China bans reporting on 18 subjects

BEIJING--Amid the Google Inc. brouhaha and cries of censorship, China has prohibited the Chinese media from reporting on 18 subjects, including yuan revaluation, corruption and problems in Tibet and the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.

Liu Yunshan, director of the publicity department of China's Communist Party, faxed notifications about the bans to major newspaper companies, television and radio stations and Internet news companies on Sunday.

The following day, Google announced its withdrawal from China's Internet search market.

According to a senior official of a Chinese media company, the current censorship is "among the largest ever" and exceeds that imposed before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The 18 banned topics also include the difficulties faced by university students in finding jobs after graduation, food safety and rising prices of cooking oil.

"Most of the subjects that people are interested in have been banned. We don't know what to report on," said an official at a Chinese newspaper.

In the notification to the Chinese media, Liu said the top priority concerns the value of the yuan against the U.S. dollar.

Amid complaints of cheaper Chinese exports flooding overseas markets, Washington has increasingly pressed Beijing to revaluate its currency. Liu banned reports on criticism against China, especially from U.S. lawmakers, and told the Chinese media to use stories from the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

But commentaries that "criticize U.S. actions" were welcomed, even ordered, by Liu.

Sources in China said the government likely learned of Google's withdrawal decision in advance and decided to quickly impose its control over the media concerning sensitive topics.

"The Google issue ended up tightening media control in China," said a senior official at an Internet news organization in China.

When Google revealed in January its intention to pull out of China due to censorship issues, arguments for and against the move appeared in the Chinese media and on Chinese websites.

The U.S. government also called on China to stop censoring Internet sites.

But after Google's pullout, Chinese newspapers Wednesday merely carried statements by officials in the State Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressing "dissatisfaction and indignation" over Google's pullout. The statements were quoted from the Xinhua News Agency.

Although some Chinese media ran commentaries on the subject, they all followed the Communist Party's line. The Jinghua Shibao (Beijing Times), for example, wrote, "The Google issue has nothing to do with freedom of the press."

On March 17, Zhongguo Jingji Shibao (China Economic Times) carried an exclusive story on the deaths of four children in Shanxi province who received vaccinations against hepatitis B and other diseases, and aftereffects suffered by more than 70 children.

The story, which pointed out a problem in storing the vaccine at a company associated with the Ministry of Health, spread through the Internet.

Public interest was so great that local health authorities held a news conference Monday and promised to start an investigation.

However, that subject is one of the 18 now banned.

Many off-limit subjects involve problems that have angered the Chinese general public.

"If there are heated reports, they could lead to criticism against authorities," a Communist Party source said.

Other banned subjects are:

* High medical fees;

* Disparity of wealth;

* Reform of the registration system separating urban dwellers from rural residents;

* Forecasts of appointments for Communist Party leaders;

* Expansion of autonomy at universities;

* The collapse of school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and delays in reconstruction;

* The beating death of a steel plant president in Jilin province;

* Collusion between police and gangsters in Chongqing;

* Rising real estate prices and the housing shortage; and

* Real estate developers trying to increase land prices.