Weekly obtained information from related sources that, in 2007, local public security divisions in the country uncovered 266 criminal cases of pornography on the Internet and 298 of Internet gambling and cheating. The action of the Internet police is behind these numbers.

As the Internet has become more popularized, using the Internet for obscene pornography, gambling and cheating has also been spreading. When a real (but not gun related) crime is being committed in the virtual Internet society, the public security police step into the virtual society from the real one; therefore, the Internet police enter at a historic moment.

Then, what kind of people are the Internet police? And how do they deal with Internet crimes? Before the Chinese New Year, Outlook Weekly interviewed the Internet police troop at the Beijing Police Station.

A Highly Educated Young Troop

“Internet Police” is a name that people use for the policemen from the Beijing Police Station’s Internet Monitoring Division. Its former identity was “Computer Safety Monitoring Department,” which was established in December 2000. Before it was formed, it was an office of the Beijing Police Station Information Division.

Along with the rapid popularization of the Internet, the Beijing Internet Police Troop has also expanded. A policeman’s average age is less then 30. General reports are that their beginning education is a bachelors’ degree. However, this troop has one Ph.D. and about 20 with masters’ degrees. This troop has the highest education and is the youngest in the Beijing public security system.

Qi Kun is a 29-year-old Internet policeman. He looks like an intellectual scholar, but he is already a “senior statesman” in the Beijing Police Station Internet Monitor Division. Like Qi Kun, Internet policemen mostly look quiet and gentle; certainly their appearance does not conform to the tough and energetic policeman stereotype.
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But do not therefore underestimate these Internet policemen. Internet crimes basically have intelligent and hidden characteristics; therefore, it requires these Internet policemen not only to know the information related to technology and detection, but also the law and computers.

The responsibility of the Internet police is to clamp down on various Internet crimes. These crimes may either use the Internet as a tool, or they attack the Internet as a direct target. In the process of identifying an Internet crime, they need to use the domain name, key word filters, Internet search, gateway technology and IP blockade, and electronic data evidence collection technologies. These tools enable them to screen and gather related clues and information from Internet information that is as vast as a sea and disappears instantaneously.

Evidence collection is a key to identifying Internet crimes; yet it is the difficult part. First, it is technologically difficult, and second, collecting evidence needs to be quick and accurate, because the related data and information is very easy to tamper with and remove.

In addition, the Internet policemen’s important routine tasks include managing and monitoring the dissemination of public information; participating in the special treatment of harmful Internet information; coordinating related departments to process illegal websites; removing bad information, maintaining Internet security; and strengthening the public security system’s science and technology construction.

The “Virtual World” Reveals Invincible Might

In April 2007, the Beijing Internet police suspected several companies of using the cellular phone WAP Internet to send Beijing cellular phone users massive obscene pictures, sexually teasing language, and other false information to induce and deceive cellular phone users to click them, so the companies could make a profit.

Therefore, the Beijing police took this seriously and formed a special team immediately to target these violations. In accordance with the Beijing Police Station’s related regulations, the Beijing police organized some special activities in the whole city to attack Internet obscene pornography. Based on prior investigations and obtaining important evidence, the illegal activities were attacked, including those who were involved in making and distributing obscene subjects. Since these actions have been taken, the Beijing police have uncovered seven of this kind of case, and legally handled 35 involved people. Among them, 18 were arrested on a criminal charge, and 17 were detained.
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Purifying the Internet environment and attacking Internet crimes are the Internet policemen’s sacred duties. Just in the last year, the Beijing Police Station Internet Monitor Division not only obtained an advanced unit national award for its special activities of attacking obscene pornography, but also continuously uncovered Internet prostitutes, Internet scams, and Internet gambling.

Zhao Hongzhi, a deputy director of the Beijing Police Station Internet Monitor Division, who was interviewed by an Outlook news reporter, is a senior engineer and also a director of the Information Internet Security Management Division of the Olympic Technology Department.

Since the Barcelona computer Internet entered people’s lives in 1992, attacks against the Olympic Games Internet security have intensified.

During the Olympic Games, the official Internet has been attacked 11.3 billion times. In 2004, the Athens Olympic Games brought Internet security to an unprecedented level, and the value of computer security system repair was as high as 400 million dollars. In February 2006, in 16 days of the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, the Internet system generated an average of more than 3 million security event reports each day, and successfully prevented 158 significant events that would possibly have caused an Internet breakdown. Among those events, 10 were considered extremely serious ones.

