Government/Politics - 73. page

The official website of the National Commission for Discipline Inspection issued an announcement on April 19, saying that Sun Lijun, a member of the party committee and deputy minister of the National Security Office, was “suspected of serious violation of discipline and law” and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the National Commission for Discipline Inspection. Sun has held the position since 2013. The National Security Office is under the ministry of Public Security. Since 1999, it has quickly expanded and consists of large number of secrete policy who are responsible for crackdown on rights activists movements, dissidents and religious members. In February this year, Sun was sent to Wuhan to “supervise” local public security work.

According to public information, Sun Lijun is 51 years old and was born in Qingdao, Shandong. He studied public health and urban management at the State University of New South Wales, Australia. During his tenure as the deputy minister of National Security Office, Sun Lijun also served as the deputy director of the notorious “610 Office”, the extra-legal police task force responsible for carrying out the mission of eliminating Falun Gong. Sun Lijun was reported to have worked as the deputy director of the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security in the past and was the secretary for Meng Jianzhu who was the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee.

According to NTDTV, as COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan and spread rapidly around the world, Western countries have strongly criticized Chinese authorities for covering up the truth of the epidemic at the beginning of the virus outbreak, the timing to probe the deputy minister of Public Security who holds master’s degree in public health is puzzling.

Source: NTDTV (New Tang Dynasty Television), April 19, 2020
https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/04/19/a102826758.html

On Wednesday April 8, the day that Wuhan was lifted from the lockdown, the English and German versions of Wuhan Diary, written by Fang Fang, went on pre-sale online. Fang Fang, a writer who lives in Wuhan, started to publish her diary on Weibo at the end of January documenting people’s lives in Wuhan during the 62-days of lockdown. Her work, however was criticized and attacked on the mainland for “spreading negative energy.” As the publication of the diary in the overseas market got closer, there were mounting condemnations from the left wing in China. One person claimed that publishing the diary around the world was just like “a butcher’s knife from the West (aiming towards China).” Another person complained that the overseas Chinese are likely to become targets of the venting. The Chief Editor of China’s mouthpiece Global Times wrote in his Weibo account that the diary is not a documentary work … It will catch the attention of the international media. Very likely, Chinese people including those who supported Fang Fang in the past, will pay for the fame that Fang Fang is gaining in the West. On the same day, Fang Fang also wrote in her Weibo account saying that this time she has truly experienced what Internet violence is like and said that those who attacked her were just ;oke the “COVID 19 virus” that spreads and strikes other people. A writer from Guangdong province told RFA that, even though Fang Fang’s diary only touches on superficial issues and the fact that this type of “progressive voice” is being severely suppressed suggests that there is no freedom of expression on the mainland.

Fang Fang, 54, whose real name is Wang Fang, graduated from the Department of Chinese Language of Wuhan University and served as the Chairman of the Hubei Writers Association from 2007 to 2018.

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 9, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/hc-04092020100438.html

Based on internal documents Epoch Times obtained from Fangzheng County, Heilongjiang Province, it reported that the local Political and Legal Affairs Commissions of the CCP are actively involved in Internet censorship.

These documents show that, in 2019, the CCP Political and Legal Affairs Commission at Fangzheng County formally established a cyber force for Internet censorship which is composed of a “professional team” and a “local team.” The the County Public Security Bureau leads the professional team and is composed of relevant staff from the County Public Security Bureaus Office of Procuratorates, County Courts, and the County Judicial Bureau, all under the CCP Political and Legal Commission of Fangzheng County. The “local team” is composed of relevant staff from the townships.

The cyber force receives regular training based on the online hot topics, to ensure they master the language of Internet users and the CCP’s official language. On major online topics, the cyber force engages in “positive propaganda and guides public opinion” on WeChat, Weibo, news posts, and forums. For controversial topics, the members of the cyber force collaboratively repost CCP official messages onto their respective blogs, forums, and community platforms, in order to further spread the CCP propaganda on the controversy.

According to the internal documents, the County’s CCP Political and Legal Commission will incentivize members of the cyber force with “rewards or encouragement of both a material and political nature.”

Source: Epoch Times, April 9, 2020

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/4/7/n12010892.htm

In China, “404” means April 4, which is Ching Ming Festival or Memorial Day when people pay reverence of one’s ancestors in Chinese culture. Meanwhile it also means a webpage is deleted and “not found.” It often happens when words or content that are not liked by the authorities are deleted as soon as they are posted online. On April 4, while leaders in Beijing gathered together to mourn the death of the 2019 coronavirus disease, Chinese netizens were also commemorating the “404” on the internet. In addition to mourning the dead, they posted articles and comments criticizing the authorities’ act of covering up the truth and blocking comments on the internet. There were many commemorations and criticisms of the government appeared on the Internet while the authorities were busy deleting such postings at the same time.

On Sina Weibo, Chinese netizens expressed their helplessness and anger in a joking tone. Some people said: “It felt like a large-scale 404 site, and none of the postings I saw last night are still there.” “LOL(Laugh out loud)… complaining about 404 will indeed bring us 404.” Others have criticized: “If there was no 404, the flag wouldn’t be half way on April 4, nor will there be lock down and isolations, humanitarian tragedies, and economic crises all over the world.”

There are only a few articles left on the internet that are too late to be deleted or re-posted. Some people refused to follow the Chinese Communist Party officials to pay silence on this day because “I don’t like to have a special permission or to be arranged to show sadness. I think most people won’t Like it. ”
Another article stated that “On this day, please forgive me for not to participate. I don’t think this is a suitable time for the public ceremony. The epidemic is not over yet. There is still the possibility of more death from the epidemic. This feels like a unilateral announcement of a ceasefire when we don’t even know who is winning. This posting has been deleted since.

Source: Central News Agency, April 4, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202004040101.aspx

Deutsche Welle Chinese Edition recently published a commentary on China’s propaganda about how well autocracy performed in a crisis compared to democracy. The commentary started with China’s media describing Xi Jinping showing up in Wuhan as a heroic scene. Unfortunately, this was immediately followed by mountains of work to shut off massive online criticism. The Chinese communists have been trying to sell the world fairy tales. One of them was that the government never made any mistakes in the battle against the coronavirus. Yet the Chinese leadership was initially caught by surprise and their first response was clearly a cover up all the way through December. Later in January the biggest news was that the whistle-blower Chinese doctor was detained and died thereafter. Now the Chinese leadership is working tirelessly on another fairy tale, which is to broadcast to the world that the coronavirus was not sourced in China. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson went even further, by accusing the U.S. Military of bringing the virus to China. People mostly laughed at this idea, but the effort of China offloading responsibilities sounded a serious alarm. The biggest fairy tale so far is claiming the autocratic system is more “successful” than democratic systems. This is a big lie. All one has to do is to look at Taiwan, where highly efficient and swift responses effectively controlled the spread of the virus in the island. This is especially remarkable when Taiwan achieved this with zero help from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Source: DW Chinese, March 15, 2020
https://bit.ly/2Qx89Nu