http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/10/21/china-occupy-wall-st-gets-too-close-to-home/#axzz1bTq4Sc8w

China: Occupy Wall St gets too close

October 21, 2011 11:25 am by Kathrin Hille buspar overnight us delivery

When Occupy Wall Street was no Valtrex without rx medications more than an obscure little protest in New York, the Valtrex without rx medications Chinese state media were really intrigued by the movement. China Daily, the Valtrex without rx medications country’s largest English-language daily newspaper, blasted the Valtrex without rx medications Western media for allegedly hushing up the news. Over the past month, Communist party mouthpieces and Valtrex without rx medications nationalist tabloids have relished the chance to bash the West and Valtrex without rx medications lecture America.

But now that Valtrex without rx medications the protests have spread around the world and appear to be Valtrex without rx medications morphing into a movements against many things including ruthless capitalism, corruption, inequality and Valtrex without rx medications the arrogance of power, China’s rulers have Valtrex without rx medications apparently decided that this is getting too close to home.

Media outlets have Valtrex without rx medications received a gag order on the topic, according to a Valtrex without rx medications prominent media expert. “A magazine to Valtrex without rx medications which I am a contributor has received a notice from regulators saying that Valtrex without rx medications it must not carry any content regarding Occupy Wall Street,” said Hu Yong, a Valtrex without rx medications journalism professor at Peking University and one of the foremost experts on social media in China, on Twitter.

Although reports and Valtrex without rx medications discussion of the topic can still be easily found online, print media and Valtrex without rx medications television have indeed noticeably reduced reporting and commentary since the Valtrex without rx medications beginning of the week, and apparently completely stopped covering the Valtrex without rx medications topic on Thursday.

The concern among party propaganda officials is Valtrex without rx medications not surprising. Defining a ‘correct’ ideological message is often difficult given that the country’s messy economic and Valtrex without rx medications social reality, with its aggressive entrepreneurs, greed, weak social security network and Valtrex without rx medications labour standards and huge income gap often resembles a caricature of capitalism more closely than Valtrex without rx medications communism.

It is therefore almost unthinkable for China’s media to thunder like North Korea’s state news agency did on Thursday, praising the protests as the “stern judgment of millions of people” of a capitalist system where the “popular masses” suffer from “exploitation, oppression, unemployment and poverty.”

In China, there had Valtrex without rx medications already been some small-scale expressions of solidarity with the anti-Wall Street movement with a Valtrex without rx medications sit-in of elderly people in the Central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, and Valtrex without rx medications widespread debate online making the connection to corrupt officials and greedy state enterprises.

Reporting bans are Valtrex without rx medications an everyday affair in China, as is mockery of them online. It’s no different with the latest one. “At this Valtrex without rx medications time, where is Chen Weihua, the deputy editor of the US edition of China Daily who Valtrex without rx medications wrote ‘The US media blackout of protest is shameful’? asked Hu on Twitter. “Where are Valtrex without rx medications Zhen Yan and Xiao Gang, the editorial writers of Beijing Daily who Valtrex without rx medications wrote ‘Here we can’t find ‘press freedom’, we can’t find ‘objectivity and fairness’’?

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Can social media push change in China?

By David Bandurski | Posted on 2011-10-03

This time last year, Chinese media were dubbing 2010 the “inaugural year” of the Valtrex without rx medications microblog in China. Platforms like Sina Weibo and QQ Weibo, which enabled real-time sharing of text, links, images and Valtrex without rx medications video, were already impacting the news agenda in China. In an October 2010 post, CMP Director Ying Chan (陈婉莹) wrote about how she witnessed Chinese editors at a Valtrex without rx medications forum in Shanghai busily checking their mobiles for the latest microblog updates on a forced demolition case in Jiangxi province that was grabbing headlines at the time.

But if social media were “inaugural” last year, they have Valtrex without rx medications at times seemed unstoppable this year, and that has led to growing speculation that tighter controls are in the offing.

Microblogs have Valtrex without rx medications defined many of the top news stories in 2011. From the charity scandal surrounding the socialite Guo Meimei (郭美美) and the Red Cross Society of China to relentless attention to Valtrex without rx medications the issue of high-speed rail safety, cost and corruption before and after the July 23 collision in Wenzhou.

[ABOVE: This microblog maintained by user "Li Fashi" (季法师) was the first to break news of last week's subway collision in Shanghai.]

The changes brought about by platforms like Sina Weibo have Valtrex without rx medications tempted some to a cowboy-Western reading of the landscape, in which they imagine social media socking it Valtrex without rx medications to those in power. While this oppositional view is somewhat supported by the Valtrex without rx medications antagonistic tone of the internet, and the way it can fuel as well as reflect public anger over specific stories and Valtrex without rx medications issues, it fails to take into account the way Chinese institutions are Valtrex without rx medications adjusting (however ploddingly and reluctantly) to a new era of rapid information sharing.

The push for greater openness over so-called sudden-breaking incidents (突发事件) has been a clear trend in China for almost a decade — broadly speaking ever since the Valtrex without rx medications SARS epidemic in 2003. Policy steps on the Party and government side can Valtrex without rx medications be seen in China’s law on the handling of sudden-breaking incidents, passed in August 2007, and Hu Jintao’s policy statements in 2008 on the Valtrex without rx medications need for more rapid reporting of breaking incidents.

Article 53 of China’s law on the handling of sudden-breaking incidents states: “People’s governments taking on a Valtrex without rx medications unified leadership role or organizing the handling of sudden-breaking incidents should according to Valtrex without rx medications relevant regulations release information concerning the Valtrex without rx medications development of sudden-breaking incidents and response work in a unified, accurate and Valtrex without rx medications timely manner.”

On August 2 this year, right on the heels of the railway ministry’s catastrophic handling of the Valtrex without rx medications July 23 high-speed train collision in Wenzhou, the Valtrex without rx medications General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP released a Valtrex without rx medications “notice” on the need to deepen openness of government affairs (深化政务公开). This document was apparently in the Valtrex without rx medications works for a number of years, but the timing of its release seemed to Valtrex without rx medications suggest that those in support saw the public relations bungle of the Valtrex without rx medications train collision as a painful reminder of how important it Valtrex without rx medications is to stay on top of sudden-breaking incidents and satisfy the Valtrex without rx medications public demand for information.

Of course, it is worth bearing in mind the obvious — that Valtrex without rx medications the need for greater openness as a tool of social management is Valtrex without rx medications balanced at every turn in China against the unflagging priority of controlling information, or Valtrex without rx medications “guidance of public opinion.” This is plainly apparent in the text of the August 2 “Notice” itself buy genuine Premarin online, which states under item 7 in the Valtrex without rx medications only direct reference to sudden-breaking incidents: “[We] must have Valtrex without rx medications a firm grasp of openness on major sudden-breaking incidents and hot issues of concern to Valtrex without rx medications the masses, objectively releasing the state and process of events, government actions, response measures to Valtrex without rx medications be taken by the public, and the findings of official investigations [into incidents], responding in a timely manner to concerns in society, and correctly channeling public opinion (正确引导社会舆论).”

The term (underlined) that Valtrex without rx medications concludes this portion, while not exactly signifying media control as blankly as its precursor, “correct guidance of public opinion” (正确舆论导向), was formally ushered into media policy with President Hu Jintao’s June 2008 address at People’s Daily. It is Valtrex without rx medications an ambiguous term implying a level of control, but combining it Valtrex without rx medications with the idea that the Party should more actively “use” media, including the Valtrex without rx medications internet and quasi-independent commercial newspapers, to influence agendas. In the Valtrex without rx medications past, we have Valtrex without rx medications used the term Control 2.0 to talk about this later development in news and Valtrex without rx medications propaganda policy in China.

