Thread: Coup in China ?

Something is happening in China, apparently tanks were seen in the streets in Beijing and activists blogs went to overdrive

now the authority has stepping in and shutting down all "unapproved" internet activity

it seems to be linked to some dude being deposed recently, and the death of a Brit highly involved in some elite politics

wtf is going on ? markets will be crashing on Monday, be ready

BBC News - China arrests over coup rumours

Chinese police have arrested six people and shut 16 websites after rumours were spread that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing, officials say.

The web posts were picked up last week by media outlets around the world, amid uncertainty caused by the ouster of top political leader Bo Xilai.

...

Chongqing case

China's top leaders are grappling with the biggest political crisis they have faced for years, the BBC's Michael Bristow reports from Beijing.

The country will begin a once-in-a-decade leadership change later this year. But one of the main contenders for promotion - Bo Xilai - has just been sacked, suggesting a fierce fight behind the scenes for control of the ruling Communist Party.

Mr Bo was removed from his post amid allegations that his police chief and former ally had tried to seek asylum at a US consulate.

Chinese censors had previously blocked searches on various sites for terms linked to Mr Bo.

There have also been lurid, and unsubstantiated, rumours that Mr Bo's fall was also linked to the death of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who last year was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, the city where Mr Bo was Communist Party chief.

Sina, Tencent Shut Down Commenting on Microblogs - WSJ.com

Briton Who Died in China Expressed Fears to Friends - WSJ.com

All quiet round here.

Internet sites closed I believe there are 17 so far due to , "gossip," according to BBC reports. Further speculation by the BBC has not been forthcoming. Perhaps BF has an inside connection? Markets falling and all....hummmm, dirnking over the weekend Butters?

I would think that Koojo's bike rides has set off a shit storm in Bejing and has become all the rage. Troops heard to be firing shots at passing Chinese bicycle riders carrying loafs of French bread. Koojo has gone "Stealth."

China detains six over coup rumours, halts microblog posts
Bill Smith
Mar 31, 2012

Beijing - Chinese authorities have detained six people for spreading rumours that fuelled speculation of a possible coup attempt, and have ordered microblogging websites to suspend their comment functions to allow a 'clean-up,' media reports said Saturday.

State media said police had detained six people and closed 16 websites accused of spreading rumours of military vehicles entering Beijing and possible political upheaval.

There has been no evidence of any unusual troop movement in Beijing since the rumours began circulating on March 19.

The rumours followed the removal on March 15 of Chongqing regional Communist Party leader Bo Xilai, who was previously tipped to win a top national post after the party's five-yearly congress in October.

A notice on the popular Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo, operated by Sina.com, said its comments function would be suspended for 72 hours from early Saturday.

The Tencent microblogging site, t.qq.com, said its comment function was suspended for the same period after it had been used to repost 'harmful information.'

It said the clean-up was ordered because of the 'unhealthy social impact of rumours and other illegal information spread through microblogging.'

The official Xinhua news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying Sina and Tencent had also been 'criticized and punished' over the spread of the political rumours.

'Political change is a rumour, political reform is also a rumour,' well-known artist and dissident Ai Weiwei posted on Twitter on Saturday in response to the suspension of microblog comments.

Ai was apparently referring to remarks by Premier Wen Jiabao, who publicly criticized Bo one day before his sacking was announced and said the ruling party must allow 'political reform' or risk a return to the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Wen's remarks were seen as a rebuke to conservative supporters of Bo who oppose the party's policy of gradual political reform towards one-party 'socialist democracy.'

Several powerful security and military leaders were believed to have backed Bo, including Zhou Yongkang, China's top public security official.

Zhou was the only one of the nine members of the all-powerful Standing Committee of the party's Politburo to oppose a decision to oust Bo at a meeting on March 7, the New York Times reported on Friday.

State media have reported Zhou's attendance and comments at several party and public meetings since March 7, suggesting that he is working normally.

A commentary on Saturday in People's Daily, the party's official newspaper, urged people to ignore 'external noise,' gossip and rumours, and to 'seek progress while ensuring stability.'

But rumours linked to Bo's demise continued to circulate Saturday, including speculation that a scandal preceding his removal from Chongqing was spurred by an investigation of the death of a British man with connections to Bo's family.

The scandal began after Wang Lijun, Chongqing's former police chief, entered a US consulate in China on February 6.

Wang stayed in the consulate overnight before leaving voluntarily, US officials said while declining to say what he did there.

Chinese authorities later said Wang was under investigation for unspecified offences.

The latest rumours claimed that Bo had sidelined Wang because the celebrated 'super cop' was investigating Bo's wife's links to the death of the British man in Chongqing in November.

Despite his removal from Chongqing, Bo retains a seat on the 25-member Politburo.

