MEDIA IMMEDIACY: ASIA ONLINE

Originally, Xinhua had exclusive rights to cover Chinese leadership meetings. Members of the CCP Propaganda Department drew up weekly guidelines for Xinhua's stories, such as new CCP policies. Xinhua officials were then briefed on the current Party line, which stories could not contradict, and they passed the guidelines on to lower levels. In this way, the government made strategic use of the press for its own ends, such as for criticism of deviations from CCP policies.

    The late 1980s witnessed greater political openness, and newspapers began to report on previously taboo subjects such as official corruption, social problems and government failings. But journalists were warned to think about the consequences of their reports and not reveal socially harmful information. Making an example of a single corrupt official was encouraged, but coverage of demonstrations and social unrest was forbidden lest it give others ideas. Editors were to devote 80% of newspaper space to China's achievements and only 20% to shortcomings, and had to axe stories that contained "mistakes".

Iris Chang, the author of The Rape of Nanking, the Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, called on those who denied Japanese wartime atrocities to defend their positions in a nationally or internationally televised forum, AFP reported. Chang also offered to make available to them the voluminous documents, including eyewitness accounts, that she has accumulated. "These revisionists are engaged in a second rape of Nanking ã the rape of history," denounced Iris Chang. "They are determined to cleanse Japan's past."

    Earlier this month, a group of conservative Japanese scholars dismissed outright Chang's accounts of the Japanese heinous crimes against humanity when they swept into the city of Nanking in 1937. They even suggested that China itself committed brutal acts on a large scale against its own citizens before Japanese soldiers set foot in the city. The scholars further asserted that they found no evidence that up to 300,000 people were murdered in the 1937 event.
    Japan's ambassador in Washington called Chang's book "one-sided," "erroneous," and full of inaccuracies, yet he failed to produce any specifics that would support his allegation. Revision of Japan's wartime history is gaining ground in Japan. A recent Japanese movie Pride, an Instant in a Lifetime, which casts war criminal General Hideki Tojo in a heroic role, is popular in the country.
    "That is really disgusting. He wasn't a hero. He was a tyrant," said David Magee, "It was horrible, horrible. They're trying to rewrite history." Magee is the son of the missionary who filmed and recorded the Nanking massacre. The junior Magee eventually shared the materials with Chang.
[Reported by: Zhanglin LIN, CND-Global, No. GL98-092]

Gateway 2 China www.gateway2china.com
Contains information and links to Chinese news web sites. Far more interesting and important are the instructions on how to access and use the Usenet groups where a lot of the public debate on issues related to Chinese politics, human rights and corruption takes place. According to the editor these Usenet groups are accessible from within China.
    Links to sources of political, social and economic news about mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Tibet and Xinjiang available on the internet. There are also several links to sources of stock market and business data, info on the ongoing effects of the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, as well as Asian and world news which also contains information about recent developments among the global Overseas Chinese community.
    This site seeks to improve public understanding and awareness of East Asia by attempting to provide a balanced mix of links highlighting differing points of view on pressing issues.

Human Rights in China (HRIC) www.hrichina.org/
An international NGO founded by Chinese scientists and scholars in March 1989, HRIC monitors the implementation of international human rights standards in the People's Republic of China and carries out human rights advocacy and education among Chinese people inside and outside the country. (Also producing a quarterly journal, China Rights Forum).

HRIC is in daily contact with an informal nationwide network of human rights activists composed of former political prisoners, the families of current prisoners and other rights activists around the country. Our office receives telephone calls, letters and faxes from China daily. Our work on civil and political rights focuses on the core issues of arbitrary detention, political imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment and denial of rights to freedom of expression and association.

Two hundred cartoons exhibited this week at the China Art Gallery in Beijing contained accurate descriptions of every-day worries such as money worship and drug addiction. But not one poked fun at China's political leadership or so much as hinted at the communist party's monopoly of power.

"Cartoons are a very precise reflection of the times we live in," said Wang Qinghong, a visitor. "But in China, we don't criticize people, we criticize phenomena."
 

"[It] will be wrong if you start criticizing recklessly and become socially irresponsible in the name of press freedom."

          — Chinese President Jiang Zemin

Contents:

Quick Reference Sites for Immigration/Citizenship assistance, Weather, Currency conversion, Time-zone conversion and CNN Asian News.
1. China
2. Hong Kong and Macau
3. Taiwan
4. Tibet, Xinjiang and China's other Minority Nationalities
5. Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan Stock Exchanges with Business and Economic Information links and news about the Asian financial crisis.
6. Singapore
7. World and Asian News (This section includes Mandarin and Cantonese radio broadcasts, some in RealAudio format) This also includes Asian Studies and Asian-American Information Sources
8. How to View Chinese Characters on the WWW

China (English, Chinese) - News & Information Directory.
China.com (English, Chinese) - Portal.
China-Contact (English, Chinese) - Information Directory.
ChinaPages.com (English) - Business Directory.
ChinaSite.com (English) - Information Directory.
Chinascape (English, Chinese) - Information Directory.
China Today (English) - Information Directory.
China Vista (English, Chinese) - Business & Information Directory.
DragonSurf (Chinese, English) - Portal.
Gateway2China (English) - Information Directory.
SurfChina.com (English) - Search Engine.
WebGather (English, Chinese) - News Search Engine.
www.GateChina.com (English) - Portal.
Your Gateway to China (English) - Portal.
Zhaodaola.com (English, Chinese) - Portal.
GlobePage - The Web's Premier Chinese Search Engine/Asian Search Service

HONG KONG:
HKSeek (English, Chinese) - Search Engine.
Hong Kong.com (English, Chinese) - Portal.
Hong Kong Internet Directory (English) - Information Directory.
Hong Kong Yellow Pages (English, Chinese) - Business Telephone Directory.
iEarthbound (chinese,English) - Search Engine.
Internet White Pages (English) - People & BusinessTelephone Directory.
Search Dragon (English) - Asian search engine directory focusing on far eastern countries for information on businesses, governments and non-profit organizations in the Orient region.
Search HK (English) - Portal.
SpeedNet (English, Chinese) - Portal.
Timway (English, Chinese) - Portal.
Websearch HK (English) - Search Engine.
 
 

Know a good site that we've missed so far? Please send us the URL and we'll credit you as contributor!

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