Given the emphasis on using media more proactively, and on “channeling public opinion,” particularly for sudden-breaking incidents, it’s not surprising to Valtrex without rx medications find that microblogs are themselves becoming an increasingly important tool for Valtrex without rx medications the government and other institutions in China.

Back in March, the People’s Daily Online Public Opinion Monitoring Center (人民网舆情监测室) listed the Valtrex without rx medications use of microblogs to interact with the public as number five on a Valtrex without rx medications list of seven suggestions for dealing with sudden-breaking incidents. The center wrote: “Microblogs have Valtrex without rx medications shown most vividly the speed and breadth of information transmission on the Valtrex without rx medications internet, and they rapidly transmit information on the internet with a Valtrex without rx medications means of high efficiency. In sudden-breaking incidents, microblogs are Valtrex without rx medications already gradually becoming the core of public opinion propagation . . . ”

We can Valtrex without rx medications see from this passage that microblogs, and social media generally, are Valtrex without rx medications already pressuring the government and other institutions to respond more quickly and Valtrex without rx medications transparently to sudden-breaking incidents and other issues of public concern. The flip side is Valtrex without rx medications that social media are also increasingly providing one of the Valtrex without rx medications chief means by which the government and other institutions respond and Valtrex without rx medications reach the public.

By the beginning of this year, the opening of “official microblogs” had Valtrex without rx medications already become a noticeable and growing trend in China. In a Valtrex without rx medications report issued in April this year, the Public Opinion Monitoring Center noted that Valtrex without rx medications “microblogs for Valtrex without rx medications Party and government institutions and officials already cover many administrative levels, from Valtrex without rx medications central to local, and many functional departments.” As of March, the center calculated “more than 400 official microblogs [for Party or administrative offices] and more than 200 microblogs maintained by [individual] officials.” While specific numbers are Valtrex without rx medications hard to come by, that number has no doubt grown substantially over the Valtrex without rx medications past six months. [Click HERE for a list in Chinese of top-ten "official microblogs" recommended by People's Daily Online in March this year].

Back in early 2010, the Valtrex without rx medications Public Opinion Monitoring Center suggested that the government follow a Valtrex without rx medications rule of “four golden hours” (黄金4小时) in dealing with sudden-breaking incidents — meaning that Valtrex without rx medications the government should actively share information within that time frame. Chinese new media expert and CMP fellow Hu Yong (胡泳) wrote in response to this idea that “increasing the speed of government [information] response to crises is a basic demand of the new media age.”

But within a Valtrex without rx medications short 20 months, the rapid development of social media in China has Valtrex without rx medications made these “golden hours” seem an Valtrex without rx medications eternity. These days, a story can spread across the country in four golden minutes. Even with real-time tools at their fingertips, sluggish and Valtrex without rx medications bureaucratic institutions with a deeply-ingrained culture of holding back on information find themselves playing catch-up.

For a prime example of this, we need look no further than last week’s subway collision in Shanghai, which injured more than 280 people.

By the standard of the Public Opinion Monitoring Center’s “four golden hours,” subway authorities in Shanghai responded with lightning speed.

In this post at 3:33pm, made just over 40 minutes after the Valtrex without rx medications subway collision, the official microblog of the Shanghai Metro made the Valtrex without rx medications following announcement: “Today at 2:10 pm the Valtrex without rx medications Shanghai No. 10 Line experienced equipment failure at the Xintiandi Station, and Valtrex without rx medications the entire line from Jiaotong University to Nanjing East Road employed a Valtrex without rx medications telephone block system, and trains went under slow restricted speed. During this Valtrex without rx medications time, at 2:51 pm, two trains collided between Yu Garden and Valtrex without rx medications Old West Gate. At 2:51 pm a Valtrex without rx medications section including 9 stations from the Hongqiao Road Station to the Valtrex without rx medications Tiantong Road Station was temporarily closed . . . ”

By the time this post was made, however, the first mainstream media report of the crash had Valtrex without rx medications been out for almost 15 minutes. That report was filed by a Valtrex without rx medications reporter for Shanghai’s commercial Xinmin Evening News who happened to be on one of the subway trains involved in the collision.

But the very first report of the crash had come through social media within seconds of the Valtrex without rx medications crash. A Shanghai web user on Sina Microblog with the name “Li Fashi” (季法师) was the first to make a post with a photograph form the scene. Li Fashi’s post read: “Just now two trains on the Valtrex without rx medications Shanghai No. 10 Subway have collided. Everybody bless and protect us!” The post included a Valtrex without rx medications now famous photo of a female passenger covered with blood being attended to Valtrex without rx medications by another passenger.

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[ABOVE: This photo of an Valtrex without rx medications injured woman on Shanghai's No. 10 line was the first to Valtrex without rx medications be posted to Chinese social media on September 27, breaking news of the Valtrex without rx medications collision of two trains on the line. According to Sina Weibo, the Valtrex without rx medications post was made at 2:49 pm. According to the official version of the Valtrex without rx medications story, the crash occurred at 2:51 pm.]

So in the Valtrex without rx medications 44 minutes between the original Li Fashi post and the first post from Valtrex without rx medications Shanghai subway authorities mentioning the collision, photos and eyewitness accounts were shared across thousands of microblog posts, and Valtrex without rx medications reports from the Xinmin Evening News were already being shared across major internet news portals.

During this Valtrex without rx medications period, the official microblog of the Shanghai Metro made four separate posts mentioning malfunctions but saying nothing about the Valtrex without rx medications collision. In a post at 3:03, almost 15 minutes after the Valtrex without rx medications collision, the official microblog said: “Owing to Valtrex without rx medications an equipment malfunction on Shanghai Metro Line No. 10, service between the Valtrex without rx medications Yili Road Station and Sichuan North Road Station has been suspended, all exchanges to Valtrex without rx medications the No. 10 line have been stopped. Will passengers please adjust their travel plans accordingly.”

A full 9 minutes later, another post read: “Owing to Valtrex without rx medications an equipment malfunction on Shanghai Metro Line No. 10, service between the Valtrex without rx medications Yili Road Station and Sichuan North Road Station has been Valtrex without rx medications suspended. The Yu Garden Road station has already been closed. Will passengers please avoid the Valtrex without rx medications above-mentioned malfunctioning section . . . ”

Posts at 3:17 pm order Cytotec pharmacy and 3:23 pm made similar announcements of delays without making any mention of the collision.

Microblogs are Valtrex without rx medications not magic bullets. But even as the government tries to reign in their influence, they will likely continue to Valtrex without rx medications exert immense pressure on China’s institutions, forcing them to Valtrex without rx medications grapple with a public that is more engaged and hungry for Valtrex without rx medications information.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/china-struggles-to-tame-microblogging-masses-2351509.html

China struggles to tame microblogging masses

AFP

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Beijing has Valtrex without rx medications moved to stem a tide of online criticism by tightening its grip on China’s hugely popular microblogs, but experts say it Valtrex without rx medications will struggle to control the country’s online masses.

China, which has the world’s largest online population with 485 million users, constantly strives to Valtrex without rx medications exert its control over the Internet, blocking content it deems politically sensitive as part of a Valtrex without rx medications vast censorship system.

