杰安迪 报道 2012年11月03日
Chinatopix, via Associated Press
周一，海南省举行“喜迎十八大”文艺演出。
北京——中国共产党官员们将于下周降临首都北京，参加指定下一代国家领导人的仪式。在这里我给想庆祝这场盛会的人提个建议：把气球留在家里。
这座有2000万人口的规模庞大的城市正在下大力量应接党的十八次代表大会。各种有潜在漂浮能力的东西，如气球、信鸽、乒乓球和遥控的玩具飞机，都上了可疑物的名单，也许它们可能携带抗议信息，搅乱这场精心编排的政治表演。
而且这只是政府规定和限制的一个极小部分，这些规定和限制在互联网上流传，但从未得到官方证实。在为期一周的党代会期间，这些规定和限制看来可能会使居民的日常生活尤具挑战性，一位省公安厅的官员把党代会的准备工作比作“一级战备”。
最近，菜刀已经从商店的货架上拿下，互联网的访问速度莫名其妙地慢、好像粘稠糖浆的流速，像CNN和BBC这样的国际新闻频道已经从高档健身俱乐部的电视机中消失了。
在“老书虫”这家颇受欢迎的英文书店，原来的中国政治和历史书籍销售区现在摆满了史蒂芬・金(Stephen King)的惊险小说、育儿指南和维多利亚・贝克汉姆(Victoria Beckham)的时尚宝典《额外的半英寸》(That Extra Half an Inch)。
一位店员无奈地耸耸肩说，“我们只是重新布置一下，党代会之后它们就会回来。”
最近，这份开列党代会期间市民所面临的不便和妨碍的清单，已经变得比会后发布的公报还要长。马拉松比赛、学术会议、宠物收养集市，电影制作和爵士音乐会都被取消或推迟了。不仅是在北京，全国各地的国有企业商业交易都已经冻结了数周，企业雇员说。一位沮丧的互联网设计师说，在党的元老们于会议结束时公开推出新任最高领导层之前，没有新网站可以上线。
音乐人高晓松在中国版的Twitter上发了一条帖子，说凡带有“死”或“下”字样的歌曲都已经被电视台临时取缔了。高晓松写道，“刚刚眼看着一歌手翻唱《死了都要爱》被毙，提醒下同行。”
中国社会的所有方面都受到了影响。中国证券监督委员会警告股市交易商把市场波动维持在最小水平，不要在政治大事之前“违逆北京”。
有些来自全国各地的主要是男性的党代表们，可能对官员们为减少让与会者从无休止的演讲和闭门饭局中分心的事情而采取的极端行动尤为失望。据为性工作者提供社区服务的非营利组织人士李丹说，至少一半的首都妓女都被逮捕，或被驱赶出城。
对中国的异议人士而言，党代会无异是给他们的一记耳光。在全国，如果没有数千名、至少也有数百名活动人士和政府批评者被软禁在家，或被迫远离首都去“度假”，而且常常是在警方看守的陪同下。
藏籍博主茨仁唯色(Tsering Woeser)说，国安部人员逼迫她本月离开自己的北京寓所。她在老家西藏首府拉萨接受电话采访时说，“我猜，他们觉得我们这样的人不和谐。他们就是想在他们的重大会议期间，让我们这些人从视野中消失。”
北京的著名律师浦志强说，共产党的无端恐惧只会增强民众对政府的失望。他说，“如果政府真实地代表普通老百姓，他们不需要这么草木皆兵。共产党只顾自己，他们认为必须总分散人民的注意力、操纵人民的意志，才能维持稳定”。
到目前为止，北京出租车受到的限制引起了最多的不满。司机们接到命令被要求解除后座车窗的开窗功能，以免乘客从人民大会堂上风口散发反政府信息。人民大会堂是本次党代会的会场，这一毛泽东时代的雄伟而精雕细做的建筑物位于天安门广场西侧。
政府向出租车司机许诺奖励，如果他们告发“企图散发携带横幅的气球、或带有信息的乒乓球”的乘客。作为“零传播”规定的一部分，司机们被提醒对后座进行检查，以确认乘客是否可能留下不适宜的政治信息。
司机李伟旭（音译）抱怨说，“这实在太麻烦了。”他说，他最关心的是，政府是否会为他报销更换手摇车窗把手的费用，他被要求把把手拿掉。
已经进行了好几个月的党代会准备工作，占据了这个幅员辽阔国家里忧心忡忡的政府官僚们的全部精力。根据《人民日报》的消息，掌管国家安全的中国领导人周永康在7月的一次高官参加的会议上说，“确保社会大局和谐稳定，是开好十八大的重要前提，是各地各部门各单位的首要政治任务和重大政治责任。”
在中国西北部青海省一个偏远的、藏族为主的县，当地官员发誓要严惩被发现销售西藏流亡精神领袖达赖喇嘛照片的市场小贩、或任何“散步淫秽、色情及庸俗信息”的居民，同仁县(Rebkong)政府下发的一份通告宣称。在中国另一端的沿海省份山东，2.6万名官员被派入乡村和小城镇，以确保农村“基层”在党代会之前平静无事，官方通讯社新华社报道说。
就连最难制服的中国政府批判者、艺术家艾未未也在很大程度上被套上了缰绳。艾未未说，警方看守建议说，他可以对几乎任何事情公开讨论或写评论，只要不涉及即将召开的十八大。
他说，“说实在的，这还可以吧，因为党代会只是那些人的一次内部会议”。他用略带嘲讽地语气强调“那些人”，“那和我没关系，说真的，和其他任何人都没关系。”
杰安迪(Andrew Jacobs)是《纽约时报》驻京记者。Amy Qin对本文有研究贡献。
翻译：张薇
——纽约时报中文网
Restrictions Pave Path to a Transition in China
November 03, 2012
Chinatopix, via Associated Press
Hainan Province on Monday celebrated China’s coming 18th Communist Party Congress with choreography and flags.
