Access to Information in the People's Republic of China ______
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ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA HEARING BEFORE THE U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION _________ JULY 31, 2007 _________ Printed for use of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission Available via the World Wide Web: www.uscc.gov UNITED STATES-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION WASHINGTON : OCTOBER 2007 U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION CAROLYN BARTHOLOMEW, Chairman DANIEL BLUMENTHAL, Vice Chairman Commissioners: PETER T.R. BROOKES Hon. WILLIAM A. REINSCH Hon. C. RICHARD D’AMATO Hon. DENNIS C. SHEA MARK ESPER PETER VIDENIEKS JEFFREY FIEDLER MICHAEL R. WESSEL KERRI HOUSTON LARRY M. WORTZEL T. SCOTT BUNTON, Executive Director KATHLEEN J. MICHELS, Associate Director The Commission was created on October 30, 2000 by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for 2001 § 1238, Public Law No. 106-398, 114 STAT. 1654A-334 (2000) (codified at 22 U.S.C.§ 7002 (2001), as amended by the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for 2002 § 645 (regarding employment status of staff) & § 648 (regarding changing annual report due date from March to June), Public Law No. 107-67, 115 STAT. 514 (Nov. 12, 2001); as amended by Division P of the "Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003," Pub L. No. 108-7 (Feb. 20, 2003) (regarding Commission name change, terms of Commissioners, and responsibilities of Commission); as amended by Public Law No. 109-108 (H.R. 2862) (Nov. 22, 2005) (regarding responsibilities of Commission and applicability of FACA). The Commission’s full charter http://www.uscc.gov/about/charter.php and Statutory Mandate http://www.uscc.gov/about/overview.php available via the World Wide Web ii CONTENTS _____ TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007 ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Opening statement of Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew ……………………… 1 Opening statement of Commissioner Kerri Houston, Hearing Cochair………. 2 PANEL I: ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVES Statement of Mr. Jay Henderson, Director, East Asia and Pacific Division, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., represented by Mr. William Baum, Chief, China Branch, Voice of America and accompanied by Mr. Ken Berman, Director, Information Technology International Broadcasting Bureau, Washington, D.C….. 5 Prepared statement ………………………………………………………………. 9 Statement of Mr. Dan Southerland, Vice President of Programming and Executive Director, Radio Free Asia, Washington, D.C……………………………………… 13 Prepared statement ………………………………………………………………. 18 Panel I: Discussion, Questions and Answers …………………………………… 24. PANEL II: THE STATE OF CHINA’S INFORMATION CONTROLS Statement of Mr. XIAO Qiang, Director, China Internet Project, the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley, California…………. 46 Prepared statement ……………………………………………………………… 50 Statement of Dr. Ashley Esarey, Luce Fellow of Asian Studies, and Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics, Middlebury, College, Middlebury, Vermont Prepared statement……………………………………………………………… 54 Panel II: Discussion, Questions and Answers …………………………………… 58 PANEL III: CONGRESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES Statement of Mr. Frank Wolf, a U.S. Representative from the State of Virginia….. 76 Panel III: Discussion, Questions and Answers …………………………………… 78 iii PANEL IV: PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT – WHO KNOWS WHAT IN THE PRC Statement of Ms. HE Qinglian, Senior Researcher in Residence, Human Rights in China, New York, New York, accompanied by CHENG Xiaonong…………… 82 Prepared statement………………………………………………………………. 88 Statement of Dr. Barrett McCormick, Professor, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin………………………………………………………………………….. 90 Panel IV: Discussion, Questions and Answers……………………………………. 95 PANEL V: THE IMPACT OF PRC INFORMATION CONTROLS ON THE UNITED STATES Statement of Dr. Scott Gottlieb, MD, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C…………………………………………………………. 108 Statement of Mr. Drew Thompson, Director of China Studies and Starr Senior Fellow, Nixon Center, Washington, D.C……………………………………………112 Prepared statement…………………………………………………………………117 Panel V: Discussion, Questions and Answers…………………………………....... 117 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUPPLIED FOR THE RECORD Statement of Alcee Hastings, a U.S. Representative from the State of Florida……. 