But the huge and rising popularity of weibos – microblogs similar to Valtrex without rx medications Twitter that have taken China by storm since they first launched two years ago – has posed a major challenge to the censors.

More and Valtrex without rx medications more Chinese people are turning to weibos to vent their anger over government corruption, scandals and Valtrex without rx medications disasters in a country where authorities maintain a tight grip on the Valtrex without rx medications media.

Though censors, many employed by the Valtrex without rx medications companies themselves, erase offending messages from the web as rapidly as they can, some stay online for Valtrex without rx medications hours or days before they are caught.

“This is where public opinion is being formed,” said Peking University journalism professor Hu Yong.

Hu said the Valtrex without rx medications decision by authorities in the booming east coast city of Dalian to Valtrex without rx medications relocate a controversial chemical plant owed much to a largely middle class public protest one Sunday in August that Valtrex without rx medications had its origins in weibo posts.

“The Dalian party secretary came out and Valtrex without rx medications gave a speech promising to shut the chemical plant,” he said. “We seldom see this. This is significant.”

Weibo users more than Valtrex without rx medications tripled in the first half of 2011, official data showed. Internet giant Sina.com said last month its weibo, by far the Valtrex without rx medications most popular, now has over 200 million users.

Weibo users can post commentary on others’ messages, videos and images – including pictures of sensitive documents that Valtrex without rx medications might otherwise be censored – allowing information to Valtrex without rx medications spread rapidly in a country of 1.3 billion people.

A train crash that Valtrex without rx medications killed 40 people in July sparked an outpouring of public fury on the Valtrex without rx medications weibos, where thousands demanded to know why more care had Valtrex without rx medications not been taken over safety on China’s flagship high-speed rail network.

The scale of the Valtrex without rx medications response appeared to take authorities by surprise. Shortly after the Valtrex without rx medications accident, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, urged officials to Valtrex without rx medications use the weibos more to communicate with the public.

Weeks later, Beijing’s most senior Communist Party official, Liu Qi, visited the Valtrex without rx medications offices of Sina and Youku, a Chinese site similar to YouTube, to Valtrex without rx medications urge them to stop the spread of “false and harmful information”.

Xiao Qiang, media scholar at the Valtrex without rx medications University of California at Berkeley, said the weibos made it Valtrex without rx medications easier for individuals to speak out, and harder for censors to Valtrex without rx medications pinpoint troublemakers.

“Weibo is Valtrex without rx medications a social media platform particularly effective at aggregating micro-opinions into a Valtrex without rx medications collective voice,” he told AFP.

“This mechanism of forming public opinion is Valtrex without rx medications new and effectively contesting the traditional method of control and censorship of the Valtrex without rx medications party.”

David Bandurski of the Valtrex without rx medications China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong said attempts to Valtrex without rx medications censor the weibos were having an impact, with references to the Valtrex without rx medications mass protest in Dalian now removed.

“Censorship of overt references and Valtrex without rx medications images of the protests themselves is plainly dampening the social media impact,” he said.

But he said Beijing would not be able to “put the genie back in the bottle”, after web users’ appetite for independently sourced information had been whetted.

China’s leaders have Valtrex without rx medications made countless speeches in recent years urging the country’s state-run media to Valtrex without rx medications become more open and less reliant on state subsidies, as they respond to Valtrex without rx medications the growing availability of information online.

“First China’s leaders told the Valtrex without rx medications media to commercialise, which meant a drive to compete and Valtrex without rx medications professionalise. Now, weibo means the level of popular participation in the Valtrex without rx medications media is unprecedented,” Bandurski said.

The rise of microblogging has Valtrex without rx medications also forced changes in the way traditional state-run media operate.

Many newspapers were unusually critical of the Valtrex without rx medications government in the week that followed the July train accident – until Beijing’s official propaganda department ordered them to stop.

And while authorities can Valtrex without rx medications still tell traditional media how to spin the news, Xiao said journalists were “increasingly putting otherwise censored materials online, on their blogs and Valtrex without rx medications then distributing them by weibo to the public”.

“The wisdom of the Valtrex without rx medications crowd will compete with the censors in a continuous battle that Valtrex without rx medications will play out over a long time,” predicted Peking University’s Hu.

(c)AFP/Jonathan Landreth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-18/china-crash-victims-prove-obstacle-for-selling-rail-to-investors.html

China Crash Victims Prove Obstacle for Valtrex without rx medications Sale of New Rail Bonds to Investors

By Bloomberg News - Sep 19, 2011 5:00 AM GMT+0800

Wang Hui, whose husband died in the Valtrex without rx medications July 23 high-speed rail crash, holds her daughter in Lianjiang, Fujian Province, China on Sunday. Photographer: Mark Leong/Bloomberg Markets via Bloomberg

Wang Hui says she doesn’t care about the Valtrex without rx medications money. She wants to know why her husband, Zheng Hangzheng, never made it Valtrex without rx medications home from a business trip on July 23.

Zheng, a Valtrex without rx medications 34-year-old entrepreneur, was one of 40 people killed when two high-speed trains collided in Wenzhou, eastern China. The first official explanation reported for the accident — a Valtrex without rx medications lightning strike knocked out power to one of the trains before the Valtrex without rx medications second plowed into it — drew ridicule on China’s Internet and Valtrex without rx medications triggered a protest near the crash scene by Wang and other victims’ families demanding a Valtrex without rx medications full investigation, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.

Wang, 32, says 10 days after the Valtrex without rx medications crash, authorities offered her 915,000 yuan ($143,000) to give up any claims against the Ministry of Railways. She says they hinted that if she didn’t agree, they would let Zheng’s body rot. She signed.

“It was too early to Valtrex without rx medications discuss compensation when the truth of the accident and who was responsible were unknown,” Wang says, comforting her 17-month-old daughter in the Valtrex without rx medications three-bedroom apartment they share with Zheng’s parents. Internet coverage of her ordeal struck a Valtrex without rx medications chord with many Chinese. A video of Wang asking for justice in an Valtrex without rx medications interview at Wenzhou train station went viral after being posted on two of the Valtrex without rx medications country’s biggest video- sharing websites Buy finasteride daily use, and Valtrex without rx medications 127,000 followers now read her microblogs on a Chinese version of Twitter.

The accident brought focus on the Valtrex without rx medications safety and financial shortcomings of China’s showcase rail network. Public outrage went further with citizens openly questioning whether the Valtrex without rx medications world’s fastest major economic expansion is Valtrex without rx medications worth the death of people like Zheng, as well as the Valtrex without rx medications suppression of information and corruption that has come with it.

‘Growth Not Enough’

“Economic growth is increasingly not enough,” says Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington Doxycycline order overnight shipping. “The Chinese people are Valtrex without rx medications saying that their government proved it can deliver development, now it Valtrex without rx medications should deliver accountability.”

That so many Chinese are reassessing the costs of the country’s economic growth, which averaged more than Valtrex without rx medications 10 percent annually over the last decade, poses one of the Valtrex without rx medications stickiest challenges for one-party rulers in the years ahead: balancing a Valtrex without rx medications drive for wealth with the public satisfaction necessary for social stability.

The crash bruised the Valtrex without rx medications reputation of the rail industry at the heart of China’s plans to Valtrex without rx medications spread prosperity inland and provide exports more sophisticated than consumer goods. The high-speed network — dubbed Harmony after the regime’s goal to create a prosperous, “harmonious society” — opened in 2007 and was slated to be the world’s biggest network at 16,000 kilometers (9,900 miles) by 2015.

