public health crises on chinese front pages – an analysis

PublichealthcrisesonChinesefrontpages–Ananalysisofmedia

discoursesaboutSARSandthetaintedmilkscandal

GørilFrømyrBorgen

MasterofAsianandAfricanStudies

EastAsianStudies(30credits)

DepartmentofCultureStudiesandOrientalLanguages

UniversityofOslo

December2011

III

PublichealthcrisesonChinesefrontpages

AnanalysisofmediadiscoursesaboutSARSandthetaintedmilkscandal

GørilFørmyrBorgen

IV

©GørilFrømyrBorgen2011Public health crises on Chinese front pages – An analysis of media discourses about SARS and the tainted milk scandalGørilFrømyrBorgenhttp://www.duo.uio.no/Printing:Reprosentralen,UniversitetetiOslo

V

SummaryThis paper seeks to explore the impact the twonational health crises ‐ SARS and the

tainted milk scandal ‐ might have had on the public sphere in China. In both cases,

insufficient information and government cover‐ups hindered effective handling of the

situationsandworsenedtheoutcome.

AgainstthebackdropofrecenthistoryanddevelopmentswithinChinesemedia,I

analysed how the official party‐paper, the Renmin Ribao, and the Guangdong‐based

weeklyNanfang Zhoumo covered the two crises. By doing so, Iwas able to study the

relationshipbetweenofficialandmoreliberaldiscoursesandhowthesedevelopedover

timeinthecontextofcrises.

InmyanalysisIpaidspecialattentiontodifferentgroups’degreeofaccesstothe

debateandtowhichtopicsthatwerediscussed.Whenexaminingtheuseoflanguagein

thediscourses,Iobservedhowtheterms“scientific”and“openness”wereappliedinthe

rhetoricofleadersin2003and2008.Ialsofoundseveralexamplesofhowgovernment

critiquewasraisedbetweenthelinesintheNanfangZhoumo.

Iargueinmypaperthatthecriseshavecontributedtoawideningpublicsphere

intermsof topicsthatareacceptabletodiscusswithinthe limitsofcensorship.At the

sametime,theChineseleadershiphasadoptedamoreproactiveandhumbleapproach

tocrisismanagement,somethingthatmightstrengthentheParty’spositionintermsof

legitimacyaswellasitsabilitytocarryoutunpopularreformsonthelocallevel.

Inordertoacquireabroaderunderstandingofthedynamicsofapublicspherein

anEast‐Asianregionalcontext,Ilookedathownationalmediacoveredasimilarcrisisin

SouthKorea.Ifoundthatcommercialpressureandstrongnationalistsentimentscould

put a critical public debate at risk also in a democratic country where media is not

ownedandcontrolledbythegovernment.

VII

AcknowledgementsIsendmyheartfeltgratitudetotheNorwegianCentreforHumanRightsforgrantingme

with their scholarship formaster students in 2010. Special thanks to everyone at the

ChinaProgramme‐yourinterestinmyresearchhasbeenasignificantmotivationinmy

workwiththethesis,andIhighlyvaluedyourcommentsandsupport.

MysincerethankstomysupervisorandteacherProfessorVladimirTikhonovat

the Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages for having guided me

through the fascinating field of East Asian Studies, always ready to give extensive

feedback and advice. My thanks go also to Qi Wang for an inspiring introduction to

Chinesesocietyandpoliticsin2007andforsupervisingonmythesisinspring2011.

MygoodfriendGuroLidtooktheinitiativeandtimetoreadthroughmypaperin

ahecticfinalstage,forwhichIammostgrateful.Finally,mywarmthanksgotoStianfor

valuablecommentsandcorrectionstomypaper,fordailyinspirationandforcomingto

theNationalLibraryofChinainBeijingwithmethatsnowywinterof2009.

The responsibility for the final product is fullymine, but their efforts certainly

madeitabetterone.

IX

ListofcontentsSummary .......................................................................................................................................................... VAcknowledgements.................................................................................................................................... VIIListofcontents ..............................................................................................................................................IXIntroduction–topicandquestions ......................................................................................................... 1Thelimitationsofmypaper............................................................................................................................................ 2

Theory ............................................................................................................................................................... 2Publicsphere ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Methodandmaterial .................................................................................................................................... 5Whohasasay?Aquantitativeandqualitativeinquiry ..................................................................................... 6Discourseanalysis ............................................................................................................................................................... 6Regionalperspective.......................................................................................................................................................... 8

Background ..................................................................................................................................................... 8Chinesemediatoday:newpowers,controlandcommercialism.................................................................... 8TherolesoftheChinesejournalist............................................................................................................................... 9TheroleofglobalisationandtheInternet .............................................................................................................11Officialandunofficialideologies–“scientificdevelopment”andnationalism ......................................12Reportingonurgenthealthcrises .............................................................................................................................14TheRenminRibao .............................................................................................................................................................15TheNanfangZhoumo......................................................................................................................................................16

Analysis...........................................................................................................................................................17TheRenminRibaoontheSARSoutbreak...............................................................................................................17Businessasusual,butneedtoupgradethesystem................................................................................18Timelyandaccordingtolaw.............................................................................................................................18WHOasasource.....................................................................................................................................................19Patrioticsentiments–TheTaiwanissueandforeignmedia ..............................................................19HowtocureSARS–publichealtheducation .............................................................................................22Leaningonscience,butnoroomfor”individualacts” ..........................................................................23Thehealthworkersandthecadres–modelworkersandmilitaryreferences..........................24Pricespeculation–greenlightforcritique ................................................................................................25Theturningpoint ...................................................................................................................................................26Anewgenerationofleadersenterthestage..............................................................................................27

X

NanfangZhoumoreportingonSARS........................................................................................................................28AshortglimpseofaGuangzhouonalert .....................................................................................................28Hearsaytobefoughtwithinformation ........................................................................................................29Negotiatingtheroleofthemedia ...................................................................................................................30Anonymoussources..............................................................................................................................................30Thesilenceandtheturningpoint...................................................................................................................31Thechallengeofthecountrysideandthevoiceofvillagepeople ....................................................32The“atypical”caseofHaicheng.......................................................................................................................33

ThetaintedmilkscandalintheRenminRibao ....................................................................................................34Aclearconnection .................................................................................................................................................34Consumerinformation ........................................................................................................................................35“Whathaveyoudonesofar?”and“Whoknewwhatwhen?”.............................................................35Critiqueofthefoodsafetysystem ..................................................................................................................36Criminaltrialsandgovernmentaccountability ........................................................................................38Theonlinepublic....................................................................................................................................................40Wenvisits”ordinarypeople”–theonlyherointhestory...................................................................40

Thediscourseofopenness(公开) ..................................................................................................................42

ThetaintedmilkscandalintheNanfangZhoumo .............................................................................................43Betweenthelines...................................................................................................................................................43Discipliningjournalists........................................................................................................................................44Netizensasasource..............................................................................................................................................44

Thestormofaccountability(问责风暴) ......................................................................................................45

Questionsoflegalityandlawyersasasource ...........................................................................................47Theindustryandthe“lawofthejungle” .....................................................................................................48

ThecaseofSouthKorea .................................................................................................................................................49SouthKoreanmedia .............................................................................................................................................49Professionalethicsunderpressure ...............................................................................................................49Publicoutrageandadpullouts .......................................................................................................................50Conservativemedia’sreactions.......................................................................................................................51Marketforcesandnationalism ........................................................................................................................52

Concludingnotes .........................................................................................................................................52Tables ..............................................................................................................................................................56Table1:SourcesusedinthetwopaperswhencoveringtheSARSoutbreak..........................................56Table2:Sourcesusedinthetwopaperswhencoveringthetaintedmilkscandal ..............................57

Literature .......................................................................................................................................................59

1

Introduction–topicandquestions“Ifeelextremelyguiltyandsincerelyapologizetoallofyou.”1 Thesewerethewordsof

ChinesePrimeMinisterWenJiabaotoChinaandtherestoftheworldwhenthescopeof

the “taintedmilk scandal”becameevident inOctober2008.Wen'swordswere a rare

incident of a high government official accounting for his actions in a leadership that

seldom answers to critique and that works hard to prevent for channels of public

critiquetoemerge.

51 9002infants were hospitalised for various kidney problems3related to the

consumption of contaminated baby formula, where the industrial chemicalmelamine

hadbeenadded tomake theprotein level lookhigher. Sixdeathsamong infantswere

confirmedinMainlandChina.Non‐fatalcaseswerereportedinHongKong,Macaoand

Taiwan, and products containing melamine were found in many other countries.

Altogether300000babiesarebelievedtohavebeensickenedbythemilkformula.

In2003,WenofferedsimilarapologiesafterChinahadnot informedtheWorld

HealthOrganisation (WHO) about an outbreak of thedeadly SARS‐virus inNovember

2002inthesouthernGuangdong‐provinceuntilfourmonthslater,causingadelayinthe

response to the epidemic. The two scandals are similar in that they brought national

shametoChina,highlightedseriousshortcomingsinthesystemanditsgovernanceand

representedadirectthreattothepeople’shealth.

In this paper, I will examine how two Chinese newspapers covered these

scandals.Inbothcases,poorinformationsystemscombinedwithintentionalcoverups

made the situations worse and finally led to top leaders being held accountable and

leavingtheirposts,tocallsforbettersupervision,regulationandmoreopenness.

My aim is to consider what implications these incidents and the reporting on

themmayhavehadonthepublicsphereinChina.Whoweregivenavoiceinthepapers?

Whattopicswereaddressedandwhichwordswereused?Inwhatwaydidofficialand

liberalnewspapersdifferintheircoverage?Bylookingatthesetwocases,onefromthe

early years of the decade and the other toward the end, I hope to be able to say

somethingaboutthedevelopmentwithinthepublicsphereoverthisperiodoftime.

1AsiaTimes,October10,2008:“MilkscandalsoursChina’s‘softpower’”.2WHO’sofficialhomepage.3Includingkidneystonesthatareveryraretofindamonginfants,accordingtotheWHO.

2

ThelimitationsofmypaperInordertostaywithinthescopeofmypaper,Iwillfocusonthereportingintheinitial

phases (characterised by silence or censorship), the breakthroughs (when official

information is released) and the first days after thebreakthroughs. Such an approach

willbeinstrumentalinobservingtherelationshipbetweenopennessandcensorshipin

acrucialphase.Thepapers Ihave takenmymaterial from, theRenminRibaoandthe

Nanfang Zhoumo, are not chosen to reflect the general picture of howChinesemedia

covered theseevents,but rather theyserveas twoextremesonacontinuumbetween

strictlyofficialandmoreliberalpapers.

Ibelievethatcomparingthesenewspaperswillbeusefulinobservingthelimits

on public discourse as well as the relationship between the official andmore liberal

discourse.Onsensitiveissues,theRenminRibaotogetherwiththeofficialnewsagency

Xinhuaset thestandardforhowtoreportwithinthe limitsofcensorship. In thesame

cases, theNanfangZhoumoandothermore liberalpublicationsuseclevermethods to

pushthelimits.

Theory

PublicsphereIn his book The structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, German sociologist

JürgenHabermasdescribesanidealsituationwherethepublicexercisesinfluenceover

otherinstitutionsthroughrationaldebateinthepublicsphere.Atthecoreofhistheory

istheideathatlegitimaterulemustbuildonanargumentativediscourseandthatpower

liesexclusivelyinthebestargument.4

There are three objective demands for a public sphere: a disinterest in the

participants’ statuses, that themes of common concern are debated and new themes

broughtintothelightandthattheforuminwhichthedebatetakesplaceisinclusiveto

allmembersofsociety.5Thepublicsphereisontheonehandseparatedfromtheprivate

sphereofthefamilyandontheotherfromthesphereofpublicauthority(thestate).

Habermasclaimsthatthoseconditionswereclosesttobepresentinthecafésand

saloons in England and France in the eighteenth century, but that they eroded in the

4Habermas1989.5Habermas1989:36f

3

centuriestocomeduetocapitalisthegemonyoverlabourandmassmedia’ssubmission

toprivateorstateprivilegedinterest.6

Newspaperswere attributed a special role in stimulating the emergence of the

public sphere in the late seventeenthcentury.At this time, critical journalsandmoral

weeklies,increasinglyconcernedwithissuesofgeneralsocialandpoliticalsignificance,

emerged parallel to the saloons and provided a new forum for the conduct of public

debate.7In the social‐democratic welfare state, however, Habermas argues that the

newspapers have been given institutional guarantees and thereby moved into the

political sphere of the state. At the same time, private interest, organised in interest

organisations and political parties, has moved into the public sphere, where these

interests are put to the fore through thework of professional public relation officers.

The result is a “re‐feudalisation of the public sphere,” a situation characterised by

displayofprivateinterestbeforeamassaudiencemoreorlessinterestedinpolitics.

Habermas’stheoryhasbeendescribedasgroundbreakingandbeeninfluentialin

the study of civic life. It has nevertheless met much critique, among others, from

Schudson. He finds it “profoundly ahistorical and entirely insensitive to the ways in

which intellectual andmoral ideals of public life have themselves shifted over time.”8

Schudsonargues that suchapublic sphereneverexisted in theU.S.,whichhas rather

been going through periods of trust‐based, party‐based and rights‐based models of

citizenship.

JohnB.ThompsonhasalsodirectedimportantcritiquetoHabermas’stheory.He

claims itneglects theroleofpopularsocialmovementsof theperiod, that ithasa too

selectivedescriptionof the characterof theprintedpressand that it fails to take into

account the implications of the restricted access to the public sphere forwomen and

peasants9. Of special interest here, is his questioning of Habermas’s conception of

publicnessand itsnormative implications.Thompsonexplainshow the ideal situation

where reason rules through an inclusive open debate is based on the idea that

“individualscometogetherinasharedlocaletoengageindialoguewithoneanotheras

equal participants in a face‐to‐face conversation.” He points to how it would be

practically impossible today, in aworldwhere actionsmay affect individualswhoare

widely dispersed in space and time, to carry out a debate where all affected could6Habermas1989.7Thompson19958Schudson1999:39Thompson1995:71‐75

4

participate.“Millionswouldbereducedtosilencewhileothersspokeintheirname,and

theconcernsoffuturegenerationswouldfindnoplaceontheagendaoftheliving,”he

says, referring to the need for governments and international bodies to come to

decisionsonglobalissuessuchasenvironmentalprotection.Thompsonconcludesthat

“wemust seek to develop away of thinking aboutmoral‐practical issueswhich does

justice to the new and historically unprecedented circumstances under which these

issuesarisetoday.”10

Having raised these important questions about Habermas’s concept, I

neverthelessregisterhowthecriticssuccessfullyuseitasareferencepointinorderto

describethecurrentcondition,asIwilldohere.RaymondKuhndefines“publicsphere”

asan“institutionalframeworkandsetofpracticeswhichencouragewideandinclusive

public debate about issues of social and political importance.”11I find this approach

comprehensive,andwillusethisunderstandingofHabermas’stheoryinthispaper.

Thefruitfulnessofusingtheconceptofapublicsphereasananalyticaltoolwhen

studying China has also been questioned, among others by Philip Huang. On the

backgroundofChina’sspecifichistoryofsocio‐politicalorganisation,heargues for the

needto“breakoutoftheoldconceptualhabitsofpostulatingasimplebinaryopposition

betweenstateandsociety”bystudyingwhathecallsthe“thirdrealm.”12Thethirdrealm

consists of entities that grew out of the state‐imposed organisation of society into

segmented communes/brigades in agricultural areas andworkunits (danwei单位) in

thecities.Thosewere“tightlyknitwithinthemselves,but largelysegmentedfromone

another.”1314Here,heargues,thestatejoinswithsocietyforpublicactivitiesbeyondthe

capacityoftheformalbureaucraticapparatus.Withahistoryofoverfourdecades,these

entitieshaveoperationallogicsontheirownthatare“distinctbothfromstateagencies

andprivateassociations.”15

While acknowledging the value of studying the processes within such a third

realmspecifictotheChinesehistoricalexperience,Ineverthelessthinkthatthereisno

needtotakeoffthe“glasses”ofHabermasandhispublicspheretobeabletodoso.

