AP News, July 12th, 2007
Communist authorities have shut down a newsletter that monitored non-government groups working to improve China's record on environmental and labor issues, the publication's British founder said Wednesday.
The closure of the Beijing-based China Development Brief, which published Chinese and English-language versions, comes amid efforts to limit dissent ahead of a sensitive party congress later this year.
Founder and editor Nick Young said the Beijing Statistical Bureau and city police ordered him last Wednesday to shut down the bimonthly electronic newsletter. He said he was told he had violated the statistics law by conducting "unauthorized surveys."
Neither newsletters do surveys, but Young said authorities made it clear the rule included "any kind of investigation ... even going out and talking to people."
The English version, founded in 1995, monitored China's civil society, including local nongovernment groups working on environment, health, labor and other issues.
Young said Chinese authorities could not ask him to shut down the English version because it is hosted on a U.K. server but told him that the activities that went into creating it weren't allowed.
Young said the measure puzzled him because the English-language edition "was certainly not hostile to the government."
The Chinese-language edition, begun in 1999, was more careful in its handling of sensitive subjects than its English counterpart, he said.
The Public Security Bureau and Statistical Bureau in Beijing did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.
Media controls are being tightened ahead of a once-in-every-five-years party meeting this year where President Hu Jintao and other leaders are to seek a renewed mandate.