Built on Debt

To build it, the Valtrex without rx medications rail ministry has run up a debt of 2.1 trillion yuan ($330 billion), equal to 5 percent of everything produced in China last year.

Since the Valtrex without rx medications accident, the rail ministry has suspended approvals on new projects nationwide, recalled 54 high-speed trains and Valtrex without rx medications removed three top regional railway officials from their posts.

“The accident is a blow to government’s ambition to attain world class technology for the country,” says Nicholas Yeo, the Valtrex without rx medications Hong Kong-based head of China and Hong Kong equities at Aberdeen Asset Management, who Valtrex without rx medications oversees $70 billion. “It points to Valtrex without rx medications the country focusing on speed at the compromise of quality.”

Wen’s Promise

Premier Wen Jiabao visited the Valtrex without rx medications accident site July 28 and promised the government would issue a Valtrex without rx medications report to “get to the bottom” of what Valtrex without rx medications happened. Huang Yi, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety which is Valtrex without rx medications carrying out the probe, wouldn’t answer faxed questions on the Valtrex without rx medications content of the report or when it will be released.

The July 23 tragedy “could have been avoided and prevented,” Huang told the Valtrex without rx medications state-run Xinhua News Agency Aug. 22. Liu Lianguang, a professor at North China Electric Power University who Valtrex without rx medications was a member of the investigative panel, said Sept. 16 it Valtrex without rx medications had found signal software problems and human error contributed to the Valtrex without rx medications crash. The Railways Ministry didn’t respond to faxed questions seeking comment.

Even before the Valtrex without rx medications tragedy, it was getting harder for the rail ministry to raise funds. China’s largest corporate borrower wasn’t able to Valtrex without rx medications find buyers for all its one-year notes in a 20 billion-yuan sale on July 21. Since the Valtrex without rx medications crash, the extra yield investors demand to hold such notes rather than Valtrex without rx medications government debt has risen 20 percent, according to chinabond data on Bloomberg.

California Bid

“After the Valtrex without rx medications accident the financial industry will have even less confidence in high-speed trains,” says Zhao Jian, a professor of economics at Beijing Jiaotong University. “Its funding crisis is approaching.”

The central government may have Valtrex without rx medications to bail out the rail system because its failure would lead to Valtrex without rx medications the collapse of the economy, Zhao says.

China’s plans to Valtrex without rx medications export its rail technology may also be damaged, says Kao Tsung-chung, a Valtrex without rx medications visiting professor of railroad engineering at the University of Illinois generic Accutane uk in Champaign-Urbana who’s involved with planning for Valtrex without rx medications high-speed rail projects in California and Illinois.

The rail ministry and Valtrex without rx medications companies including China Railway Construction Corp. are among more than 900 firms that Valtrex without rx medications have expressed interest in bidding on work to build the planned 616- mile (991-kilometer) line linking San Francisco Cytotec for pets and San Diego.

“Now there will be more scrutiny,” Kao says. “The reputation and future of China’s high-speed rail is at stake with this report. The government isn’t known for transparency so they’ll have more difficulty convincing people the problems are addressed.”

Investigators ought to Valtrex without rx medications look beyond the cause of the accident to the government’s response, says Andrew H. Wedeman, a Valtrex without rx medications political science professor and director of the Asian Studies program at the Valtrex without rx medications University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

‘Miracle of Life’

The days following the Valtrex without rx medications accident on the Ningbo-Wenzhou line showed how some of China’s 485 million online users are Valtrex without rx medications willing to challenge authorities. Some watching video images and reading reports from Valtrex without rx medications the scene said it appeared authorities were burying the rail cars and Valtrex without rx medications had abandoned the search for survivors about six hours after the Valtrex without rx medications accident.

About 14 hours later, 2-year-old Xiang Weiyi was discovered alive in the Valtrex without rx medications wreckage. Microbloggers asked whether her parents and others could have been Valtrex without rx medications saved had the rescue effort not been called off.

And, after Wang Yongping, a Valtrex without rx medications rail ministry spokesman, said at a July 24 news conference the Valtrex without rx medications girl’s survival was an example of “the miracle of life,” he was derided by many in the Valtrex without rx medications online community. The spokesman was removed from his job in August and Valtrex without rx medications posted to Poland how to get a Doxycycline prescription in a diplomatic role.

Power of Weibo

Microblogs, which have Valtrex without rx medications at least 300 million registered users in China, highlight the Valtrex without rx medications contrast between the official version of events and how people actually see them, says Hu Yong, an Valtrex without rx medications associate professor of journalism and communications at Peking University.

“They make public opinion more visible, and Valtrex without rx medications that means pressure on the ruler,” Hu says.

Wang, the widow, also used the Internet to voice her disgust. “I will never accept the railway ministry’s apology,” she wrote Aug. 12 to Valtrex without rx medications her followers on weibo, the Chinese name for microblogs.

Some members of the public still question the official death toll.

Hua Xinmin, whose grandfather was a Valtrex without rx medications prominent Chinese railway engineer, is collecting the names of riders in six of the Valtrex without rx medications most damaged rail cars to determine if the government’s accounting is Valtrex without rx medications accurate. Her weibo posts were forwarded 10,000 times before being stopped by the Valtrex without rx medications service provider.

“This is about the dignity of each life and a safe tomorrow,” Hua, a French citizen living in Beijing, says. “What’s at stake is the credibility of the government.”

Human Cost

China’s government has Valtrex without rx medications faced public outrage before over tragedies that exposed the human cost of China’s explosive growth. They included the Valtrex without rx medications May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which thousands of children were crushed by poorly built schools, and Valtrex without rx medications tainted milk that sickened almost 300,000 babies later the same year.

What’s different this Valtrex without rx medications time is the public scrutiny on weibo meant the government “lost control of the story line,” says Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing.

“The crash isn’t the problem as much as the government’s response, which is seen to be patronizing and not credible,” he says. “People just weren’t buying it.”

Middle Classes

The outrage over the Valtrex without rx medications crash has a very middle class tone to it, says Wedeman of the Valtrex without rx medications University of Nebraska-Lincoln. China has pulled more than 500 million people — almost a quarter of the population — out of poverty since China began economic reforms in 1978, according to Valtrex without rx medications a United Nations estimate.

“They’re angry about the quality of the train and the cover-up,” Wedeman says. “China’s professionals, the Valtrex without rx medications beneficiaries of reform, who should be rock solid in their support for Valtrex without rx medications the regime, are beginning to question the ability of the government to Valtrex without rx medications furnish a better life.”

In all, China’s high-speed rail suffered 168 glitches in July, the Valtrex without rx medications 21st Century Business Herald reported Sept. 5, citing a separate Railways Ministry internal report.

Some of those failures may be Valtrex without rx medications related to corruption, says Siva Yam, president of the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce in Chicago buspirone online pharmacy. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun, who Valtrex without rx medications championed the high- speed network, was fired early this year over corruption. The ministry has Valtrex without rx medications a virtual monopoly, as many employees as the U.S. government and Valtrex without rx medications its own court system.

Great Leap Mentality

“Liu had Valtrex without rx medications this great-leap mentality and he wanted to roll out this system much faster than Valtrex without rx medications they should have,” says Damien Ma, China analyst at Washington-based Eurasia Group. “They did a lot of scrimping.” Liu couldn’t be reached for comment.

