Beijing’s Rumor Control Cuts Both Ways

By He Qinglian on Apr 11, 2012
Modified version of the Epoch Times Translation

Owing to China’s information blockade, the Bo Xilai debacle has made media of different countries play some “guessing games”. Xinhua’s April 10 announcement pertaining to Bo’s alleged involvement in the death of Neil Heywood momentarily brought all these to a halt.

Already in mid-March the Communist regime made preparations to accuse Bo of three crimes, yet the one related to “path struggle” raised by Wen Jiabao during a March 14 press conference was not used in the Xinhua announcement.

The Tension Between Politics and Religion in China

By He Qinglian

(Modified version of the Epoch Times translation)

Self-immolation tragedies have continually taken place among Tibetan monks in recent months. On March 23, People’s Daily Online blamed the Dalai Lama for inciting Tibetan monks to self-immolate and accused him of spreading Nazism to the Tibetan people.

Beijing and Hong Kong, a tie falling apart

Political control intensifies, Psychological alienation grows—a commentary on the relationship between Beijing and Hong Kong

By He Qinglian on April 5, 2012
[Read original article in Chinese]

If the relationship between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Beijing were to be presented in a graph, an image bearing little resemblance to Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang would emerge. While Taiwan's relations with Beijing changes from being a pair of parallel lines without intersection to two strings that have become entwined, an “intimacy” that the island feels happy about for now; Tibet and Xinjiang are originally “integral parts” of China where the dwindling authority of the central government has to be maintained with forcible measures; as for Hong Kong, the city has become politically and economically inseparable from mainland China, the people's grievances can be heard everywhere, and the sense of alienation is strengthening by the day.

Rumors corrode Beijing's political legitimacy

Rumors corrode Beijing's political legitimacy

By He Qinglian on March 23, 2012

The perfect hotbed for rumors to thrive would be where the politics is opaque and where power functions in a way that is concealed from the public. China has always been full of rumors, in particular when it is the time of chaos and confusion, or when a dynasty nears its end. At present, the Chinese people in a time of Web2.0 is surrounded by all sorts of rumors, as was the case when the Qing dynasty was about to end a hundred years ago.