{"id":12214,"date":"2016-04-02T00:06:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T19:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=12214"},"modified":"2016-04-01T23:57:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T15:57:20","slug":"china-journalist-jia-jia-disappears-in-new-blow-to-press-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2016\/04\/02\/12214\/","title":{"rendered":"China: Journalist Jia Jia arrested as media climate darkens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Repression increasing\u00a0but splits also emerging within Chinese party-state<\/strong><\/p>\n

chinaworker.info reporters<\/p>\n

Yet another Chinese journalist has surfaced in police custody after mysteriously disappearing. 35-year-old freelance journalist Jia Jia was\u00a0seized while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong from Beijing on 15 March.<\/p>\n

Friends believe his disappearance and detention is\u00a0connected to a petition circulated on social media calling for the resignation of Xi Jinping. The letter signed by a \u201cloyal Communist party member\u201d was published first on overseas website Canyu on 5 March to coincide with the opening of China\u2019s prestigious twin sessions of the National People\u2019s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The annual meetings always\u00a0mark\u00a0an extremely sensitive time\u00a0for the Chinese dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Beset by unprecedented economic problems and grappling with a plan to eradicate millions of jobs in state-owned industries, the regime has continued to intensify its clampdown on dissent\u00a0\u2013\u00a0real or imagined. A new directive from\u00a0Xi Jinping to the state-controlled media to \u201clove the party and protect the party\u201d has created ripples of discontent even within the CCP\u2019s elite layers. These are signs of the growing tensions that are building up within the party-state apparatus as the economy goes off the rails. The current top leadership\u00a0seem far less competent in economic matters than in escalating repression.<\/p>\n

Elite protests\u00a0over\u00a0censorship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Property mogul Ren Zhiqiang had his microblog accounts \u2013 with 37 million followers \u2013 closed after he criticized Xi\u2019s latest media crackdown. Ren, who is a CCP member and former delegate to the Beijing CPPCC, was accused of spreading \u201cillegal information\u201d and \u201cadvocating the overthrow of the Communist Party\u201d for suggesting a modicum of media independence.<\/p>\n

Business magazine Caixin, a mouthpiece for the most neo-liberal wing of the CCP, also landed itself in trouble with the state censorship machinery when it carried an interview with CPPCC delegate Jiang Hong from Guangdong province, who complained that discussion and debate is being strangled even within the regime\u2019s inner sanctums. \u201cEveryone is a bit dazed and doesn\u2019t want to talk too much,\u201d Jiang had told Caixin. But the article was branded \u201cillegal\u201d and removed by the censors, bringing forth a rare protest from Caixin\u2019s editors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe struggle at the top is intensifying in the countdown to next year\u2019s 19th CCP Congress, where Xi Jinping aims to cement his control by elevating his supporters to leading positions,\u201d explained Vincent Kolo of chinaworker.info.\u00a0\u201cWe are now seeing clear signs\u00a0of cracks within the ruling elite, and these can widen significantly in the next period no matter how hard Xi attempts to tighten the screws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Xi\u2019s anti-corruption campaign\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the most sweeping for decades\u00a0\u2013\u00a0has helped him to consolidate power so far. But the worsening economy has undoubtedly encouraged rival factional interests to offer greater resistance. The struggle between local governments and the centre is also set to sharpen over the regime\u2019s calls for the mass closure of \u2018zombie\u2019 companies involving up to 6 million layoffs.<\/p>\n

\"State
State controls over the news media and internet have increased under Xi Jinping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

String of disappearances<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jia Jia\u2019s arrest\u00a0came after he apparently tried to warn a former colleague who works as an editor at the state-run Wujie News, after Wujie had re-posted the open letter calling for President Xi to resign. The anonymous petition criticised Xi\u2019s handling of economic affairs and stated that more and more factions oppose his tightening grip over discussion within the CCP. It accuses Xi of\u00a0\u201ccondoning of a personality cult\u201d and\u00a0creating a \u201cone voice party method\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jia\u2019s lawyer Yan Xin told Reuters that Jia, \u201chad told him that he had no connection to the letter.\u201d Initial reports said Wujie\u2019s website had been\u00a0hacked although this was later denied.<\/p>\n

According to friends, Jia\u2019s wife received a call from him on Tuesday evening (15 March) at Beijing airport saying he was ready to board his flight. But Jia was seized before boarding.\u00a0His lawyer issued a statement on 21 March confirming he was being held by police. It is possible that although Jia seems to have had no direct involvement with\u00a0the petition, the authorities want to\u00a0try to extract information from him as to\u00a0which individuals are involved. In this case, further arrests are likely.<\/p>\n

The case is the latest in a creeping campaign of terror by Chinese security forces against dissidents. In the past six months Xi\u2019s crackdown has even extended overseas outside the jurisdiction of the Chinese state and includes foreign nationals. In the most famous case, five Hong Kong book publishers who specialise in salacious books that ridicule\u00a0the Chinese leaders, disappeared and later resurfaced in Chinese custody. Two of the five hold foreign nationality. The booksellers have since appeared making televised \u2018confessions\u2019 which is another increasingly common political tool of the Chinese authorities to force\u00a0their victims to incriminate themselves.<\/p>\n

Chinese police are required by law to notify the family of detainees within 24 hours except if the case touches upon national security. This has not happened in any of the above mentioned cases\u00a0\u2013\u00a0yet another example of the flagrant abuses that are a daily occurrence in China.<\/p>\n

The detention of Jia Jia is another sinister chapter in the repressive rule of Xi Jinping. These anti-democratic measures are Xi\u2019s way to break down any resistance and force through the anti-working class \u2018supply-side reforms\u2019 his government stands for. This aims to make the working class pay \u2013 through unemployment and reduced wages \u2013 for an economic crisis created by the CCP and its slavish pro-capitalist policies. But\u00a0Xi\u2019s regime is acting more from insecurity than strength \u2013 the road he has taken will lead to massive social and political upheavals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Repression increasing\u00a0but splits also emerging within Chinese party-state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132,133,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-china","8":"category-hong-kong","9":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nChina: Journalist Jia Jia arrested as media climate darkens - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2016\/04\/02\/12214\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China: Journalist Jia Jia arrested as media climate darkens - 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