Drewbot

Of special note is article 13:

Article 13: Users have the right to publish information, but may not publish any information that:

1. Opposes the basic principles established by the constitution

2. Harms the unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of the nation

3. Reveals national secrets, endangers national security, or threatens the the honor or interests of the nation

4. Incites ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination, undermines ethnic unity, or harms ethnic traditions and customs

5. Promotes evil teachings and superstitions

6. Spreads rumors, disrupts social order, and destroys societal stability

7. Promotes illicit activity, gambling, violence, or calls for the committing of crimes

8. Calls for disruption of social order through illegal gatherings, formation of organizations, protests, demonstrations, mass gatherings and assemblies

9. Has other content which is forbidden by laws, administrative regulations and national regulations.

(Via Caijing English, via China Digital Times)

Evan Osnos is not only the best single source for understanding news out of China, he also has a superhuman knack for the 2nd paragraph recap:

Sometime in the last few days, Chen slipped out of the stone farmhouse on the rural plains of Shandong province where he has been held under house arrest, with his family, off and on since 2005. If Chen’s captors had been readers of history, they might have predicted that he would not acclimate to limitations. Born blind, to a peasant family, he once ventured four hundred miles to Beijing, when he was in his early twenties, to file a tax complaint. Later, he was steered into the study of massage and acupuncture—one of the few professions available to the blind in China—but he leveraged that opportunity into taking law courses, and became a pioneering attorney on behalf of women subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations under the one-child policy. Lastly, his captors might have done well to remember that the last time he escaped, in the summer of 2005, he slipped out of his house after nine o’clock, because the darkness gave him an advantage. This time he escaped at night once again, and made his way to Beijing with the help of accomplices. He is now believed to be under the protection of U.S. diplomats. (They have not confirmed.)

(Via The New Yorker)

The Chinese Government is tries to put their thumb over the faucet, deleting the accounts of several influential microbloggers:

On March 24, Chinese journalist Yang Haipeng drew a connection on his Sina Weibo account between a British national and the Bo family, including Mr. Bo’s son, Guagua. “Deceased: Guagua’s nanny. Nationality: British. Place: Chongqing. Handled by: Wang Lijun. Cause of death: Wang was not allowed to investigate. The body was not preserved and instead directly cremated,” said the post, which was forwarded widely before it was deleted.

On Wednesday morning, Mr. Yang’s Sina Weibo account was deleted, though the company didn’t issue a notice. In an interview, Mr. Yang confirmed the deletion and said he had more than 247,000 followers before the account was closed. This week’s crackdown shows it is “more and more dangerous” to write about the incident, he said.

“The most important effect of weibo is decentralization,” said Qiao Mu, director of the Center for International Communication Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, using the Chinese term for microblog. “Before, what the story is, who gets famous, everything was decided by the government. It was a centralized process. Now anyone can become famous. They don’t need the government’s permission. And anyone can put out news.”

Or, as the Party put it in their official statement: “Recently, criminal elements have used Sina Weibo to create and spread malicious political rumors online for no reason, producing a terrible effect on society.” It’s unusual for them to acknowledge such deletions at all. (Via WSJ)

Bloomberg issued a fantastic report two days ago detailing the financial connections of Bo Xilai’s family. The piece nicely succinctly articulated why the Chinese government is so spooked:

“The danger for them, the Chinese, is that the whole of the Politburo and their Central Committee colleagues will be exposed as a new property-owning class,” said Roderick MacFarquhar, a Harvard University professor who focuses on Chinese politics. “It’s already got out of hand. The problem for the regime is that it is now out in the public sphere.”

How big is the wealth differential? Very big:

Chinese legislators have amassed outsized assets, with the wealth of the richest 70 members of the National People’s Congress amounting to $90 billion last year, 12 times the combined wealth of the 660 top officials in the U.S. government.

Interesting that the party would take the risk of ousting Bo then. Such a move suggests that Bo’s affairs were especially broad and out of control and that the government thought they could handle the PR fallout from these events more tightly than they have.

When an official statement is lacking (as it often is), Chinese microbloggers concoct up their own explanations for government intent.

Titantic 3D launched in China with Kate Winslet’s nude scene censored, despite it being uncut from the 2D version (which was the Chinese box office champ from 1998-2009). The censors remained silent and the blogs had a field day. One fake explanation by ‘Bean Sauce Teases Your Little Sister’ stuck:

“Considering the vivid 3-D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people’s viewing. To avoid potential conflicts between viewers and out of consideration of building a harmonious ethical social environment, we’ve decided to cut off the nudity scenes,” according to an official at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

The clip went viral, was reported as fact by foreign newsrooms, which in turn cited each other until Cameron himself fell for the line:

In a subsequent blog post citing the Onion as his fake news inspiration, Bean Sauce Teases Your Sister compiled a partial list of Chinese and foreign news organizations duped by his spoof. Clearly proud of himself, he linked to a clip of James Cameron — the screenwriter, co-producer and director of “Titanic” — earnestly explaining to Steven Colbert on The Colbert Report that China’s censors feared that Chinese men would try to reach for the screen during Winslet’s nude scene. As the crowd laughs, Cameron adds: “This is true. You can’t make this up.” Bean Sauce Teases Your Little Sister declared that he’d “made the most successful fake news in many years.”

So good. (Via Bloomberg)

Evan Osnos continues to deliver amazing China coverage as the Bo case evolves:

The real-life murder mystery unfolding at the highest ranks of the Chinese government—featuring, so far, homicide, MI6, poison, Party infighting, and a police chief whose hobby involves organ transplantation—is not only a political opera that makes Berlusconi’s antics look like community theatre. It’s also the largest Communist Party convulsion since the arrival of the Web, and the juxtaposition between Party orthodoxy and today’s information culture has laid bare a fault line in the future of “enlightened authoritarianism.”

…

On Wednesday, a generation of young Chinese Web users awoke to discover, once again, that rumors had been more reliable than facts. All of this means it’s especially critical how the Party moves ahead on the Bo case: Will it openly discuss Bo’s alleged crimes? His connections to those still in power? The reasons that his wife appears to have had a foreign passport (a no-no for senior Chinese leaders’ families)? This is important because one of the curious facts is that, for all of Bo’s abuse of power and authority, his rhetoric about the working man had resonated with people. Michael Anti, the Chinese blogger and analyst, was surprised to find his Beijing cabbie denouncing the “shameless government” for “setting a trap for Bo Xilai” and “destroying a man who has helped the people.”

(Via The New Yorker)

Shanghai Daily reports:

Paper-made Apple products have become a fad during this year’s Qingming Festival, a time for the Chinese to sweep the tombs of their ancestors and burn offerings that are supposed to reach the dead in the other world.

A high-quality paper iPhone 4 and iPad 2 complete with an earphone and a battery charger cost up to a hundred yuan and more, the Beijing Morning Post reported today.

…

Some customers say they burn the paper gadgets to “let the dead relatives feel the development of the society,” the report said.