Wu Renhua’s “Day-by-Day Chronicle of the 1989 Tian An Men Incident”

我爱北京天安门 (I love Beijing Tian An Men) is a children’s song.
It is mostly about Mao Zedong, but still popular – see that video.

The following is an overview of some old translations – Tweets by Professor Wu Renhua (吴仁华), posted from April 15 to June 9, 2011, commemorating the Tian An Massacre, and remembering the months of hopes and ambitions before that. In fact, the emphasis is on how the Democracy Movement started and how it went – it’s the people’s history, not so much the “People’s Liberation Army’s” or its role in killing the people and their hopes.

My translation of it (which may include mistakes) starts with Wu’s April 15 post and ends with the April 25 post. The links within my translations are no longer valid, but there’s a re-post of Professor Wu’s work on “Wenxue City”.

The Weeks before June 4, 1989	Intro
The Weeks before June 4: Wu Renhua’s Introduction	Professor Wu
The Weeks before June 4 – a Desire to do Better than in 1987	April 15, 1989
The Weeks before June 4 – Towards the Sun	April 17, 1989
The Weeks before June 4 – a Trip to North Korea	April 19 – 20, 1989
The Weeks before June 4 – Asserting Authority	April 21, 1989
The Weeks before June 4 – Hu Yaobang’s Funeral	April 22, 1989
The Weeks before June 4 – Role Allocations	April 23, 1989
Struggling for the Ideological Switch Stands	April 24, 1989
Deng Xiaoping’s remarks and the April-26 Editorial	April 25, 1989

If you do a translation yourself, please let me know, and I’ll link there.

EU: “Just protecting the freedom of expression”

All the news that’s fit to blog.

Fri, Febr 24, 2023	One year after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, China publishes a Confucius-says “position paper”. Originally, it had been advised as a “peace plan” by China’s supreme diplomat Wang Yi, but has since been de-ambitioned. Meantime, China’s foreign-ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) offers a clue as to why: FMPRC tweet, Febr 24, 2023
Thu, Febr 23, 2023	The central committee of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) approved a timetable that presidential nominations would be decided by April 12, and Legislative Yuan nominations in May. It appears to be widely accepted among the party’s legislators that, in the light of a poor showing in Taiwan’s “mid-term elections”, i. e. the country’s local elections in November 2022, more time is needed to prepare for the nation-wide presidential and legislative elections next year. Lai Ching-te, the incumbent Tsai administration’s current Vice President, has recently been elected chairman of the DPP, and Chen Jien-jen, Lai’s predecessor as Taiwan’s Vice President from 2016 to 2020, became head of the cabinet in January this year. Source: 央廣 / Radio Taiwan International
Wed, Febr 22, 2023	High-level foreign-policy and defense officials from Japan and China met at Japan’s foreign ministry in Tokyo on Wednesday. It was the first such meeting after an interruption of about four years. Chinese Deputy foreign minister Sun Weidong (孙卫东) was quoted as saying that there was “an important consensus” that neither country posed a threat for the other. However, Sun also said that there were Chinese concerns about Japan’s “strategic documents” issued in 2022, and Japan’s increasing cooperation with “outside forces” (域外力量), and about “negative tendencies” in Taiwan. Source: Radio Japan
Wed, Febr 22, 2023	Russian president Vladimir Putin met China’s chief diplomat Wang Yi in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin published a detailed account of the meeting the same day. Source: Kremlin
Wed, Febr 15, 2023	Pyongyang was said to have gone under a Covid-related lockdown in late January, allegedly lasting from January 25 to 30. But was there a lockdown at all? Source: SinoNK
Tue, Febr 14, 2023	Chen Xuyuan (陈戌源) was – effectively, maybe not nominally yet – fired as chairman of the Chinese Football Association earliert his month, after having been confronted with the usual suspicions of “serious violations of discipline”, which appears to serve as a regular CPC codeword for corruption charges. Chen, a Shanghai native born in 1956, was also the football association’s deputy party secretary. Source: Ifeng
Mo, Febr 13, 2023	“Less then half the world is on the internet”, a BBC documentary broadcast told the audience on February 11, two days ahead of World Radio Day. Source: BBC
Tue, Febr 7, 2023	Critics of the EU’s censorship policy against Russia’s foreign-language service “RT” had a field day early this month, after the EU’s high-representative for for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, had told a “European Union External Action” (EEAS) conference that by imposing “restrictive measures on the Kremlin’s propaganda machinery and effectively ban them from operating within the European Union”, “we are not attacking the freedom of expression, we are just protecting the freedom of expression”. The EU’s “restrictive measures” aren’t limited to banning RT work from within the EU. Access to RT from EU countries is only possible via VPN. This includes the organization’s German and Chinese services. Main Source: EEAS