Zhao Hongzhi told the reporter from Outlook that the Olympic information Internet security was the premise for the Olympic Game normal operation. It required resources from physics, the Internet, the system, and various application aspects to carry on a three-dimensional protection. Regardless of which level of security measures did not function well, it created a possibility of an Internet breakdown.

Zhao Hongzhi said, “At present, we Internet police have very heavy duties, and everyone is working with all their might.”

“Virtual policemen” are on Duty

On September 1, 2007, Internet users discovered that “virtual police” appeared in obvious places on Beijing’s key websites and on forum pages. A month later, the “virtual police” patrol area had been expanded to every medium and to small websites.

The animated image of “virtual police” is designed based on the prototype of real life patrol policemen. Every 30 to 45 minutes, “virtual police” will automatically pop up from the bottom of the homepage and appear for 2 minutes. Internet users’ usage isn’t impacted. A “virtual police” has three kinds of images: driving a car, driving a motorcycle, and walking.
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The Beijing Police Station Internet Monitor Division also provides a picture link of “Capital Internet Reporting to the Police Service Station” on over 9.6 million Internet homepages in the whole city. If an Internet user uses the link to get help, this person will only need to click the automated image or reporting to the police picture. He or she will then be automatically connected to the City Police Station Information Internet Security Reporting Service Station. Once a case is reported, if it needs a longer time to process, it will be transmitted to a related business department for processing. If the case only needs a short time to process, it will be processed immediately.

The periodic patrol of the Internet police and the application of reporting to the police picture link as new channels of approaching police have eliminated the blind spots in terms of time and location in the Internet administration, expanded Internet police monitoring time and scope, and raised Internet users’ awareness of rights and self-discipline.

It is said that Beijing “virtual police” have been on duty for four months and have received 10,893 Internet reports to the police, including 400 pornography reports, 4,647 Internet scams, 23 Internet on gambling, 291 of online harmful information, 221 virus attacks, and another 5,311 on illegal information. Compared to the time before the “virtual police” were on duty, the rates of the Beijing Police Station Internet Monitor Division accepting reports to the police and sending out policemen have increased more than four times; therefore, it effectively constrains the online harmful information and online illegal and criminal activities.

Endnotes:
[1] Xinhua, February 18, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/18/content_7624303.htm

From November 2007 to January 2008, the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW) conducted an investigation on farmers who lost their land due to construction of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games main event hall. This process enables us to have a better understanding of the protection of their legal rights during the relocation. The investigated area covers the Beijing Olympic Village community office (the former Beijing Chaoyang District Wali village) and Beijing Datun community office (the former Beijing Chaoyang District Datun village). Below is the detailed report. [1]

Explanation of “Report of Investigations on Land Losers at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Main Event Hall”

The main reason to conduct this investigation is to bring to the world’s attention more and more farmers who lost their land during the process of economic development. We hope to use the 2008 Olympic Games as an opportunity to raise attention to this particular group of farmers.

Through this investigation, we are glad to see that the government did grant these villagers certain things. Their lifestyle appeared to have positive changes. On the other hand, regrettably, we found that the farmers faced many aspects of infringement upon their basic rights during the land confiscation and relocation process.
 
After taking over the lands in these two villages, the local government compensated each farmer family with 100,000 Yuan ($13,974.7) for each house. In Wali village, when a house was pulled down, the local government gave money compensation; in Datun when a house was pulled down, the government relocated the villagers to a specially constructed home. At the same time, the villagers were given social securities, the elderly were given pensions, and the majority of these villagers were given a job. The villagers’ lifestyle had a positive change, given the status of a city citizen they felt a glimpse of the convenience of city life.

Regarding land confiscation compensation, these farmers are not happy with the way of distributing collective properties. They think it is illegitimate. Also, the villagers think the compensation does not cover the land they lost, with soaring land and housing prices. In the process, violence was used in enforcing the reallocation. On some occasions, the local officials forced the farmers to reallocate without permit. In Datun village, farmers complained about the small size of the new housing, no property ownership certificate, and poor quality of the distributed housing. In Wali village, farmers had to purchase commodity housing with meager monetary compensation.

