<incom> NGO website shut down in Beijing

[Ned Rossiter]

http://www.danwei.org/media_regulation/ngo_website_shutdown.php

China Development Brief is an online information service about  
development issues and NGOs in China. It was founded by Nick Young 12  
years ago in Yunnan as a print newsletter. He moved to Beijing in  
1999 and started a Chinese language version. In 2004, both versions  
went online.

Subscribers to the newsletters include NGOs, multinational  
corporations, United Nations and government entities, and  
journalists. Despite a level of official scrutiny, Young's  
organization has operating without interference, and he was in the  
final stages of arranging a handover to his local colleagues and  
staff, before a planned move back to the UK at the end of the summer.

But on July 4, the nasties came walking though the door. In a written  
statement, Young explained what happened:

"On July 4 our Beijing office was visited by a joint delegation of a  
dozen officials from the Beijing Municipality Public Security Bureau,  
the Beijing Municipality Statistical Bureau, and the Beijing  
Municipality Cultural Marketing General Legal Implementation Team.

After investigations and interviews lasting around three hours, they  
ordered the Chinese edition of China Development Brief to cease  
publication forthwith. The authorities appear to be deciding what  
punishment to apply.

I, as editor of the English language edition of China Development  
Brief, am deemed guilty of conducting "unauthorized surveys" in  
contravention of the 1983 Statistics Law, and have been ordered to  
desist. I have since been interviewed by the police section  
responsible for supervising foreigners in China."
Why did the nasties move on China Development Brief now? The shut  
down was probably caused by a number of factors, that may include a  
recent China Development Brief party attended by more than 300 people  
mostly in the NGO community, and Young's plans to hand over the  
entire operation to Chinese citizens after his departure.

In the wake of recent demonstrations in Xiamen against a chemical  
factory, the nationwide outpouring of anger about the Shanxi brick  
kiln slaves, and growing citizen concern about pollution, it seems  
that organizations that enable grass roots networking around social  
issues will be monitored closely, harassed and shut down.

In a phone interview this morning, Young commented that he had  
initially wanted to stay hush hush and try to sort the problem out.  
But someone posted information about the police raid to the ChinaPol  
listserv yesterday, which is read by many foreign correspondents in  
China. Within 24 hours, the following articles had appeared on the  
Internet:

Time blog: Beijing stops the presses
Wall Street Journal: Nick Young's statement, China Closes Newsletter
Middle East Times: China shuts down Web site popular with Western NGOs
Tim Johnson: More pressure on the media
Guardian: China bans influential NGO newsletter
New York Times: China shuts down Western run newsletter


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