Protests: Don’t stirr Trouble, Comrade Jiang

–

The party leadership might be concerned that Jiang Zemin’s death could lead from public mourning to an idolization of the deceased leader, and to more protests from there (rhymes with “past leaders were better than you guys at the top”).

Also, the party may want to serve a reminder of what it can do if it considers its rule threatened (rhymes with June 4, 1989).

While the current protests are heavily censored, June 4, 1989 was mentioned in yesterday’s main evening news, in a read-out Jiang Zemin obituary, even if n ot as “liu-si”, but rather as ījiǔbājiǔ nián chūn xià zhī jiāo:

As mayor and as municipal party secretary of Shanghai, Comrade Jiang Zemin led the cadres and masses in Shanghai to raise their spirits and to daring exploration, promoting great breakthroughs in Shanghai’s opening-up and its socialist modernization. The development and opening-up of Pudong was taking shape, he promoted party-building, and the building of spiritual civilization and of society saw major progress. As spring passed into summer in 1989, serious political crisis occurred in our country. Comrade Jiang Zemin supported and carried out the Party Central Commission’s correct decision to take a clear-cut stand and to fight against turmoil, and the correct decision to defend socialist state power, to protect the fundamental interests of the people, and to closely rely on the numerous party members, cadres and masses to vigorously protect Shanghai’s stability.
一九八五年，江泽民同志任上海市市长、中共上海市委副书记。一九八七年，江泽民同志在党的十三届一中全会上当选为中共中央政治局委员，并任中共上海市委书记。担任上海市长、市委书记期间，江泽民同志带领上海广大干部群众振奋精神、勇于探索，推动上海改革开放和社会主义现代化建设取得重大突破，浦东开发开放蓄势谋篇，推动党的建设、精神文明建设、社会建设取得重大进步。一九八九年春夏之交我国发生严重政治风波，江泽民同志拥护和执行党中央关于旗帜鲜明反对动乱、捍卫社会主义国家政权、维护人民根本利益的正确决策，紧紧依靠广大党员、干部、群众，有力维护上海稳定。
In 1989, at the 13th Central Committee’s fourth plenary session, Comrade Jiang Zemin was elected into the politburo’s standing committee, and the central committee’s general secretary. The same year, the 13th central committee’s fifth plenary session made  Jiang Zemin should become chairman of the party’s central military commission.  In 1990, at the 7th National People’s Congress’ third session, he was elected chairman of the People’s Republic of China’s central military commission.
一九八九年，在党的十三届四中全会上，江泽民同志当选为中共中央政治局常委、中央委员会总书记。同年，党的十三届五中全会决定江泽民同志为中共中央军事委员会主席。一九九〇年，在七届全国人大三次会议上当选为中华人民共和国中央军事委员会主席。

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Related

王丹：就算江執政 中國也不會有民主, RTI, Dec 01, 2022
Popular History Reader, July 31, 2012
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CCTV News Anchor on “national security” legislation: “The Red Line must be inscribed in the Hearts”

Hai Xia, CCTV “Xinwen Lianbo” news anchor, July 5

Transcript

These two days our CCTV series “China emotionally touched”, with “Filled with Emotions like a Fragrant River”, led to passionate debates among netizens.

这两天央视播出的《感动中国》特别节目《情满香江》引发网友热议，

The film included a description of many motherland-loving, Hong Kong-loving people straightened their backs and defended Hong Kong‘s story.

片子里讲述了很多爱国爱港人士挺身而出守护香港的故事。

Among them, and that impressed us most deeply, there was a Hong Kong citizen at a plaza facing the “black violence” threat,

其中让我印象很深的是，有一位香港市民在商场里面对“黑暴”威胁，

responding by bringing his child and singing the national anthem aloud. His only a few year-old daughter said that someone who doesn‘t love his own country is useless.