In the investigation process, we also discovered that there had been multiple episodes of unrest among the villagers to fight for their land rights. More than 200 people once made a petition with higher authorities; there was a one-month period of sitting petition; some filed lawsuits against local authorities; some residents of the Olympic Village tied themselves to a tree to refuse the Olympic organizers from clearing the land and removing the trees.
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Alongside this, we also understand some villagers were persecuted for fighting for their basic rights. For example, in 2006 Ma Jingxue from Wali village was sentenced to a year in labor camp, in 2007 was again sentenced to two years in labor camp both under the charge of “hooligan activities.” Lu Qingcheng from Datun village was forcefully detained.

During this investigation, we received vigorous support and participation from the villagers of Wali village and Datun village. They provided us with massive materials and information. We would like to express our appreciation for their contribution.

We hope this investigation will bring these Chinese farmers who lost their lands to the world’s attention. We hope our government will listen to the voices of the people and improve the protection of basic rights of these farmers.
 
Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW)

Endnotes:
[1] Website of CRLW, February 4, 2008
http://www.msguancha.com/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=1027

Former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Hu Yaobang died nearly 20 years ago. [1] On February 19, 2008, China’s official media Xinhua took a surprising turn in publishing an article that highly praised Hu Yaobang’s charisma and his character as public servant, citing Hu Yaobang’s willingness to offer his high position to others in his early days.  After the article was pasted into a forum on the mainland website, many people followed up and pasted their comments. Since this article was published before the upcoming first plenary session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) and the 1st Session of the 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to be held in March 2008, it triggered speculation. Following to the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, Hu Yaobang’s name has rarely been mentioned in Chinese official media. Now, before the upcoming NPC and CPPCC sessions, this move by the CCP state-controlled media to publish such an article has inevitably triggered people to speculate upon possible upcoming CCP personnel changes. This is the only sense that has been made of why Xinhua would suddenly initiate a public move to eulogize Hu Yaobang, especially on the issue of offering his seat to others. [2] Below is a translation of the Chinese official media’s article on Hu Yaobang:

Hu Yaobang died 19 years ago, but his voice and expression, his great achievements, his character of a public servant, are still deeply etched in people’s memory. In people’s memory, his noble character, sterling integrity, and his charisma, are still widely praised by people.

Offering his position to others

Hu Yaobang once said: "I took part in the revolution in my teens. I never wanted to be any official." He talked the talk and walked the walk. One document stored in the File Room of the Central Committee of the Youth League may serve as evidence. It is a letter written by Hu Yaobang during the 8th National People’s Congress (NPC), as follows:

Comrade Chen Yun, and Xiaoping, (please forward to the Chairman and Comrades in the Secretariat of the Central Committee),

This morning, when I attended the meeting, and saw my name placed in the predetermined name list of the formal members of the Central Committee, a huge pain came from the bottom of my heart. Several times I wanted to stand up to raise this issue, but always felt embarrassed. When it was about to the end of the meeting, I gathered enough courage to stand up, but people said, "Do not talk about personal problems," so I had to sit down.
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I never expected that I would be nominated as a member of the Central Committee. I did not underestimate myself; I have weighed myself. I have calculated like this–if our Party is consisted of a core of more than 2,000 elected leaders, I can probably be put in. Later, it was decided to elect about one hundred leaders (I fully support this), yet if it has my name in, I would feel very disturbed. Then I took another look; it would not be good if no one in charge of youth affairs is selected. So I tried my best to suppress my feeling, I didn’t mention it nor did I discuss with other comrades. Because I was promoted too fast, yet I didn’t do well, I owe the Party my debt. I could try hard to compensate for it. From this point, I felt I should understand it from the overall situation.

Now my name was again listed there as one of the 97 formal Central Committee members. I could not understand it. This way I dare not face the majority members in the alternative member list, who during the past few years or longer time, have contributed to the Party several times more than I have. This is a huge pressure on me. No matter what, Chairman and Comrades of the Central Committee, please put my name in the alternative member list.

I was a little excited and my writing has failed to convey my thoughts.  Please pardon me.

Salutations.

Hu Yaobang
September 22, 1956

The CCP Central Committee paid a lot attention to Hu Yaobang’s letter, and asked Liu Lantao to talk to Hu Yaobang. Liu said to him, “The Central Committee leaders thought someone in charge of the Youth League should be a member of the Central Committee. Hu Yaobang’s experience met this requirement. Now that this is decided, he should not bring it up any more.”

