Beijing censors online chatter on protests

BEIJING – Chinese officials have moved quickly to control news reports of pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, with a directive from the central propaganda department in Beijing ordering websites to delete any mention of the unrest.

Chinese news websites that had discussed the protests mostly posted a short article from state news agency Xinhua that gave few details. Some sites published editorial essays from the Global Times, a state-run newspaper, taking a typically hard line.

Yesterday, the Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid, said protesters were “jeopardising the global image of Hong Kong” and accused foreign media of making a “groundless comparison” with Tiananmen to “mislead and stir up Hong Kong society”.

A more incendiary Chinese op-edpublished in the Global Times by Mr Wang Qiang, a scholar at the Shanghai Institute of Armed Police, said if the Hong Kong police could not control the situation, the Chinese military would intervene.

Yesterday, an essay in the People’s Daily by Mr Li Shenming, deputy director of China’s National People’s Congress Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, underscored the party’s deep aversion to political liberalisation of the kind sought by Hong Kong’s democracy advocates.

“In today’s China, engaging in an election system of one-man-one-vote is bound to quickly lead to turmoil, unrest and even a situation of civil war.”

China’s censors, who have barred most online discussions of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, have not blocked searches for the movement’s nickname, Umbrella Revolution, although it may not survive much longer.

Chinese Internet users were still able to post under the hashtag Umbrella Revolution in Chinese and English on Sina Weibo, China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging service, on Monday and yesterday.

China blocks popular foreign sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, fearing the uncensored sharing of images and information among the nation’s more than 600 million users could cause social instability.

“Facing a strong opponent, we can only use umbrellas!” said a user on Sina Weibo. Another said “Let BJ see the light #umbrella revolution#”, in an apparent reference to Beijing.

It was unclear why the Umbrella Revolution search remained open on Sina Weibo, even though it was blocked on Tencent Weibo, another popular microblogging service. AGENCIES