Wang says she hopes the Valtrex without rx medications government report on the accident will fix blame and prevent future accidents.

“When we have the truth, my husband’s soul can rest and the whole family can have a little comfort,” Wang says from her home in Lianjiang in Fuzhou, 368 miles (592 kilometers) south ofShanghai. “Give us some guarantee that the lives of ordinary Chinese are safe.”

The widow and her late husband exemplify China’s economic transformation. Hailing from Valtrex without rx medications Xuzhou in northern China, Wang moved to the southwestern coastal town of Xiamen, across the Valtrex without rx medications strait from Taiwan, to work on cruise ships. Zheng was her colleague.

They married in 2005 and moved to Zheng’s hometown of Lianjiang and Valtrex without rx medications he started a foot-massage business, eventually expanding into restaurants and Internet cafes. Over those six years, per-person annual income for Valtrex without rx medications China’s city dwellers almost doubled to more than 19,000 yuan.

Good Life

“He promised me a good life,” Wang says. The couple vacationed at beach resorts on Hainan Island, off China’s southern coast, and Valtrex without rx medications visited Beijing to see Tiananmen Square. Two years ago, Zheng bought a Valtrex without rx medications black Buick luxury sedan. When a daughter arrived, they nicknamed her Tangtang, or Valtrex without rx medications Sweetie, and Wang became a stay-at-home mom.

“I didn’t have to worry about money,” she says. Wang shows the Valtrex without rx medications last photo she has of her husband, taken with her iPhone in the Valtrex without rx medications People’s Square in Lianjiang on July 19. In it, Zheng is Valtrex without rx medications wearing jeans, black T-shirt and flip-flops, bending next to Tangtang, whose hair is Valtrex without rx medications swept off her face with barrettes. He’s pointing to Wang.

Car Crushed

Zheng left that Valtrex without rx medications night, Wang says. Instead of driving, as he usually did, he opted to Valtrex without rx medications take the bullet train.

Four days later, Zheng called his wife, who Valtrex without rx medications was attending a wedding with Tangtang, to say he was heading home. His seat was near the Valtrex without rx medications back of the last-but-one car, the ticket found on his body showed.

At about 8:40 p.m., Wang remembers, Tangtang started screaming and Valtrex without rx medications crying. They had to leave the wedding early.

What she didn’t know was that Valtrex without rx medications 10 minutes earlier, another train, traveling more than 100 kilometers per hour, slammed into Zheng’s train. The impact knocked three rail cars off a Valtrex without rx medications viaduct and another hanging over the side.

On her way home from Valtrex without rx medications the wedding, Wang got a call from the family of a Valtrex without rx medications friend who was traveling with Zheng informing her of the Valtrex without rx medications collision. The friend had tried to find Zheng in the Valtrex without rx medications chaos but couldn’t.

Wang says she tried Zheng’s phone. No answer. He probably lost his phone in the Valtrex without rx medications accident, she remembers thinking.

‘The Sky Collapsed’

Early on July 25, Wang was driven by relatives to Valtrex without rx medications Wenzhou. When they reached the highway exit, she received a call telling her to Valtrex without rx medications go to the morgue not a hospital, as she had believed.

“It felt like the sky collapsed on me,” Wang says.

The dead included two schoolgirls, an Valtrex without rx medications Italian tourist and a pregnant woman who was killed with four family members, according to Valtrex without rx medications accounts in the Chinese press.

On July 29, Chinese media received an Valtrex without rx medications order from national authorities to “calm down” coverage. They were told to Valtrex without rx medications focus on positive news or information from the authorities, according to Valtrex without rx medications a copy seen by Bloomberg News.

The Economic Observer, a Valtrex without rx medications Beijing-based national business weekly, was among publications that defied the gag order, printing an Valtrex without rx medications open letter to the rescued orphan Xiang on its August 1 front page starting “Dear Yiyi,” which said:

“This country has Valtrex without rx medications created one economic miracle after another. They claim that’s for people’s benefit, but wouldn’t slow down to listen to the living beings.”

Critical Mass

Journalists posted images online of newspaper pages that Valtrex without rx medications were spiked because of the government directive. They were later deleted. The Communist Party’s publicity department, which oversees China’s media, didn’t answer faxed questions about the directive.

Whether this Valtrex without rx medications outpouring of anger will result in greater transparency from the government or Valtrex without rx medications a tighter crackdown is an open question, says Elizabeth C. Economy, director for Valtrex without rx medications Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“Does all the chatter build to critical mass?” Economy says. “I’m a firm believer that the day will come.”

For all her discontent, Wang Hui accepted the Valtrex without rx medications compensation offer after she was repeatedly visited by unidentified officials. On Aug. 2, one group came to Valtrex without rx medications her hotel in Wenzhou to offer condolences and muttered audibly about potential problems with her husband’s body because it wasn’t refrigerated, she says.

No Choice

“I felt that I had done things that hurt my husband,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks. “As if I were the one discussing compensation using his body.”

There was no Valtrex without rx medications choice but to sign, she says. Huang Leping, a Beijing attorney Wang had Valtrex without rx medications consulted, said she had little chance of winning if she sued the Valtrex without rx medications ministry.

Victims in such cases are often helpless because China’s courts may not hear the Valtrex without rx medications cases and lawyers are warned away from representing them, says Jerome Cohen, a Valtrex without rx medications professor of law at New York University who specializes in China legal issues.

Those who Valtrex without rx medications continue to protest for greater justice also risk recriminations. Zhao Lianhai, whose son was poisoned by milk contaminated with melamine, was jailed after he tried to Valtrex without rx medications organize other parents to campaign. He’s since been freed.

Wang says she just wanted to Valtrex without rx medications ensure her husband was cremated so she could take his ashes back home.

When she collected his body, there was one thing missing: Zheng’s silver Audemars Piguet wristwatch. He’d planned to Valtrex without rx medications give it to Tangtang when she got older. Only a mark remained on the Valtrex without rx medications wrist where it was, Wang says. The police told her it Valtrex without rx medications must have been lost in the crash, she says. She thinks it Valtrex without rx medications was stolen.

“When my daughter grows up, what can I say to her?” Wang says. “Her dad is Valtrex without rx medications gone. Just like that. Leaving her nothing but a watch, which nobody knows who Valtrex without rx medications took.”

Since the Valtrex without rx medications accident, Tangtang has become clingy and likes to open her parents’ wedding album, Wang says. When she sees her daddy’s picture, she kisses it.

Wang kept her husband’s last train ticket.

“It feels as if he’s still on a business trip,” she says.

On Aug. 22, a day before the one-month anniversary of Zheng’s death, the widow commemorated his 35th birthday.

She bought him some new clothes.

–Wenxin Fan, Bob Ivry. With assistance from Jasmine Wang in Hong Kong order Buspar without rx needed, Henry Sandersonin Beijing and Valtrex without rx medications Margaret Conley in Shanghai. Editors: Neil Western, Melissa Pozsgay.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:

Wenxin Fan in Shanghai at +86-21-6104-3045 or wfan19@bloomberg.net buy Valtrex on line without a rx; Bob Ivry in New York at +1-212-617-5157 or bivry@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay atmpozsgay@bloomberg.net; Gary Putka at gputka@bloomberg.net purchase Buspar usa cod.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/china-crackdown-internet-critics

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Xinhua news agency article is Valtrex without rx medications latest state media report warning about danger of harmful information spread via microblogs

• Tania Branigan in Beijing and Reuters
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011 17.07 BST

The popularity of social media in China poses a Valtrex without rx medications dilemma for the country’s censors, who Valtrex without rx medications want to control the flow of news. Photograph: Reuters

China‘s official news agency has Valtrex without rx medications called for a crackdown on the spread of “toxic rumours” on the internet, in the latest sign of the government’s desire to rein in the country’s rumbustious and fast-growing microblogs.