他回应的方式是带着自己的孩子高唱国歌。他年仅几岁的女儿还说，一个人不爱自己的国家就没用了。

This little friend really must be praised. So young, she knows good from bad. Of course, this has to do with her father educating her,

真要为这位小朋友点赞，小小年纪就能明是非。这当然与父母的教育有关，

and we have also seen news today which says that Hong Kong‘s libraries have removed some “HK independence” books from the shelves which is beautifully done, but it is not enough.

今天也看到一个消息说，香港有图书馆已经将一些“港独”书籍下架，干得漂亮，但这还不够。

Many people know that some basic educational material in HK comes with “poison”, and this “poison” must be cleaned away to clean the source.

很多人都知道香港的一些教材、基础教育领域都带有“毒”，把这里的“毒”排排干净，才是真正的正本清源。

With HK security law in force, the law must genuinely take effect. Besides seriously applying the law, universal law knowledge must be taught well.

香港国安法已经落地生效，法律要真正发挥效用，除了严格执法之外，普法教育工作也一定要做好。

The red line is not only a legal red line, but must be inscribed in the hearts.

红线不仅是划在执法一线，也是划在心里。

The poison must vanish from the source, and only from there can the pernicious influence that brings calamity to HK be blocked at the roots.

源头消了毒，祸港的流毒也才能从根上堵住。

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Related

One country, our system, July 6, 2020
Unshrinking Police, July 3, 2020

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Hua Chunying: “I want to reiterate that China is the biggest victim of disinformation”

Main Links:
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on June 12, 2020 (English)
2020年6月12日外交部发言人华春莹主持例行记者会 (Chinese)

AFP: Twitter today said it removed tens of thousands of state-linked accounts used by China to spread disinformation or praise China’s response. As Chinese diplomats are becoming regular users of Twitter, I wonder what’s your comment on that?

法新社记者：推特公司今天表示，移除了数万个中方用来散布虚假信息、赞扬中国疫情应对的账号。中国外交官越来越多通过推特平台表达观点，你对此有何评论？

Hua Chunying: I’m not sure what is the basis of Twitter’s decision, but I would say that to equate plaudits for China’s epidemic response with disinformation is clearly untenable, unless we redefine what “disinformation” is. It is generally understood that disinformation should be false, untrue, or even maliciously fabricated lies and rumors. However, China’s efforts to combat COVID-19 and the results it achieved are real and witnessed by all. Recently, a white paper titled “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action” issued by the Information Office of the State Council unequivocally presents how the Chinese people have fought in unity in this great war against COVID-19 by providing a clear timeline and hard facts.

华春莹：我不清楚推特公司做出这一决定的依据是什么，但我想说，将肯定中国对疫情的应对等同于虚假信息显然是站不住脚的，除非重新定义什么是“虚假信息”。一般人理解，虚假信息应该是假的，不真实的，甚至是恶意捏造的谎言和谣言。而中国为抗击新冠肺炎疫情所做的努力和取得的成效是实实在在、有目共睹的。近日，中国国务院新闻办公室发表了《抗击新冠肺炎疫情的中国行动》白皮书，以清晰的时间线和铁一般的事实，清清楚楚地记录了中国人民团结一心抗击疫情的伟大历程。

At the same time, as you can see, since the outbreak of the pandemic, some people and forces in the international community have been almost crazy and hysterical in slandering and badmouthing China with rumors. You must have known that as exposed by the Politico website, the US National Republican Senatorial Committee has sent campaigns a 57-page memo advising GOP candidates to address the coronavirus crisis by “aggressively attacking China”. A few days ago, the same news website reported that in late March, 2.6 million tweets related to coronavirus were retweeted 25.5 million times within 10 days, and a lot of them spread rumors like “the coronavirus was a bioweapon created in China”. According to the report, an analysis of these Twitter accounts found that many of them are linked to supporters of the GOP and the right wing in the US, and had the hallmarks of “bots”.

