SUN WUKONG In China, reporters without orders
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - As evidence that the Summer Olympic Games s pushed China to become
a more open society, Beijing has announced an indefinite extension of the
greater freedoms granted for foreign journalists' during the Games. The press
freedom does not include China's restive Tibet Autonomous Region.
The move suggests that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become more
self-confident, and may no longer be afraid of "picky" news reports and "harsh"
criticisms from the Western media.
China announced there would be no time limit to the extension of "The
Regulation on News Coverage by Foreign Journalists During
Beijing Olympic Games and Its Preparatory Period". The mandate was first
introduced on January 1, 2007, as part of China's Olympic media freedom
commitments, but was due to expire on October 17.
After the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, Beijing imposed tighter control
on news coverage by foreign journalists in China. Foreign reporters had to
apply for permission on a case-by-case basis to travel and conduct interviews
outside Beijing and Shanghai. This requirement had been a major hurdle for
foreign reporters.
The Olympics' press freedom directive lifted all such bans. Under the new
regulation, foreign journalists outside Tibet can interview organizations or
individuals across the country provided they attain prior consent.
Wang Chen, the director of the State Council's Information Office (SCIO), said
the extension reflected determination to carry forward opening-up policies.
When the new regulation was introduced two years ago, reform-minded officials
hoped it would be extended after the Olympics. For example, Cai Yong, the
former director of the SCIO, who helped draft the new rules, said, "Many years
have passed since 1990, during which big changes have taken place in China as
well as in the world. It is thus in accordance with the trend of the times to
make revisions to the 1990 rules ... If the provision regulation [for the
Beijing Olympics] proves good in practice in next more than one year ... I
think it is unnecessary to make changes in a good policy."
Analysts in China say the new rules have greatly strengthened CCP leaders'
self-confidence.
In early March, coverage of pro-independence Tibetan protests in Lhasa and
demonstrations which dogged the Olympic flame relay in several countries
angered Beijing. Some leaders blasted what they considered biased reports by
some Western media.
The Tibet issue struck the very core of Chinese nationalism. As such, many
Chinese bloggers slammed the Western press for "distorted" and "biased"
reports. Many were from the "one-child" generation born after 1980 who had
grown up eating McDonald’s and KFC, wearing Western clothes and watching
Hollywood films.
"For Beijing, this proves a failure of the West's attempt to 'peacefully
evolve' Chinese youths. Chinese authorities feel happy to see that the younger
generation can tell between right and wrong. Under such a circumstance, they
feel opening up the country to foreign media won't do much harm to the nation,"
a sociology researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said.
As Wang Chen put it, "The [Chinese] government welcomes the foreign media and
reporters. We hope more reports on the country are published and broadcast to
the world. We will spare no effort to provide help and service to them."
When China's Sichuan province was hit by an eight-magnitude earthquake on May
12, prompt reports by domestic and foreign media were of great help to the
government's relief efforts. Foreign coverage in particular helped bring in
international aid. Subsequently, reports of Chinese leaders' activities in the
disaster areas boosted the public image of President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen
Jiabao and others.
This may have been a crucial turning point. Chinese leaders quickly realized
that not all foreign reports about China are negative. "If society becomes more
open, their reports could be objective and balanced," said Zhan Jiang, a
professor in media and communication with the China Youth University for
Political Sciences.
China's leaders have also gained confidence by the financial crisis which has
befallen the United States. China is one the countries least affected by the
international meltdown, largely due to its semi-closed and less-advanced
financial system.
China has for 30 years sought to adapt to international economic standards,
which are largely set by the West. Its ambition has been to catch up with major
capitalist economies, specifically the US.
But while China is moving closer to a free-market economy, the US now has been
forced to to take "socialist" measures to save its collapsing financial
markets. For some Chinese economists, Washington's moves have been an
eye-opener: even in a market economy, the government cannot always keep its
hands off.
According to Marxism, an economy is the foundation of a society and the
political system is a superstructure built on this foundation. A change in the
foundation will eventually lead to a change in the superstructure. Because of
this, many in China and overseas have felt that the fundamental changes in
China's economy will force political reform. Changing the socialist command
economy to a capitalist-style market economy will lead to democratization in
the country, the thinking goes, because democracy has proved suitable to a
market economy.
"But while China is moving toward capitalism, the US, leader of the capitalist
world, seems to be going [towards[ socialism. This suggests the free economic
system in the US has problems. Thus China may have to review its aim of
economic reforms. And under such circumstance, the voice opposing the
introduction of Western-style democracy and values naturally grows louder,
boosting Beijing's confidence in its own system," the CASS researcher said.
In early September, Steven N S Cheung, a renowned Hong Kong-born
Chinese-American economist living in exile in China due to alleged tax evasion
in the US, has claimed that China "has formed the best system in the history of
human kind".
In sum, Chinese authorities have become much less afraid of possible advocacy
for Western-style democratization by foreign journalists. This newfound
confidence may be one reason to give reporters greater freedom, analysts say.
The greater freedom for news coverage, however, is not extended to domestic
reporters - a fact deplored by rights groups such as Human Rights in China, a
New-York based activist group.
And there are hurdles ahead for the implementation of the new regulation,
namely local authorities who may not cooperate. As Cai Wu said, some local
officials won't be interviewed because they are afraid of losing their posts
for saying something wrong.
Despite such problems, the extension of press freedom for foreign journalists
must be welcomed as progress. Many Chinese now have access to foreign reports
which the domestic press keeps silent or reports differently. The result has
been balanced knowledge about current events.
Given Beijing's gradualist approach to reform in the economy, society and
politics, other freedoms may follow. In China, however, these things take time.
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