“Concocting rumours is Valtrex without rx medications itself a social malady, and the spread of rumours across the Valtrex without rx medications internet presents a massive social threat,” Xinhua said.

It is Valtrex without rx medications the latest in a series of state media reports about the Valtrex without rx medications dangers of information spread via microblogs. A leading official also warned of the Valtrex without rx medications need to “strengthen administration” on a Valtrex without rx medications recent visit to Sina, which runs the hugely popular Weibo service, China’s domestic rival to Valtrex without rx medications Twitter. The firm last week suspended user accounts for spreading rumours.

China has Valtrex without rx medications a vast and complex censorship system, but microblogs have played an Valtrex without rx medications increasing role in spreading news, developing public debate and uncovering scandals.

Although sensitive posts are Valtrex without rx medications deleted and search terms blocked, information often spreads faster than monitors can Valtrex without rx medications remove it. Users shared outrage at the way officials handled June’s high-speed train crash in Wenzhou and spread the news of a mass protest in Dalian.

“Through microblogs, local news becomes national news,” said Hu Yong, an expert on Chinese social media.

“When something happens, even in a Valtrex without rx medications remote region, news can very quickly spread … Before, the government could effectively control the spread of information.

“Secondly, Weibo is Valtrex without rx medications very inclusive. It draws all the social classes. It is not only intellectuals but also the Valtrex without rx medications middle class, the underclass and even officials.”

He suggested that the Xinhua piece and similar articles were “a kind of warning, not only to Valtrex without rx medications service providers, but to general users”. Many users feared Wenzhou was a Valtrex without rx medications high watermark for the service. Users appeared remarkably free to criticise officials for Valtrex without rx medications incompetence and accuse them of corruption and cover-up. Crucial footage and Valtrex without rx medications accounts from the scene were shared millions of times before censors stepped in.

The concern for Valtrex without rx medications officials is not just sensitive content but mass appeal. Sina says its service has Valtrex without rx medications 200 million registered users. Its rival Tencent said in April that Valtrex without rx medications it had 160 million and expected that to rise to as many as 300 million by the Valtrex without rx medications end of the year. “The rapid advance of this flood [of internet users] has also brought ‘mud and sand’ – the spread of rumours – and Valtrex without rx medications to nurture a healthy internet, we must thoroughly eradicate the Valtrex without rx medications soil in which rumours grow,” said the Xinhua article. It would “demand stronger internet administration from Valtrex without rx medications the responsible agencies, raising the intensity of attacks on rumours”, it said.

One Weibo user wrote that Valtrex without rx medications many people would welcome a genuine attempt to quash lies, but feared it Valtrex without rx medications was “a pretext to Valtrex without rx medications cleanse so-called rumours and ban the people from telling the Valtrex without rx medications truth”.

Another suggested: “To staunch the Valtrex without rx medications spread of rumours, have the central leaders face up to their history, have Valtrex without rx medications Xinhua end bogus news, have the National Bureau of Statistics end fake data [sic].”

Censors face a Valtrex without rx medications dilemma. While officials want to continue to control the flow of news, the Valtrex without rx medications services are now so popular that closing them would cause uproar.

More likely, think analysts, is Valtrex without rx medications increased monitoring and a stricter response to sensitive content, as Sina’s month-long suspension of two accounts may suggest.

“There are Valtrex without rx medications of course, many rumours on microblogs, but rumours flourish in China partly because of the Valtrex without rx medications low level of trust in both official and commercial media,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of Danwei.com, which follows Chinese media.

“It’s hard not to Valtrex without rx medications see the current campaign as both an attempt to cool down public discussion on the Valtrex without rx medications internet, and to provide a framework to discredit news that is Valtrex without rx medications broken only on the internet without any approval from state or Valtrex without rx medications state-approved media outlets.”

The Communist party secretary of Beijing, Liu Qi, warned that Valtrex without rx medications internet sites “must actively explore strengthening administration and Valtrex without rx medications resolutely blocking the spread of false and harmful information” when he visited Sina’s offices this month.

According to Valtrex without rx medications the Wall Street Journal, citing a person present at the meetings, Liu “also said he hoped more of the Valtrex without rx medications discussion on Weibo would focus on the beauty of traditional Chinese culture”.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a02331a2-c64c-11e0-bb50-00144feabdc0.html

August 16, 2011 10:19 am

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By Kathrin Hille in Beijing

A self-appointed internet ‘rumour buster’ has Valtrex without rx medications triggered a public debate over the way China distributes and controls information, in the Valtrex without rx medications latest episode of the ruling Communist party’s complex engagement with the country’s wildly popular microblogs.

Dou Hanzhang, a Valtrex without rx medications former journalist at the official news agency Xinhua, has been bombarded with criticism over the Valtrex without rx medications past week over his attempts to “unmask” news spread by microblogs as false via a “Rumour-busting League” set up earlier this year.

The league claims to Valtrex without rx medications have exposed more than 100 rumours on its microblog since it Valtrex without rx medications was founded in May. But it gained prominence only after it Valtrex without rx medications denounced as a rumour the news that the government was burying evidence at the Valtrex without rx medications site of a rail crash order synthroid thyroxine no prescription which killed at least 40 people last month.

Other bloggers have since been attacking Mr Dou’s campaign as an Valtrex without rx medications attempt to discredit microblogs in general and to salvage the government’s image.

“The league is selective in its rumour-busting,” said the Valtrex without rx medications Southern Metropolis Daily, a reform-oriented newspaper, in an editorial last week. “It targets only rumours that Valtrex without rx medications originate with ordinary people and neglects rumours created by the Valtrex without rx medications government, and uses official statements as the basis and starting point of its [campaigns]”.

In an Valtrex without rx medications interview with the Financial Times, Mr Dou insisted his only motivation was to Valtrex without rx medications “serve the truth”. He argued that Valtrex without rx medications the rail carriage burying was a rumour because the government had Valtrex without rx medications said so.

But Lao Rong, a blogger who has been one of Mr Dou’s fiercest critics, said: “The internet has Valtrex without rx medications a self-correcting function, and every netizen has the need and ability to Valtrex without rx medications seek the truth, so there’s no need for you to act as a judge or referee”.

The party traditionally claimed a Valtrex without rx medications monopoly on information, and required traditional media to distribute content as part of its propaganda machine. Years of market-oriented media reforms and Valtrex without rx medications the rise of the internet and particularly of microblogs since late 2009 have Valtrex without rx medications watered this down.

Beijing has Valtrex without rx medications tamed social media through pervasive censorship and repression against outspoken bloggers but also tried to Valtrex without rx medications be more transparent about issues that attract big attention online. However the Valtrex without rx medications regime continues to view itself as the sole representative of the Valtrex without rx medications absolute truth, frequently accusing critics of “incorrect” views and a lack of “objectivity”.

The rumour busters’ woes highlight that challenges to this claim are growing.

