References to communism, dissent in Obama speech censored by Chinese media

"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions."

If you were jam packed into Glamour Bar with 600 other people earlier this morning, watching President Barack Obama being sworn in, you might have been a little too dizzy with euphoria (and possibly heatstroke) to notice particular segments of his 18-minute inauguration address -- specifically, ones that likely caused the head honchos in Beijing to collectively cringe.

Remember how the new President mentioned "communism" and "facism" in the same sentence? Oh, and how those who silence dissent are "on the wrong side of history"? China's hoping its netizens won't, with various portals that translated Obama's address censoring various offending parts.

According to Reuters:

U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration speech has a little twist in translations available on some Chinese websites where his references to communism and dissent have been cut.
Sina and Sohu had omitted the word “communism” (共产主义) in the line:

"Recall that earlier generations faced down communism and fascism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions,"
And removed an entire paragraph on dissent:

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
Netease.com included the paragraph on dissent, and was reportedly commended by netizens for its honesty, but omitted the word "communism” in the prior paragraph. A quick Baidu search and browse found that other Chinese websites have chosen to post the speech in excerpts according to themes.

Only Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV has posted the translated speech in its entirety, which we include below so you can send to your friends.

http://shanghaiist.com/2009/01/21/chinese_media_censors_obamas_speech.php

Stories China's media could not write

When journalists at China's national broadcaster CCTV log on, one of the first things that pops up on screen is a notice about what not to report.

These notices are often short and seldom say who has authorised them, but they all contain strict instructions about how to report a story.

Journalists were recently warned off a health scandal, told how to report the death of Benazir Bhutto and had to steer clear of a Hollywood film story.

Censorship has been an everyday feature of news reporting in China for as long as the Chinese Communist Party has been in power.

But this wide range of so-called sensitive stories shows that, in China, any story on any subject at any time can still fall foul of the censor's red pen.

Xinhua demands democracy and human rights

No, not the Xinhua News Agency. The Xinhua Daily. And those demands were made rather a long time ago. The paper was launched in 1938 as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party in KMT-controlled regions. (In Communist-controlled territory, the main official paper was the Liberation Daily.) After the defeat of the KMT, the Xinhua Daily became the official party newspaper of Jiangsu province. Sunday will be its 71st anniversary.

So what about those demands for democracy and human rights, not to mention universal suffrage, general elections and freedom of speech? These were the subject of many editorials in the Xinhua Daily before 1949. Since all of these things were put into practice after 1949, there was no need for the Xinhua Daily to continue calling for them.

Below is a collection of headlines from the paper during those early years, arranged by number of characters in a blog post by Wang Xiaofeng:

Running for election

Safeguard human rights

On the right to have elections

Democracy first

The spirit of democracy

Democracy and honesty

Strength and democracy

Democracy and the state of the nation

The true meaning of democracy

China needs change

Risk death for democracy

Law and human rights

On academic freedom

Democracy is not an empty slogan

Engineers and democracy

The sword of democracy

No one has monopoly rights on freedom

The sharp blade of democracy

Commemorating Mr. Jefferson

A true democratic warrior

Freedom of speech and democracy

A new theory of democracy and freedom

All honor lies in democracy

Only that which is democratic is legitimate

On the spirit of British and US democracy

US education and democracy

Earnestly protect the people’s rights

Democracy is all that China demands

A day that stands for democracy and freedom

Schools must be a fortress of democracy

China needs a real general election

Innate human rights cannot be violated

The first step in safeguarding personal freedom

Implementing freedom of association

One party dictatorship is a disaster everywhere!

The party cannot give orders to the government

Democracy is the essence of life

Without democracy, everything is mere window-dressing

On the issue of academic freedom of thought

Problems can only be resolved through real democracy

Democracy is the greenhouse for developing production

Does freedom depend on the conditions of the time?

China and the US are natural allies

Only with personal freedom can there be national freedom

The struggle for democracy is everyone’s business

The Chinese students who strive for freedom and liberation

Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy

Political democracy and economic democracy cannot be separated

Only when one-party rule is ended can democracy be possible

Who is making it impossible to stabilize China? The government dictatorship!

We believe in democracy and we’re practicing it

Personal freedom of the common people is the gauge of political democracy

Freedom of expression: the source of vitality of the press

Only when the people have the right to speak can the country be a true republic

In praise of democracy — dedicated to America’s Independence Day

Commemorate May 4th, struggle for democratic freedom

Newspapers must get rid of the dictators who don’t allow the people to speak

Are democratic elections impossible when people’s education level is low?