135 Statement of Tom Harkin, a U.S. Representative from the State of Iowa…………..136 Statement of Dr. Oded Shenkar, Professor, Fisher School of Management, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio……………………………………………..138 iv ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA _________ TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007 U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION Washington, D.C. The Commission met in Room 385, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. at 9:25 a.m., Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew and Commissioner Kerri Houston (Hearing Cochairs), presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CAROLYN BARTHOLOMEW, HEARING COCHAIR CHAIRMAN BARTHOLOMEW: Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Welcome to the seventh hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2007 reporting cycle. Commissioner Houston and I will be cochairing today's hearing on the important topic of Access to Information in the People's Republic of China. On behalf of all of the commissioners, thank you very much for joining us. Our congressional mandate directs us to review restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information in China. In doing so, we are required to assess the implications these restrictions have on our bilateral relationship with China in the areas of economic and security policy. At today's hearing, we will be fulfilling this mandate by closely examining the methods that the Chinese government uses to control and censor information in China's mass media and on the Internet. We will also be examining the implications these activities have on the United States. Freedom of information in other countries has consequences for us here at home. In today's world, where goods, services, people and information move rapidly, restrictions on freedom of speech and a free press have consequences well beyond any one nation's borders. Today's hearing is not the first time that this Commission has addressed these important subjects. Our first hearing on Chinese censorship took place in 2003 when China's government used their information controls to suppress news about the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. The strict control of 2 information at that time had consequences for people around the world. While we'll be focusing today on the how's and why's of Chinese censorship, we'll also hear from experts on how these controls may be fostering the production of dangerous food and consumer goods in China for both domestic consumption and export. Some believe that the Chinese government may be hiding the scope of this problem as they did with SARS, and we hope to learn more about what role information controls are playing in the current food and product safety problems that are making headlines around the world. We will also explore the systems and institutions that Beijing has developed to manage the content and opinions seen in Chinese mass media and the Internet. We already know that government agencies like the Central Propaganda Department, the General Administration of Press and Publications, and the Ministry of Information Industry work to censor information in China, but it is also important to understand how they do it and where the directives come from. Experts from around the United States have come here to share with us their analysis of how these institutions operate, how they've changed over time, and what direction China's leadership is likely to steer them towards in the future. I'd like to thank all of our witnesses in advance for their participation at today's hearing. At this point, I'll turn the microphone over to Cochair Commissioner Houston for her opening remarks, and before that I'd also like to note that there are congratulations in order. She recently has become engaged. Her fiancé, Mike Toloczko, is in the audience. OPENING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER KERRI HOUSTON HEARING COCHAIR HEARING COCHAIR HOUSTON: He's the one turning red back there. Good morning, everyone. Glad you're all here. As the chairman mentioned, my name is Kerri Houston, and I'm very pleased to be chairing this hearing with her today on Access to Information in the People's Republic of China. Before we begin with our first witness, Representative McCotter, I'd like to say a few words on this important subject. A year from now, the eyes of the world will fall on Beijing as the 2008 Olympic Games begin. Millions of visitors will pour into China and millions more will watch the games on television around the world. 3 For two weeks, many of the images that we will be shown will stir and inspire us. However, there are also a great many images that will not be shown and these will do anything but inspire. We will not see pictures of China's poor migrant workers in Beijing during the Olympic Games because these people will be forced from the city. We will not see the kind of pollution that most Chinese live in in the cities and urban areas during the Olympic Games because factories and construction projects will be temporarily closed, and we even understand they're thinking about putting fans on the top of the buildings. We certainly won't see, emphasis on the word "see," any form of dissent or political protest from the Chinese people during this time because of the increased controls on top of already draconian measures surrounding these activities in the run-up to the games. It's important to understand in the context of today's hearing that these omissions are quite intentional. Because China won't be able to censor the foreign press in the same way they do the domestic media, they will resort to censoring the environment itself, temporarily muting the surroundings in which many foreign journalists operate, including our own U.S. journalists, in order to ensure that the content of their report is palatable to China's leadership. Keeping information under wraps within China's media itself is considerably easier for the Chinese government.