On September 27, 1956, when the 8th National People’s Congress elected the Central Committee members, Hu Yaobang was elected. After the conference, Hu Yaobang, Wang Hetao and Zhang Liqun rode in one car and returned to his home. As they sat in the living room Hu Yaobang’s assistant and secretary congratulated him.  Hu looked serious and said, “There is nothing to congratulate about! It is not appropriate! There are so many provincial Party committee secretaries, ministers of the Central Committee, generals in the Army–they have more credits and experience than me, yet they are the alternative members of the Central Committee. I wrote a letter to Chairman Mao, pleading him not to arrange for me to be a member of the Central Committee. If I am needed for the work, I can be one of the alternative members. But my suggestion was not taken. I could not feel at ease.”
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Endnotes:
[1] From June 1981 to January 1987, Hu Yaobang filled the position of General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee. From June 1981 to September 1982, he was Chairman and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Hu Yaobang was considered a reformist in China; he was once Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang’s close political partner, and was expected to be the first successor selected by Deng Xiaoping. Once, after the 13th NPC, Deng Xiaoping considered letting Hu Yaobang take the offices of President of State and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The “Discussion of the Truth Standard” and “Promoting Cleaning up all Confusions and Rectifying Reversals of Right and Wrong¨ are considered to be Hu Yaobang’s two major achievements. According to CCP documents from 1987, the top CCP veterans believed that Hu Yaobang was responsible for the intellectuals’ “bourgeois liberalization tendency,” and requested for Hu to resign. Deng Xiaoping criticized Hu Yaobang and said Hu should be held responsible for the protests launched by the student movement in 1986. In 1987 Hu Yaobang was forced to resign.
[2] Xinhua, February 19, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/19/content_7628094.htm

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also known as Politburo of the CCP, is elected by the Plenary Session of CCP’s Central Committee. The members of the Politburo are known as Politburo commissioners. When the Central Committee is not in session, the Politburo and its Standing Committee exercise the power and authority of the Central Committee. On October 22, the 17th National Congress of the CCP elected Hu Jintao as the General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, and elected Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang, and Zhou Yongkang as the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. Besides these 9 Standing Committee members, the Politburo also has 16 other members, they are:

Wang Gang: Central Work Department head.
Wang Lequan: Party chief of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Wang Zhaoguo: Vice-Chairman of the National People’s Congress, Chair of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
Wang Qishan: Executive Chair of the Organizing Committee and Deputy General Secretary of the Beijing Olympics.
Hui Liangyu: Vice-Premier.
Liu Qi: Party chief of Beijing, head of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee.
Liu Yunshan: Central Publicity Minister, Secretary of the CCP Central Secretariat.
Liu Yandong (female): Vice-Chair of The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
Li Yuanchao: General Secretary of the Secretariat of The Central Committee of the CCP, CPC Organization Department head.
Wang Yang: Party chief of Guangdong.
Zhang Gaoli: Party chief of Tianjin.
Zhang Dejiang: no posts in the administration
Yu Zhengsheng: Party chief of Shanghai.
Xu Caihou: Vice-Chairman of Central Military Commission.
Guo Boxiong: Executive Vice-Chairman of Central Military Commission.
Bo Xilai: Party chief of Chongqing.