Another rumour on the US-based Chinese dissident website Boxun.com on Saturday said Bo's supporters had persuaded top leaders to give him a seat in the Politburo's Standing Committee in October and a new post as state vice premier.

Boxun quoted sources as saying the Standing Committee agreed the compromise on condition that Bo would report regularly to the new party leader and state premier, expected to be Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, respectively.

Some 200 million of China's estimated 500 million internet users hold microblog accounts.

news.monstersandcritics.com

ps China is in Asia I bbelieve ......................

.

The BBC is keeping quiet, apparently they don't want to be kicked out of Beijing overnight

it's possible that there is a serious political war going on that is starting to surface now,

Originally Posted by Butterfly

The BBC is keeping quiet, apparently they don't want to be kicked out of Beijing overnight

it's possible that there is a serious political war going on that is starting to surface now,

Better guess that underlying and inner-political disputes have been occurring for some time.

A coup [as we know it]? I doubt it.
These hidden elite changes are probably very common within the secretive halls.

Those Chongching fuckers have been well and truly caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Central government wont mention it as it would cause big loss of face

Originally Posted by Koojo

Those Chongching fuckers have been well and truly caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Central government wont mention it as it would cause big loss of face

So, what's the feeling locally, Cuj?

Fill us in.

The main question.....

Will this affect the flavour of foods in Chinese restaurants?

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Originally Posted by Koojo

Those Chongching fuckers have been well and truly caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Central government wont mention it as it would cause big loss of face

So, what's the feeling locally, Cuj?

Fill us in.

Today and tomorrow are workdays because the weekend has been moved to Mon Tues because Wednesday is Qing Ming festival (tomb sweeping) and they've put it together so people get 3 days in a row. That means many people will be doing what I am and taking Th and Fri as personal days to make it a full week.
So the feeling on the ground is pretty up beat.
Truth is most people don't know whats going on and if they did they wouldn't really care if it didn't directly affect them.
The shops are busy, people are buying cars, there are new roads everday and here at least the money and effort spent on landscaping public areas is impessive.
Disaster may well be just around the corner, but today, things are looking good, and as long as that is the case the people mostly couldn't care less about the fate of a corrupt provincial polititian or two.
The BBC needs something to beat up I suppose.

Having said that I wouldn't mind knowing more about that pommy Journo that bit it.
For years the BBC was banned here, wouldn't take much for them to be banned again I'd say.

Originally Posted by nostromo

Another EU campaign to put down China. Well, it was not very successful... old europe vs China and SE Asia, I know where I stand...

Well being Chinese, of course, a more nationalistic people I can't imagine.

Censorship in China: Crackdown on bloggers as rumours of coup swirl

Six people are held and 16 websites shut down as political crisis grips Beijing after sacking

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• Tania Branigan
• The Observer, Sunday 1 April 2012

Microbloggers in China have become increasingly bold about discussing political developments online. Photograph: Stringer Shanghai/Reuters

China has intensified online censorship by closing 16 websites, taking the toughest steps yet against major microblogs and detaining six people for spreading rumours of a coup amid Beijing's most serious political crisis for years.
The moves underline official anxieties ahead of this year's leadership transition, particularly since the sacking of Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai led to widespread speculation about infighting at the top.
As the mood on microblogs grew increasingly febrile, there were even claims of an attempted coup in the Chinese capital – complete with photographs of military vehicles that turned out to be from a parade three years ago.
State news agency Xinhua said Beijing police detained six people for spreading rumours of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing". Citing a spokesman for the state internet information office, it said the claims were "fabricated by some lawless people" and had been a bad influence on the public.
The office also closed 16 websites for allegedly spreading the rumours.
The spokesman said that Sina and Tencent, the organisations which operate China's most popular versions of Twitter, and which each have hundreds of millions of microbloggers, had pledged to strengthen their managements after being "criticised and punished". The two firms have disabled their comment functions for three days.
Internet users have become increasingly bold in their willingness to discuss current affairs and even sensitive political news, prompting officials to seek new ways of reining them in. From two weeks ago real name registration is supposed to be in force for all users of the Sina and Tencent services, although several users say they have posted material without having given their details.
"By falsely packaging lies and speculation as 'truth' and 'existence', online rumours undermine the morale of the public, and, if out of control, they will seriously disturb the public order and affect social stability," said a commentary in the People's Daily, the official Communist party newspaper.
"Tackling 'rumours' is the way they are sugar-coating this intensified control. It seems relentless," said David Bandurski, of Hong Kong University's China Media Project. "This is a phenomenon we will probably see through the rest of the year. For China this is the ultimate sensitive year.
"I have no doubt they will keep exploring ways to disrupt the conversation on [microblogs] as much as they have to [by] keeping control of discussion on sensitive issues and speculation, some of it well-grounded."
With original posts still allowed, tens of thousands of microbloggers left comments attacking the decision.
Investor Wang Ran told his 1.5 million followers over the weekend: "What happened today reminds us again how important, imperative and remote is the use of law to rule China.
"Without using law to rule China, we can't avoid danger, or absurdity."
Property tycoon Zhang Xin, who has more than 3 million followers, wrote: "What is the best way to stop 'rumours'? It is transparency and openness. The more speech is discouraged, the more rumours there will be."
"The underlying problem is that you can't get the truth out of the government, so you might as well believe stuff flying around on the internet," agreed Jeremy Goldkorn, who runs the Danwei website on Chinese media. "But what this does is remind everyone who is in charge … Sina and Tencent are going to be pretty cautious and I think will be stepping up censorship: this is a shot across the bows."
Some have asked why rumours about senior political leaders – particularly Bo – have circulated for so long recently, given that censors are usually quick to delete such speculation.
"I do get the sense that some things have been tolerated that perhaps in other times would not be. Certainly, it seems it's been allowed that enough has been circulated about Bo Xilai to blacken his name," said Goldkorn.
In a separate move, police in Beijing said they had arrested more than 1,000 suspects, deleted more than 208,000 "harmful" online messages and punished 70 internet companies that defied warnings in a crackdown on web-related crimes. The spokesman said that the "Spring Breeze" campaign focused on information relating to smuggling firearms, drugs and toxic chemicals, as well as the sale of human organs, counterfeit certificates and invoices, and trade in personal data.