10Ibid1995:26311KuhninRandall1998:24.12Huang1993.13Ibid1993:237.14PerryandLü(1997)havenotedthe“cellular”natureoftheurbanworkunitsintheMao‐state.Thedanweiwasutilisedforpoliticalmobilisation,butalsoprovideditsworkerswithsocialbenefits,suchashousing,medicalcareandcanteens.Bjorklundexplainshowtheveryphysicalconstructionofthedanweis,withwallsaroundthemandbuildingsfacinginwards,excludesoutsidersand“atthesametimeprovidesabasisforintegratingthosewithinitintoaneffectivesocial,economicandpoliticalunit.”(BjorklundinPerryandLü1997)15Huang1993:238.

5

BarretMcCormickandLiuQingpointtothecontradictioninHabermas’stheory

that on the one hand, he says the public sphere is a “historical category,” but on the

otherhand,heuses it asa “normative concept toexpress idealsofopenness, equality

andreasoneddebate.”TheyarguethatHabermashimselfopenedforawiderusageand

that it empirically speaking could be several public spheres, among them which the

“liberalmodelofthebourgeoispublicsphere”isrelativelyclosetotheidealtype.16

Facing the critics,McCormick and Liu first argue thatHabermas’s ideas are no

less problematic when empirically applied to the West than to China, as his claim

regardingthedevelopmentofapublicsphereinearlymodernEuropehasnotwithstood

empirical scrutiny. Secondly, they remark that as no society has reached Habermas’s

ideal public sphere, it would be “orientalist” to claim that values such as open and

reasoneddebateareessentialcharacteristicstoWesternsocieties,butnottotheEast17.

Applying this approach toHabermas’s theory, I believe it ispossible touse the

publicsphereasbothanempiricalandnormativeanalyticaltoolwhenstudyingChina.

Onemightempiricallystudytheinstitutionsandotherspaceswhereapublicdebateis

carriedout.Doingthat,factorssuchaslegalframeworkofthepress,degreesofeditorial

independence,censorship,thedegreeofaccesstothedebateandwhichtopicsarebeing

discussedwillbeusefulmeasurestoconsider,asIwilldohere.

The idea that Habermas’s liberal public sphere embodies remains central to

democratic theory.18When discussing China using Habermas’s concept, many have

soughttoconsiderthepoliticalimplicationschangesinthepublicspheremighthavefor

ademocratictransformationinthecountry.Thiswillnotbethemainfocusinthispaper,

althoughIwillcommentuponitinmyconcludingnotes.

Methodandmaterial

ThepapersIhavecollectedmymaterialofaltogether352articlesfromaretheRenmin

Ribao(人民日报),which is thenationalofficialpartyorganof theCommunistPartyof

China(CPC),andtheNanfangZhoumo(南方周末),aweeklywithitsmaindistributionin

Guangzhou.19Iwillgiveafullerpresentationofthesetwopapersbelow.

16McCormickandLiu2011:13.17Ibid.18McCarthyinHabermas1989.19IcollectedthematerialattheNationalLibraryofChina’s(国家图书馆)archiveofnewspapersinBeijing.

6

Whohasasay?AquantitativeandqualitativeinquiryWithatheoreticalbaseintheHabermasiantheoryofthepublicsphere,Ihavechosento

putaspecialattentiontoinclusivenesstothediscourseandtowhattopicsarebrought

into the spotlight.When I read the articles, I counted and registered the sources the

papershadused(Seetable1and2).Thequestionofwhosevoicesapaperchosetocarry

initscolumnsiscrucialtounderstandtheeditorialpolicyofthepaperandthenatureof

censorship.

Yuezhi Zhao has noted the lack of voice by several groups of people in the

Chinese news media. In her study of the media discourse about China’s WTO

membership, she finds that in spite of the impact amembershipwould have on their

lives,neitherasingleworkernorafarmerwasinterviewedintheentirecoverage.20

Amutedgroupisofcourseastrongindicationofanunequalpowerrelation.At

thesametime,thegroupswhodogettospeakarenotnecessarilypowerfuljustbecause

theyaregivenaccesstothediscourse.Interviewsandothertextsareeditedaccordingto

whatthejournalistsandeditorswantforthefinalstoryandtotheformalandinformal

rulesofreporting.Asaresult,argumentscanbebrokenuportakenoutofcontextand

importantaspectscanbeomitted.Aparticipantinthedebatemayalsospeakthecaseof

anotherpersonorgroup.Forexample,ajournalistmayspeakthecaseoftheconsumers.

These variations will not be reflected in my numbers and will therefore be given

additionalattentionintheanalysesofthetexts.21

DiscourseanalysisIn order to expandmy analysis, I looked closely atwhat kind of language and terms

wereusedinmymaterial.

Theconceptofcriticaldiscourseanalysis(CDA)wasdevelopedby,amongothers,

Robert Fairclough and RuthWodak at the beginning of the 1990s. It is not seen as a

methodortheoryonitsown,butratherasaninterdisciplinaryapproach,ora“school,”

that systematically takes intoaccount the structuresof socio‐political context. In their

bookMethodsofcriticaldiscourseanalysis,WodakandMeyerdefineCDAas

being fundamentally interested in analysing opaque as well as transparent structural

relationshipsofdominance,discrimination,powerandcontrolasmanifestedinlanguage.

20ZhaoinLee2003:44.21Allinall,thenumbersareofsecondaryimportance,buttheymaysupportsomeoftheargumentsIwillmakeandhelpprovideaclearerimpressionofthetwopapers.

7

In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed,

constituted,legitimized,andsoon,bylanguageuse(orindiscourse.)22

AgoodexampleofastudywithaCDAapproach is foundinYew‐JinFang’sanalysisof

howofficialnewspapersonMainlandChina(thePeople’sDaily)andTaiwan(theCentral

DailyNews)coveredsocialunrest inSouthAfricaandArgentinaatthemiddleandthe

endofthe1980s.

Inheranalysis,Fangexaminesthemainlexicalchoicesthejournalistshadmade

whenwritingabouttheevents.Shethenlooksatthechoiceofheadlinesandthemesin

order to see what topics the paper had prioritised. Next, she looks at actor roles,

quotationsandnewssourcesand finallyshecarriesoutagrammaticalanalysiswitha

focusontransitivity.Thelattershowshowtherolesofdifferentparticipantsarebeing

downplayedorhighlightedinanygivensituation.

Paralleltothedetailedanalysisoflanguage,sheconsiderstherelationsbetween

herfindingsinthetextsandthelargersocio‐politicalcontextoftheday.Inthebeginning

ofherpaper,sheexplainsthatinthe1980s,therulingregimesinthePRCandtheROC

bothstrivedforgreaterdiplomaticrecognitionasthelegitimateChinesegovernmentby

theinternationalcommunity.ThewhiteSouthAfricangovernmentmaintainedfriendly

diplomaticrelationswiththeROCgovernment,butnotwiththePRCgovernment.

InhercasestudyoftheSouthAfricancivilunrestinMarch1985,Fangfindsthat

the journalists’ choice of words, headlines, themes, sources and grammar to a large

extentservetosupporttheirrespectiveregimespoliticalneedsoftheday.Forexample,

thePeople’sDailymostlyusedanti‐apartheidsourceswhereas theCentralDailyNews

gaveastrongvoicetotheSouthAfricangovernmentandpolicesources.Lookingatthe

grammar,shefoundthatthePeople’sDailymadeextensiveuseoftransitivesentencesto

highlighttheactiveroleofthepoliceinthekillingsofthedemonstrators.

When turning to the case of Argentina and the spring of 1989, however, she

notifiestheconvergenceinpresentationoftheeventinthetwopapers,somethingshe

atteststoadifferentdiplomaticclimateandthusdifferentneedsoftheleaders.

Inthispaper,IwillfollowaCDA‐approachwhereIcriticallyconsidermymaterial

inlightofthesocio‐politicalcontext,asintheexampleabove.Asmymainfocusisonthe

differentphasesofreporting,Ichosetofollowthetimelineofthecoveragecloselyand

includeallpublishedmaterial,ratherthananalysingafewarticlesingreatdetail.

22WodakandMeyer2009:10

8

RegionalperspectiveToprovideforaregionalcomparativeperspective,Iwilllookshortlyatmytwocasesin

thelightofhowasimilarnationalcrisisinSouthKoreawascoveredbythemediathere.

I have chosen to look at the case of the once internationally recognised stem cell

scientist Hwang Woo‐suk, who was accused of having broken international research

ethicsandlaterofhavingfabricateddataforhisresearch.Iwillnotgointodepthonthis

case; my aim is rather to show what implications a similar event had on the public

sphereinanotherEast‐Asiancountrywithadifferentmediasystem.

Background

Chinesemediatoday:newpowers,controlandcommercialismThrough the overshadowing authority of the Party’s Propaganda Department, the

Communist Party of China (CPC) still has control over the media, both in terms of

ownershipandcontent.But, therehavebeensignificantchanges in theChinesemedia

landscapeduringthepast30years,andmostmediaenterpriseshavebeenthrowninto

the market to become profit‐making actors. As a result, consumers have gotten

considerableinfluenceoverthewaythemediadevelops.Inordertoselltheirproducts,

media houses have reoriented to include profitmaking as one of their organisational

goals.23Oneresultofthisisthataliberalisationintermsoftopicshastakenplace,and

manyhavediscussed thepolitical implicationsofdiscourses that carryvalues suchas

individualism, consumerism and scepticism of authority being articulated in music

television,soapoperasandweekendconsumerreports.24

McCormick and Liu argue that even though this commercial culture is often

apolitical, it“maynonethelessunderminethetraditionalrelationshipbetweenpolitical

authorities and the public. 25 Others have claimed that in a Chinese context,

commercialisation has led to amore open debate through a focus on individuals and

things that are relevant to their lives. Hallain says the fact that the experience of

ordinary people is increasingly the prime source of evidence and value in the news

would seem to be an “important symbol of a shift towards a democratic political

culture.”26YuezhiZhaohasobservedhowthistrendinfluencesthereportingofscandals,

23MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:22.24MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:31.25McCormickandLiuinLee2003:139.26HallaininMcCormickandLiuinLee2003:154.

9

sayingthat“thereisconsiderablemarketforscandals,butscandalsarefarmorelikelyto

bepresentedintermsofanindividualwithmoralproblemsthanasystemicfailure.”27

Theopeninguppolicyandthestrongfocusofeconomicprogresshasmadethe

economiceliteandthemiddleclassnewpowers intheChinesesociety.28Thishashad

itsimpactonmediaaswellasmostotheraspectsofChinesesociety.YuezhiZhaosums

upthistransformation:

TheChinesemediasystemis increasinglybecomingaplatformforprofitmakingwhile

speakinginthevoiceoftherulingPartyeliteandtherisingbusinessandurbanmiddle

classeswhoarethedomesticandinternationalcapitalmostwantedaudiences.29

Shenotes how thepublishing of a successful business story simultaneously is a story

aboutthesuccessoftheParty’seconomicreformprogramanditsideologyforopenness.

She further argues that what may seem to be a paradox in the new Chinese media

system–persistenceofcontrolinthepoliticaldomainandliberalisationintheeconomic

andlifestylespheres–mayaswellbeconsideredtwosidesofthesamecointhatserves

theinterestofthepoliticalandeconomicelite.30

TherolesoftheChinesejournalistBefore1979,Chinesemediawas”boththemouthandtongueandtheeyesandearsof

ChinaasembodiedintheChineseCommunistParty.”31Inspiteofmarketisation,therole

oftheChinesejournalistremainsclosetothatofastateinformationworker.

Manyhavearguedthatthissituationisnotexclusivetothepost1949experience,

butthat”thereislittletraditionofimpartialorobjectivemedia,a‘fourthestate’rolefor

themediaor,even,professionalindependenceinjournalism”32inChina.Accordingtoa

traditionalChineseview,mediaisaninstrumentforusebythosewhocontrolit.33

A passage in a commentary written by an unnamed journalist in the Renmin Ribao

duringtheSARS‐periodillustratesthisrole:

News media has already done substantial work spreading knowledge about how to

prevent and cure SARS, and there is still much work left. Media must, according to

changes in the epidemic situation and according to the needs of the cadres and the

27Zhao2000inMcComrickandLiuinLee2003.28ZhaoinThomasandNain(eds.)2004.29ZhaoinThomasandNain(eds.)2004:205.30ZhaoinThomasandNain(eds.)2004:188.31CullenandHuainRandall1998:16132KuldipinCullenandHuainRandall1998:163.33CullenandHuainRandall1998:163.

10

people, continue to carry out the work of making known the scientific knowledge of

preventingandcuringthedisease.34

Thatbeingsaid, theprofessional identityoftheChinese journalist isneitherone‐sided

norcutinstone.Whenexaminingdiscoursesofjournalisticidealsamongjournalistsin

China,ZhongdangPanandYeLufoundfourdifferentdiscourses:thatofthepartypress,

Confucian intellectuals, professionalism and market economy. 35 The principles of

journalisticpracticesinthepartypressdiscourseare“loyaltytotheParty,consistency

with Party lines and observant of the Party’s discipline.” In the discourse of the

Confucianintellectualsitis“speakingthetruth,stickingtofactsandbeingopentonew

ideas.”Intheprofessionalismdiscourse,“objectivity,autonomyandrationality”arethe

guidingprinciplesandinthemarketeconomyone“beingwellreceivedbythepublicin

the form of ratings, circulations and ad revenues”36is crucial goals. The authors

underlinethatintheirdailywork,diverseandoftenconflictingideasofjournalismare

beingutilisedandappropriatedthroughjournalists’improvisedandsituatedpractices.37

TheexposureofcorruptionisataskthatthePartyhasgiventojournalists,asthe

problemprovedtobecolossalalsowithinofficialranks.Theterm“professionalism”in

the contextof journalismwas firstused inan influentialprofessional journal in1999,

wheretheauthortriedtoconnect“theWesternnotionofprofessionalism”totheParty’s

call formedia surveillanceagainst corruption.38Today, the central authorities tolerate

greaterpressopennessonwaterandairpollutionandfoodandmedicinequality.These

are problems that, if left unreported and unsolved, might stir up serious popular

dissatisfaction. Veteran Journalist Zhan Jian remarks, however, that the central

governmenttriestoreassertcontrolovermediaassoonasithasgottentheinformation

“to cool off public emotions and convey an image of a competent government that is

solvingtheproblem.”39

ElinSætherhaslookedattheemergingtrendofinvestigatingjournalisminChina

and found thatwhileworkingwithin a state‐ownedmedia system, journalists seek to

establishnewspacesofrepresentationbyincludingpreviouslyabsentperspectiveand

34RenminRibao:“Leanonscienceandfirmlykeepconfidence”“依靠科学坚定信心”,April24,2003.(originaltext:新闻媒体在普及防治非典型肺炎知识方面已经做了大量工作，还有大量工作要做。要针对疫情变化和干部群众的要求，继续做好科学防治知识的普

及工作).35PanandLuinLee2003.36Ibid2003:21937PanandLuinLee(ed.)2003:21538PanandLuinLee(ed.)2003.39ZhaninShirk2011:20.