On September 17, 2007, Xinhua News published a report of the general overviews of the previous discussions of the Political Bureau. Below is the translation to this report. [1]
Original editorial note: Dai Guofang, a reader from Jiangsu Province, sent a letter and asked for descriptions of the Politburo’s discussions, led by President Hu. As of August 28, 2007, the Politburo had held 43 sessions of group discussions. This article gathered the following information for your reference.
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1st 26 Dec 02 The Constitution of China
2nd 28 Jan 03 The world economic situation and the developing economics of China
3rd 28 Mar 03 The development of the world employment situation and studies of the employment policy in China
4th 28 Apr 03 Apr 03 The development of modern technology in the world, in China, as well as using modern technology for prevention and cure of SARS
5th 23 May 03 The development of the changes in the situation of the new world military and powers
6th 21 Jul 03 A rreview of the changes over time of the Party ideology and theories
7th 12 Aug 03 The development of world culture and China’s culture development strategy
8th 29 Sep 03 Insisting on governing the nation according to law, and building the Socialist political civilization
9th 24 Nov 03 Historical reviews of major countries’ developments since the 15th century
10th 23 Feb 04 Patterns in the world and China’s safety circumstances
11th 29 Mar 04 Today’s world agricultural development situation and the agricultural development of China
12th 26 Apr 04 The development of legislative affairs and the perfecting Socialism marketing economics system
13th 28 May 04 Flourishing and developing China’s science of philosophy and social science
14th 29 Jun 04 Strengthening the Party’s ability to govern China
15th 24 Jul 04 Insisting on the guideline of developing self-defense and economics simultaneously and harmoniously
16th 10.21 Oct 04 Several historic issues on ethical relationships
17th 12.1 Dec 04 Reviewing the path of exploring Chinese Socialism
18th 12.27 Dec 04 China’s strategy for development facing 2020
19th 1.24 Jan 05 Discussions on keeping Party members advanced in the new period
20th 2.21 Feb 05 Working hard on constructing a harmonious Socialist society
21st 5.31 May 05 Several issues on the strategies of development of China’s economics
22nd 5.31 May 05 Economics globalization and the new characteristics of today’s international trade
23rd 6.27 Jun 05 The international situation on energy and resources and China’s strategy
24th 8.26 Aug 05 Looking back on the wars of anti-Fascism and thoughts
25th 9.29 Sep 05 The developing models of overseas cities and the paths of constructing cities with China’s characteristics
26th 11.25 Nov 05 Studies of Marxism in the world as well as studies done by China and the project of constructing it in China
27th 12.20 Dec 05 Reformation on the systems of administration and management and perfecting the systems of economics and law
28th 25 Jan 06 About constructing the new Socialism in rural areas
29th 21 Feb 06 The changing pattern of the international industrial structure and choosing China’s strategies to accelerate our economic grow
{mospagebreak} 30th 27 Mar 06 The policies of construction safety of other countries and strengthening China’s policy on construction safety
31st 26 May 06 The copyright protection policy of other countries and the construction of China’s copyright protection policy
32nd 29 Jun 06 Insisting on governing the nation scientifically, democratically, and based on the law.
33rd 25 Jul 06 Looking back on the triumph of the Long March of the Red Army and thoughts
34th 29 Aug 06 The world’s trend on the development of education and the deepening of China’s reforms on education
35th 23 Oct 06 Other countries health and medical care systems and China’s developments of them
36th 30 Nov 06 Studies of the construction of China’s Socialist democracy of the common people
37th 25 Dec 06 About building an energy-saving society in China
38th 23 Jan 07 The technical development of the Internet in the world and construction and management of China’s Internet culture
39th 15 Feb 07 Regional development in other countries and promoting the harmony of China’s regional development
40th 23 Mar 07 Several issues on establishing and carrying out the Property Law
41st 23 Apr 07 Studies of China’s agriculture standardization and food safety
42nd 26 Jul 07 Nanchang Revolution and the establishment of the revolutionary base area in Jinggangshan Mountain
43rd 28 Aug 07 The world situation on finance and China’s reformation of the financial system

Endnotes:
[1] Xinhua, September 17, 2007
http://news.xinhuanet.com/banyt/2007-09/17/content_6740932.htm

Xinmin Evening News reported that recruiting for Olympic usher girls from ten colleges in Shanghai began on February 13, 2008. Shanghai followed Beijing in beginning this process. It was reported that 40 college girls would be chosen to represent “Shanghai Image, China Etiquette.”  They will participate in the medal ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics and the Handicapped Olympics. [1]
College girls will be selected from Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Theatre Academy and seven other colleges. Not only do they have to satisfy the age requirements of between 18 to 24 years old but also their heights must range from 1.68m to 1.78m.  Meanwhile, the criteria of these girls’ weights, face shapes, skin colors, manners and intelligence are also strictly laid out. The judges will divide the registered girls into groups and hold preliminary, semi-final and final contests. The total processing time is one month.

Olympics Usher Girls’ Appearance Criteria:

1. Facial Appearance Criteria:

Three distances, the distance from the hairline on forehead to the upper start point of the nose bridge, the length of the nose and the distance from the tip of the nose to the lowest chin point, should be equal.

The lengths of the eyes, the distance between the two tear ducts and the width of the nose should be equal.

When the distance from the lower nose ending point to the lowest chin point is divided into three equal parts, the first divided line should be between two lips, and the second divided line should be the lower line of the lower lip.

The start points of the eye brows should be right above the tear duct; the ending point of the eye brow, the outside corner of the eye and the widest point of the nose should be on the same line.

