{"id":1571,"date":"2014-06-16T16:04:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2014-06-16T16:06:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:06:35","slug":"tienchi-martin-liao-offshore-leaks-trigger-wave-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liao-offshore-leaks-trigger-wave-of-fear","title":{"rendered":"Tienchi Martin-Liao: Offshore Leaks Trigger Wave of Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ February 12, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Did China imprison activists and dissident writers to divert attention from corruption scandal?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Xu Zhiyong and Hu Jia Supporters <\/p>\n

According to Tienchi Martin-Liao, the conviction of Xu Zhiyong, which the activists pictured here are protesting, serves as a strategic distraction from a recent corruption scandal. Photo: VOA Chinese via Creative Commons.<\/p>\n

In January of this year, after two years of research, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJI) published a report listing over 21,000 people in China and Hong Kong who are utilizing offshore \u201chavens\u201d to \u201chold assets, list companies in the world\u2019s stock exchanges, buy and sell real estate and conduct their business away from Beijing\u2019s red tape and capital controls.\u201d This list contains the names of some of China\u2019s prominent leaders: Wen Jaibao, the former premier, Zhou Yongkang, former member of the Standing Committee (who is now detained and under investigation), members of Xi Jinping\u2019s family, and many members of the Central Committee. Not to mention many military leaders and political figures.<\/p>\n

In her article \u201cHow We Did Offshore Leaks China\u201d journalist Marina Walker Guevara details how a small group of ICIJ journalists worked with 50 other organizations for years to decipher 2.5 million leaks of offshore information.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, an astronomical amount of money\u2014one to four trillion dollars\u2014has left China through these offshore channels. The disclosure of this information and the implication of those who were involved has had an international impact and shows how deep the fear of China\u2019s ruling class goes. This enormous scandal was even reported by the Chinese media, but only for a few hours, until government censors reacted. Thereafter, all foreign media coverage was blocked and all related stories deleted. With such a quick reaction time, people in China only learned of this sensational news if they happened to be online at the right moment.<\/p>\n

The State Council Information Office\u2019s protocol for censoring the ICJI\u2019s report was published by China Digital Times and is as follows:<\/p>\n

1. Immediately find and remove the foreign media report \u201cChina\u2019s Secret Offshore Tax Havens\u201d and related content. Interactive platforms must strictly check [users]. Related images and accusatory comments about leaders and the system [of government] must be deleted without exception. Block the [user] IDs of those who have an evil influence and coordinate on-the-ground investigations with the relevant departments.<\/p>\n

2. All websites must stop stirring up the article \u201cChinese Internet \u2018Paralysis\u2019; Affected IPs Redirect to American Company.\u201d (January 21, 2014)<\/p>\n

Apparently, in what amounted to a catastrophe for the Chinese business world, the internet in China was down for eight hours due to the severity with which the cyber-security forces carried out the protocol.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Chinese people still picture Xi Jinping, the \u201cbeloved\u201d leader of the red empire, as a humble man. One day he even took a taxi to the office like a normal employee; another day he stood in line at a fast food restaurant to buy a steamed bun. These fairy tales have circulated the internet like wildfire and the propaganda machine works hard to make it so; people are surprised and celebrate the great, down-to-earth leader who\u2019s so close to his people.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t President Xi publicly swear his determination to fight corruption\u2014to \u201cbeat the tiger and kill the flies\u201d? Yet, the day after ICIJ released their report, Xi\u2019s administration sentenced Xu Zhiyong, founder of the New Citizen Movement, to four years in prison. A diversionary tactic? It seems to have worked. In the wake of Xu\u2019s sentencing, world media outlets forgot about the offshore leaks and corruption, leaving President Xi and his greedy state servants alone.<\/p>\n

Xu Zhiyong, a 40-year-old human rights defender, supported President Xi\u2019s anti-corruption campaign. With his mild political proposals, Xu\u2019s movement attracted thousands of followers who assisted him in calling for the declaration of government officials\u2019 assets in 2013. Xu, who has been detained since April, is now officially sentenced on charges of \u201cassembling a crowd to disrupt public order.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Xu Zhiyong is not the only causality of censorship. Seven other human rights activists from the New Citizen Movement, along with Zhao Changqing, a dissident writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), have been tried for \u201cassembling a crowd to disrupt public order,\u201d in Beijing and Guangzhou, days after the ICIJ report was released. But even before the report debuted, ICPC member Zhang Lin was tried for the same charge in Bangbu City, Anhui Province. Furthermore, Ilham Tohti, a member of Uyghur PEN, and an associate professor of economics at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, was imprisoned in January of this year for his \u201cinciting\u201d and \u201cdissenting\u201d remarks.<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s just as ridiculous and contorted, the legal term \u201cassembling a crowd to disrupt public order\u201d seems to have replaced the notorious \u201cinciting subversion of the state power.\u201d In this, the year of the horse, China\u2019s record of human rights violations is galloping along cavalier as ever.<\/p>\n

There is an old verse in the classical history book, Guoyu (5 cen. B.C.), which documents the ancient rulers\u2019 political wisdom: \u201cIt is more dangerous to stop the mouths of the people than to block the course of a river.\u201d While we don\u2019t expect the rulers in China to have ancient wisdom, one can only block the river, the internet, and suppress people\u2019s opinion and will for so long, until the fallout is fatal.<\/p>\n

From:http:\/\/www.sampsoniaway.org\/fearless-ink\/tienchi-martinliao\/2014\/02\/12\/offshore-leaks-trigger-wave-of-fear\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ February 12, 20 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,91],"tags":[314,403,250,191],"views":3490,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1575,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}