11

voices in the public sphere.40She shows how journalists write in system critique

betweenthelines,forexamplehowonejournalistshowedthefailureofthegovernment

tocontrolanillegalbloodbusinessthatescalatedtheAIDSepidemicthroughtellingthe

tragicpersonalstoryofanAIDSvictim.41

Anotherdevelopment thathas reshaped journalistic cultureand the roleof the

journalististhemovingawayfromstrictlyfixedsalariesfromthegovernment.Fromthe

1990s, bonuses were regularised as ”flexible wages” and distributed on basis of

individual merit instead of political commitment and seniority as earlier practised.42

Economic incentives in formofstory feesorgoodstorycashawardshas,accordingto

EricKit‐waiMa,ledtomoreaggressivejournalists.43

Ontheotherhand,inthewakeofmarketisation,journalistsallofasuddenfound

themselves in theprimenexusofexchange,wherebothpublicandcommercialbodies

paid them forpolitical andeconomical favours.44CommercialisationofChinesemedia,

Masumsup,involveshighlymanipulativerelationsbetweenpoliticalpowers,economic

interests and pay journalism, which is in sharp contrast to a romanticised view of a

democraticmarketplaceofideas.45

TheroleofglobalisationandtheInternetSome have argued that Internet technology dooms authoritarian governments by its

very nature.46So far, this has not been the case in China, although considerable

resourcesareused tocontrol the Internet.Apart frommore traditional techniques for

regulatingthemedia,aboveall,

theauthoritiesworktomaintainanatmosphereofsurveillanceandimplicitandexplicit

threats where those who work in the media will censor themselves rather than risk

incurringunwantedofficialattentionandpunitiveaction.47

TheInternethasneverthelesschangedthewayinformationcirculatesinsociety,andit

canbearguedthatitprovidesforamoreopenandmeaningfuldebateonseveralfields.

McCormick and Liu have shown how the Internet quickly started to influence

official discourse in China, even the Renmin Ribao. An explosion in a schoolhouse in

40Sæther2008:4.41Sæther2008:“MediaspolitiskerolleiKina”(RadiolectureatP2‐akademiet,NorwegianBroadcasting(NRK)).42MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:22.43MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:23.44MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:23.45MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:26.46McCormickandLiuinLee2003:142.47McCormickandLiuinLee(ed.)2003:145.

12

WanhaiCountyinruralJiangxiprovincein2001killedatleastfortypeople.Theofficial

press early blamed an unknown man described by villagers as psychotic, that had

allegedlycometotheschoolwithfireworks,fireditup,andleftasuicidenote.Thescene

was soon closed off, but a Hong Kong reportermanaged to interview local residents

usingalocalaccent.Hefoundoutthatduetopovertyandcorruptionoflocalleaders,the

villagershadbeenpressed tododangerousworkwith fireworksonanassembly line

andthattheexplosiveswerestoredattheschool.ThestoryspreadthroughtheInternet

toMainlandChinamedia,andeventheRenminRibaoreportedonthenewinformation

initsonlineversion.48

Afterthisinformationcameout,thenpremierZhuRongjimadeanapologytothe

NPC, saying that the governmentwouldwork to enforce rules thatwould avoid such

tragediesinthefuture.Thisexampleshowshowglobalisationandnewtechnologycan

influencepolicyandleadtoatleastalimiteddegreeofaccountability.

Theexamplealsoservestoshowthatalreadyby2001,beforetheSARSoutbreak,

theinfluenceoftheInternetwasvisibleintheChinesemedialandscape.In2001,China

onlyhad26millionInternetusers.Todayithas420millions49,andsocialmedia,suchas

blogs and chat rooms, has also made regular Chinese able to spread their own

informationaboutcases.XiaoQiangarguesthat“theriseofonlinepublicopinionshows

thattheCPCandgovernmentcannolongermaintainabsolutecontrolofthemassmedia

andinformation.”50AccordingtohimtheresultisapowershiftinChinesesociety.

Officialandunofficialideologies–“scientificdevelopment”andnationalismAfterHuJintaowasinauguratedasPresidentofthePRConMarch15th2003,theconcept

of “scientific development,” (kexue fazhan guan科学发展观,) together with that of

buildinga“harmonioussociety,”(hexieshehui和谐社会,)soonbecamecatchphrasesfor

his leadership that signalled changes in policy from the former generation of leaders.

Saich explains the new development strategy as one that “combine populist

authoritarianisminthepoliticalrealmwithashiftineconomicpolicythatfocusmoreon

thesustainabilityandqualityofeconomicgrowthratherthanitsspeed.”51Paralleltohis

commitmenttopeopleandregionsthathadbeenleftbehindbyeconomicreform,Saich

notesthatHufromthebeginningoptedforafirmergriponthepublicsphere.“Inplace

48McCormickandLiuinLee(ed.)2003:140ff.49中国互联网络信息中心ChinaInternetNetworkInformationCentre’swebpages.50XiaoQianginShirk2011:1551Saich2006:41.

13

of any significant reform, President Hu is offering cleaner and more efficient

government administration,”52he says in a summary written in 2005, the year Hu is

believed to have fully consolidated his power. Discussing the development of “Hu

thought,”JosephFewsmithclaimsthatthefirstuseofthephrase“scientificdevelopment

concept”appearstohavebeenbyHuJintaoduringaninspectiontriptoJiangxiProvince

inSeptember2003.53Inlightofthis,itisinterestingtoseehowtheword“scientific”was

usedinabroadersensethantheconventionalmeaningofthewordalreadyduringthe

SARS outbreak in spring the same year in my material. McGee called those broad

politicaltermsideographs:

Anideographisanordinary‐languagetermfoundinpoliticaldiscourse.Itisahighorder

abstraction representing commitment to a particular but equivocal and ill‐defined

normativegoal.54

Thesepotentterms,eventhoughunclear,areusedpreciselytogivethesenseofaclearly

understood and shared meaning. “Scientific development” and “Harmonious society”

maybe considered such ideographs and it is thereforeneeded to critically studyhow

theyarefilledwithmeaninginparticularcontexts.

TounderstandmediapolicyinChina,itisnecessarytounderstandthechallenge

posedby thedemiseof communism.The ideology thatbrought theCPC topowerhas

lost itsrelevance,andthequestionofhowtomaintainlegitimacyisacomplicatedand

urgentone.ZhouHehasremarkedthattheChineseCommuniststate,whichhasturned

itselfintoabureaucraticcapitalistsystem,is“endeavouringtoworkouthowtofitinto

the global system and legitimise its mandate to rule derived from a Communist

revolution that has lost its popular following.”55Nationalism has been one of the

answerstothischallenge.Butratherthananewmoralbanner,thepatrioticsentiment

ofnationalismhasbeenan:

effectivegluetoanotherwisefragmentednationandanemotionthatcouldbecunningly

manipulatedtoservestatepower,thusbecomingacatch‐allideologicalartefactformost

ofthespiritualdiscourseinthecountry.56

Toevokesentimentsofnationalism,itisoftenreferredtohowChinahasbeenwronged

bycolonialpowersinthepast,especiallyduringtheOpiumWars,ortoChina’shistory52Saich2006:41.53Fewsmith2004.54McGee1980.55HeinLee(ed.)2003:196.56HeinLee(ed.)2003:211.

14

asoneof theworld’smostpowerfulnationsand its intentions toreturn to its rightful

position as a super power and a full and equal member of the international

community.57The balancing between official and popular nationalism has become a

challenge to the Party in the governing ofmedia, and it strives not only to uphold a

patriotic sentiment, but also to keep it from growing out of hand, putting China’s

internationalreputationatrisk.58

Feeding the nationalist sentiment among people has indeed also proved

necessary inorder touphold the legitimacyof theCPCathome.WhenPresident Jiang

Zeminreleasedthetwenty‐fourcrewmembersoftheU.S.spyplanethatcollidedwitha

Chinese fighter in 2001, many self‐proclaimed nationalists accused him of being too

soft59. SuishengZhaohasnoted oneWestern reporter’s observation that “for the first

timesince theCommunistParty tookover in1949, therulers inBeijingwereaccused

notofcorruptionortotalitarianism,butoftreason.”60

ReportingonurgenthealthcrisesThe Chinese party‐state’s traditional approach to “risk communication” grows out of

Marxistmediatheory,wherepoliticalstabilityisprioritizedandinformationiscensored

and controlled.61It is also rooted in the older Chinese Confucian tradition of the

paternalist state. 62 Sæther showed how this media strategy was conceived by a

journaliststudentshehadadiscussionwith.Thestudentsaidanearthquakehappened

inanotherpartofthecountryduringthespringfestivalinherchildhood,butthemedia

did not report on it until the celebrations were over because “otherwise people’s

vacationswouldbedestroyedanditcouldhaveanegativeeffectonsocialstability.”

Around big national events, the control of media is tightened and special

instructions are sent to media. Both cases I will discuss below happened in such

sensitiveperiods.InMarch2003,theNationalPeople’sCongress,wherepresidentJiang

Zemin would pass on the presidency to his successor Hu Jintao, was carried out. A

peaceful succession of powerwas of utmost importance andwould, as journalist and

authorPhillipP.Pannotes, provide ”freshevidence that theCommunistshad founda

way toaddress the shortcomingsof theirautocraticpolitical systemwithoutadopting

57Lampton2001.58RoseninLee2003.59Zhao2004:2660Zhao2004:2661Tong2011:50.62Sæther2008:“MediaspolitiskerolleiKina”(RadiolectureatP2‐akademiet,NorwegianBroadcasting(NRK)).

15

democraticreformsorgivinguppower.”63Inautumn2008,Chinawasgoingtocarryout

oneofitsgreatestnationalprestigeprojects–theBeijingOlympics.

PatriciaM.Thorntonarguesinherarticle“SARSandtheResilienceoftheChinese

BodyPolitic” that “crisis itselfmayhaveemergedasamodeofgovernance in itsown

right during the post‐revolutionary era.”64She notes how the rhetoric of crisis may

indeed“improvethespeedandscopeofpolicyimplementationandreducethe‘central‐

field’gapintheshortterm”andthat

itbearsnoticethatcrisesarethemselvesdiscursivelyconstructedbyleaders,whoframe

them in a manner conductive to their particularistic interests and needs and in

accordancewiththeirperceptions.65

Inotherwords,todefineasituationasa“nationalcrisis,”likewewillseewasdonequite

clearlyinboththefollowingexamples,mayhelpimplementpoliciesthatareunpopular

onalocallevelbycreatinganatmosphereofnationalinterest.

TheRenminRibaoTheRenminRibao(人民日报)istheofficialdailypaperoftheCentralCommitteeofthe

Communist Party of China. It has aworldwide circulation of 3 to 4million, including

versionsinseveralnon‐Chineselanguages.TheEnglishnameisPeople’sDaily,andthe

onlineversion,whichwasestablishedin1997,iscalledRenminWang(人民网.)

Since itsestablishment in1948,theRenminRibaohasbeenawindowinwhich

officialpolicieshavebeenannounced,butalso,especiallyafterthereformandopening

upstarted,wherethedirectionoffuturepoliciesandofimportantpersons’careerscan

beobserved.McGregorsaysinhisbookThePartythattheRenminRibao”actsasakind

ofinternalbulletinboardforofficials….”66

During the Cultural Revolution, the Renmin Ribao was one of few sources of

information.Today,commentariesandopinionsstillhavetobeapprovedbytheParty,

butonecannonethelessfindviewpointsanddebatesthatarenotyetofficialpolicy.

Thewithdrawalof subsidieshashappened slowerwith theRenminRibao than

mostChinesepapers,anditisfacingbotheconomicalandcredibilitychallenges.Wudun

63Pan2008:199f.64Thornton2009:25.65Thornton2009:47.66McGregor2010:8.

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andCristof say that ”Ina fully commercialmarket, thePeople’sDaily,China’s flagship

newspaper,wouldlikelyvanishwithouttrace,sogreatareitscredibilityproblems.”67

EricKit‐waiManotesthatthebasereadersofofficialpaperstoalargeextentare

officeswhere it is considered politically correct to read such papers,whereas people

wouldreadmassappealpapersathome.68

TheNanfangZhoumoManyhavedescribed theGuangzhou‐basedweeklyNanfangZhoumoasoneofChina’s

most liberal and outspoken newspapers. Pan says about The Southern Newspaper

Group, the news group the weekly belongs to, that it is ”An oasis of open‐minded

thinking”andthatit’smostdaringpaper,TheNanfangZhoumo,is”winningreadersand

inspiring journalists across the country by showing how aggressive reporting and

elegantwritingcouldbepossibledespitecensorship.”69

Sæther notes how theNanfang Zhoumohas been particularly important in the

processoftheexpansionofthecriticaljournalismshehasfoundwithinsomemediain

China.70Journalistsandeditors intheNanfangZhoumohave,accordingtoher,defined

theirpoliticalroleinoppositiontothetop‐downdirectionofthemouthpiecediscourse,

resultinginapaperreflectingpeople’sgrievances,exposingcorruption,abuseofpower

andothersocialproblems.71

ThePearlRiverdeltahasaspecialpositioninChinesemediahistory.Onereason

is that 18million people living in this area have access to programming spilling over

fromHong Kong broadcasters, including local productions and foreign programs72. A

second reason is that the area has been an experimenting ground for economic

liberalisation from the early 1990s. The owner of Nanfang Zhoumo is Guangdong

Province,towhichitprovidessignificantrevenues.Continuingofficialownershippaired

withcommercialisationhas led toanew incentivestructure,andGuangdongProvince

hassoughttoprotectthepopularpaperfromconservativeauthoritiesinBeijing.73That

being said, throughout its history several editors have been removed from their

positionsorevendetained.74

67CullenandHuainRandall(ed.)1998:162.68MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:30.69Pan2008:239.70Sæther2008.71Sæther2008:258.72MainCurranandPark(eds.)2000:25.73McCormickandLiuinLee2003:153.74Oneexampleisthe2004detentionoftopeditors,followingthepaper’sreportingonSARSandonamigrantworkerwhowaskilledinpolicecustody(Stern,RachelE.andO’Brien,KevinJ.2011)

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Analysis

Havingpaintedabackdropofthehistoricalandpresentsituationofmediaandtherole

ofthejournalistinChinaaswellassomeofthecurrentpoliticalideologies,Iwillnowgo

through the main findings from my material and discuss them underway with

referencestomybackgroundtopicsandtootherrelevantwritings.

TheRenminRibaoontheSARSoutbreakThefirstreportontheSARSoutbreakintheRenminRibaowasonFebruary12th.Itwas

headlined”SomeareasinGuangdongprovincehavehadcasesof‘atypicalpneumonia’75

(feidianxingfeiyan非典型肺炎)–expertssaythataslongastherightkindofprevention

isexercisedthereisnoneedtobeafraid.”76Theinformationwastakenfromstatenews

wireXinhua’snewsservice,whereithadbeenpublishedonFebruary11th,andthesmall

articlewasplacedintheleftcorneronthesecondpage.Overthenexttwomonths,the

paperhadonlysevenminorarticlesonthecase.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC77)was themain office to

speakaboutthediseaseatthispoint. Intwoarticles, itstressedthat80percentofthe

sickenedhadalreadybeensenthomefromthehospital.Inscientificcircles,thesearch

forthesourceoftheoutbreakhadalreadystarted,andthedirectoroftheCDC,LiLiming,

saiditwasguaranteedthattheillnesswasavirusandthatitwascurable78.OnFebruary

19th,theCDCsaidithadfoundindicationsthatwhatitwasdealingwithwasaformof

Chlamydia bacteria that spreads through close contact with persons or birds79. They

concludedthatacomprehensiveandcompletedtreatmentwasneededandunderlined

thenecessityofpreventivemeasures.OnApril3rd,ataMinistryofHealth(MOH)press

conference,theministeraddedthatsomeforeignspecialistsbelievedthediseasewasa

virus80.

