Posted on 01/02/2002 12:56:37 PM PST by super175
The fight against corruption is among the many challenges that confront China following its entry into the World Trade Organisation.
But by excluding and, in some cases, persecuting some of the country's best journalists for their investigative efforts, the Government's anti-corruption campaign is looking more like a fox guarding a very well-stocked hen-house.
As part of the campaign, a recent People's Daily article laid out guidelines for officials: ''They should observe discipline ... [and] readily accept supervision by party organisations and the masses ... This is what the party and people demand of them, and it is where the hope of the party and people lies.''
Recent trends have not been encouraging. In 1999, Jiang Weiping wrote a series of articles for the Shanghai-based Wen Hui Bao newspaper and the Hong Kong-based Qianshao magazine revealing corruption among local officials in northeastern cities.
One of his stories alleged Shenyang vice-mayor Ma Xiangdong had gambled away 30 million yuan (HK$28.2 million) of public funds in Macau casinos. Another detailed the arrest of Daqing mayor Qian Dihua, who had, among other crimes, used illegally obtained funds to buy cars and flats for each of his 29 mistresses.
Jiang also alleged party rising star and former Dalian mayor Bo Xilai had covered up some graft cases.
Jiang, an award-winning veteran reporter for Xinhua, the Dalian Daily and other publications, said he wrote the articles to express ''confidence and determination in the party's anti-corruption efforts''.
On September 5, Jiang was sentenced to nine years' jail. On December 5, 2000, he was arrested and taken to a navy base where, in mid-winter, he was kept for several months in a room without heating. He was also denied contact with his family.
On November 20, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists gave the 2001 International Press Freedom Award to Jiang.
The Government did not question the truth of Jiang's reporting. In fact, Ma's case was later widely publicised. Ma was executed on December 19 and Qian was jailed.
Jiang had exposed official abuses of power without approval from the party, and for that he was charged with crimes including revealing state secrets and conspiring to subvert state power.
He may have crossed an especially dangerous line. Bo Xilai is well connected in Beijing and enjoys the support of his father, party elder Bo Yibo.
While Jiang sits in a prison cell, Bo Xilai has been promoted to Liaoning governor.
Jiang's friends and colleagues say he just wanted to be a good journalist.
Gao Qinrong had similar intentions when in 1998, as a Xinhua reporter, he reported that an irrigation project in Shanxi province was a scam, and that local officials had embezzled 280 million yuan in the process. While his reports were initially carried in the official media, Gao was later imprisoned and given a 13-year sentence.
Prominent intellectuals issued an open letter on November 8 calling for his release and seven members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference introduced a motion at this year's National People's Congress meeting calling for a retrial.
Jiang wrote in a poem to his daughter from prison: ''This world contains so many things that are not eternal: status, money, reputation and power; only truth and justice truly rule the drama of human life.'' This lesson is one that needs to be heard by China's leaders.
It is with courageous journalists such as Jiang Weiping and Gao Qinrong that the true hope of the party and the people lies.
Sophie Beach is the Asia researcher for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
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