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The deaths of two ethnic Mongolians, allegedly killed by Han Chinese, in China’s Inner Mongolia region in May, has sparked the worst riots this region has seen in decades. Many areas, including the regional capital, Hohhot, are under martial law.
Scores of people have been detained and there is no information on possible deaths.
Enghebatu Togochog, director of the US-based Southern Mongolia Watch, a pressure group advocating ethnic Mongolian rights in China, told UNCUT:
We are still unable to verify it [a possible death count]. However we confirmed that there have been arrests of dozens in Hohhot on May 30 during the protest. Exact number of the detainees is still yet to be confirmed. In Shiliin-gol league at least 44 people were arrested, and none of them have been released so far.
It’s no surprise then that China’s censors have sprung into action to control news of the unrest. Internet and phones services have either been cut off or are intermittent in some areas.
Nationally, top micro-blogging sites such as Sina (Weibo) and Tencent (Taotao), have reportedly blocked searches with the keywords “Inner Mongolia” and “Hohhot” with the message: “according to related laws, regulations and policies, the results of your search cannot be displayed.” See image.
The domestic news service has more or less shied away from reporting such a major news story although the English-language China-based media has offered some low-key coverage.
Of interest is an opinion piece in the Global Times yesterday, headlined “Putting Mongolian protests into context”, which takes a sympathetic slant towards the protesters.
It argues that the Mongolians have genuine concerns.
“Some of their requests are reasonable, and should be responded to by the local government,” it said.
Followed by: “We believe the majority of Chinese sympathize with their reasonable requests.”
The deaths sparked long-held resentment about the damage Han-owned coal mines have done to the local grasslands and government efforts to control local herders’ lives, as well as anger over the men’s deaths.
The New York Times commented that the authorities are acting in a much more conciliatory way compared with how ethnic Uighur and Tibetan violence was handled in protests in Xinjiang province in 2009 and in Tibet a year earlier.
“The acknowledgment of the anger, coupled with the large deployment of soldiers and police officers, suggested that the authorities were intent on avoiding the ethnic mayhem that struck other areas of China.”
At least hundreds of people died in those protests.
With the news that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to make a second visit to China this year, speculation that Facebook is set to grovel its way back into China, speculation that has been doing the rounds for months, has picked up again.
Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009.
“We want to connect the whole world,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told reporters Thursday at a Reuters business summit. “And it’s impossible to think about connecting the whole world right now without also connecting China.”
But that may be just its undoing for success in China.
“Facebook’s key advantage is in connecting the world, and in China that becomes its biggest disadvantage because the Chinese government doesn’t want the Chinese people to be connected freely to the rest of the world,” said one web user who wished to remain anonymous.
No date was given for Zuckerberg’s second trip to the mainland — just sometime this year — but a market of hundreds of millions of internet users appears to be just too enticing for him to give up in the name of free speech.
It is not simply a case of Facebook making sure it blocks sensitive key words and abiding by other restrictions in China, as corporate strategic communications advisor David Wolf writes on his blog, Silicon Hutong. On his latest posting he lists nine things Facebook must do to succeed in China. Of these the most interesting are:
Last Friday, a newspaper editorial musing on the missing artist Ai Weiwei was blocked online. The editorial, which was appeared in the Southern Metropolis Daily, marked the third anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, an event that Ai investigated. The Guardian translated part of the editorial that reflected on Ai and the deaths of schoolchildren in the disaster:
On the day of mourning we called them home and wished them peace. We gathered together all the human evidence of them we could. We read their names together … We did so much, and yet we did too little … We can but present the steel zodiac, offer up porcelain sunflower seeds, symbolic memorials to your lives once so tangible.
The sunflower seeds clearly refer to Ai’s ongoing installation at Tate Modern. David Bandurski, editor of China Media Project pointed out that in a bold move, one of China news portals, Tencent, had republished the editorial on their online editorial pages. But today (May 16) the editorial can no longer be found on the site.
Last night Lu Qing, Ai’s wife, was taken to an undisclosed location and allowed to see her husband. During the 15 minute conversation she received assurances that Ai has access to his diabetes medication and is receiving regular food and care. He wasn’t in handcuffs and despite the fact that prisoners are usually shaved he still has his signature beard.