2. Five Sense Organs’ Criteria

The heights of the eyes should be three tenths of the face length;

The distance between eye brow and eye should be one tenth of the face length;

The nose width should be one tenth of the face width;

The mouth width should be equal to the distance between the pupils;
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The chin length should be one sixth of the face length.

3. Body and Four Limbs’ Criteria

The skeleton of the whole body should be symmetrical and proper;

The muscles should be elastic, showing health and the body’s beauty.

The body shape should be plump but not fat and clumsy.

The skin should be reddish and shining.

The four limbs should be long; the overall body should not be heavy-headed.

The thighs should show nice curves and the calf muscles should be high and a little bit popped out.

The two shoulders should be symmetrical, round and smooth, but should not drop down or pop up.

The overall body should not be clumsy, or have loose fat or be too skinny or unbalanced. Looking from the back, the spine should be straight, showing a beautiful body line.

Endnotes:
[1] Xinmin Evening News, February 13, 2008
http://sh.xmnext.com/shizheng/2008/02/13/1050157.html

It is not news that the Chinese regime routinely censors the Internet, though it remains opaque to many who want to learn how the government applies information management in an era with new technologies. The following anonymous story appeared at an overseas discussion board www.space.live.com, which is hosted by Microsoft, and tells a personal story of a Chinese Internet policeman. Although not published at a credible media (it is highly risky for a Chinese Internet policeman to tell his work to any journalist), we believe the accounts conform to the visible pattern of the Chinese regime’s control of the Internet. Thus, it is the reader’s decision whether to take it as a fiction or a report. [1]
Flickr was unfortunately blocked. I felt uneasy momentarily and thus wrote this following article. I hope that my personal space will not be blocked because of this article.

I am a policeman. However, my job is not to enforce the law in real life, but rather to find problems and solutions in a virtual world. Some people curse us, some hate us, and some constantly look for ways to go against us. But who really understands our difficulties and reluctances?

I have always loved computers and the Internet since I was a child. Nine years ago, with my good grades and test scores, I got into the computer science department of a famous university. There, I got to know more and more about the Internet. During my junior year, I found some of my classmates were using a program called “eDonkey.” They were using it to download some weird files. Finally, I figured out that they were “porn.” I was a pure and innocent young man back then and I could not bear those things that contaminate people’s minds. Since then, I was determined to study Internet techniques so that I could get rid of these unbearable things. The four years in college soon passed. With my university diploma, CISCO Internet engineering diploma, and Microsoft MVP diploma, etc., I walked into the door of the recruiting office of the city police department to apply for the Internet supervisor position.