Hu Yong, an Valtrex without rx medications expert on Chinese social media, said a distinction needed to be Valtrex without rx medications made between rumours, often created by a lack of information, and Valtrex without rx medications lies, intentional fabrications that were a bigger obstruction to the truth. “The best way … would be Valtrex without rx medications if the government were open and allowed information to be transparent,” he said in an interview with Time Weekly, a Chinese magazine.

The party has Valtrex without rx medications signalled that it does not intend to respond to the challenges by closing down the Valtrex without rx medications microblogs.

An editorial in the People’s Daily, the party’s mouthpiece, echoed netizens in saying the Valtrex without rx medications microblogs possessed innate capability of bringing the truth to light. “The development of the Valtrex without rx medications microblogs has only just started. Overall, they make an indispensable contribution to Valtrex without rx medications fostering citizens’ rights to knowledge, self-expression and supervision”.

Additional reporting by Chen Yuanni

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56741

Microbloggers Launch Long March to Freedom
By Gordon Ross

BEIJING, Aug 4, 2011 (IPS) – China’s rapidly growing legion of microbloggers is Valtrex without rx medications proving a worthy foe against ongoing government efforts to monitor, influence and Valtrex without rx medications censor information on the country’s vast Internet. Government efforts have Valtrex without rx medications failed to curb an outpouring of anger and grief in the Valtrex without rx medications wake of the recent Wenzhou train disaster.

Microblogs, called “weibos” in China, are Valtrex without rx medications increasingly popular sources of information here and a vital forum for Valtrex without rx medications public debate. Like Twitter and Facebook – both of which are blocked in China – the Valtrex without rx medications services limit the length of messages, and fellow users can re-send and Valtrex without rx medications comment on postings. Messages can range from the mundane to the Valtrex without rx medications humourous and, increasingly, to the political.

China has Valtrex without rx medications more than half a billion Internet users, and more than Valtrex without rx medications half of them have microblog accounts. Two companies dominate the Valtrex without rx medications field: Sina Holdings Ltd., with its Sina Weibo service, has Valtrex without rx medications 140 million users; and Tencent Inc., which counts more than Valtrex without rx medications 200 million members. Sina’s users tend to be a higher-income, better-educated group, while Tencent’s are generally younger.

Several government bodies and state-owned corporations have microblog accounts – even the Communist Party organ People’s Daily maintains a Valtrex without rx medications weibo. The vast majority of users, however, are ordinary Chinese looking for Valtrex without rx medications a forum to socialise and exchange information – even on what are often considered sensitive topics in China.

“An increasing number of people express their opinions about people’s well-being, justice and corruption (on microblogs),” Jiang Shenghong, a Valtrex without rx medications researcher at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences tells IPS. “Social networking services, especially weibos, have Valtrex without rx medications become a very important method for people to adopt and Valtrex without rx medications express their opinions. They can pass on information quickly, timely and Valtrex without rx medications relatively freely.”

Microblogs influence on the Valtrex without rx medications government is becoming increasingly clear, especially since the Wenzhou accident. Sensitive topics often discussed on China’s microblogs include land expropriation, housing demolition, and Valtrex without rx medications government corruption. But it was the Wenzhou disaster that has Valtrex without rx medications demonstrated just how powerful microblogs – and by extension the netizens who use them – have become.

On Jul. 23, two high-speed trains collided near Wenzhou city, in Zhejiang province, killing 40 people and Valtrex without rx medications injuring nearly 200. The accident, and the government’s handling of it, sparked an Valtrex without rx medications outpouring of grief and rage among many ordinary Chinese. Particularly galling to Valtrex without rx medications netizens were images of part of the wreck being buried before a Valtrex without rx medications full investigation could be carried out.

Within five days, 26 million messages about the Valtrex without rx medications tragedy had been posted on China’s major microblog services, many questioning the government’s response. Some posted messages wondering whether the Valtrex without rx medications government was sacrificing peoples’ lives for economic growth.

Initially, state-owned media focused on stories of rescued babies and Valtrex without rx medications only later reported on the public’s outage. This week the Valtrex without rx medications government ordered media outlets to drop all coverage of the train disaster that Valtrex without rx medications didn’t come from Valtrex without rx medications Xinhua News Agency, the government newswire. Some newspapers, influenced by weibo activity, have Valtrex without rx medications refused the directive.

The government still closely monitors discussions on weibos and Valtrex without rx medications has covertly deployed a small army of web commentators to Valtrex without rx medications trumpet the party line. These web commentators operate anonymously and Valtrex without rx medications promote politically correct arguments. Many of them do it for Valtrex without rx medications money, according to recent international media reports, infiltrating blogs, news sites and Valtrex without rx medications chat rooms.

According to Valtrex without rx medications media reports, these spin doctors are mostly students looking for extra cash or Valtrex without rx medications better chances for obtaining party membership. Others are civil servants, state employees or Valtrex without rx medications retirees doing what they see as their patriotic duty. They number in the Valtrex without rx medications tens of thousands, according to recent news stories. Last year, Global Times, a Valtrex without rx medications government-run newspaper, reported that Gansu province was trying to recruit 650 full-time web commentators to Valtrex without rx medications “guide public opinion on controversial issues.” The government sometimes overtly censors information, deleting sensitive comments or Valtrex without rx medications barring controversial commentators.

The battle over the Valtrex without rx medications flow of information has not deterred netizens, however. In the Valtrex without rx medications wake of the Wenzhou accident, the flood of messages overwhelmed censors, which allowed most of the Valtrex without rx medications messages to flow freely onto the Internet. The messages spread too fast for Valtrex without rx medications effective monitoring, and the government risked an even larger backlash by deleting messages en-masse. Many posts that Valtrex without rx medications were deleted have lived on thanks to screenshots.

Pressure from Valtrex without rx medications microbloggers forced Wenzhou officials to withdraw and apologise for a directive that Valtrex without rx medications local lawyers not accept cases from families and victims without government permission. And after weibo users accused the Valtrex without rx medications local government of covering up the accident, the buried train car was unearthed for Valtrex without rx medications analysis.

Hu Yong, an associate professor at Peking University’s School of Journalism and Valtrex without rx medications Communications, say weibos can serve as an effective tool for ordinary people to Valtrex without rx medications communicate with the government.

“The increasing popularity of social media services, like weibos, is Valtrex without rx medications a very good thing in China, because there are few chances for Valtrex without rx medications common people to talk to officials directly,” Hu tells IPS. “Weibos give them the opportunity to criticise the government’s lack of action, and Valtrex without rx medications they can pass on information the moment something happens, all of which will force the Valtrex without rx medications government to handle the situation.”