与此同时，大家也都看到，疫情发生以来，国际上有一些人、一些势力在近乎疯狂、歇斯底里地针对中国进行造谣、污蔑和抹黑。你肯定知道，美国“政治”新闻网站曾曝光共和党参议院全国委员会向竞选机构发送57页备忘录，鼓动通过“积极攻击中国”应对疫情危机。几天前，也是美国“政治”新闻网站报道，3月下旬推特上有260万条与新冠病毒有关的推文10天内被转发2550万次，其中大量推文造谣称“病毒是中国生产制造的生化武器”。有关报道称通过分析发现其中很多推特账号与美国共和党及右翼势力支持者有关，且很多都是“机器人”账号。

If Twitter believes that those tweets praising China’s anti-epidemic efforts are “disinformation” and the accounts should be shut down, I wonder what they will do with the real disinformation which has undeniably smeared China with malicious intentions? If those who create and spread such disinformation can be allowed to go their own way and do everything in their power, then this is the perfect example of ideological prejudice, bias against China, blatant double standards, and the behavior to confuse right and wrong. What should be shut down is precisely the accounts that attack and smear China in an organized and coordinated manner.

如果推特公司认为肯定中国抗疫努力的是虚假信息并要关闭，不知道他们对于那些对中国恶意造谣抹黑的、真正的虚假信息怎么处理？如果任由他们大行其道、横行霸道、甚嚣尘上，那么什么是意识形态偏见，什么是戴着有色眼镜看中国，什么是赤裸裸的双重标准，什么是是非不分、黑白颠倒，这就是最好的例证。真正应该关掉的，恰恰是那些有组织、有协调来攻击抹黑中国的账号。

Let me reiterate that China is the biggest victim of disinformation. China always opposes the fabrication and dissemination of disinformation. The United Nations and WHO have repeatedly called on all countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to combat disinformation. We call on the international community to enhance solidarity and coordination, jointly reject disinformation, so that those political viruses such as rumors and slanders and the perpetrators and manipulators behind the scene will have no place to hide.

我要重申的是，中国是虚假信息的最大受害者。中方一贯反对制造和传播虚假信息。联合国和世卫组织已多次呼吁各国加强团结合作，打击各类虚假信息。我们呼吁国际社会加强团结协作，共同反对和抵制虚假信息，让那些谣言、诽谤等政治病毒及其幕后策划者、操纵者在阳光下无处遁形。

As for the more frequent use of Twitter by Chinese diplomats, I think it’s nothing strange. This is an era of new media. Just as many foreign diplomats and journalists in China use WeChat and Weibo, Chinese diplomats have taken Twitter as a channel and platform to communicate with people in other countries.

至于中国外交官越来越多使用推特，我想这很正常。这是一个新媒体时代，如同很多外国驻华外交官和外国媒体驻华记者在中国使用微信和微博一样，推特是中国外交官入乡随俗、与外国民众进行交流的一种方式和平台。

Meanwhile, some foreign media and social platforms are fraught with lies and rumors against China. In the dark and ugly world of disinformation, it is necessary for some people, including Chinese diplomats, to speak in a truthful, objective and impartial manner, like striking a match in the dark night to make some light. Anyone who is not playing deaf and dumb will be able to see the truth.

同时，现在一些外国媒体及社交平台上充斥着大量针对中国的恶毒谎言、谣言。在黑暗、丑陋的虚假信息世界里，需要一些人、包括中国外交官发出真实、客观、公正的声音，如同在漆黑的夜里擦亮一些火柴，发出一些光亮。只要不是铁了心、闭上眼、假装叫不醒的人，就能看到一些事实和真相。

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Related

A victim of disinformation, May 26, 2020

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Updates / Related

Friday morning  intrusion, June 12, 2020

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The science of making the most of a rumor without confirming it

The following is a Q & A between a reporter of Pengpai News (literally: “Surge”, aka “The Paper”) from Shanghai, and Shi Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology, at a regular press conference held by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism at Guo’erzhao Guest House in Beijing, on Thursday afternoon local time.

State Council info,
click photo for source

Main link: State Council transcript

Pengpai News reporter [“The Paper”, Shanghai]:
Recently, foreign media have reported that the American military has restarted the biochemical base at Fort Derrick in Maryland. After the news, obtained by many people there, later began to emerge, America believes that there is a lot of evidence that the cause for the emergency closure of Fort Derrick biochemcial base last year in August was absolutely fishy, and it is believed that said virus may be the origin of the new coronavirus, and may also have created the autum-winter influenza epidemic. After that, said virus [is said to have] occured in China again, as a variation of the virus, because of US military taking part in the Wuhan 2019 Military World Games. May I ask how the experts view this issue? Thank you.

