Posted on 05/18/2008 7:02:34 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(BEIJING) - Almost as soon as the initial aftershocks stopped reverberating last week, the rumors began. Some say that frogs, insects and other animals fled shortly before the earth shook. Others insist that water mysteriously drained from ponds, or that Beijing knew the massive earthquake would strike but chose not to publicize it with the Olympics around the corner.
Patently false, perhaps, but enough to alarm the Chinese leadership.
"Stop rumors to avoid social panic and stabilize order," said an earthquake report issued Wednesday by the government of hard-hit Mianyang. On the same day, Beijing announced that it had punished four people in northern China for spreading rumors on the Internet about the quake, without explaining what the punishment was.
Rumors are an integral part of Chinese folk history, songs and poetry. Last year, authorities drained a reservoir in central Sichuan province to dispel rumors that a growling water beast lived there. In 2006 a rumor spread in Anhui province that the virus that causes AIDS was being injected into watermelons, devastating sales.
Chinese emperors long sought to halt the spread across their far-flung empire, with the first recorded anti-hearsay campaign launched by King Li nearly 3,000 years ago, despite a proverb: "Trying to stop people's mouths is like trying to stop a flood."
More enlightened rulers sent envoys out to collect rumors as barometers of underlying concerns. But many others, particularly toward the end of dynasties, initiated crackdowns during famines, floods and unrest......
Spreading rumors is a crime under anti-subversion sections of China's 1993 State Security Law and lesser provisions outlawing "anti-splittism" or "fabricating or deliberately disseminating false alarmist information."......
"Spreading rumors leads to bad results," said Lian Xiangmin, research director with the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing......
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
hi, guys, I am from China. if you have any question, you can ask me
free speech ?
Admin Cracks Down On Chinese Rumors
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