Journalists, Activist, Noobs working/protesting in China or about China(don’t forget Cold War).

Well, the Cold War thing is a bit of a joke, but you’ll get the point if you read it.

This is for people who report, talk about or need to publically demonstrate their pov about what they see or hear in China.

I do not have any previous personal experiences about being a journalist in China. I have followed up on a few who do. I don’t know if a journalist visa would be a bane or boon to you. There were a lot of talk of “greater” press “freedom” last year when everything was bright and peachy, but given the current situation and embarrassment they have faced, I wouldn’t count on any “freedom of the press”. If any of you can read/understand Chinese, read or watch some China Daily/CCTV4. Given the fact that they have blocked ALL shots about the protesters in SF and etc, I doubt most people in China really knows how the temper is outside.

Anyway, this isn’t about how bad or crappy or politically unjust China is. This is about how to deal with the reality of living in or with a CCP country.

All Chinese internet use are monitored to a certain extent. They even introduced 2 online police agent programs this year that are suppose to run when you are on a politically sensitive/or yellow (nude or adult) websites. Technically these programs/or real online police agents (not sure how exactly it’s suppose to work, I am leaning against the later) will block the site in question and track your ip address to report you. I have not personally heard anyone gotten arrested by these online cops. Most of the time, any young guns assigned to these flashy jobs are important sons and daughters of the party cadres. It’s considered to be a career stepping stone and not a real job to put effort into. Most of the time, the traffic is too big to block anything useful, and they just use the firewall to filter out the usual suspects, like major news networks. CBC seems to be the least blocked of major news websites, so you can try that. (maybe we aren’t a threat? )

Proxy servers and encrypted e-mails are probably standard if you have anything that will get somebody in major trouble. As for who or what to use, take your pick, they are everywhere online.

All landlines and (possibly) cellphone communications are monitored to a certain extent as well. You should be happy that too many people own cellphones for anybody to actually monitor anything with any accuracy, but if they go ahead with the Chinese 3G standard, have fun. Most of the time, only the communication to and from politically sensitive locations and in and out of the country (especially TW or US) are probably heavily monitored. I don’t know about SMS, but given the amount of junk mail I receive everyday, I wouldn’t want to be the one reading all that.

If you are calling just to BS with friends and family, I wouldn’t worry. If you are talking about anything important, mix your languages a bit, and throw in a bit of accent. That usually throws most Chinese translators up.

Fax. Apparently, fax is the way to go(as long as you own the fax machine). According to a personal friend who is a high level political adviser, fax can’t be intercepted by the Chinese. I don’t know how much stock I can put in this theory, but she is still alive and doing well.

Last but not least, the human factor. Look, if you are just an average Joe/Jane trying to do your thing somewhere in China without causing a ruckus, you’ll probably be fine. If you are someone important, like say a CEO of a medium or large cap company, a journalist for an important newspaper/news channel, be very careful. One Chinese president once boasted that he knows how many time Rupert Murdoch had sex with his new wife when she was just his extra marital girlfriend in Chinese hotels.

Extreme? Yes. True? Very likely.

Moral of the story? China is a Communist country, get that through your skull first. As soon as you forget that after seeing all the lights and colors, you will probably be on a list somewhere. It ain’t monolithic like the Cold War, but it ain’t Sweden either.