[澎湃新闻记者]近期，有境外媒体报道美军重启为马里兰州的德特里克堡生化研究基地，那里很多民众得到消息以后开始外逃，美国认为有多个证据表明，德特里克堡生化研究基地去年8月被紧急关闭的原因十分蹊跷，认为该疾病可能是新冠病毒的源头，并在美国造成秋冬季节流感大流行，之后病毒通过参加武汉军人运动员美国军人在中国发生变异后再次暴发，请问台上专家如何看待这个问题？谢谢。2020-04-23 15:34:02

Shi Yi:
Thank you for your question. Actually, we are have noticed the related information of this idea on the internet, too, about Americans suspecting that Fort Derrick biochemical base may be the source of the new coronavirus. There hasn’t been a public American response, and we have no way of judging this. Investigating the origins of a virus science in itself, whose main objective is to avoid another outbreak of similar epidemic situations, causing harm to humankind. Currently, scientists from all countries of the world are researching the origins of the virus, and they have put forward numerous learned points of views and hypothesis and guesses. Chinese scientists have also carried out conscientious relevant research, so as to find the origins of the new coronavirus as soon as possible, with a focus on good prevention and control, and to provide a scientific basis.

[施一]谢谢这位记者的提问。其实，我们注意到互联网上相关信息，美国有人怀疑德特里克堡生化研究基地可能是新冠病毒来源的说法，美国方面对此没有公开回应，我们无从做出判断。病毒溯源本身是科学问题，其主要目的是防止再次发生同类疫情对人类社会造成危害。目前，世界各国科学家都在开展病毒源头的研究，对新冠病毒的来源提出了许多学术观点及假设、猜想。中国科学家目前也在认真开展相关研究，为早日找到新冠病毒的起源，有针对性的做好防控，提供科学依据。

Still Shi Yi:
As seen from the process of tracing the origins of tracing a virus, this is a scientific problem that requires a relatively long time and comes with uncertainties. It will take quite a chain of biological information and epidemiological evidence put together, confirming each other, to really complete this task. Many viral diseases in human history, such as AIDS, SARS etc. have required decade-long searches for their origins, but although there has been progress, all results are speculative, without a final answer, research is still continuing. The current new corona pneumonia is wreaking havoc on the entire world, and hopefully, all countries of the world will focus their energy and attention on the major work of prevention and control. The scientific issue of tracing the origins of the virus will require deep research by scientists from all countries. Thank you.

从病毒溯源的科学研究全过程来看，这是一项科学难题，需要较长时间而且存在不确定性，需要将众多生物学信息和流行病学证据汇聚成相互印证的证据链，才能真正完成任务。人类历史上很多疾病比如艾滋病、SARS等，对其源头的探索历经十几年甚至几十年的研究，虽然取得了进展，但研究结果仅是推测，尚未得出最终的答案，研究工作至今仍在继续。当前新冠肺炎疫情正在全球肆虐，希望世界各国把精力和关注点集中放在疫情防控重点工作上，病毒溯源这一科学难题需要各国科学家深入研究。谢谢。2020-04-23 15:34:29

Flying high and low: Radio Taiwan International’s French and Spanish Services return to Shortwave

The transmission site is important,
but a welcoming set of wires won’t hurt either,
especially if you want to listen to the programs
for Latin America from Europe

Radio Taiwan International (RTI) is putting its French and Spanish services back on the air, after an absence of two years. The French programs are broadcast every night at 19:00 to 19:30 UTC on 6005 kHz via Kostinbrod (Bulgaria), for northern Africa and Europe. There are news bulletins at the beginning of every transmission (except, possibly, on Saturdays and Sundays when those first ten minutes may be used for cultural or other programs).

RTI’s Spanish service will be back on air on April 6, i. e. this coming Monday, with transmissions for South America from 01:00 to 01:30 UTC on 5800 kHz, for Central America and Cuba from 02:00 to 02:30 UTC on 5010 kHz, and for Europe from 22:00 to 23:00 UTC on 7780 kHz. (Time UTC means Sunday night, April 5, local time in Latin America.)

The Spanish test transmissions were apparently all carried out by Radio WRMI (Radio Miami International) in Okeechobee, Florida, so that should be the case with the regular transmissions starting on April 6, too.

The decision to make more use of shortwave again was reportedly taken by a new director general at RTI , a man named Chang Cheng (張正) who has apparently been at the helm of Taiwan’s international broadcaster since some time in summer, 2019.

