[8556] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Multi-Media, China Style
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Mon Nov 22 14:54:12 1993
From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes)
To: COSNDISC@BITNIC.BITNET (cosn), com-priv@psi.com (compriv)
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1993 12:52:02 -0700 (MST)
Cc: thefox@oldcolo.com (Larry Fox)
Son Ed, who weathered Tienamen Square uprising while in China by using
modem telecom to keep informed from the outside, and married a Chinese
lass, plucked this off the talk.politics.china newsgroup this morning.
Lets see. It only affects one billion people. :-)
Dave Hughes
dave@oldcolo.com
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 93 12:08:11 -0700
>From: ejhughes@sanluis.uccs.edu (Edward J. Hughes)
Message-Id: <9311221908.AA00499@sanluis.uccs.edu>
To: dave@oldcolo.com, hughes@ucsu.colorado.edu
Subject: Beijing Refusing Information Era
-------------------------
To China, Hostile forces endanger the country!
Some 500,000 satellite dishes in china have been ILLEGAL since Prime
Minister Li Peng signed a proclamation in Oct. Some officials who fear
that the information explosion has gone too far are pressing efforts to
remove them. In Beijing, dishes dot apartment houses. (picture omitted)
Beijing Journal:
CNN and MTV Hanging by a "Heavenly Thread"
by Patrick E. Tyler
Special to the New York Times Nov 22, 1993, Page A4
Beijing Nov 21, 1993 -- Ever since Prime Minister Li Peng signed State
Council Proclamation No. 129 last month banning the purchase or possession
of satellite dishes by ordinary Chinese, millions of people on the
broadcasting and receiving ends of the TV business in Asia have been
trying to determine whether Mr. Li will risk the draconian steps necessary
to enforce the order.
So far, no police officers have been sent out to start ripping dishes off
rooftops, but the Government is talking tough. Many in Beijing feel the
Politburo has invested too much of its prestige to back down.
"The large majority of Beijing dish owners will have to tear their dishes
down," said Wei Dangjun, a spokesman for the Ministry of Radio, Film and
TV, whose Minister Ai Zhisheng is known for his zeal in attacking the
"spiritual pollution" infecting China from the West.
"Most owners have already broken rules by installing their dishes without
application", Mr. Wei said in an interview. "Those that didn't listen to
orders prohibiting installation," he said, "and then didn't listen to
orders to dissassemble, we will punish according to relevant laws."
The most compelling test of this latest crackdown is whether it is too
late. The thought-control officials in China's old guard may find
that the genie of the information explosion has been out of the bottle too
long.
In Fang Village neighborhood of south Beijing, even the apt buildings that
house retired officers of the dreaded public security bureau are wired up
for satellite programming from the United States, Britain and HOng Kong.
Inestimable millions of Chinese have already been swept into the
information era by foreign newspapers that have arrived with the flood of
foreign business people and thru TV programs arriving via the "Heavenly
Thread" which is the literal translation of "satellite antenna"
into Mandarin Chinese.
While there are an estimated 500,000 satellite dishes in the country,
because of cable hookups on apt buildings the Government estimates that
there are 15,000,000 subscribers to multi-channel systems that import
English-language programs.
A Sense of Crackdown
The announcement of the ban coincided with a conference in early Oct on
state security attended by Mr. Li and President Jiang Zemin. It concluded
that "hostile forces outside our country have never stopped endangering
the safety of our country" using "all means of infiltrate, split and
damage us".
The ban also followed the decision of the INternational Olympic Committee
to award the 2000 Games to Sydney, a crushing setback to the Chinese
leadership.
The order banning satellite dishes contributed to a sense of crackdown in
the capital this month. Two prominent journalists have been arrested: Xi
Yang, a reporter for the large HK daily Ming Pao, and Gao Yu. a
mainland reporter who was detained days before she was to leave for an
academic year at Columbia University at New York.
For several tense weeks, tens of thousands of Chinese who have bought the
dishes from private and state-owned companies, including from the PLA dish
factory, have been hoping that this order will simply go the way of
previous threats to enforce the ban.
The companies marketing the dishes have suddenly taken a low profile,
though purchases are still possible, as one Beijing Resident discovered
last week.
"Hello, I would like to know if you still have any satellite TV dishes
available in your store?" the resident telephoned.
"No, haven't you heard of the the new regulation?" the clerk replied. "We
are not allowed to sell them now." But the same day, the caller visited
the store and approached the sellsman at what had been the satellite
antenna service counter.
The man behind the counter seemed to be speaking on a different frequency.
If the customer really wanted a dish, he said, it could be arranged for
the equivalent of $650, including installation.
The fact that the Government is moving deliberately to enforce the ban
reflects the struggle in the leadership between those who believe China
should continue to open up to Western influences and those who believe
China's economic boom can be sealed in a cocoon of Communist ideaology.
Satellite dishes have become a way of life in China in the last two years.
Even as the Clinton Administration complains that China is jamming VOA
broadcasts, the same Chinese leaders appear helpless as millions of
Chinese tune in to the Star TV network.
Star TV is the Hong KOng-based communications company that beams its
five-channel menu -- including the BBC and CNN news, sports and MTV music
videos -- into 4.8 million Chinese households.
In July Rupert Murdoch bought 63.6% of Star TV and has identified the
mainland as his largest future market.
"Some leaders have installed satellite dishes with public funds,"
complained one Government worker who insisted on not being identified and
who owns a $570 dish and receiver. "It's the authorities who have the
power to do whatever they want. We are the victims."
As reported in People's Daily, the penalties for failing to take down the
dishes will be anywhere from $900 to nearly $9,000. This does not include
the cost of the dish, which would be confiscated.
At the ministry, Mr. Wei said he did not know when the decision would be
made to start tearing hardware off rooftops. "We await specific measures
from the Above," he said.
