Beijing: Bloomberg's news website remains blocked by China’s state censors a full month after it detailed the riches amassed by the family of Xi Jinping, the man who is expected to be the country’s next president.
Although periodic outages of foreign media websites in China are common, the month-long total blackout of Bloomberg is an unusually harsh response, highlighting the extent to which its coverage angered the government.
Beijing has tried to apply pressure in other ways, too. In the weeks since the article was published, people believed to be state security agents have tailed some Bloomberg employees; Chinese bankers and financial regulators have cancelled previously arranged meetings with Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief; and Chinese investigators have visited local investment banks to see if they shared any information with Bloomberg, according to people with knowledge of these incidents.
The crackdown has not affected the operation of Bloomberg’s profit engine: its terminals, whose subscribers include Chinese state-owned banks and government bodies. However, members of Bloomberg’s China sales team have expressed concern that the chill from the website blackout could deter buyers, according to the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the report published on June 29, Bloomberg used publicly available records to show that Mr Xi’s extended family had investments in companies with total assets of $376m; an 18 per cent indirect stake in a rare earths company with $1.73bn in assets; a $20.2m holding in a publicly traded technology company; a luxury villa in Hong Kong worth about $31.5m and at least six other Hong Kong properties worth a combined $24.1m.
Bloomberg was unable to trace any assets to Mr Xi himself, or to his wife or daughter. There was also no evidence of any wrongdoing by Mr Xi or his family.
Nevertheless, the report was seen as embarrassing for Mr Xi, threatening to undermine his image as a clean official in a country rife with corruption just months before he is set to succeed Hu Jintao as president in a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
“It’s very unusual for such a major news organisation to have their website blocked like this,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of Danwei, a company that tracks Chinese media. “They crossed a red line and the timing also has a fair bit to do with this.”
No other English-language mainstream media website has been blocked in China for longer than a few days since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Censors now target specific articles or disrupt access to sites at politically sensitive times such as when dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
Mr Goldkorn said there was no standard procedure for Bloomberg to follow if it wanted to get its website unblocked, apart from lobbying at the highest levels of government.
“That’s the only thing they can do, and obviously Bloomberg has the resources to do it,” he said.
In the meantime, Bloomberg appears to be trying to keep a lower profile in China. Its spokeswoman declined to comment for this story and employees said that reporters in China had been advised not to email the article about Mr Xi to their contacts or even to print it out, in order to avoid being seen to spread it around.
Comments
Chinese blocking of Bloomberg
Wow. It always amazes me how nations are able to just censor information and keep their people from seeing it. And it makes me wonder what we might not be seeing here... I know that sometimes when I try to post on Facebook to friends in other countries, it sometimes says "This message cannot be sent to that country..." or something like that. Sometimes you can send it as a private message but not post it to a wall.
China is an unusual place. Many people there don't even have the Internet... yes, they have big cities like Beijing, but there are also whole generations of families still living in caves in the rural areas. So when they block things, I think they are "protecting" the information from a somewhat exclusive group of people - the ones who have the internet, and who might be able to do something with the information.
It appears to me, since Bloomberg did not provide any "proof" in their article, according to this post, that the Chinese simply do not want the "negative halo effect" of being written up in the "foreign" press. They, as we all know, do not encourage discussion of their politics or anything that would keep an important person from "losing face." Especially for their favored candidate.... sigh....
The Chinese use their language in very subtle ways, hinting at things by quoting someone esteemed rather than just saying straight out what they mean. It is a structure in their language and a mainstay of their culture. Other people who are very familiar with their language and culture understand that sometimes yes means no and sometimes no means yes. It's a linguistic/cultural difference, and their view of the news is different from that of the Western world. Censorship is never good, of course, but from their point of view the "foreign news" may seem jarring, upsetting and may create cognitive dissonance. We may remember this and try to send them love, even though it might be very tempting for us with our own sensibilities to regard their censorship as abominable.
Blessings,
Astreia
Obamas sencoring media here!
Im sorry to report but our own president is trying very hard to do the same, anything he doesnt like can not be aired on the news, he has a employee paid by us sencoring media and hes trying to control internet as well as radio, why does this site endorse him? I have no clue!
what country do you live in?
what country do you live in?