Chang appears to be enthusiastic about shortwave. This isn’t the first time that he is involved with broadcasting, he wrote in November last year, but while he used to think of broadcasting as a rather simple affair – “you speak, you record it, your voice goes on the air, and that’s that” (在錄音室錄完就大功告成，聲音就出去了), he has since learned that this had been a rather low-key description:

Once the recording is done, there’s post-production, once that is done, your voice has to go on air. How can it be transmitted? At RTI, for example, the recording, made at RTI’s main building in Taipei, has to be transmitted from the iron tower on the Taipei building’s roof on microwave, to the microwave station on the top of Yuanshan mountain, and, flying high and low, across buildings and mountain ranges, exit the Taipei Basin, to reach another microwave station there. Several relays later, it arrives at the targeted substation.^*)

錄音結束，還要後製，後製完成，還要把聲音送出去。怎麼送？以央廣為例，在台北總台錄製的節目，必須透過屋頂的發射鐵塔，以微波打向高據圓山山頭的微波站，再居高臨下地越過高樓大廈、越過層層山巒，送到台北盆地之外的微波站。經過幾個微波站的接力，抵達各地分台。

The real task awaits us here: by the substation’s high-performance transmitters and all sorts of rigged antennas, the signal is carried out of Taiwan, on shortwave.

然後才是最難的部份：透過分台的高功率發射機與高聳的各式天線電塔，以短波的形式傳送到台灣境外。

Why the fuss? You say that in the internet age, you just have to put your voice on the internet and that will do? Not necessarily (pointing west without comment). Therefore, this sort of flying-pigeon message, the historic long-distance radio wave, reflected by the ionosphere, comes in handy.

幹嘛這麼費事？你說，網路時代，把聲音放上網路不就成了？這可不一定。你知道的，有些地方網路到不了（伸出食指默默指向西邊）。於是「短波」（Short Wave）這種有如飛鴿傳書、將無線電波藉由電離層反射的古老遠距傳輸技藝，就派上用場了。

Chang acknowledges that China jams such signals, but points out that jamming isn’t as watertight as the “great firewall” is.

That of course doesn’t explain why Africa, Europe, and Latin America have now become target areas for shortwave again. But the French department’s mailbag program, on February 15, quoted the management as saying that RTI needed to use all means of communications available to raise Taiwan’s profile, including shortwave.

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Notes

^*) substation refers to the actual transmitter sites, such as Tamsui, or, in the past, Tianma substations.
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Chinese Academic on WSJ Reporters’ Expulsion: Butts have to be spanked

The following is a translation of an opinion article by Yang Hanyi, a regular columnist with the internet newsmagazine Guanchazhe Online (aka “Observer”), and researcher at the Shanghai Spring and Autumn Development Strategy Institute.

Guanchazhe is privately-run, according to this Wiki, and seems to be replacing “Huanqiu Shibao” as a voice for post-1990 fenqings, plus indignant little emperors of all ages.

Yang’s article goes far beyond the WSJ “incident” – and this probably reflects the political motivation behind revoking the three press credentials. It appears to reflect Beijing’s frustration with American sanction policies, the murder of Qasem Soleimani, and the demonstrations in Hong Kong (blamed on the West), among others. It also tries to sketch a roadmap of how to deal with the press in future.

However, Guanchazhe notes that the article’s content is only the opinion of the author, and not written on behalf of the platform.

Links within blockquotes added during translation.

On February 19, a spokesman of China’s foreign ministry announced at a press conference that from that day onwards, the credentials of three Beijing reporters of America’s “Wall Street Journal” would be revoked. In peoples’ memory, this is the first time in the decades of reform and opening up that the government has handed down an “edict of expulsion” against several reporters of the same medium at the same time.

2月19日，中国外交部发言人在记者会上宣布，即日起吊销美国《华尔街日报》三名驻京记者证件。在人们的记忆中，这是改革开放几十年来中国政府首次对来自同一家国际媒体的多名记者同时下“逐客令”。

I’d just like to say: “well done”.