75LaterknownasSARS(Severeacuterespiratorysyndrome).IwillusethewordSARSaboutthediseasethroughoutthepaper.ThenewspapersIreadusedtheChinesetermalsoafterthenameSARSwasintroduced.76XinhuainRenminRibao:”Atypicalpneumonia–expertssaythataslongastherightkindofpreventionisexercisedthereisnoneedtobeafraid”“广东省部分地区出现非典型肺炎专家指出只要预防得当不必恐慌”February12,2003.77ThisisaninstitutionofthePRC,nottobeconfusedwiththeAmericanCDC.78XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheSARSinGuangdongisalreadybroughtundereffectivecontrol,mostsickenedhasrecoveredandlefthospital”“广东非典型肺炎已得到有效控制大部分病人痊愈出院”,February15,2003.79XinhuainRenminRibao:“ThecauseofSARSisbasicallydetermined,theuseoftargetedantibioticsisveryeffective”“广东非典型肺炎病因基本确定采用针对性强的抗生素治疗非常有效”,February19,2003.80XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheMinisterofHealth,ZhangWenkang,isansweringjournalists’questionsaboutSARS”“卫生部部长张文康关于防治非典型肺炎答记者问”,April3,2003.

18

Businessasusual,butneedtoupgradethesystemWhenitstarteditsintensereportinginearlyApril,theRenminRibaopaintedapicture

ofasituationundercontrolandof“businessasusual”fortouristsandcompanies.Ina

storybasedontheApril3rdpressconferenceattheMOH,theMinisterofHealth,Zhang

Wenkang,assuredthatitwassafetotravelinChina,heevenencouragedpeopletocome,

andinformedthattheWHOhaddeclaredBeijingnottobeanepidemicareaanymore.81

Thenext day the deputy director of theTourist Bureau, SunGang, assured through a

pressreleasethat”Chinaisstillthemostfertilelandtoinvestinandthesafestplaceto

travel.”82Twoweeks later, on April 18th, the Tourist Bureau and theMOH sent out a

detailedplantothewholesectoronhowtotakethenecessaryprecautions.

Itislikelythatthegovernmentatthispointwasstillstrugglingtogetagraspof

thesituationand that theapproach takenat this firstpressconferencewas tocontrol

informationinordertocalmpeopledownandavoidpanic.Toprotecttheeconomyand

theclimateforforeigninvestmentsmightalsohavebeencrucial,consideringthestrong

focus on economic growth and the close ties between the government and business

owners. At the same time, it became obvious that the government was working

intensivelytosolvetheproblemsaroundtheoutbreak,anditquicklybecameclearthat

the system inplacehad severe flaws. In this firstphase, themost critical voice in the

discoursewasWuYi,vice‐premieroftheStateCouncil.VisitingtheCDCforaninformal

discussion about strengthening the system to handle sudden public health cases, she

underscored theneed tobuildand improve thesystemof responding toandhandling

suddenpublichealthcases,“especiallytheinformationsystemwithinpublichealthand

thesystemofwarningandreporting.”83

TimelyandaccordingtolawIn many articles concerning the developments since February (when SARS was first

reported,) itwas stressed that the local government ”timely” (jishi及时) reported the

disease. The ”timeliness” was put in the context of the law, and as SARS was not

classifiedasadiseaseunderthe”Lawofpreventionandcureofinfectiousdiseases”until

81BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“ZhangWenkangdeclaredataStateCouncilpress‐conferencethatitissafetoliveandtravelinChina”“张文康在国务院新闻发布会上宣布,在中国生活旅游是安全的”,RenminRibao,April4,2003.82GongWen龚雯:“TheresponsiblepersonattheNationaltravelbureauexpressed,whenexternallyinformingaboutthetravelsituation,thatitisassuredthatitiscompletelysafeandhealthytotraveltoanyplaceinChina”“国家旅游局负责人对外通报旅游情况表示中国各地的旅游安全和健康完全有保证”,RenminRibao,April4,2003.83XinhuainRenminRibao:“OnaninvestigationandresearchvisitattheCDC,WuYiemphasisthatitisneededtobuildandimprovetheresponseandhandlingsystemforsuddenlyemergingpublichealthcases”“吴仪在中国疾病预防控制中心调研时强调要抓紧建立和完善突发公共卫生事件应急处理机制”,April5,2003.(Originaltext:要抓紧建立和完善突发公共卫生事件应急反应处理机制，特别是公共卫生信息系统和预警报告机制)

19

mid February, the government had acted in time. ”After that, my nation timely

announcedthenationalsituation,andfromApril1stitreporteddailytotheWHOabout

theepidemicsituation,”84a journalist saidwhenevaluating thegovernment’shandling

ofthesituation.

TheconsequencesofSARSbeingsortedundercriminal lawwerediscussedand

explainedbyoneofthepaper’sjournalistinaconversationwithalegalexpertonApril

23rd. Here, the responsibility of both the government and of regular people were

outlined, but even though the law, whichwas quoted in the article, to a large extent

focusedonthegovernment’srightsandresponsibilities,themainfocusinthejournalists

andthelawexperts’commentswereonthecitizensresponsibilities.85

WHOasasourceFromApril1st,ChinastartedtoreportdailytotheWHO.OnApril3rd,thefirstdelegation

of WHO experts arrived at Guangzhou to learn about the situation, and the Renmin

Ribaofollowedtheevents leaningmainlyonofficialaccounts.TheHealthMinisterhad

beenconfident,however,whenheansweredaGermanjournalistattheApril3rdpress

conference,thatassoonastheWHOgottoknowthesituationinGuangdong, itwould

reconsideritsstandthatpeopleshouldnottraveltoHongKongandSouthChina.

AlthoughtheWHOmadeupanotinsignificant7,8percentofthesourcesinthe

discourse,itspositivecommentsaboutthegoodcooperationwiththeChinesesideand

theircontributionstotheworkoffindinggoodwaystocurethediseasewererepeated

several times, and I will argue that they had a limited access to the discourse,

considering their central role in coordinating thework of stopping the epidemic. The

factthatWHOexpertshadbeeninvitedthreetimestocometoChinatocooperatewith

theirexpertsservedasaproofthatChinahadbeenopenaboutthecaseandthatithad

beensensitivetotheWHOandtheinternationalcommunity’sneedforinformation.At

the same time, the government repeatedly said that it would work to increase the

cooperationwiththeWHO.

Patrioticsentiments–TheTaiwanissueandforeignmediaIn this first period of reporting, I found some situations where patriotic sentiments

becamepartofthediscourse.ThefirstexampleisinaverbaldisputewithTaiwan,the

otheroneisacritiqueofforeignmedia’swritingsaboutSARS.84BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“People’shealthisofutmostimportance–anevaluationofmycountry’sworktopreventandcureSARS”“人民健康重于泰山—我国非典型肺炎防治述评”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.(original:“之后，我国适时公布了全国非典型肺炎疫情，并于4月1日起，每天向世界卫生组织报告最新疫情)85WuJia武侠:“HowtopreventandcureSARSaccordingtolaw?”“防治非典如何依法办事?”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.

20

Onbasis of theApril 3rd press conferencementioned above, theRenminRibao

made a story headlined “The central government focus on SARS in Taiwan.” Zhang

Wenkang started out saying that “our fellow countrymen on Taiwan are our blood

brothers,andbloodisthickerthanwater.”86Hethenwentontorefuteallegationsraised

bytheTaiwanesegovernmentthatTaiwanhadbeenignoredbyChina,andsaid“itdoes

notexistanyso‐calledproblemsthathinderTaiwanfromobtaininginformationonthe

preventionandtreatmentofSARS.”87ZhangWenkangwarnedTaiwan,sayingthat:

WehopetheTaiwanesegovernmentofficialsdonotagaincomplicatemattersorspread

wordswith ulteriormotives that do not have a grounding and that are irresponsible,

evenraise thesignofso‐called ‘humanrights’, seekingtousetheepidemicsituation in

their ballyhoo to try to squeeze into the WHO, where only sovereign states can be

members.88

In the weeks to come it was silent about Taiwan until April 24th when the WHO’s

representative in China was quoted saying that ”when it comes to the problem of

Taiwan, theWHO’s position is completely clear: Taiwan is a province of China.”89He

went on to say that Taiwan had fully adequate channels throughwhich to obtain the

informationoftheWHO.TherepresentativehadparticipatedinaseminaraboutSARS

for”bothsidesoftheTaiwanstrait”,andthejournalistunderlinedthataccordingtothe

rulesoftheUN,onlysovereignstatescanbecomemembersoftheWHOorparticipate

in”otheractivities.”90

TheRenminRibaoregularlypaidattentiontohowtheforeignpresscoveredthe

eventsinChina.OnApril17th,thepaperprintedacommentarywrittenbyRenGuoping

headlined ”Speculations with evil intensions do not help the situation.”91Here, the

authorquotedanarticleinTheWallStreetJournal(WSJ)called”IsolatingChina,”andhe

accusedthepaperandothers,amongthem”someGuangdongpapers,”ofhaving”lacked

thegoodintentionsandspecialistattitudeneeded,andpoliticisedtheprobleminorder

86BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“ThecentralgovernmentfocusonSARSinTaiwan”“中央政府关注台湾非典型肺炎”RenminRibao,April4,2003.(Originaltext:“台湾同胞是骨肉兄弟,血浓于水”)87Ibid.(Originaltext:“不存在所谓台湾无法获得非典型肺炎预防治疗信息的问题”)88Ibid.(Originaltext:“我们希望台湾当局领导人不要再节外生枝，别有用心地散布一些没有根据、不负责任的说法，甚至打着所谓人权的幌子，图谋以非典型肺炎疫情为由，为台挤入只有主权国家才能参加的世界卫生组织造势”)89LiaoLei廖雷,ZhangYong张勇:“ArepresentativefromtheWHOsaystheWHO'sstandontheTaiwanproblemiscompletelyclear”“世卫组织代表说,世卫组织在台湾问题上的立场一直是明确的”,RenminRibao,April24,2003.(Originaltext:“在台湾问题上,世界卫生组织的立场一直很明确:台湾是中国的一个省”)90Ibid.91RenGuoping任国平:“Speculationswithevilintentionsdonothelpthesituation”“恶意炒作于事无补”,RenminRibao,April17,2003.

21

to display its own political correctness.”92TheWSJwas quoted: ”With regards to this

illness,thatemergedinSouthernChina,therearestilltodaymanyunknownaspects.At

the same time, we do not know how to cure it.”93The Renmin Ribao commentator

underlined that it was as wrong and “unscientific” to say that SARS had emerged in

Guangdong as itwouldbe to say thatAIDS emerged in theUSA just because the first

knowncasesofthediseasewerefoundthere.Hefurtherpointedtothecontradictionin

theWSJ’sargumentinthattheysaidmanythingswerestillnotknownandatthesame

timeclaimedtoknowthatChinawasthesourceoftheoutbreak.Theauthorthendenied

the accusation that China had not shared sufficient information with the WHO by

remindingthatWHOspecialistshadbeeninvitedtoChinathreetimesandthattheyhad

praisedtheworkdone.Thecommentatorwentonsaying

If one follows an attitude of problem solving, one of a scientific, specialist spirit and

directsviewpointsandproposalstowardsChina,thenChinawarmlywelcomesthat.But

ifoneembracessomeothermotivesandpoliticisestheproblem,thenpeoplecannottake

it.AsforsomemediawhosaythatSARSisChina’s‘biologicalweapon’,thatisevenmore

awaytodemoniseChina,andnotevenworthrefuting.94

We see here how the paper used the rhetoric of having been “wronged” by foreign

agentswithulteriormotivesofharmingChina.Even though foreignmediawereoften

accused of being speculative and sensational, signs of support for China in foreign

paperswere also quotedwith a strong sense of authority. One examplewas a report

abouthowmayorofNewYork,MichaelBloomberg,andotherpoliticalfiguresacrossthe

USandCanadahadvisitedtheircities’Chinatownsto”eatdeliciousfood,”talktoChinese

people and show support for them. On April 18th, the Renmin Ribao referred to a

Chinese language New York paper’s interview with Bloomberg where he had stated

that”ThesayingthatSARShasspreadinChinatownissimplyarumour.Therearesome

peoplethatonpurposewanttoharmChinatown.”95

In addition to these quotations from foreign media, the Renmin Ribao often

printedminutesfrompressconferencesattheMinistryofForeignAffairswhereforeign

journalistssometimeswouldaskcriticalquestions.Inallthesesourcesmadeup5,4per

92Ibid.(Originaltext:(“缺乏应有的善意与专业态度，将问题泛政治化，以显示自己的“政治正确”)93Ibid.(Originaltext:“关于这种始发于中国南部的疾病，目前还有许多神秘之处，而且没有治愈的办法”)94Ibid.(Originaltext:“如果本着解决问题的态度，以科学的、专业的精神向中国提出意见和建议，中国是非常欢迎的。但如果抱着什么其他目的，将问题泛政治化，就让人难以接受。至于有的媒体说非典型肺炎是“中国的细菌武器”，那更是“妖魔化”中国的手段，不值一驳”)95XinhuainRenminRibao:“MayorsofthreeAmericancitieswenttheir“Chinatown’s”todine”“美三城市市长到“唐人街”用餐”,April18,2003.(Originaltext:“有关“非典”在华埠蔓延的说法纯属谣言，是有人恶意中伤华埠”)

22

centofthepaper’sSARScoverage,butbecausethequestionswereusuallybeingrefuted

resolutely or turned around and used to promote patriotic sentiments, they had a

limitedinfluenceintheirownrightonthediscourse.

HowtocureSARS–publichealtheducationIwillnow to lookathow theRenminRibaoreportedabout thenatureof thedisease,

howtoprotectoneselffromitandhowtocureit.

InGuangdong,localhealthauthorities,thelocalappointedexpertgroupandthe

localCDCexpressedseveraltimesthattheyhadfoundan”effective”waytopreventand

cure the illness. OnApril 7th, the paper printed information from theMOHunder the

headline ”How to treat atypical pneumonia – the Ministry of Health announces

recommendedmethod.”96

I found that the Renmin Ribao journalists seldom used their personal

observationswhen reporting. But in a rare story printed onApril 14th, one journalist

madeanattempt thatwentbeyondofficial reports to findoutwhatexactly theSARS‐

treatment consisted of. He visited a doctor after having talked to a newly recovered

patientonhiswayhomefromthehospital.Thedoctorcalledthemethodhehadused

curingthepatienta”comprehensive”(zonghexing综合性)one,wherehehad

made use of virus resistant, anti‐Chlamydia drugs, medicaments to strengthen the

immune system, antibiotics toprotect against secondary infections and anon‐invasive

breathingmachinetohelphimthroughmorethan10daysofrespiratorydistress.97

OnApril18th, the followersof traditionalChinesemedicine(TCM)gotawarning from

twoexpertswhosaidthatabuseofTCMcouldcausemoreharmthangood.Theythen

gaveadviceofatypeofmedicinethatcouldbenefitabroadgroupofpeople,andatthe

endofthearticlethereaderscouldlearnindetailhowtopreparethemedicine.98

In an article printed on April 19th, the readers got a group of experts’ advice,

labelled ”the Four diligent and the three good” (siqin sanhao四勤三好.) They urged

96BaiJianFeng白剑峰:“Howtotreatatypicalpneumonia–theMinistryofHealthannouncesrecommendedmethod”“非典型肺炎如何治疗卫生部公布推荐方案”,RenminRibao,April7,2003.97ZongHuanping宗焕平,WangSihai王思海:“Morethan200sickenedhasrecoveredandlefthospitalinBeijingandHongKong”“京港二百多位“非典”患者康复出院”,RenminRibao,April14,2003.(Original:“运用了抗病毒、抗衣原体和提高免疫力的药物，并用抗生素防止继发感染，用无创呼吸机帮他度过了呼吸窘迫的10多天时间”)98YuShujun王淑军:“SpecialistsbriefaboutthepreventingandcuringofSARS–don’tmisuseChinesemedicine,boilinaproperway”“专家提示预防非典—中药勿滥服煎服应得法”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.