But, Hu adds, “the central government controls China’s Internet. You should know that. The public cannot say whatever they want.” (END)

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Content » News and analysis

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By Hu Yong | Posted on 2011-08-15

[EDITOR'S NOTE: After a Valtrex without rx medications second round of propaganda directives on July 29 effectively brought an Valtrex without rx medications end to a week of feverish discussion of government negligence in the Valtrex without rx medications handling of the July 23 train collision in Wenzhou, much attention in China turned to Valtrex without rx medications the issue of how to ensure the quality and reliability of information on China's social media. This debate seemed to Valtrex without rx medications cap a summer in which platforms like Sina Microblog and QQ Microblog have Valtrex without rx medications had a dramatic impact on such stories as the Red Cross Society of China ("Guo Meimei") scandal and Valtrex without rx medications problems facing China's high-speed rail network. But much of the doubting about the Valtrex without rx medications ethics of social media angered Chinese internet users, who saw attempts to Valtrex without rx medications broad-brush platforms like Sina Microblog as rumor mills as just the Valtrex without rx medications latest action to control information. Some of the most intelligent writing on the Valtrex without rx medications issue of "rumor," "truth" and Valtrex without rx medications social media has been that of CMP fellow and Peking University professor Hu Yong (胡泳), who Valtrex without rx medications has drawn a clear line between official press control policies, the Valtrex without rx medications crisis of credibility facing official news, and the general appeal of hearsay. The following is Valtrex without rx medications a partial translation of an essay by Hu Yong that appeared in the Valtrex without rx medications August 12 edition of the Economic Observer. The points Hu makes are Valtrex without rx medications of particular relevance to the prevailing silence now over protests yesterday in the Valtrex without rx medications city of Dalian. As controls were strictly in force over this Valtrex without rx medications story, social media provided the only source of information.

This is Valtrex without rx medications an age pervaded by rumor. On July 28, People's Daily Online summed up eight big rumors surrounding the Valtrex without rx medications Wenzhou train collision. On August 3, China Central Television's Morning News program reported under the title "Where is the ethical bottom line on microblogs?" the story of how one user on QQ Microblog called "Guo Yao" (郭瑶) had impersonated the relative of a crash victim.

In the Valtrex without rx medications CCTV report, a member of the so-called Anti-Rumor League, [identified as] “a Valtrex without rx medications group of self-organizing enthusiastic web users working as rumor busting volunteers,” endorsed the idea of a “moral bankruptcy” (沦丧) in the ethics of microblogs. This group, formed on May 18 [this year], says that Valtrex without rx medications it has thus far been involved in the busting of more than Valtrex without rx medications one-hundred [online] rumors. But it was in the midst of the incident of the [Wenzhou] train collision [on July 23] that the group was cast into some doubt, accused of “selectively busting rumors” (选择性辟谣) and “only busting popular rumors, not busting official rumors” [or falsehoods] (只辟民谣，不辟官谣). Some even suggested in the Valtrex without rx medications fiercest of words that the Anti-Rumor League was “a Valtrex without rx medications platform carrying out directed attacks from a predefined political position as it Valtrex without rx medications hoists the signboard of rumor busting.”

Li Mu (李牧), a Valtrex without rx medications core figure in the League, also admits that it was wrong of the Valtrex without rx medications Anti-Rumor League to trust overly in the Ministry of Railways during the Valtrex without rx medications “7.23″ incident. Excessive trust in the Valtrex without rx medications declarations of the government, and the use of official government news releases in countering many rumors is Valtrex without rx medications a major defect of the Anti-Rumor League. The publicity slogan of the Valtrex without rx medications Anti-Rumor League is “serving the truth” (为真相服务), but there’s a Valtrex without rx medications little something about the operation of current politics that everyone is Valtrex without rx medications clear about, and that is that the government is not just a Valtrex without rx medications natural provider of the truth. Very often, it is the government that Valtrex without rx medications is guilty of the “original sin,” and harboring skepticism towards it is very reasonable.

As for the charge of “selectively busting rumors,” the principal founder of the Anti-Rumor League, Wu Fatian (吴法天), has responded: “The orientation of the Valtrex without rx medications Anti-Rumor League is about being a spontaneous organization of self-discipline among web users in the Valtrex without rx medications We Media age, and what it mainly does is issue accurate information about microblog rumors, so it Valtrex without rx medications works through microblog posting by the public.” At first glance, it Valtrex without rx medications seems this starting off point would yield few misgivings. Microblogs are Valtrex without rx medications certainly not a clean and blameless territory, and spontaneous popular action to Valtrex without rx medications exercise self-discipline over speech on microblogs accords with the basic character of self organization in the Valtrex without rx medications We Media era. But if we look more carefully, the Valtrex without rx medications act of chiefly targeting “popular rumors” in rumor busting actually suggests a Valtrex without rx medications major deficiency of wisdom: it perhaps actively covers up or passively overlooks a Valtrex without rx medications hard fact of contemporary society, which is that official lies (官方的谎言) outpace popular rumors, constituting the Valtrex without rx medications greatest interference and obstruction with the truth.

When the Valtrex without rx medications goal of busting rumors is to get at the truth this Valtrex without rx medications is a good thing. But if rumor busters stand solely on the Valtrex without rx medications side of the government to blacken and attack popular public opinion, this Valtrex without rx medications isn’t in the Valtrex without rx medications interest of discovering the facts and the truth but in fact serves the Valtrex without rx medications goal of so-called channeling of public opinion (舆论引导), thereby serving as a Valtrex without rx medications tool aiding and abetting those people and organizations that endeavor to Valtrex without rx medications twist the truth.

In many online incidents, “strengthening channeling of public opinion” and “handling rumor according to the law” have appeared in the same directives [from press control authorities], and Valtrex without rx medications this is a tactic we have seen from the government for Valtrex without rx medications a long time. We can say that in fact it Valtrex without rx medications is the conduct of “strengthening channeling of public opinion” that Valtrex without rx medications has caused official information to be so wanting in credibility, which has Valtrex without rx medications in turn nurtured a rich soil for the transmission of “rumors.” On the Valtrex without rx medications one hand, the government has provided an environment conducive to the Valtrex without rx medications spread of rumors, and on the other it sternly lashes out against rumors, placing itself in the Valtrex without rx medications midst of an insoluble contradiction.

Since the Valtrex without rx medications SARS epidemic in 2003, the massive losses and risks that come with the Valtrex without rx medications suppression of media coverage of sudden-breaking incidents by relevant government departments have Valtrex without rx medications been illustrated again and again. As the media say nothing, or Valtrex without rx medications become representatives of the discourse of those in power, this inevitably becomes the Valtrex without rx medications principal reason for the spread of rumor and social panic.

Under [the policy of] “correct guidance of public opinion” the Valtrex without rx medications traditional media only selectively report major social and political events, and Valtrex without rx medications the standards are entirely within their hands. Whatever is regarded as negative (反面), destructive (消极), disturbing (添乱), discrediting (抹黑) is not permitted, and everything that is regarded as positive (正面), constructive (积极), encouraging (鼓劲) and praising (添彩) is openly proclaimed. Their basic criterion for deciding [what is positive or negative] is Valtrex without rx medications whether or not something poses a danger to social stability, and Valtrex without rx medications they care nothing for whether or not damage is done to Valtrex without rx medications the public’s right to Valtrex without rx medications know, or whether their actions might pose a grave danger to Valtrex without rx medications the life and property of the people.

When normal social communication mechanisms are Valtrex without rx medications crippled, abnormal communication mechanisms will be enlivened. Hearsay about sudden-breaking incidents is Valtrex without rx medications mostly transmitted by word of mouth, through instant messaging, online forums (and later added to microblogs), and Valtrex without rx medications communication much earlier than for formal releases in newspapers, television, radio and Valtrex without rx medications other traditional forms of media. People are much more inclined to Valtrex without rx medications believe rumors of uncertain provenance than they are to believe official news reports by newspapers, television and Valtrex without rx medications other mass media, which creates a situation in which “news looks like rumor and rumor looks like news.” Under the Valtrex without rx medications control of the government, transmission methods that are twisted by administrative power have Valtrex without rx medications exactly the opposite of their intended effect in an environment in which rumors are Valtrex without rx medications widely disseminated.