Censorship in China: Crackdown on bloggers as rumours of coup swirl | World news | The Observer

Prpoganda machine is in full swing, talking heads all over the radio this morning whipping up patriotic fervour, reminding everyone that "We Chinese ....blah blah, damned foregners...blah blah...curse the Japanese...blah blah..."

ok, so China is in full damage control, something must have happened

split in the military command ? let's not forget this country background,

China is a place where politics, in every sense of the word, is conducted behind closed doors- the opposite of transparency. There is fierce infighting, naturally, as there is in any political system. The development of the country in an economic and societal sense has been quite astonishing the last three decades, and I believe that it has left it's political system looking rather anachronostic to keep up with these changes. I'm sure this is not the last we will hear of political instability in China. Attempts to suppress information are only doomed to failure in the information age- to put it colloquially they are trying to push shit uphill with a pointed stick.

bicycles are banned from bread stores, hotel lobbies and coffee shops due to overt compulsive behavior by certain members of the cycling class. Infiltration by Harrumph A-holes have contributed to the downfall of bicycle freedoms action committee chairman Koojo. Web sites that indulged in propaganda supporting spontaneous acts of freedom were closed by the "Ain't no freedom allowed party."

A general strike is expected across the entire nation including those sub-nations of Taiwan, Tibet, Mongolia and the isles off Formosa. bicyclists are expected to form mass mobile human wave attacks against those in brown shirts and carrying sub-machine guns in defense of their inability to express free thought or actions.

The stock market of China does not expect/anticipate any disruption to the normal daily manipulation of their plastic stock market. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have offered their financial support of all things communist, but please don't ask them to support America or Americans.

No further word on any of these issues has been noted on either the BBC or CNN networks for the common good of all socialists world wide disinformation central. Stay tuned for photos of the coming demonstrators and Koojo's speech to the international free thinkers society in Beijing.

Originally Posted by Koojo

Having said that I wouldn't mind knowing more about that pommy Journo that bit it.
For years the BBC was banned here, wouldn't take much for them to be banned again I'd say.

Koojo, do you mean Neil Percival Heywood ?

If so, there is some doubt that he was a journalist.
His accountant says he had a UK company and paid UK tax on freelance articles for The Economist, but The Economist say they can find no trace of him having ever worked for them . It would seem he was a very well connected, Mandarin speaking 'consigliere'.
A friend of Bo Xilai and his family.
The Chinese say he died from excessive alcohol consumption (he was not know as a heavy drinker) and he had already been cremated without a full autopsy. However his family were informed (by the FCO) that he died of a heart attack.

You can read a full article about in in the Saturday FT by Jamil Anderlini and Sally Gainsbury

[QUOTE=Koojo;2061043]

Originally Posted by nostromo

Another EU campaign to put down China. Well, it was not very successful... old europe vs China and SE Asia, I know where I stand...

Well being Chinese, of course, a more nationalistic people I can't imagine.
[QUOTE]

Are everyone not nationalistic to a degree. What is wrong about being proud of who you are and where you come from? What is wrong with having an identity? It does not mean hitting anyone other in the face. It makes us who we are and maintains our sanity - believing in something while life sucks.

I know, being at first a gwailo, it takes some time to adjust to China.

Expressions of Chinese Nationalism can be found in Mongolia and Tibet. As well if allowed one could dig up the millions killed for crimes against the communist party.