23

peopletomakeuseofsimplemethodstoavoidgettinginfectedorspreadingthedisease;

amongotherthingstheyexplainedindetailhowoneshouldwashone’shands99.

On the organizational level, one could on April 22nd read an article about how

a ”model” neighbourhood in Guangzhou, with a concentrated population and several

SARS cases, had overcome fear by providing tight follow up by doctors and by

distributionofinformationinformofleafletsaswellascommunitymeetings100.

Finally, on April 23rd, a lengthy article written by the director of Beijing

UniversityofPublicHealth,HuYonghua,putSARS into thewiderhistorical contextof

infectious diseases. He reminded about the breakthroughs of scientists the last 100

yearsinmakingvaccinationsandeliminatingmanyofthosediseases.Withanoptimistic

flavour, underlining his faith in the ever more rapid scientific progress, he carefully

explainedhowtofightadiseasebyusingSARSasanexample.101

The format of theRenminRibao seemed suitable for broad ”public education,”

andIregularlyfoundarticleswithaquestionasaheadline,suchas”WhydosomeSARS

patients die at once, while most people completely recover?”102 In these articles,

specialists gave answers without interruption from a journalist or efforts to make it

tabloid.

Leaningonscience,butnoroomfor”individualacts”FindingthesourceofSARSwasearlydeclaredtobeofgreat importance,andonApril

14th, the Renmin Ribao quoted aMOH report that demanded a ”strengthening of the

coordinationofresearchonthesourceofatypicalpneumonia.”103Tofacilitatethis, the

ministry had established a coordination group which scientists should report their

findings to daily. It was underlined, however, that only authorised researchers were

allowedtoreportandthatall informationthatdidnotcomefromtheMOHweretobe

considered”individualacts”(gerenxingwei个人行为.)104

99XuJinzhang胥金章,HuangXianbin黄献斌:“ToguardagainstSARSoneshouldfollowthe“fourdiligent”“防范非典要做到“四勤三好””,RenminRibao,April19,2003.100LiuTaishan刘泰山,MaoHaowen冒浩文:“HowtoeffectivelypreventSARSinthecommunity?”“社区怎样有效防非典?”,RenminRibao,April22,2003.101HuYonghua胡永华:“Humanityhavethepowertoconquerallkindsofinfectiousdiseases”“人类有能力征服各种传染病”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.102ZhuYu朱玉,ZhangJingyong张景勇:“WhydosomeSARSpatientsdieatonce,whilemostcompletelyrecover?”“为何有的非典患者很快死亡而大多数人能痊愈?”,RenminRibao,April20,2003.103MinistryofHealthinRenminRibao:“TheMinistryofHealthrequestastrengtheningoftheorganisingoftheresearchworktofindthecauseofSARS,scientistsfromaroundtheworldisintensifyingitsresearchonthecauseofSARS”“卫生部要求加强非典型肺炎病原学研究的管理，世界各国科学家正加紧研究非典型肺炎的病原”,April14,2003.104Ibid.

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Itwas interesting to see how thewords “science” (kexue科学) and “scientific”

(kexuede科学的, kexuehua科学化) were used extensively, both by journalists and

political leaders,during thisperiod. Scienceobviouslyplayedan important role in the

handlingofSARS,butwhenthewordwasusedasanadjectiveoradverb,themeaningof

it became less clear, and it started tomove into the ideological‐political realm of the

ideograph.“FacingSARS,weshouldhaveascientific,activeattitude,”105acommentary

printed onApril 11th started out, before the authorwent on to calmdownpeople by

sayingthatitwasnormaltocatchthefluinspringtimeandthatitwasthereforenoneed

toworryifonecaughtacold.Inanotherarticle,onApril24th,acommentatorsaid,after

havingemphasisedhowSARSafterallaffectveryfewpeople:

Seen in the light of the present situation, wemust scientifically and rationally handle

SARS byminding personal health care, improve immunity and do all in our power to

eliminatethisinfectiousdiseaseassoonaspossible.106

Thetopleadersoftensaidthatthepeopleandgovernmentalikeshould“relyonscience”

(yikaokexue依靠科学)andthat if theydidtherewasnoneedtobeafraid.Ascientific

attitude seemed to be something that everyone could have and to be the bestway to

meet the challenges and avoid chaos. It seemed to mean not merely the opposite of

“superstition”(mixin迷信,)butratherallkindsofrumoursthatdidnothaveanofficial

stamp. An example might be how the claim in some foreign papers that SARS had

originatedinGuangdongwasblownoffas“unscientific”(bukexuede不科学的.)

Thehealthworkersandthecadres–modelworkersandmilitaryreferencesMost of the news articles in theRenminRibaowerewritten in a somewhat technical

languagewith a bureaucratic tone. I found, however, that the discourse of the health

workersoftencameclosetotraditionalCommunistpropaganda.

ThehealthworkersrelativelyearlybecamesymbolsofthestruggleagainstSARS

andtheywereportrayedasbraveheroesor”angelsdressedinwhite”(baiyitianshi白衣

天使.) The focuswas on their highwork ethic, how they never rested and how they

madeexcusestotheircolleagueswhenfallingill,asmanydid.Theywere”selflessand

fearless” (wusiwuwei无私无畏) and also portrayed as verymodestwhen confronted

105WangShujun王淑军:“NoneedtobeafraidofSARSaslongasoneproperlypreventsandtreats”“非典型肺炎做好防治不足惧”,RenminRibao,April4th,2003.(Originaltext:“面对非典型肺炎,我们应该有一个科学的、积极的态度”)106LuoChunhua罗春华:“SARSwillbesubduedsomeday”“降服非典会有时”,RenminRibao,April24,2003.(Originaltext:“在目前形势下，我们需要科学地、理性地对待“非典”，做好自身的卫生保健工作，提高免疫力，为尽早消灭这一传染病而尽力”)

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withtheseadjectives.Doctorsandnurseswereeagerto”signupforbattle”(qingzhan

请战,)fightingonthe”battlefield”(zhanchang战场)towardsthe“enemy”(diren敌人)

of SARS, and the ultimate goalwas ”victory” (zhan sheng战胜,) The Party committee

secretaryattheMOH’sSino‐Japanesefriendshiphospitaldescribedhisroleasfollowing:

Torescuethedyingandsupport thewounded isadoctor’sboundduty, it is just likea

solider going towar. As long as there is one single patient that is still not saved from

danger,Icannotleavethefrontline.107

Cadres were often portrayed as fighting alongside the health workers, and at the

hospitalmentioned above theywere carrying out a party‐activitywhen the journalist

visited,wherepartymemberswoulddosomethingpracticaltoshowtheirloyaltyto”the

Partyandthepeople.”SeveralnursesworeredbadgeswithCPClogosontheiruniforms.

Thedirectorofthehospitalsaidthatmanynurseshadsentapplicationstobecomeparty

membersduringtheSARSstruggle.Thecadreswereportrayedas”takingtheleadand

makinggoodexamples”(shuaixianchuifan率先垂范)throughtheirwork.108Theheadof

thehospitalendedthisarticle,saying”Ifyoucomparethebattleofthewhitesoldiersto

aforcefulandrousedsymphony,theneachpartymemberprovidesastrongvoice.”109

Theoverlappingrolesof thehealthworkersand thecadresand theuseofwar

metaphors about both groups connects them to theParty in away that talking about

theirgooddeedsgiveslegitimacyandhonourtotheParty.

Pricespeculation–greenlightforcritiqueMuchofthereportingintheRenminRibaointhisfirstphaseeitherhadapositiveand

optimistic flavour, urging people to lean on science and stay calm, or it raised sharp

critique that fed patriotic sentiments, as discussed above. A domestic group that the

paperdirectedcritique towards,however,was thepeoplewhospeculated inpricesof

theproductsrelatedtotheepidemicsituation.Coveringthesechallenges,thejournalists

alsocriticisedthesystemregulatingit.

GongWen,aRenminRibaocommentatoronthefieldofeconomics,wroteinan

articlethatinspiteofmeasurestakenbythegovernmentthelasttwoyearstocopewith

speculation, the problem was still serious, particularly in connection to SARS.

107BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“TheCommunistPartyisatforefront–afrontlinereportfromthepreventionandcuringofSARSworkattheSino‐JapaneseFriendshipHospital”“共产党员冲在最前面—来自中日友好医院防治非典一线的报告”,RenminRibao,April21,2003.(Originaltext:“救死扶伤是医生的天职，就像战士上了战场。只要还有一名患者没有脱离危险，我就不能离开前线)108Ibid.109Ibid.(Originaltext:“如果把白衣战士抗击非典型肺炎战役比喻成一部雄浑激昂的交响乐，那么，每一名共产党员都是乐章里的强音!”)

26

Consumers were worried and unsatisfied, she concluded. The commentator wrote

that ”these ‘black hearted’managers who destroy the order of themarket should be

punishedaccordingtolawandnotatallinasoftheartedway.”110

On April 23rd, the Renmin Ribao reported that the National Committee for

DevelopmentandReformwouldcarryoutaninspectiononpricesofproductsrelatedto

preventingandcuringSARS111.Thesameday,severaldepartmentsandbureausissueda

noticeurgingpeopletoreadtheinstructiononChinesemedicinecarefullyandtoavoid

buyingandconsumingitiftheproductdidnotcomewithaninstruction.Itwentonto

tellindetailwhataproperproductinstructionshouldcontain.Thenoticeread:

Lately, some elements operating outside the law have taken advantage of the label

‘preventingandcuringSARS’andproducedandsoldfakedrugs,swindledforthesakeof

theirownbenefitsandmisledtheconsumers.112

Itwas interestingtoseethat the fieldwherediscussionwasmostopen intheRenmin

Ribaowas that of violations against consumers. It seemed consumers as a group had

beenblessedwithsomedegreeofthesameprotectionasthebusinessleaders.

TheturningpointAsignalofchangeinthegovernmentsapproachtoSARSwasseenonApril19th,when

theGuangdongProvincemayorsaid inaworkingmeetingwith thegovernmentabout

SARS:”Inthestruggleagainsttheillnesswestillhavenotreachedacertainvictory.”113

This wording had a slight, but important change of flavour, and underlined the

seriousnessofthesituation.

In the Renmin Ribao's April 21st report from a press conference held the day

before,itbecameobviousthatsomethingserioushadhappenedwithintheParty.Itwas

GaoQiang, ViceMinister ofHealth,who led the conference. He started out delivering

new numbers from Beijing on SARS patients hospitalised, suspected to have been

infectedandthenumbersofdeadsofar.Thenumbersrepresentedabigjumpfromthe

lastreport,andGaoQiangwentstraightontoask:”whyisthedifferenceinnumbersso

110GongWen龚雯:“岂容借疫情发“黑心财”Howcanwetoleratethattheepidemicsituationisusedtomakemoneyinasinisterway”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.(Originaltext:“对破坏市场秩序的“黑心”经营者，依法处治，决不手软”)111ZhuJianhong朱剑红:“TheNationalCommitteeofDevelopmentandReformstartsaspecialinvestigationintopricesofmedicinesandrelatedproducts”“国家发展和改革委员会—开展非典药品和相关商品价格专项检查”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.112ZhangXiaosong张晓松:WhenbuyingandtakingChinesemedicine,oneshouldreadtheinstructionindetail–donotreadilyplacetrustin“miracledrugs”forpreventingSARS”“购买服用中药应细读说明书莫轻信预防非典“特效药”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.(Originaltext:最近，一些不法分子打着防治非典的招牌，制售假冒伪劣药品，行骗谋利，坑害消费者)113LiuTaishan刘泰山,MaoHaowen冒浩文:“Handlewithacoolhead,makepersistentefforts,fulfilassignedtasks,don’tshouldertooheavytasks ,GuangdongisinfullforcecarryingouttheSARSpreventionandcuringwork””沉着应对再接再厉不辱使命不负重托广东全力以赴做好非典型肺炎防治工作”,RenminRibao,April19,2003.(Originaltext:“我们与疫病的斗争尚未取得决定性胜利”)

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bigcomparedtojustsomedaysago?”Hepointedoutthreeanswers.Thefirstwasthat

therehadbeenasuddenoutbreakofanewillnessandthatitwasaprocesstodiagnose

the disease. Secondly, he explained that the systemof hospitals in Beijing,with some

hospitals belonging to the city or the county, some to the MOH and the Ministry of

EducationandsometotheMilitaryandthearmedpolice,114”lackseffectiveconnections

and do not have a unified leadership. They aremutually unable to communicate and

resources can not be integrated.”115The resultwas incorrect data, he concluded. As a

thirdpoint,headmittedthat theMOHhadnotbeensufficientlypreparedandthat the

system to prevent epidemics was weak. Further, they had failed to make a national

unifiedsystemofcollectingandreportinginformationaftertheoutbreak,thedemands

hadbeenunclearandtheguidancenotbeneficial.116

Inthefollowingsession,GaoQiangansweredjournalists,mostofthemforeign,in

amuchmoreopenmannerthanseeninthetwoproceedingpressconferences.Hedid

not merely make repetitions of what measures the government had taken, he also

pointeddirectlytotheweakpartsandtookresponsibilityforsomeofthem.Inhislast

addresshesaid:

IdonotsupportthesayingthatChinaisthesafestplaceonearthandthatyouforsure

willnot get SARS if you comehere.Butat the same time, Idonot support saying that

Chinaisaverydangerouscountryandthatpeoplemerelybycomingherewillgetill.117

AnewgenerationofleadersenterthestageEventhoughalreadyreportedbyXinhua,thesackingsoftheministerofhealthandthe

Beijing mayor was neither mentioned in the Renim Ribao’s notes from the press

conference nor in other articles the following two days. On April 24th, in an article

headlined “In themidst of crisis, union is strength – people of thewhole country are

resistingSARSinaconcertedeffort,”118onecouldreadthatthecentralgovernmenthad,

inordertohandletheproblemsinthepreventionandcuringworkofSARS,”Resolutely

adjustedthepostsofthecadreswiththemostimportantresponsibilityintheMinistry

114ThefirstcasesofSARSinBeijingwerediagnosedatamilitaryhospital,aninstitutionunderthesupervisorycontrolofthePLA,withitswell‐knowninstitutionalpreferenceforsecrecy,ratherthantheMOH(Thornton2009:35).115XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheStateCouncilpressofficeiscarryingoutapressconference–deputyministerofthestandingcommitteeoftheMinistryofHealth,GaoQiangetc.answersjournalist’saboutthesituationofpreventingandcuringSARS”“国务院新闻办公室举行新闻发布会卫生部常务副部长高强等就非典型肺炎防治情况答记者问”,April21,2003.(Originaltext:“这些医院彼此之间缺乏有效联系，也没有一个统一的领导，信息互不沟通，资源不能整合”)116Ibid.117Ibid.(Originaltext:“我不提倡讲“中国是世界上最安全的，你们来保证不会得SARS”这个话。但是我也同样不赞成说中国是一个很危险的国家，来到中国就可能得病”)118XinhuainRenminRibao:“Inthemidstofcrisis,unionisstrength–peopleofthewholecountryareresistingSARSinaconcertedeffort–anonspotreport”“危难中，我们众志成城—全国人民齐心协力抗击非典纪实”,April24,2003.

28

of Health and the Beijing municipality government.” 119 Such a silence among

commentatorsaboutthereshuffleinthetopleadershipdidnotattesttoastrongfocus

on government accountability by the Renmin Ribao, at least not in this first phase of

reporting.

