The storm that ravaged Beijing nearly a week ago and killed at least 77 people remains a sensitive topic in China, with a newspaper ordered to cut its coverage and online discussions curtailed.
Directed by propaganda officials, mainstream media have been focusing on the positive aspects of the storm, such as rescue efforts, heroic civilian acts and sacrifices by uniformed officials. However, those who want to raise questions on the city’s handling of the disaster and its drainage system have come under pressure.
Southern Weekly — an influential newspaper known for its edgy reporting — canceled four pages of storm coverage this week. In addition, the newspaper itself, together with Beijing’s former and acting mayors, and the deaths in Fangshan — the hardest-hit district in Beijing — were all blocked on China’s most popular microblogging site, Sina Weibo, on Friday.
Photo: Reuters
The censorship comes during a personnel reshuffling in the city government of the capital as China braces for the once-in-a-decade power handover to the next generation of leaders. The transfer will take place when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds its congress later this year, with banners around the city already calling for the creation of a stable environment for the event.
Chinese officials have kept information tight, mindful that any failure to cope with the flooding could reflect badly on the country’s leadership. The Chinese government has justified its one-party rule in part by delivering economic growth and maintaining stability and acting quickly to manage disasters like the flooding last year on June 21.
Chinese officials usually limit coverage of disasters, but one media analyst said authorities may have expanded that for the floods because the questions about death tolls are happening against the backdrop of an ill-timed power shift in the city, with both Beijing’s mayor and vice mayor resigning on Wednesday.
The city’s outgoing mayor, Guo Jinlong (郭金龍), who was promoted to the city’s most senior post of CCP secretary, is expected to join the central government’s top 25-member politburo at the party’s fall congress.
“It’s kind of a perfect storm in terms of press control,” said David Bandurski, a researcher at Hong Kong-based China Media Project, about the timing of the disaster so close to the party congress.
A journalist close to the Southern Weekly told foreign media that the newspaper killed four pages of storm coverage this week after provincial propaganda officials and corporate management intervened. He requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The unpublished articles include an obituary page for 25 storm victims, an analysis of the flooding on a Beijing highway where at least three people drowned and a story on Beijing’s drainage system, the journalist said.
A photo of the proof of the obituary page circulated online, showing big crosses in red ink over the stories of the dead. Chinese online users noted the page might have offended the authority because it identified the victims when the government had not done so. Southern Weekly hits the newsstand on Thursdays.
The news that Southern Weekly was forced to cancel some of its storm coverage caused such a big reaction online that the newspaper itself became an unsearchable phrase late on Friday on China’s three most popular microblogging sites: Sina Weibo, Sohu Weibo and Tencent Weibo.
In another sign of stringent control, the journalist said the newspaper group that publishes the paper on Friday issued new rules banning its journalists from speaking to the foreign media.
On the same day, “Guo,” acting mayor “Wang Anshun (王安順)” and “Fangshan death” were also banned search terms on Sina Weibo.
Chinese Internet companies employ censors to scrub their sites clean of posts that may offend the authorities. They also make certain topics unsearchable to stifle online exchange of information.
Chinese authorities on Thursday raised Beijing storm’s death toll to 77 after the public questioned the days-old tally of 37, with some residents even compiling their own totals in a reflection of deep mistrust of the government’s handling of the disaster.
In a rare expression of humility, Beijing’s flood and drought prevention headquarters offered condolences to the families of the victims and pledged that it would “conscientiously sum up and reflect and learn lessons from” the flood and improve the city’s resilience against disasters, the city government said.
Xinhua News Agency said Guo and Wang mourned the victims of the July 21 downpour when they went to Fangshan on Friday to inspect relief work.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of