The “Southern Weekend” incident in Guangdong Province, in which the weekly paper’s New Year’s editorial was replaced under the order of the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has yet to be fully settled some two weeks after it came to light.

　　　The editors threatened to go on strike to protest the interference from the authorities, held negotiations with management with the province’s Communist Party Committee acting as arbitrator, and agreed to publish the next issue dated January 10. A walkout was thus averted, but the fundamental issue remains unresolved. Let us quickly review the incident.

　　　The editors initially planned to run an editorial in their weekly’s January 3^rd issue, titled “Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism,” calling for proper implementation of the Chinese constitution so as to create a nation that safeguards democracy and freedom. Such a stance challenges head-on the thinking of the Xi Jinping regime, which does not permit freedom of thought or freedom of speech, declaring that the CCP must control all ideology.

　　　The propaganda department of Guandong Province had taken issue with the editorial submitted, ordering that it be replaced with an editorial praising the CCP and its “dream to realize the great renewal of the Chinese nation” – Xi’s favorite slogan, reflecting his advocacy of Sinocentrism for the 21^st century.

　　　On January 4, when replacement of the editorial was made public, Hua Chunyin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, brazenly declared that China doesn’t have censorship in journalism, adding: “The central government protects press freedom according to the law…” On the night of January 6, the management of the Southern Weekend issued a statement relieving Tue Zhen, the propaganda chief of Guandong Province, of his responsibility for intervening in the matter. The reporters bitterly objected to this measure, deciding to go on strike in protest. Nearly 100 editorial staff signed the strike petition.

　　　Against such a backdrop, a group of Chinese lawyers within China announced they would defend those connected with the editorial department should any of them be treated unfairly because of the incident. In addition, 27 professors and assistant professors at the University of Beijing and National Tsinghua University demanded the dismissal of Zhen, who had in actuality ordered the editorial in question replaced.

Beginning of the End of Communist Rule over China

　　　On January 7, the Global Times subsidized by the CCP’s official organ, the People’s Daily, carried an editorial threatening that anyone openly opposing  the CCP would “end up being a loser.”

　　　On January 9, the president of the New Beijing Daily, a sister paper of the Southern Weekend, announced his resignation in protest against an order to run a reprint of the overbearing Global Times editorial. In the evening of the same day, however, the Southern Weekend management announced the strike had been settled and that the second issue of the year would be published on January 10.

　　　A perfunctory settlement was thus brought about. However, the core problems that engendered the incident remain unresolved. Fundamentally, the Southern Weekend gets strong support from the public for its advocacy of political reform, which had been long neglected by the Communist Party. An exclusive interview they had with President Obama on November 18, 2009, is a typical example of the fierceness with which the Southern Weekend editors have been tackling issues regarding political reform over the years.

　　　Comments Satoshi Tomisaka, a Japanese specialist on Chinese affairs:

　　　“When the Southern Weekend did the exclusive interview, President Obama presented its editors with a handwritten message complimenting them on pursuing freedom of the press. The weekly planned to run the interview on its front page the following day, November 19, with photos of President Obama and the message. However, the local authorities put a complete stop to that. As a result, only a short article, with no photos, appeared on page two. The weekly also left the front page and most of page two blank – an expression of its editors’ solid determination to not bow to pressure. The advertising department of the weekly later expelled its editor-in-chief under the pretext of “a regular personnel reshuffle.”

　　　That the authorities have since intervened to make changes to the editorial content of the weekly a stunning total of 1,034 times over the past year shows how edgy the propaganda department of the Communist Party of Guandong is towards the weekly. Simple arithmetic shows they demanded rewrites or deletions an average of 20 times a week, assuming its issues came out regularly for 52 weeks straight.

　　　Professor Willie Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who teaches Chinese politics at Akita University in northern Japan, shares his views on the Southeastern Weekend incident:

　　　“In the past, virtually every case in which communist authorities demanded editorial rewrites ended merely with a protest by the media outlet concerned. What makes the latest incident very different is that the nucleus of protesters has spread amazingly far and wide. It is really the first time in China that we have witnessed the base of support for protest extend from reporters and editors to groups of famous university professors and leading lawyers, and even peasants.

　　　As Prof. Lam correctly points out, farmers in Guandong Province took action, supporting the Southern Weekend in the dispute. On January 12, some 20 of them from neighboring Foshan City hurried to Guangzhou to demonstrate support for the editors outside the weekly’s headquarters, only to be taken into custody by the police. The influential Japanese daily The Asahi Shimbun reported in its morning edition on January 14 that Chinese farmers obviously realized the importance of freedom of the press after the New Capital Daily, a subsidiary of the Southern Weekend, reported extensively on cases involving illicit and compulsory expropriations of farmers’ land by the local governments.

　　　That the Southern Weekend has managed to amass wide-ranging support clearly demonstrates that voices calling for democratization are steadily spreading across more strata of Chinese society in an increasingly sophisticated manner. The CCP will never succeed in continuing to suppress public discontent, no matter what tactics it may decide to resort to. I suspect that the very first step is finally being taken in China now towards the day when the CCP’s one-party rule will be brought to a conclusion with the people across the country rising up in unison to escalate their criticism against the CCP.

Democracy in Word Only

　　　Those in China calling for democracy are utilizing far cleverer means than before in moving Chinese society forward. It was in 2008 that Chinese human rights activists, including the 2010 Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiabo, published “Charter 08” demanding drastic political reform. Liu is still imprisoned for inciting subversion of state power, while his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest.

　　　Support for Liu and other Chinese dissidents has never weakened at home or abroad. At the end of last year, just when power was being transferred from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, some 70 Chinese intellectuals issued a petition calling on the new Communist Party leaders to implement political reform. Points out Tomisaka:

　　　“They circulated a ‘petition for democracy’ via the Internet. They are university professors and lawyers who are quite different from the radical activists ordinarily associated with anti-party protests or petitions. The roster showed the names of credible individuals whose ideas are likely to shape the mainstream of public opinion, if they step forward and make their case. Their demands are far from radical, as they are only calling on the new leadership to simply realize the values already stated in the Chinese constitution. Specifically, the concrete measures proposed in their petition are easy to understand, such as the eradication of corruption and implementation of regulation against abuse of authority. In short, this group has called for measures which cannot but win the support of most people, forcing the CCP into a corner where it will be hard-pressed to find excuses for not acting on their proposals. I think it is fair to say that the CCP is finally losing its authority, its power showing growing signs of going downhill. ”

　　　Incidentally, the Chinese constitution covers such matters as respect for democracy, needless to say, as well as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other freedoms, as well as protection of the weak, concern for the environment, and so on. It is a democracy in words only though, and the CCP’s one-party rule is clearly beginning to show signs of weakening now that a broad range of the Chinese people are increasingly unwilling to live with that profound discrepancy.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 542 in the January 24, 2013 issue of The Weekly Shincho)