In the above‐mentioned article,whichwaswritten in typical propaganda style,

thephrase ”newcentral leadershipgroup”wasused for the first time inmymaterial.

ThearticlecalledSARSa“test”(kaoyan考验)ofthenewleaders.Itwentontodescribe

howHuJintaohademergedatthefrontlineinGuangdongatthecriticalmomenttosee

thehealthworkersandpraisetheirwork.ItalsoremindedaboutWenJiabao’svisitsto

theCDC,BeijingYou'anHospital,BeijingNormalmiddleschoolandkindergartensinthe

capital.ItthenrecalledhowthenewStateCouncilalreadyhadcarriedoutthreespecial

meetingsonSARS,howithadresolutelyputSARSunderlegalregulation,howitmade

everydayreportstotheWHOandtothepublicand itsdecisiontoestablishanational

systemtohandlesuddenlyemergingpublichealthcases.

InmymaterialIfoundapictureofanewleadershipdeeplyconcernedaboutthe

situationandthepeople,withastrongsenseofresponsibilityandalonglistofchanges

thatneedtobemade.Itisworthconsideringthepositiveconsequencesthedeclaration

of a crisis may have had for the new leadership in its ambition to carry out

administrativereformandconsolidatingitspower.

NanfangZhoumoreportingonSARSTurningtolookathowtheNanfangZhoumocoveredtheeventsinthespringof2003,it

becomesclearthatitisquiteadifferentkindofpublication.Thestoryreachedthefront

pageonFebruary13th,onedayafterthefirstarticleintheRenminRibao,andthewhole

frontpageandthesecondpagewasspentonSARS.

AshortglimpseofaGuangzhouonalertThe front‐page article was headlined “Guangzhou is struggling against an unknown

virus,”120andhadasmanyas14different sources, frommobilephone firms toonline

stockmarket pages to pharmacy employees. In the story, the journalist had not only

interviewedmanypersonsandfoundmuchinformationfromdifferentsources,buthe

had also been to several places himself and observed the situation. For example, he

describedthesmellofdisinfectantintheneighbourhoodsofthecity,observedthelong119Ibid.(Originaltext:“果断对卫生部和北京市政府主要负责同志的职务作出调整”)120ChenMin陈海,JiangHua江华:“Guangzhouisstrugglingagainstanunknownvirus”“广州抗击不明病毒”,NanfangZhoumoFebruary13,2003.

29

linesinfrontofpharmacies(wherethedrugsbelievedtocurethefluwereeithersold

outorthepriceshadsoared)andnotedthatnursesandpatientsatthehospitalswere

wearingsurgicalmasks.121Thestorygavethereaderapictureofthesituationthatthe

Renmin Ribao never came close to provide. On the first page inside the paper, a

journalisthadinterviewedanexpertfromtheCDC.Here,astrongfocuswasputonlaws

regulatingsuddenpublichealthsituations,suchasdivisionofresponsibility,systemsof

reporting,isolationandclosingofschools122.Theexpertdidnotgivehisname,andmost

ofthesourcesinthestoriesthisdaywereanonymous.Iwillreturntotheimplicationsof

thisbelow.

HearsaytobefoughtwithinformationAtthebottomofthefrontpageofthisfirstpublicationcoveringSARS,oneofthepaper’s

journalist had written a commentary headlined “Fear stops with openness.”123 He

pointed at how it was wrong to blame people for spreading rumours in society

because”thecontentsofthisso‐calledhearsayisamatterofstayingalive,andtheright

tolifewasearlyonuniversallyacknowledgedasthemostfundamentalhumanright.”124

In the whole material of 220 articles from the Renmin Ribao, the concept of

“humanrights”wasonlyusedasanegativelyloadedwordinthedisputewithTaiwan.

“Human rights”wasnot apartof thediscourseabout SARS in theRenminRibao, and

whentheNanfangZhoumotalkedaboutit,itreferredtothenon‐controversial“rightto

life,”althoughitislinkedtotherighttoinformationinasomewhatsubtleway.

The commentary argued that people in the whole region had calmed down

duringoneeveningafter theyhad listenedto the informationaboutSARSgivenat the

press conferences of the Guangzhou City government and the Guangdong Province

HealthdepartmentonFebruary11th. Inthefeaturingnewsarticleonthefrontpage, it

was explained how rumours of a “deadly flu” had started to spread in Guangzhou

throughfriends,familyandtheInternetonFebruary8th.

LiketheRenminRibao,theNanfangZhoumocommentedonrumoursspreading

in society about SARS. But the discourses in the two papers differed fundamentally.

WhentheRenminRibaotalkedaboutrumours,itfocusedonthe“speculation”offoreign

media and governments or the “individual acts” of scientists, whereas the Nanfang121Ibid.122WuZhanguang吴展光:“InterviewwithanexpertatChineseCentreforDiseaseControlandPrevention–howtohandleahuge，suddenlyemergingpublichealthcrisis?”“国家疾病预防控制中心专家访谈重大突发公共卫生事件如何处理?”,NanfangZhoumo,February13,2003.123LiYiyan李一言:“Fearstopswithopenness”“恐慌止于公开”,NanfangZhoumo,February13,2003.124Ibid.(Originaltext:“因为这里所谓的谣言的内容攸关生命，而生命权早已成为举世公认的最基本的，最首要的人权”)

30

Zhoumomainly talked about regular people’s search for basic information on how to

protect themselves against the disease. This demonstrates the bottom‐up perspective

NanfangZhoumoissaidtorepresent.

NegotiatingtheroleofthemediaInthe“Fearstopswithopenness”commentary, the journalistmovedontodiscussthe

roleandmandateofthepresstopassonimportantinformationtoindividuals.Inlightof

the change in people’s lives before and after the press conference, he argued that

“peoplecannotbutcometotheconclusionthatitistimetocloselyexaminetheroleand

functionofthemedia.125”Heexplainedthespreadofrumoursascausedbythelackof

“theauthoritativevoiceofthemediaandthegovernment.”Hethenwentontoremindof

the history of media as an information channel between people and between the

government and the people. But, he said “for a long time, some places, some officials

have ignoredtherolethatmediahas insubstitutingthepeople inobtainingnecessary

information and in spreading it.” He argued that because these officials had been

stopping certain information frombeingpassedonaccording to certain “conventions”

(guanli惯例,)mediawereunabletocarryoutitsrole.

WeseeherehowtheNanfangZhoumowereusingtheopportunity toargue for

media’sroleandagencybyplacingitinadomestichistoricalcontext.Itdidnotdirectly

refertoa“professionalism”ideal,buttosomethingclosertoa“Confusianistintellectual”

ideal, asdescribed in thebackground chapter.Thekeywordwas “openness,” and the

authoractuallywentontoacknowledgetheGuangdongProvincegovernmentforhaving

providedinformationaboutthedisease“relativelytimely”andtherebycalmeddownthe

public.“Therealityprovesthatopennesshasnotonlynotledtochaos(tianxiadaluan

天下大乱,)ithasalsorapidlycalmeddowntheso‐calledrumours.”Thisformulationcan

be seen as a critique against Communist Party’s traditionalmedia strategy of holding

backinformationtoavoidpublicunrest.

AnonymoussourcesIn spite of their claim that more openness in information would fight hearsay, the

Nanfang Zhoumo used a lot of anonymous sources in their first stories about SARS.

Peoplefromthegovernment,hospitals,pharmaciesorothermediawerequotedwithout

beingnamed.Thisattestedbothtothejournalistsandtothepublic’sawarenessofthe

sensitivityofthesituation,butatthesametimeitrepresentedacredibilityproblemfor

125Ibid.

31

thepaper, as readershadnomeans tocheck thecorrectnessof itswritings. In sucha

situation,thepaperhadtorelyonpeoples’generaltrusttowardsit,butitalsobecame

vulnerabletoaccusationsofspreadingrumoursitself.

ThesilenceandtheturningpointAfteritsFebruary11thissue,theNanfangZhoumodidnotcoverSARSagain,exceptfrom

inasmallarticlediscussing its influenceon theeconomy,until twoandahalfmonths

later,intheApril24thissue.Thatday,thefrontpageandthefollowingfivepageswere

filledwithSARS‐reports. In the featuringarticleonthe frontpageheadlined“Whatdo

we leanon towinover SARS?”126the journalist calledApril 20th, theday itwasmade

public thatMinisterofHealth,ZhangWenkang,andtheBeijingMayor,MengXuenong,

hadbeenremovedfromtheirpartyposts,a ”turningpoint”(zhuanzhedian转折点.)At

thepressconferencethatday,thenewViceMinisterofHealth,GaoQiang,hadadmitted

that ”there really are some defect and weak links in the work of the Ministry of

Health.”127The journalist remarked thatmany commentators later pointed out that it

wasthe”firsttimeinmorethan10years”thatahighlevelleaderadmittedfaultsofthe

government’sworkatapressconference.”128

ThereporterarguedthatHuJintao’striptoGuangdong,wherehehadexpressed

the seriousness of the situation, and the resent instructions to be cautious, especially

when travelling to the Western regions, the countryside or epidemic regions, had

brought the truth closer to people. Hu Jintao had indeed been right when he at an

inspectionoftheBeijingMilitaryHospitalthesamedayhaddeclaredthatthekeything

todowas to ”fullymakeuseof the important effectsof science,” the journalistnoted.

Still,itwasdisappointingthatthescientistsneededsuchalongtimetofindtheculpritof

the disease and that they had held on to the Chlamydia theory for days even after

severalforeignresearcherspointedtotheCoronavirus129.Anunnamedresearcherfrom

Beijingpointedtoseveralthingsthatshouldbeimproved,firstofallbettercooperation

amongscientists.TheprocessguidedbytheWHOthathadeventuallyledtoidentifying

oftheviruswasthenexplainedinsomedetailbeforethejournalistreturnedtotheissue

of lawand tookpains toexplain the implicationsofSARShavingentered the laws for

regulatinginfectiousdiseases.Heunderlinedthatthetaskforthetimetocomewasto

126LiHujun李虎军,GuoGuangdong郭光东:“WhatdoweleanontowinoverSARS?”“我们靠什么战胜”非典”?”,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.127Ibid.128Ibid.129Ibid.

32

followtheselawsandsystems,thatwereactuallyestablishedmorethan10yearsago,as

wellastobuildandimprovethesystemofhandlingurgenthealthissues.

ThechallengeofthecountrysideandthevoiceofvillagepeopleInthesameApril24thissue,thepaper’sjournalistshadvisitedseveralplacesinChina,

including Shanghai andBeijing, theNorth‐easternNingxia Province, aswell as a poor

villageinShanxiProvince,toreportonthelocalsituationsthere.

ThearticlefromNingxiashedlightonthechallengetoavoidthespreadofSARS

tothecountryside.Ittoldthestoryofapassengerwhogotsickmorethantendaysafter

havingtakenatraintripfromBeijingtoInnerMongoliaandhowtheefforttomakesure

the disease did not spread further had been carried out, after much discussion and

uncertaintyabouttheconsequences,bypublishingthenumberofthecarrierthepatient

hadbeenoninlocalandnationalmedia.130

ThestoryfromShanxihadafocusoncommonpeople’sknowledgeaboutSARS.

Afterhavingdescribedthatnoneofthepeopleofallageswhostoodaroundhimwore

surgicalmasks and that there had been no smell of vinegar (used to disinfect) in the

village, the journalistnoted that thevillagepeopleactuallydidknowthesymptomsof

thedisease.131Oneofthevillagerspointedtotheskyandstressedthattheairwasmuch

cleanerthaninthecity.Thiswastheir“magicweapon”(fabao法宝,)hesaid,referringto

thebythencommonknowledgethatcirculationinairmighthelppreventthespreadof

SARS. Having learned about the conditions of health care in the village, however, the

journalistconcluded that itwas their “onlymagicweapon.”Thenearesthealthstation

was a 40‐minute bike ride away, andwith an average annual salary of 300 yuan, the

villagersdidnothavemoney tobuyherbalmedicineorsurgicalmasks,agovernment

officialinformed.Afterhavingexplainedtheshortcomingsinthemedicalfacilitiesonthe

countryside,wheretherewasnotasinglebreathingmachineandisolationclotheshad

notyetarrived,theheadoftheHealthOfficeinthecountyconcludedthattheefforthad

betterbefocusedonavoidingascenariowhereSARSspreadtohiscounty.

As in the first issue, itwashighlighted inmanyof thearticles thateven though

thesituationhadproventobeworsethanfirstreported,peoplewerecalmeddownby

moreaccurateinformation.IntheexamplefromNingxia,anofficialfromthelocalhealth

departmentsaid:

130LuRong卢嵘,DuJunxiao杜峻晓:“Ningxiaistryingtoblock“SARS””“宁夏追堵”非典””,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.131WuZhanguang吴展光,ZhengYigong(ShanxiFinancialDaily)郑亦工(山西经济日报记者):“XingcountyinShanxi–arecordfromapoorcounty’sSARSstruggle”“山西兴县一个贫困县的抗非典纪录”,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.

33

Theeffectsprovethatreportingthecasedidnotleadtounnecessaryfear,butquitethe

opposite.Knowingthesituation,peoplecouldunderstandthesenseofresponsibilityof

thegovernment.132

Atthesametime,thereportsfromthecountrysideshowedasituationofgreatconcern

anddrewupthe“worstcasescenario”itwouldbeifSARSgotoutofhandandspreadto

poor areas. Common people made up 31,5 per cent of the sources in the Nanfang

Zhoumo’scoverageofSARS,makingthemasignificantpartofthediscourse.

The“atypical”caseofHaichengDuringthelongperiodofsilencebetweenmid‐FebruaryandthebeginningofApril,the

onlymention of SARS came in the issue preceding the onewhere the epidemic once

againreachedthefrontpages.

In thepaper’s commentary section, onApril 17th, a referencewas interestingly

madetoSARSinadifferentcaseundertheheadline”The‘atypicalcase’ofHaicheng.”133

Atthispoint,thetwoChinesecharactersthatmakeupthewordatypical(feidian非典)

had alreadybecome the abbreviation for SARS. In this commentary, the author told a

storyfromthecityofHaicheng,where2500schoolchildrenhadbeenhospitalizedafter

drinkingasoymilkproductservedattheschoolcanteen.

The author explained how the city government had tried to stop families from

travellingtoothercitiestogotohospitalsbypatrollingatthetrainstationandhowthey

hadtriedtohinderparentsfromtalkingtojournalistsbysendinganoticethatsaid,”If

youcanavoid,doso.”134As in thecaseofSARS, the localgovernmenthadhesitatedto

reportthecasetohighergovernmentlevels.Onlyaftermediainothercitieslearnedofit

from families seeking help at their hospitals, had the central government received

knowledgeaboutthesituation.

Attheendofhisstory,theauthorplayedwiththeword”atypical”tocriticizethe

local government: ”One can say that this is some localities’ typicalmethod to handle

similar atypical cases,”he saidwith reference tohow the local governmenthadmade

pains toavoid thatmediaorhighergovernment levelsgot toknowabout thescandal.

Finally, the author concluded that if the aim of the governmentwas to ”reassure the

132LuRong卢嵘,DuJunxiao杜峻晓:“Ningxiaistryingtoblock“SARS””“宁夏追堵”非典””,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.(Originaltext:“实际效果证明，通告没有引起不必要的恐慌，老百姓反而从中意识到了政府的责任感”)133LiuHongbo刘洪波:“The“atypical”caseofHaicheng”“海城的”非典型事件””,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.134Ibid.