BEIJING — A word of advice to anyone hoping to celebrate the gathering of Communist Party apparatchiks who are about to descend on the capital next week to anoint a new generation of Chinese leaders: Leave the balloons at home.
As this sprawling city of 20 million people steels itself for the 18th Party Congress, all sorts of potentially buoyant objects — balloons, homing pigeons, Ping-Pong balls and remote-control toy airplanes — are finding their way onto lists of suspicious items that could potentially carry protest messages and mar the meticulously choreographed political spectacle.
按图放大
Andy Wong/Associated Press
The window crank of a Beijing cab was removed to prevent riders from tossing out antigovernment messages.
And this is just a tiny portion of the government’s rules and restrictions, circulated on the Internet but never officially acknowledged, that seem likely to make daily life especially challenging during the weeklong congress, which one provincial police department likened to a “state of war.”
In recent days, kitchen knives have been removed from store shelves, Internet access has mysteriously slowed to the speed of molasses, and international news channels like CNN and the BBC have disappeared from television sets in upscale health clubs.
At the Bookworm, a popular English-language bookstore, the section previously devoted to Chinese politics and history has been stuffed with Stephen King thrillers, child-rearing guides and Victoria Beckham’s “That Extra Half an Inch.”
“We’re just reorganizing,” one employee said with a helpless shrug. “They’ll be back after the party congress.”
In recent days, the list of interruptions and inconveniences has grown longer than a post-congress communiqué. Running marathons, academic conferences, pet adoption fairs, film productions and jazz concerts have all been canceled or postponed. Not just in Beijing but across the country, business deals at state-run enterprises have been frozen for weeks, employees say, while one frustrated Web designer said no new sites could go up until after party elders publicly presented the new slate of top leaders at the end of the congress.
The musician Gao Xiaosong, posting on the Chinese version of Twitter, said songs with the words “die” or “down” had been temporarily banned from television. “I just witnessed a singer who sang ‘Die for Love’ have his performance killed,” Mr. Gao wrote. “Colleagues should take this as a lesson.”
All facets of Chinese society have been affected. The China Securities Regulatory Commission warned stock traders to keep market volatility to a minimum and not “buck Beijing” ahead of the political event.
And some of the predominantly male delegates arriving from around China may be particularly disappointed by just how far officials have gone to eliminate distractions from the endless speeches and dinners taking place behind closed doors. At least half the capital’s prostitutes have already been arrested or driven out of town, according to Li Dan, whose nonprofit group provides outreach to sex workers.
For Chinese dissidents, the congress has already proved itself to be a slap in the face. Hundreds, if not thousands, of activists and government critics across the country have been placed under house arrest or forced to take “vacations” far from the capital, often in the company of police minders, according to human rights organizations.
Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan blogger, said national security agents forced her to vacate her Beijing apartment this month. “I guess they consider people like us inharmonious,” Ms. Woeser said, speaking by phone from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, where she grew up. “They just want us invisible during their big important meeting.”
Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent lawyer in Beijing, said the party’s paranoia served only to fuel public disillusionment. “If the government actually represented the common people, they wouldn’t need to be so strict,” Mr. Pu said. “The party is so cynical they think the people must always be distracted and manipulated in order to maintain stability.”
So far the restrictions on Beijing taxis have produced the most complaints. Drivers have been ordered to disable their rear-window controls lest passengers toss antigovernment messages upwind from the Great Hall of the People, the imposing Mao-era confection on Tiananmen Square that is the site of the congress.
Cabdrivers have been promised rewards for turning in passengers “who intend to spread messages by carrying balloons that bear slogans or Ping-Pong balls bearing messages.” As part of the “zero spread” rules, drivers have been reminded to check rear seats for unseemly political messages that might have been left by passengers.
“It’s terribly inconvenient,” complained one driver, Li Weixu, who said he was most concerned about whether the government would reimburse him for the cost of replacing the hand-crank window handles that he was required to yank off.
Preparations for the party congress, many months in the making, have preoccupied anxious government bureaucrats across this vast nation. “Safeguarding social harmony and stability is a very important precondition for the opening of the 18th Party Congress and is the priority task and political responsibility of every level of government,” Zhou Yongkang, the nation’s security chief, said during a meeting with top officials in July, according to People’s Daily.
In one remote, largely Tibetan county in Qinghai Province, in China’s northwest, officials vowed harsh punishment for market vendors caught selling photographs of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader, or for anyone “spreading obscene, pornographic and vulgar messages,” according to a notice circulated by the county government in Rebkong, or Tongren in Chinese. At the other end of the country, in coastal Shandong Province, 26,000 officials were sent to villages and small towns to make sure the rural “grass roots” remained pacific ahead of the party congress, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.
Even the country’s most irrepressible government critic, the artist Ai Weiwei, has been largely reined in. Mr. Ai said his police minders suggested he could publicly talk or write about almost anything — except the coming party congress.
“To be honest, it’s O.K. because it’s just an internal meeting for those people,” he said, emphasizing “those” with faint derision. “It has nothing to do with me. Or with anyone else, really.”
没有评论:
发表评论