Relying on my good communication and excellent technical skills, I was approved by the admission officials among more than ten applicants. After a series of training sessions, I quickly became an Internet police officer. My first job was to manage the ISP security log system of the city. My responsibility was to detect and stop Internet hackers. In the beginning, there were not many serious combat episodes. However, as SQL was having a vulnerability issue and more and more Windows vulnerabilities were exposed, it was no longer difficult to hack into systems even for rookies. Thus, we were getting busier and busier. More and more young people carelessly tried to hack into the websites of the government and big companies—which are the sites we watch most carefully—and they all paid for their actions due to our efforts. Since I was doing so well, I was well-recognized by the upper officials within a year, and I was promoted up to the provincial Internet supervision group. When Japan’s prime minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine, many indignant young “hackers” attacked Japanese websites and websites of Japanese companies located in China. I was not against this so-called nationalist fever. However, we then received an order to destroy these “people who destruct orderly Internet.” Once we got the order, we took vigorous efforts and obtained lots of evidence. We discovered many organized hacker groups. Cooperating with the local police, we captured all of them. I received the second-level award and was again promoted to the national Internet supervision bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.
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I had a totally different kind of work there. I was no longer doing things such as anti-hacker work. Instead, I was responsible for the biggest and most tedious work in the Internet supervision group. To the outside world, it was said that we “supervise international websites.” However, to the internal branches or our upper officials, we were responsible for the management and maintenance of the “Golden Shield Project”—a project of the Ministry of Public Security and State Security that the government had adopted from another country with a huge expense. Actually, I knew about it even before I went to college. Back then, the two most famous personal space providers, “Geocities” and “Tripod,” were the first two victims of this filter system. However, this system got really powerful when this “Golden Shield Project” was started. Our everyday work in the supervision group of the Ministry of Public Security was through our special Internet connection (we are on the “white list”) to collect information about overseas websites, then analyze them, and figure out which ones should be blocked. Our blocking system was on top of the national and several provincial’s ISP ports. It mainly includes two parts: data package port analysis and data package content analysis. We take turns to be on-call 24 hours a day and analyze countless numbers of websites and look for our targets. The most prioritized ones are obviously the anti-government organizations, such as Taiwan’s news and political groups, Democracy Movement groups, and Falun Gong organizations, and the three groups that try to get independency. For the websites of these groups, we not only have to constantly update their main servers’ names and IPs and put them into the blacklist, but more importantly, we have to constantly update the keywords of their websites and put them into the keyword blacklist. Our targets were determined by many factors. Some internal references were passed to us from the upper and lower branches, and others were based on our investigation results. For example, before Chairman Hu Jintao visited United States, we received the order of temporarily opening up access to part of the U.S. news websites. In the past years, there have been some disharmonious incidents in the local area. The local governments often block the information on the regional level and also turn in these internal references to the upper government branches including the security, political, and judicial branches. Also, some anti-government people often get arrested. Usually, the upper branch would tell us to put the keywords of this news into the blacklist. Many times the range of these keywords is extremely wide and thus would implicate some unrelated people. This includes people who are against false science—Fang Shimin and Si Manan and such, whom I really admire. As long as these websites have services that are used by the anti-government people, they will be immediately blocked. But we do not have a choice, because without an order from the upper branch, we have no power in deleting keywords from the blacklist. Every year the number of the overseas websites and servers that are on the blacklist increases. For example, only because it has something that we do not wish to see, Wikipedia—an ingenious invention of the Internet era—has all its servers on the blacklist, which are thus blocked. The Chinese Wikipedia’s domain names and some contents are also on the keywords blacklist. In the recent period, since the Internet is getting more and more complicated, our work is thus getting more and more intense. Many times we would also make small mistakes and would mistakenly block some websites that have not reached the danger-level standards set by the upper branches. Also many times, because a server of ours or the blocked ones have been upgraded, the data may not get updated quickly enough. So some websites that have been blocked for a long time would be temporarily unblocked. For instance, it happened to Wikipedia in the second half of last year. Recently it has been a very sensitive period and even our upper officials began to get nervous. They ordered us to adopt the policy that when in doubt, rather than missing one website and let it get away, we would prefer to block 1000 websites that are not supposed be blocked. Therefore, many overseas personal space services, online photo services that have long been famous, became useless inside China.
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There are many people who resent us, and it is not only limited to those who are anti-government. They sarcastically call our system the “Great Firewall,” or call us “Golden Shield”—the name of this security information project. They have all kinds of ways to get around our filter system and look at the things “outside the window.” These programs include “Freegate,” “Ultrareach,” “Garden,” and “Fire Phoenix.” Of course, there are also neutral and purely technical software for anonymously encrypting Internet systems, such as “Onion Routing Tor” and those overseas websites that provide anonymous browsing. In order to deal with these things, we have thought of many ideas. “Freegate” and “Ultrareach” are widely used encrypting systems. Their old versions of index servers have already been put into the blacklist. However, we have not found a good solution. For Tor, we have also studied it a lot since it is an open source program. We have tried to set the “TorNode” in China that is controlled by us, in order to supervise the Tor users, but we were never able to find the characteristics of the data packages that Tor sends, nor could we decrypt Tor’s Internet transmission data. If the TorNode we set is the final node and can pass around our system, then the Node will be exposed; if our final Node is within the domain supervised by our system, then we will not be able to obtain any interesting information we need, because the node has been filtered by our system. We are still doing research very intensively, but I think as for our current software and hardware, we cannot promise on always dealing with the encrypted information successfully. As for Internet transmission encrypted by HTTPS protocol, although filtering is virtually impossible (even for the Internet supervision branches of the CIA and FBI in the United States, which have countless supercomputers, it is very hard to achieve 100 percent success). However, through filtering the keywords in the HTML certifications, we can easily and effectively stop the links.

I am risking being charged with betraying confidential matters and sent this article out through encryption with Tor. It was just to let it off my mind a little bit. I also hope that those people will get to know that we are not the chief plotters. We only carry out actions. Actually many people who oppose us have already figured out the things I wrote, so they are not really secrets anymore. As for another point, my dream of many years—stopping Internet porn—we still cannot achieve at this point. “eDonkey” has become “eMule” and it is even harder to deal with.

Endnotes:
[1] http://yksoft1.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!66B9967EC9D22DD4!251.entry