34

public” (andingrenxin安定人心,)thismethodof”indifference”(anzhiruosu安之若素)

wasnotsuitable.”Whatkindofhumanitarianism(rendaozhuyi人道主义)isthat?”135

This article is an exampleofhow theNanfangZhoumoused clevermethods to

avoid censorship by talking between the lines. Because of the obvious similarities

betweentheHaichengcaseandtheSARScoverupandtheuseoftheword“feidian”,the

commentaryactuallydidfunctionasacritiqueagainstthesystemaswellasagainstthe

government’ssecrecyaboutSARS.

ThetaintedmilkscandalintheRenminRibaoFiveyearsafter the lastSARSpatienthad recovered in June2003, thealarm lamps in

Beijingonceagainstartedblinking–alittletoolate.Thistime,thecentralgovernment

wasinformedbythegovernmentofNewZealandthatbabieshadfallenillfromdrinking

ababymilkformulaproducedbytheChineseownedcompanySanlu.TheNewZealand

companyFonterra,thathada43percentstakeinSanlu,hadalerteditsChinesepartner

onAugust2nd,butitsrequestforanofficialrecallhadbeenrefused.Fonterrathenasked

NewZealandtotalkdirectlytoBeijing,whichitdidthreedayslater.

AclearconnectionThe Renmin Ribao published its first report about the Sanlu‐case on September 12th,

2008. The storywas headlined ”Infants in Gansu have contracted kidney stones after

drinkingbabymilkpowderformula–theMinistryofHealthhighlysuspectmilkpowder

contamination‐SanluGroupiscallingbackapartoftheirmilkformulaproduct.”136The

shortarticle, inwhichtheMOHassuredthatmeasuresnowweretaken,wasplaced in

theeconomysectiononpage11.ThelocalhealthauthoritiesinShijiazhuangcity,where

Sanlu'sheadquarterwaslocated,saidthateachofthe59babiesthathadfallenill,there

amongonewhohaddied from the injuries, hadbeen fedwith the same type of baby

formulaproducedbySanlu.137

Thenextdayitwasreportedthatinstancesofkidneyfailureininfantshadalso

been found in other provinces. Sources in the Shijiazhuang government said that the

melaminehadbeenaddedtotherawmilkby”unlawfulelements”(bufafenzi不法分子)

and that theywere still in the process of investigatingwhether Sanlu itself alsowere

135Ibid.136CengHuafeng曾华锋,ZuoYa左娅:”InfantsinGansuhavecontractedkidneystonesafterdrinkingbabymilkpowderformula–theMinistryofHealthhighlysuspectmilkpowdercontamination‐SanluGroupiscallingbackapartoftheirmilkformulaproduct”“甘肃婴儿喝奶粉患结石，卫生部高度怀疑奶粉污染，三鹿公司召回部分奶粉”,RenminRibao,September12,2008.137Ibid.

35

guiltyofaddingthechemical138.Thatdayandthedaysthatfollowed,thenewsaboutthe

Sanlu‐caseweremovedtopage2underdomesticheadlines,andonSeptember13th,the

casewasclassifiedbytheStateCouncilashavingactivated”thehighestlevelofalarmfor

seriousnationalfoodsecuritycrisis.”139AnexpertgroupledbyGaoQiang140,theparty

secretaryoftheMOH,hadbeensetuptoinvestigatethecase.

ConsumerinformationInthisfirstphase,thepaperhadafocusonurgingparentstoreportiftheirchildshowed

symptomsofpoisoningandthatthefinancialgovernmentinstitutionswouldpayforthe

medicaltreatment.

OnSeptember17th,thefirstresultsoftheinspectionswerepublishedintheform

oflists–onelistwiththenamesofthe87companiescleanoftaintedmilkandonewith

the 22 companieswhere inspectors had foundmelamine in products. The amount of

melamineineachproductwasalsopublished.Itwashighlightedthatnocontaminated

products had been found amongmilk provided to theOlympics and the Paralympics.

Expertsalsounderlinedthatmelaminewasanindustrialchemicalwithalowdegreeof

poisoninitandthatinfantshadtoconsumeitinlargequantitiesbeforetheywouldget

problemswiththeurinesystem.Mostof theaffectedcouldbecuredbydrinking large

amountsofwaterandurinateoften,unnamedexpertssaid.141

Asitbecameclearthatmoreandmorepeoplewereaffectedbythescandal,the

numberofsickenedinfantsbecameimportantandwasreporteddaily.

“Whathaveyoudonesofar?”and“Whoknewwhatwhen?”The question ofwhen the central government had been informed about the situation

was raised on a press conference in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 16th of

September,andtheRenminRibaoprintedthisquestionaswellasthespokespersonof

theministry,JiangYu's,answeronSeptember17th:

138XinhuainRenminRibao:“Itispreliminarilyassumedthatunlawfulelementshaveaddedmelaminetorawmilk–Beijing,HubeiandHunanetc.hasalsoreceivedreportsofinstances”“初步认定不法分子在原奶中添加三聚氰胺北京湖北湖南等地也接到病例报告”,September13,2008.139WangJunping王君平:“SeverelyhandlingSanlubabyformulacase,theStatecouncilisactivatingthehighestlevelofresponseforlargenationalfoodsafetyaccidents,establishingurgentsmallleadershipgrouptodealwithitandgivesfreerescueandcuringforthesickened”“严肃处理三鹿婴幼儿奶粉事件国务院启动国家重大食品安全事故I级响应成立应急处置领导小组对患病婴幼儿免费救治”,RenminRibao,September14,2008.140DuringSARS,GaoQiangwasalsoPartysecretaryoftheMinistryofHealthaswellasdeputyministerofitsstandingcommittee.Asmentionedabove,hesteppedintohandletheSARScrisisafterZhangWenkangwasremoved.141ZouYa左娅:“PublicationoftheresultsofaperiodicspecialinvestigationformelamineinSanlu'sinfantformula”“婴幼儿配方奶粉三聚氰胺专项检查阶段性检查结果公布”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.

36

AQSIQ142and theMinistryofCommerce received the reportabout theSanlubabymilk

formulaproblemfromtheNewZealandside.Beforethis,therelevantlocalgovernment

had already handled the situation concerned and implemented measures. After the

central government received the reports from the local governments, the emergency

systemwasimmediatelyactivatedandtherelatedarrangementsweremade.143

Here,thespokeswomanactuallyavoidedansweringthequestion;shejustsaidthatthe

centralgovernmenthadactedrightafteritgotthereportfromthelocalgovernment.

By printing the question of “who knewwhatwhen,” the paper relatively early

addressed the issue of responsibility, although the journalist did not challenge the

spokeswoman’s hazy answer. Typically, a Renmin Ribao journalist would ask a

governmentofficialquestionsthatgaveanopportunitytotellwhatthegovernmenthad

doneandwoulddoaswellastorepeattheinformationitneededtogivetothepublic.

Thatbeingsaid, inmymaterialfromthemilkscandalmorecriticalquestionsfromthe

journalistswereraisedthanduringSARS.

Representatives from the industry were given column space to put several

problems on the agenda. On September 21st, a journalist had interviewed dairy

companies and in one article he asked the director of the China Dairy Industry

Associationchairman,LiuChengguo:“So,whatdoyouthinkhavetobedonetopromote

apersistenthealthydevelopmentofthedairyindustry?”144

Critiqueofthefoodsafetysystem Coveringthemilkscandal,theRenminRibaohad7,1percentopinionarticles,compared

to 5,2 per cent during SARS. In these commentaries a wider range of topics were

discussedthanduringSARSandawiderrangeofopinionswereexpressed.

IntheSeptember17tharticle”Whowillrecallunsafeproducts?”145WangBixue,a

RenminRibaocommentatorwitha lawbackground,pointedout theshortcomingsshe

hadfoundinanewregulationdraftonfoodsafety.Shepointedtoseveralloopholesin

the draft that left the responsibility to discover unsafe products to producers and

businessmanagers and for recalling them to the producers. She askedwhether these

regulationswouldbeeffective, relyingsolelyon theamountofself‐regulationof these142GeneralAdministrationofQualitySupervision,InspectionandQuarantineofthePeople'sRepublicofChina.143RenminRibao:“ThespokespersonoftheMinistryofForeignAffairsisansweringjournalist’squestionsabouttheSanlucase”“就三鹿奶粉有关问题外交部发言人答记者问”,September17,2008.(Originaltext:“中国国家质检总局和商务部分别接到新西兰方面有关三鹿奶粉问题的通报。在此之前，中国有关地方政府已掌握了有关情况并采取措施。中国中央政府在接到地方政府通报后，

立即启动应急机制并作了相关部署”.144FengHua冯华:“Safemilkneedstobeprotectedsystematically–interviewwithLiuChengguo,directorofChinaDairyIndustryAssociation”“放心奶需要机制保障—访中国奶业协会理事长刘成果”. (Original text:那么您认为怎样才能促进奶业的持续健康发展?)145WangBixue王比学:“Whowillrecallunsafeproducts”“谁来召回不安全食品”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.

37

two.Afterall,arecallwouldbe”ablowbothtotheproducerandtheproduct’sname,”

shesaid.Shefurtherpointedoutthatitwasnoopeningforuseofcoercionagainstthose

whoneglected theirresponsibilities.Herconclusionwas that itmustbemadeclear in

law that whoever discovered unsafe products had to report it to the regulating

governmentorgans,sothattheycouldsolveitaccordingtolawandorderarecall.

Thenextday,areportfromanexecutivemeetingintheStateCouncilledbyWen

JiabaoonSeptember17thshowedthatthegovernmentalsohadcritiquetooffer:

Itisofthemeeting’sopinionthattheSanlubabymilkformulacasereflectsachaoticmilk

product market, where the supervision and control systems have loopholes and the

supervisionandcontrolworkisweak.Asincerelessonmustbedrawnfromthis.Withan

attitudeofhigh levelof responsibility towards thepeople, thehandlingof the incident

mustbedoneinagoodmanner,theinspectionandmonitoringsystemmustbeperfected

andthesupervisingandcontrolworkmustbestrengthened.146

Afterhavinglinedouthowtocleanupthemarket,themeetingunderlinedtheneedto

encourageproducersofcleanmilktocontinuetheirproductioninordertomakesureit

wouldbeenoughbabyformulaonthemarket.Italsoemphasisedthatthedairyfarmers

affectedmustgetsomesupport.Lastly, theneedtodiscover thereasonbehindandto

punishtheguiltywasunderscored.147

Intheabove‐mentionedinterviewwithLiuChengguo,directoroftheChinaDairy

IndustryAssociation,hecamewithspecificadvicetotheindustryandthegovernment.

His focuswasontherootsof theunstableeconomyin thedairy industry, like the fact

thatfarmersandthefinalproducershadfewmutualinterests,theneedforathirdparty

supervisingorganand fora fund tohelp farmers,whomhepointedoutwas themost

vulnerablegroupinthelongproductionchain.148

Commentator Su Xianlong on September 23rd raised a question that would

become the focus of much debate, namely that of the rationale behind the ”National

Inspection Exemption products” (guojiamianjian国家免检) and the ”Famous Chinese

Brand products” (zhongguo mingpai中国名牌), both quality stamps granted by the

AQSIQ.Afterhavingarguedthat inanenvironmentof fiercecompetitiontherewasno

146XinhuainRenminRibao:“WenJiabaoleadsanexecutivemeetingattheStateCouncil,decidestofullymonitordairyproducts,andreorganisethedairyindustry”“温家宝主持召开国务院常务会议，决定全面检查奶制品，整顿奶制品行业”,September18,2008.(Originaltext:“会议认为，三鹿牌婴幼儿奶粉事件的发生，反映出奶制品市场混乱，监管机制存在漏洞，监管工作不力，必须认真吸取教训，以对人民高度负责的态度，做好事故处理，完善检验监督体制，加强监管工作)147Ibid.148FengHua冯华:“Safemilkneedstobeprotectedsystematically–interviewwithLiuChengguo,directorofChinaDairyIndustryAssociation”“放心奶需要机制保障—访中国奶业协会理事长刘成果”.RenminRibao,September21,2008.

38

roomfor”NationalInspectionExemptionproducts”,hesaidthat”Infact, thegoodand

badqualityofproductsintheendcanonlybejudgedbytheconsumers.Noproductcan

restonbeingchosenbyanadministrativeorganoritsagents.”149Hewentontosaythat

thecurrentsituation,whereindigenousbrandsarepromotedwithoutsufficientcontrol,

not only was a disadvantage for the industry and people, but also for government

credibility.

The next day yet another commentator said that the “National Inspection

Exemptionproducts”systemdidnotsuitthecurrentsituationinChina:

Theproblemisthatundertheconditionofbothaprofit‐seekingprincipleandlackofa

construction for social trustworthiness, the corporation’s self‐discipline is usually

uncertain.150

Next,he listedup theproblemsconnected to changing the system, andhis conclusion

was that the new ”Food safety law” waiting for the NPC to approve it was a huge

challenge,butalsoanopportunitytoimprovelegislation.

CriminaltrialsandgovernmentaccountabilityOnSeptember17th, inanarticleheadlined”Hebei–theresponsiblepeopleinvolvedin

the Sanlu baby milk formula case is being handled according to Party protocol,” the

paper told of a number of local leaderswhomhad been removed from their posts in

government and in the Party. Without focusing much on it, they informed that Tian

Wenhua had been taken off her post as party secretary at Sanlu and that she also,

according to the paper’s knowledge, had been taken off her post as chairwoman and

generalmanager of the company.151The criminal cases soon became the focus of the

reporting, and the Hebei public security office reported about the developments. On

September 18th, we learned that Tian Wenhua had been detained after the criminal

procedurelaw,152andonSeptember19ththeRenminRibaoreportedthat18peoplehad

been arrested suspected of involvement in the case153. On September 23rd, the paper

149SuXianlong苏显龙:“AfterthecancellationoftheselectionofChinaFamousBrand”“名牌评选取消之后”,RenminRibao,September23,2008.(Originaltext:”事实上，商品质量的优劣，最终只能由消费者说了算，没有哪个产品的品牌是靠行政机构或其所属的中介组织人为评选出来的”)150ShiGuosheng石国胜:“Howtoinspectwhennot“exemptedfrominspection””“不“免检”如何检?”,RenminRibao,September24,2008.(Originaltext:问题是，在市场趋利性原则和社会诚信体系尚未建立的情况下，企业的自觉往往靠不住)151LuoGuojun骆国骏:“Hebei–theresponsiblefortheSanlucasearedealtwithinaccordingtoPartyprotocol”“河北–“三鹿奶粉事故”有关责任人受到组织处理”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.152WangFangjie王方杰:“SanluGroup’schairwomanandgeneralmanager,TianWenhua,isputundercriminaldetention”“三鹿集团原董事长总经理田文华被刑事拘留”,RenminRibao,September18,2008.153PengBo彭波:“Another12criminalsuspectsinHebeiarecaught”“河北又有十二名犯罪嫌疑人落网”,RenminRibao,September19,2008.

39

reported that the responsible persons from Shijiazhuang party committee and

governmentwerenowcriminalsuspects.

In a commentary printed on September 24th, headlined ”Respect the popular

will’s(minyi民意)requestforaccountability(wenze问责,)”154theproblemwithlackof

accountability of high officials was raised by the journalist Wu Yan. ”Now, in the

sweeping storm of demanding accountability, the public feel at ease,”155he said,with

referencebothtothemilkscandalandtoamudslideinShanxiearlierthatmonth,where

ZhangWenkang,whohadtostepdownasMinisterofHealthinthefirstperiodofSARS

becauseofhisbadperformance,onceagainhadtostepdownfromhispost‐thistimeas

mayorofShanxi.HisresignationduringSARSwasnotmentionedintheRenminRibao.