The main task of the student movement is to struggle for democracy

The right path for democracy: unconditionally return government to the people

The publications law should guarantee the freedom of non-government publishers

American Independence Day — a day dedicated to the great struggle for freedom and democracy

Only when the people can supervise the government will the government not dare to slack off

Let the people think! The greatest threat to democracy is your indifference

The Chinese student movement will not stop until democracy is achieved

We’re not afraid of democratic America’s influence, we welcome it

Art and literature must strive for democracy, only with democracy can creative freedom be guaranteed

Every US soldier in China should be a living advertisement for democracy

China’s shortcoming is its lack of democracy, it should practice democracy in all fields

A political party is not an organ of power, it cannot put itself above the masses and the government

You cannot refuse democracy because the level of the nation’s people is low, use democratic politics to teach the people and raise the level of the people

These headlines were presumably selected from the contents page (see Page 2 of this post) of the 1999 book “Heralds of History - Solemn Promises Over Half a Century Ago.” In order to safeguard democracy, the book was banned. However, almost all the articles can be found online. I haven’t got a copy of the book, but I suspect one or two of the above quotes are actually from other party publications from the 1940s and not the Xinhua Daily.

BLACK AND WHITE CAT

What is communism? (English)

Communism is nothing more than a group of social resentful people with delusions of grandeur that for some unfortunate accident took the power, devoting themselves to suppress human basic rights and censoring the free thought. 



The fact that China is now one of the most vibrant and growing economies in the world, far from being an achievement of communism is the result of having adopted a purely capitalist system, very contrary to what their traditional communist and socialist treaties preach.



China has turned to become a consumerist society, as much or even more than the United States or any other European country and also taking the same vices of corruption in such extreme cases that reach the highest levels of the government. 



Mao's dream has failed, and all that remains of that decaying system is the bad habit of eliminate, control and punish anyone who oppose them, to in this way continue to control and share the power among them as they please.



If for something has been good the Chinese communist government is to take care of its image, manipulating and hiding the truth and deceiving the world, because they can not admit that communism as a model failed many years ago and what is left is this little group of social resentful who do not want to leave the comforts of power and refuse to understand that man is by nature a free thinker who can not be repressed. 



Take as a reference the dissolved Soviet Union and all countries that still suffer under the same socialism or communism scheme, plunging their people into poverty, backwardness and ignorance.



I can not feel less than disgust for these social resentful, sick with delusions of grandeur that contradict all common sense and use terror and ignorance as tools to manipulate their peoples.

The chinese people's awakening is inminent, and an awake people can not live under comunism.

¿Que es el comunismo? (Español)

El comunismo no es más es un grupo de resentidos sociales con delirios de grandeza que por algún desafortunado accidente llegaron al poder, dedicandose a reprimir las derechos básicos del ser humano y censurando el libre pensamiento.

El hecho de que China sea ahora una de las mas pujantes y crecientes economias del mundo, lejos de ser un logro del comunismo es producto de haber adoptado un sistema netamente capitalista, muy contrario a lo que predican los tradicionales tratados comunistas y socialistas.

China ha dado un vuelco para transformarse en una sociedad tan o más consumista que Estados Unidos o cualquier otro país europeo y adoptando además los mismos vicios de corrupcion en casos tan extremos que llegan hasta las altas cúpulas del gobierno.

El sueño de Mao ha fracasado, lo único que queda de ese maltrecho sistema es el mal hábito de eliminar, controlar y reprimir a todo aquel que se le oponga, para asi seguir controlando y repartiendose el poder de la manera que ellos mejor dispongan.

Si para algo ha sido bueno el gobierno comunista chino es para cuidar su imagen, escondiendo y manipulando la verdad y engañando al mundo, ya que no pueden admitir que el comunismo como modelo fracasó hace muchos años y lo que queda es ese grupito de resentidos sociales que no quieren dejar las comodidades del poder y se niegan a entender que el hombre es por naturaleza un libre pensador al que no se le puede reprimir.

Sirva como referencia la disuelta Unión Sovietica y todos los paises que bajo el mismo fracasado esquema de socialismo o comunismo han sumido a sus pueblos en la miseria, el atraso y la ignorancia.

Yo no puedo sentir menos que repugnancia por estos resentidos sociales, enfermos con delirios de grandeza que contradicen todo sentido comun y usan el terror y la ignorancia como herramientas para manipular a sus pueblos.

China y los pueblos del mundo están despertando, y un pueblo despierto no puede vivir en comunismo.