China Blames “Foreign Forces” for Press Freedom Protests   · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China's Central Propaganda Department has issued an urgent notice, blaming “foreign forces” for the rare protests in support of press freedom, that are taking place online and offline in the country.
The protests were triggered after the newspaper Southern Weekend's New Year’s editorial was censored and rewritten by a provincial propaganda department. The notice was leaked on Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo[zh] on the evening of Jan 7, 2013 although some of the reposts had been censored. The notice reads [zh]:
各级主管党委和媒体，对于此次事件，必须明确以下三点：一，党管媒体是不可动摇的基本原则；二，南方周末此次出版事故与广东省委宣传部长庹震同志无关；三，此事的发展有境外敌对势力介入。各主管单位必须严格要求其部门的编辑，记者和员工不得继续在网络上发 言支持南方周末。各地媒体、网站明天起以显著版面转发《环球时报》的社评《南方周末“致读者”实在令人深思》。
Party committees and media at all levels must be clear on three points related to this matter:
(1) Party control of the media is an unshakable basic principle;
(2) This incident has nothing to do with Guangdong Propaganda Department Head Tuo Zhen
(3) This incident’s development has something to do with the meddling of external hostile forces. Every work unit must demand that its department’s editors, reporters, and staff stop voicing their support for Southern Weekend online. Starting from tomorrow, all media outlets and websites must prominently republish the Global Times editorial: Southern Weekly’s ‘Message to Readers’ Is Thought-provoking Indeed.”
The Global Time's piece[zh], published on the moring of Jan 7, is in coherence with the notice from the Central Propaganda Department, the conclusion of the piece reads:
A screen shot of the ChinaForbiddenNews report on YouTube about the Propaganda Department's notice
不管这些人愿不愿意，有一个常识是：在中国今天的社会政治现实下，不可能存在这些人心中向往的那种“自由媒体”。中国所有媒体的发展只能是同中国大现实相对应的，媒体改革必须是中国整体改革的一部分，媒体决不会成为中国的“政治特区”… 即使在西方，主流媒体也不会选择同政府公开对抗。
Whether these people[journalists and protesters] are willing to accept it or not, this is common sense: given China’s social and political realities, the kind of “free media” that these people dream of simply cannot exist. All of China's media can develop only to the extent China does, and media reform is part of China's overall reform, and the media absolutely will not become a “political special zone” of China…Even in the West, the mainstream media does not choose to openly oppose the government.
The interesting part of the notice is that it attributed “meddling foreign forces” to the incidents that sparked the protests  a poor excuse that doesn't seem to stand for itself. The word “foreign forces” triggered a lot of discussion on Sina Weibo, it was among the top 10 most searched[zh] word on on  Jan 8.
Online personality and famous blogger Li Chengpeng's ironic comment[zh] found resonance online:
这些境外势力太可恶，他们住在美国富人区，却粗暴干涉中国内政问题，他们偷走中国人很多钱，却存在瑞士银行里。他们子女开着法拉利却从不关心中国校车的惨剧。最可恨:他们竟操纵某些中国媒体，凡见中国公民出谋划策，提倡毛泽东早就提倡过的宪政，就骂这些公民是汉奸，还送去劳教…快抓出这些境外势力!
These foreign forces are evil, they live in the affluent area of the United States but brutally interfere with China's internal affairs, they steal a lot of money from Chinese people and keep it in Swiss banks.Their children, driving Ferraris, never care about the school bus tragedy in China. The most detestable is that they actually manipulate Chinese media. Once they find out that Chinese citizens who advocate for a constitution, which was once advocated by Mao Zedong, they call these citizens traitors, and send them to labor camps … let's hunt these foreign forces down!
Professor Xie Youping[zh] at Fudan University echoed:
一方面，以＂境外势力＂的标签，将某些纯粹的国内矛盾政治化，刻意妖魔化西方政治制度，另一方面，又毫不掩饰地将自己的子女儿孙，派谴到＂境外势力＂所在国留学深造，接受其教育，定居其国度。。。这恐怕是一种全人类都难以论证和解释的二律背反现象。
On one hand, the label “foreign force” politicizes domestic conflicts and deliberately demonizes the Western political system. On the other hand, they make no secret of sending their children and grandchildren to study in the countries where “foreign forces” are from. This is perhaps the most inexplicable and contradictory phenomenon.
Writer Wei Ke wrote[zh]:
所谓“境外势力”， 就是想打棍子时给你扣上的万能帽子，就是想把人往死里整的借口。我们这些土老百姓连去国外的机会都没有，就是在微博上呼吁几句公平正义，为民众说几句话， 咋就成了境外势力了？难道中国不是中国而是境外？谁把我们驱赶出了中国？谁让我们在自己的祖国却被流放般无家可归、流离失所？
The so-called “foreign forces” is applicable everywhere, an excuse to control people. We common people don't even have chances to go abroad, we just say a few words online, appealing for justice, are we becoming the “foreign forces”? Is China not China, but actually overseas? Who kicked us out of China? Who made us homeless in our own country, as if we were exiled?
Lawyer Zhou Ze[zh] posed a question:
行事风格多年如一日。曾有领导对我谈话说：你的出发点和动机都是好的，但一定要注意。有些事很容易被境外敌对势力利用。…我实在理解不了，每个人都出于好的目的和动机去做事情，怎么就会有不利国家的后果。…..到底谁是敌对势力？困惑中
[Government's] style has been the same for many years. Once a leader said to me: Your point and motivation are good, but keep in mind that you can be easily used by hostile forces outside. I really don't understand, if everyone does things with a good purpose and motivation, how can it lead to unfavorable consequences for our country?….. Who are the hostile forces? I'm confused.
Veteran Journalist Peng Xiaoyu[zh] commented:
整天境外势力的思维，不觉得幼稚可笑心虚乏力么？中国的任何风吹草动，境外势力都虎视眈眈，这怎么了？谁叫你中国特色呢？！关键问题不在于境外不境外，而在于中国的问题拖延下去只是慢性自杀而已。我不认同一夜革命，但不倒退是底线要求，可这十年，倒退得太厉害了。
Don't you find these “foreign forces” childish, ridiculous and weak? Whenever there's a sign of trouble, foreign forces would stare at us, so what? Because you practise “Chinese characteristics”. The key question is not about foreign forces or not, but that the delay of the problem is slow suicide. I do not agree with an overnight revolution, but we cannot go backwards, which is the bottom line, but we have been going backwards for the past decade.