I'm sure that people in Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany et al would like to remind everyone of the sense of Nationality expressed by their captors the USSR during the years after WWII. How many people beleive in a sense of Nationality when they are being beaten to death by a philosophy of hate?

Originally Posted by ltnt

Expressions of Chinese Nationalism can be found in Mongolia and Tibet. As well if allowed one could dig up the millions killed for crimes against the communist party.

I'm sure that people in Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany et al would like to remind everyone of the sense of Nationality expressed by their captors the USSR during the years after WWII. How many people beleive in a sense of Nationality when they are being beaten to death by a philosophy of hate?

Do not mix China with communism - past is past. China has a long history. Mao is dead. Now there is less real communism in China than in European Union. (How did I get to mentioniong EU again... buaa with that)

Gas bags.

Ending the Internet rumour mill
Chow How Ban
09-04-2012

Chinese authorities have begun a crackdown on rumour-mongers who use the Net to cause confusion. The most recent rumour was about Chinese troops taking over Beijing following the removal of a top municipal Communist Party official.

Over dinner with a few fellow journalists on March 19, rumours that the Chinese military troops had taken over Beijing spread around the table and alarm bells rang.

Our immediate feeling was that it was impossible that the Chinese capital would be turned into chaos.

We concluded that there was only a small possibility that the supporters of ousted Chongqing municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai could cause problems for the Chinese leadership.

The rumours came days after the party’s announcement of the removal of the influential politician from the top Chongqing post and his position in the city’s party standing committee.

Alhough there had not been any official explanation for Bo’s sacking, it is believed that it was linked to the incident where Bo’s former second man and the city’s police chief and vice-mayor Wang Lijun had allegedly visited the US consulate office in Chengdu to seek asylum and expose the purported corruption of Bo.

On March 30, the Beijing police finally confirmed that the so-called security tension was merely a rumour and six people were held for spreading false news on the Internet.

The cops said the suspects had admitted their wrongdoing and apologised.

Meanwhile, the telecom administration department said they closed 16 websites and gave a warning to the Sina and QQ weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) platforms for not preventing the spread of the rumours.

The authorities said making use of the Internet to create and spread rumours would confuse the public and cause social disorder.

Internet users had been urged to abide by the laws and help maintain the healthy development of the cyberspace.

In recent months, the authorities have cracked down on rumour mills. In one case, a man from Henan pro[at]vince started a rumour that a HIV/AIDS patient from Xinjiang had used his blood to contaminate food to spread the disease to others and sent it to a woman in Zhengzhou city via SMS.

Other ‘news’ included stories such as “Wuhan university student had her kidney cut off and was eventually killed”, “Yuxi will be hit by 8.6- magnitude earthquake”, “village children in Qianxi robbed for their kidneys” and “Hainan student was inebriated and gang-raped”. All proved to be false.

Following the arrest of the rumour-mongers who created the news that the military troops had taken over Beijing, many Netizens lauded the move.

“Qingcheng” from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia autonomous region said: “Nowadays the world is filled with rumour-mongers. It will become more harmful if we do not strictly punish the perpetrators.”

Another Netizen “gchgyz” from Hebei province said many quarters in China and abroad would want to cause problems in the country and the authorities should be resolute in stopping them.

“It was no wonder the Sina weibo closed its comments forum,” said another Internet user.

In its editorial published last Sunday, the state newspaper Peo[at][at]-ple’s Daily said some quarters had become more audacious in creating news out of thin air and spreading them like wildfire.

“We should not be lenient when it comes to punishing those who create and spread false news on the Internet. Sometimes a serious incident breaks out because of widespread rumours that fan public emotions that can further aggravate the situation,” it said.

asianewsnet

Global Times said rumours of such nature should not be overlooked as China was going through an important year when the Chinese Com[at]munist Party’s 18th congress would be held around September and the nation was facing the challenges of an economic transformation.

China Youth Daily said it was time for parents and teachers to educate the younger generation to be responsible people.

Originally Posted by Bower

Originally Posted by Koojo

Having said that I wouldn't mind knowing more about that pommy Journo that bit it.
For years the BBC was banned here, wouldn't take much for them to be banned again I'd say.

Koojo, do you mean Neil Percival Heywood ?

If so, there is some doubt that he was a journalist.
His accountant says he had a UK company and paid UK tax on freelance articles for The Economist, but The Economist say they can find no trace of him having ever worked for them . It would seem he was a very well connected, Mandarin speaking 'consigliere'.
A friend of Bo Xilai and his family.
The Chinese say he died from excessive alcohol consumption (he was not know as a heavy drinker) and he had already been cremated without a full autopsy. However his family were informed (by the FCO) that he died of a heart attack.

You can read a full article about in in the Saturday FT by Jamil Anderlini and Sally Gainsbury

Its being reported that Bo Xilai's wife has been arrested and is under investigation for the murder of Neil Percival Heywood.