Dear Editor,
Thanks for an excellent editorial on the emerging free press in China (‘China’s earthquake and the free press’ (SN, May 27). As you noted, a free press is important for the development of a nation. Unlike democracies like India, China has no tradition of a free media. In fact, ever since the Communists took control of the nation in 1949, all news has been controlled by the official news agency. Reports about local disasters were strictly prohibited. China remained a closed society until its powerful ruler Deng Xiao Ping began to open the society in 1980s a decade after Chairman Mao (the Communist founder’s) death. It was an opening that was welcomed as I found from my unauthorized conversations with Chinese in confidence and foreign students including Guyanese whom I met in Beijing.
During my first visit to China in 1985 to study religion and the Communist government on a private scholarship, I encountered a closed society that was experimenting with market reforms. Journalists were under watch and Chinese encounters with foreigners were strictly forbidden. Journalists had to stick to authorized locations. Everywhere journalists went, they were followed by the secret police. Others were also trailed. When I tried to engage in conversation with Chinese, they were driven away by police preventing much contact. The same was also true when I tried to shop from local vendors. Agents of the state instructed me and other foreigners to shop in the official foreign currency store in Beijing where prices were four times higher than the local market. Also, tourists had to change their currency for a special Yuan (Chinese currency) authorized for use by foreigners. The local Yuan could not be used for shopping and could land tourists in serious trouble. But life in China changed dramatically when I returned to the country a decade later. And when I revisited a few years ago there were more changes granting more freedom. There is not much hostility towards foreigners and retaliation against locals for meeting foreigners. People even practised religion. Churches sprang up everywhere.
Secret police did not follow tourists and people could shop anywhere using foreign currency. There is now only one Yuan used by everyone. Also, people enjoy some freedoms that were unthinkable twenty years ago. And foreign journalists are filing regular reports using state satellite transmissions and don’t have to worry about being censored. I should note that my visits to Hong Kong and Macao, two islands (city states), that were controlled by the British and Portuguese respectively a decade ago, found they still enjoy freedoms (including of the press) that they had during colonial rule although they have reverted to Chinese control.
The latest opening allowing media broadcasts of the Tibet uprising, two earthquakes and the flooding disaster should be applauded. It is too early to say if these bode well for an institutionalized open media in China.
However, it is unlikely the government will reverse the gains made by journalists in China. The Chinese leadership is pragmatic in its relations with the rest of the world. With the Olympics coming up, there is expected to be more opening up of the nation as well as greater freedom to broadcast. I should also note that the Communist leadership is allowing critique of local and regional party leaders. And in Wednesday’s New York Times, pictures showed local communist bosses pleading with people not to protest against them. Freedom is spreading in China because of these recent disasters.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