对此我只想说“干得漂亮”。

As is well known, this incident started with the “WSJ”‘s publication of a flow of racism and prejudice, “China is the real sick man in Asia”, slandering the Chinese government’s and peoples’ great efforts to resist the new coronavirus epidemic. Once this was published, many netizens rushed forth the the “WSJ”‘s social media accounts and denounced the racism. America’s nationwide broadcaster NBC, in a report, also criticized the “WSJ”‘s headline as it could create fear, anxieties, and a hostile mood. Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, on February 6, named the author and criticized his arrogance, prejudice and ignorance. But facing the stern message of the Chinese side, [the WSJ] then turned to summoning the pretense of freedom of the press and of speech. For a while, the author said that the choice of the headline was freedom of editing, for a while they said that they had meant to refer to the Ottoman Empire without malign intentions, and even that [The remaining accusations are beyond my translation skills, but this article may reflect all or some of them]. Do they really believe that people don’t know those things behind western media?

众所周知，这起事件的起因是《华尔街日报》2月3日发表了一篇流淌着种族主义偏见的文章《中国是真正的“亚洲病夫”》，诋毁中国政府和人们抗击新冠疫情的努力。此文一发，大批网民涌至作者和《华尔街日报》社交媒体页面上留言指责种族主义。美国全美广播公司在报道中也批评《华尔街日报》的标题可能制造恐惧、焦虑和敌对情绪。中国外交部发言人华春莹更是于2月6日点名批评该文作者的傲慢、偏见和无知。但面对中方的严正交涉，他们又搬出新闻自由、言论自由的幌子，一会儿作者说起标题是编辑的自由，一会儿说我们没有恶意只是玩了个奥斯曼帝国的梗，一会儿说我们甚至以病夫自黑呢。如今中国采取惩罚措施，《华尔街日报》发行人威廉•刘易斯又甩的一手好锅，说评论部门惹的祸，不好怪到新闻记者头上来哟，真以为人们不知道西方媒体背后那些事呢？

In recent years, everyone has clearly seen America’s so-called great-power competition, not only in correct and fitting words in national defense strategy papers, not only by openly kidnapping the international community with domestic laws^*), not only by telling the world with an honest face that we “tell lies, cheat and steal”, not only trampling on international conventions for the protection of diplomats by public assassination, but also by carrying a gun and a stick on a somewhat concealed battlefield which is the battle of public opinion.

近年来大家都看清了美国所谓的大国竞争，不仅名正言顺地写在国防战略报告里；不仅堂而皇之用国内法绑架国际社会；不仅正大光明地告诉世界“我们撒谎、欺骗、偷窃”；不仅践踏保护外交人员的国际公约公然行刺，也包括在另一片略微隐蔽的战场上夹枪带棒，这就是舆论话语的战斗。

Yang’s article describes news media as rather low-cost “mouthpieces of national interests” with a frequently high impact on international public opinion and politics, while America hardly found a way to compete with Huawei. And while an old-style empire’s embarrassing situation was understandable, and while one could even appreciate the comical nature of foreign medias’ blackening of China, butts that deserved a spanking still needed to be spanked (但好笑归好笑，屁股该打还是要打的).

It continues with a tour of American crimes and double standards (perceived or real – you decide from case to case), from a recently announced obligation for China’s state or party media to register as foreign agents or diplomatic missions in the US, to an NBA executive’s support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement (instigating chaos elements in HK / 怂恿乱港分子), the publication of a coronavirus-China-state-flag cartoon in Denmark, the WSJ’s sick-man-of-Asia statement, and inconsistencies in measures against anti-semitic or anti-black messages online while lacking protection of China against being being scolded.

The “Charlie Hebdo” massacre is broached, too, and so is responsibility as the other side of the coin (freedom being the other one).

Has the “WSJ” published free speech which insults Chinese? Yes. Must it be held responsible for publishing such remarks? Yes.

《华尔街日报》有没有发表侮辱中国人文章的言论自由？有。那它需不需要为发表这样的言论负责？需要。

The article then refers to Singapore as a place to learn from, when dealing with “misreporting”, citing a lawsuit by Lee Kuan Yew against the Far Eastern Economic Review‘s editor-in-chief as an example – according to the author, that was in 1989 -, and a case against the Asia WSJ, also in Singapore, in 1991, about contempt of court.

Yang on the other hand cites Beijing’s “unreliable entities list” as a conceivable tool.

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Note

^*) There are probably two aspects to this accusation. One could be the US sanctions regime against Iran (and maybe also against North Korea, even if China officially supports those), and another would be a widely held belief that there is a rift between the US and the rest of the West about how to interact with China.

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Related

FMPRC daily briefing online, Febr 19, 2020
Be more Xinhua, Oct 10, 2009