Thereporterarguedthattherecentinvestigationsandprosecutionsofofficialsat

alllevelsmostlywasareminderthatifonedidnot

carryoutatransparentadministration,openuptothepublicandworkaccordingtolaw,

if there is no strong and effective external supervision, or if the public does not

participateinformingsocialpressureandforce,butifonemerelyletsomeofficialstread

onthinice,letsomeindustriesbecome‘highriskindustries,’thenIamafraidatragedyis

hardtoavoid.156

Finally,thecommentatorconcludedthatifonetook

onestepfurtherandturnedthe”requestforaccountability”intoasystem,usingthisasa

fundamentalstrategyforpreventing largescalesafetycases, thatwouldtrulybetoput

peoplefirstandresolutelyimplementtheconceptofscientificdevelopment.157

OnOctober1st,aRenminRibaojournalisthadinterviewedthedeputysecretary‐general

andgovernmentspokesmanofShijiazhuang.Heasked: ”As the localgovernment,why

didyoudelaythereportingof thiscase?”158Therepresentativestartedoutsayingthat

hefeltdeeplyguiltyandthatheprofoundlyapologizedtothechildrenandtheirfamilies.

He then explained how Sanlu had contacted Shijiazhuang government on August 2nd,

urgingthem

154WuYan吴焰:“Respectthepopularwill’srequestforaccountability”“尊重民意的问责“,RenminRibao,September24,2008.155Ibid.(Originaltext:“现在，在席卷而来的问责风暴中，公众感到了踏实”)156Ibid.(Originaltext:“如果做不到政务透明、公开，做不到依法行政作为，如果没有坚强有力的外部监督，没有公众的参与以形成社会的压力与合力，仅仅让几位官员“如履薄冰”，让几个行业成为“高风险行业”，悲剧恐怕还是难以避免).157Ibid.(Originaltext:更进一步，当问责成为制度之后，对防止重大安全事故的治本之策，是真正做到以人为本，坚决贯彻科学发展观)158WangMinghao王明浩:“ThespokespersonofShijiazhuangCitygovernment–onwhytheSanlubabyformulacasewasdelayed”“石家庄市政府新闻发言人—三鹿奶粉事件为何迟报”,RenminRibao,October1,2008.(Originaltext:“作为当地政府，为什么对事件迟报?”)

40

first,toasktherelevantdepartmentsinthegovernmenttostrictlyinvestigatethequality

ofrawmilkandtoimplementlegalmeasuresagainsttheunlawfulelementsthatadded

the melamine and other things that may harm the quality. Secondly, we asked the

government to strengthen the management, control and coordination of the media,

create a favourable climate for the industry in their recall of problematic products in

ordertoavoidmediahypeandspeculationsaboutthecase,thatcouldcreateastringof

negativeimpactonsociety.159

Wang Jiangguo said that itwas a lack of ”sensitivity” (minganxing敏感性) of the city

governmentandtheirinabilitytoraisetheproblemtoanoveralllevelthatmadethem

wait until September 9th before they reported the situation to the Hebei province

government. He admitted that their trust in Sanlu had been too high and that they

shouldhavequestionedtheircredibility.Inthisarticle,thejournalistwastrulycritical,

somethingthatalsoshowedinhiscommentswhereheputweightonthefactsaboutthe

scandal that were unfavourable to the Shijiazhuang government. Here, the very

important structural problem of tight relations between local governments and

businesseswasquitedirectlytouchedupon.

TheonlinepublicIntheabove‐discussedarticle,whentalkingabouthowthe“stormofaccountability”had

leftthepublicatease,theauthorreferredtoInternetforumswhenhewrote

Whenrespectwasgiventothepopularwill’srequestforaccountability,(thegovernment)

got a positive response. By leaving comments on the Internet and othermethods, the

publicexpressedthisapproachaswelcomeandgratifying.Atouchingscenarioofmutual

understandingandsupportalsoemerged.160

InthisfirstreferenceintheRenminRibaotothenetizensasagroup,weseehowthey

werediscussedas“thepublic”andhowthetoneofthelanguagewassimilartothatof

thepropagandafoundduringSARS.ThepostingsontheInternetwereusedtoexpress

unity,harmonyandsupportforthegovernment’shandlingofthesituation.

Wenvisits”ordinarypeople”–theonlyherointhestoryOnSeptember22nd,theRenminRibaoreportedfrompremierWenJiabao'sinspectionat

ahospital,hisvisittoamarketandtoaresidencyareainBeijing.

159Ibid.(Originaltext:“一是请政府有关职能部门严查原料奶质量，对投放三聚氰胺等有害物质的犯罪分子采取法律措施；二是请政府加强媒体的管控和协调，给企业召回存在问题产品创造一个良好环境，避免炒作此事给社会造成一系列的负面影响”)160WuYan吴焰:“Respectthepopularwill’srequestforaccountability”“尊重民意的问责”,RenminRibao,September24th.(Originaltext:“尊重民意的“问责”，得到了民意的正面回应：公众通过网上留言等方式表达欢迎与欣慰；在近期救治问题奶粉患儿工作中，也出现了相互理解、支持与配合的一幕幕感人情景”)

41

During SARS, Wen Jiabao was already an important source as member of the

standingcommitteeandthePrimeMinisterofPRC. In2008,however,WenJiabaohad

takenamore ”human” form,and in this reporthewassmall talkingwithparentsand

children,whowerewaiting in line to be screened for kidney failure. ”Where are you

from?””Whatkindofmilkdidyoudrink?””Wereanyproblemsdiscovered?”heaskedin

an,accordingtothe journalist, ”deeplyconcerned”way.161Inthescreeningroom,Wen

walkedovertoacryingbabyand”warmlycomforted”herbysaying”don’tcry,itwillbe

oksoon.”ThereporterevendescribedtheexpressiononthePrimeMinister’sfacewhen

thehealthpersonnelweretellinghimthattheyhadalreadycured20children.”Hearing

this,thedistancebetweenWenJiabao'seyebrowsopenedupalittle,”162hewrote.

Onavisittoaretiredman’shouseinaresidencyareainBeijingthesameday,the

oldmancouldassureWenthathisgrandsonwashealthy.ThePrimeministertookthe

opportunitytoshowhisdeepconcernfortheaffected.Hesaid:“Evenifordinarypeople

havebeenunderstanding,as thegovernmentwe feelveryguilty.”Theman’sdaughter

thensaidinaspontaneousmanner:”Wehavefaith inthegovernment”and”Thistime

thedegreeoftransparencyofthegovernmenthasbeenhigh.”163

During SARS, the top leaders had amore serious and authoritarian inspecting

role.ManyhavenotedhowWen Jiabaohasbecomeagrandfatherly figure in the later

years.DuringtheearthquakeinSichuaninMaythesameyearasthemilkscandalbroke,

hewonpeople’sheartsbyshowingupinthedisasterarea,onlydaysafterthequake.

Inaway,WenJiabaowastheonlyheroinRenminRibao'sstoryaboutthemilk

scandal.Hewashumble,honestandcaringtowardsthepeopleandresoluteaboutwhat

hadtobedone.HisrolewassimilartothatofthehealthworkersintheSARScoverage.

ThestyleusedcoveringWen'svisittoregularpeoplewasalsowhenRenminRibaocame

closesttotraditionalpropaganda‐styleintheirreportingonthemilkscandal,ashewas

describedsolelybypositiveadjectives.

161LiBin李斌,HuangJinquan黄全权:“Weshallberesponsibletothepeople–WenJiabaovisitschildrenillfromthe“Sanlumilkformulacase”inBeijingandinspectsdairyproductmarkets”“我们要对人民负责—温家宝在北京看望“奶粉事件”患病儿童并考察奶制品市场”,RenminRibaoSeptember22,2008.162Ibid.(Originaltext:“听到这个消息，温家宝的眉头稍微舒展开一点”)163Ibid.

42

Thediscourseofopenness(公开)During the inspection mentioned above, Wen responded to the lady’s praise of the

government’srecentopennessbysaying:“Wehavetoberesponsibletothepeople,so

wemustaccuratelypublish(gongkai公开)thesituationtocommonpeople.”164

The word “gongkai” was by 2008 well established as part of the top leaders’

vocabulary. In dictionaries it refers to several adjectives, such as “open,” “overt,”

“public,” to the verbs “publish,” “makepublic,” “make known to the public” and as an

adverb,to“openly”.Thecharacters“gong”and“kai”translateas“public”andto“open.”

DuringSARS,wesawthatthegovernmentturnedaroundandstartedpursuinga

moreopenlineof informingaboutthecase.Itdidnot,however, inmymaterialof220

articlesusetheword“gongkai”aboutinformationtothepublic.Inmy98articlesabout

the tainted milk scandal, the word was used 10 times, both by journalists and top

leaders,usuallyconnectedtotheword“transparency”(透明.)

Opennesswasalsodiscussedusingother terms. Inacommentarypublishedon

September 22nd, written by Renmin Ribao's Jiang Hongbing, headlined ”Scientific

development is of utmost urgency,” the author says that: ”Having gone from the

commonpractiseofformertimesofreportingonlypleasantnewstodaringtonotcover

upeverylargeandsmallscandalisasignificantimprovement.”165

SeeninlightofthehistoryofChinesegovernment’smediapolicyandtheroleof

the journalist, thiscaneasilybeagreedupon. Inhercommentarythemainaimwasto

urgefora”scientificdevelopment,”butsheobviouslysawopennessofgovernmentasa

prerequisite for that. Still, an independent role of the journalist or themediawasnot

takenintoaccountinthiskindofargument,andfreedomofspeechisnotatopic.

Ina report fromWen Jiabao'svisit to theU.S. onSeptember24th, his “informal

talk”withsixChinese languagenewscompany’schiefeditors inNewYorkwaspassed

on to the Renmin Ribao's readers. The editors acknowledged recent government

opennessininformation,thetimelinessandtransparencyandWenJiabaoanswered:

When it comes to openness in information, the important thing is openness in

governmentadministration.Theworkofthegovernmentmustbetransparent,itmustbe

carriedout insunlight.Except fromresponsibility, service, contributionandhonesty,a

government should not have any other special powers. In the end we support two

164Ibid.(Originaltext:“我们要对人民负责，就必须如实地把情况都向老百姓公开)165JiangHongbing姜泓冰:“Scientificdevelopmentisofutmosturgency”“科学发展迫在眉睫”,RenminRibao,September22,2008.(Originaltext:“从以往盛行的报喜不报忧，到敢于绝不隐瞒任何大灾小祸，已是不小的进步”)

43

principles. The first is safety of the people; the second is openness in information.

Openness in the administration must be systematic, and in practise continuously be

improved.166

InWen'stwoprinciplesreststhecrucialtensionbetweensafetyandopenness.Itseems,

however that the word ”safety”, that often has been seen in connection to the other

much used concepts ”social stability” or ”harmony”, conditions that may be used as

argumentsagainstopennessofinformation,throughthesescandalshadcomecloserto

beassociatedwiththeword”openness.”Ibelievethishadhappenedgradually,butthat

theexperiencewiththeSARSscandalmighthavebeenanimportantfactor.Thefactthat

bothWenJiabaoandthecommentatorsintheRenminRibaodiscussedthisconceptto

someextentmightimplythatithadbecomepoliticallyacceptedtoquestiongovernment

opennessinabroadersensethanbefore.

Myimpression,however,havingreadaboutSARSandespeciallythetaintedmilk

scandal, is that ”openness” was being closely linked to the concept of ”scientific

development,”anideographconstructedandfilledwithmeaningbytheParty itself. In

definingit,theRenminRibaojournalistsdidnotdifferfromtheParty.Theconceptwas

notbeinglinkedtodiscussionsoffreedomofexpressionorfreedomofthepressandnot

atalltothediscourseof”humanrights,”astheNanfangZhoumodidduringSARS.Itwas

ratherconnectedtothetaskofmakingamoreefficientgovernmentwithlocalofficials

moreloyaltothecentralgovernment,somethingthathadbeenamainfocusfortheHu‐

Wenadministrationsincetheytookofficein2003.

ThetaintedmilkscandalintheNanfangZhoumoIntheNanfangZhoumo,thefirstarticlestodirectlymentionthemilkscandalappeared

intheeditionpublishedonSeptember18th.ItsSeptember11theditiondidnotmention

thecase,buttheXinhuastorycameoutlatethatday,soitwasprobablynotintimefor

theprintingoftheweekly.

BetweenthelinesIntheSeptember18thedition,thepaperdidnotexceedtheXinhuaversioninitsnews

coverage,butratherprintedatimeline(fromSeptember11thtoSeptember17th)ofthe

scandal,squeezedintotheinnermargin,withallinformationtakenfromXinhua.Atthe

166LiShijia李诗佳,WangJiangang王建刚:“WenJiabaohadaninformaltalkwiththeleadersoflocalChineselanguagemediainAmerica”“温家宝与美当地华文媒体负责人座谈”,RenminRibao,September26,2008.(Originaltext:“信息公开重要的是政务公开。政府的工作必须透明，在阳光下进行。一个政府除了责任、服务、奉献和廉洁外，不应当有任何其他特权。我们始终坚持两条原

则，一是把人民群众生命安全放在第一位，二是实行信息公开。政务公开要制度化，并在实践中不断完善”)

44

bottomofthesamepage,thepaperprintedacommentaryheadlined”Howtomonitor

the safety of food products.”167The commentary focused on the effectiveness and

functionality of the American monitoring system for dairy products and other food

productsandtheresultinghighleveloftrustamongAmericanconsumerstowardsthese

industries.ItdidnotmentionthetaintedmilkscandalorSanlu,butwassomehowlinked

toitbythetimelinenexttoitandofcoursethesimilarityintopic.Itwasobviousthat

theNanfangZhoumosawitslimitationsinwhatitcouldwriteaboutthescandalwithout

gettingreprisalsatthispoint.Butagain,wenoticehowitmadeanattempttoindirectly

communicateitspointofviewandrelevantinformationtoitsreaders.

DiscipliningjournalistsInanothercommentary intheSeptember18th issue,oneof thepaper’scommentators,

XiaoShu,criticisedChinesemediaundertheheadline“Countlesspublicrelationsshow

the degeneration of media.”168He refreshed memory by telling that Sanlu only three

years ago had mysteriously disappeared from a list made by some media of dairy

companies connected to the “Big head baby scandal,” where babies had become

malnutritionedafterhavingbeingfedbadbabymilkformula.“Seeninthelightofthis,

what reallyhappenedshouldnotbehard to imagine,”XiaoShusaid,probablyhinting

thatSanluhaduseditsconnections(guanxi关系)togetoffthelist.Hethenwentonto

criticise theunhealthy conditions inChinesemedia, saying thatmediaactuallyhad its

share of responsibility in letting the Sanlu case happen, because it followed the

“unspoken rules” (qian guize潜规则) of connections and pay offs. “The media must

strive to break loose from the constraints of ‘unspoken rules’ and dare to report the

wholetruthtothepublic,”169heconcludedinanattempttodisciplinemediaitself.This

againatteststotheNanfangZhoumo'sstrongfocusnotonlyontheimportantroleofthe

media,butalso its responsibility.Without criticising the censors, it encouragedmedia

workerstobemoredaringandcarryouttheirimportantresponsibility.

NetizensasasourceFor the first time in my material, a blog post got considerable column space in the

September 25th issue. In the main article on the scandal that day, headlined “Li

167YangXiaohui杨小卉:”Howtomonitorthesafetyoffoodproducts”“安全食品的监管之道”,NanfangZhoumo,September18,2008.168XiaoXun笑蜀:“Countlesspublicrelationsshowthedegenerationofmedia”“无量公关凸显媒体病变”,NanfangZhoumo,September18,2008.169Ibid.(Originaltext:“媒体必须从潜规则的制约下挣脱出来，敢于向公众报道一切”)

45

Zhangjiang resigns, onemore step forward,”170thepaper referred retrospectively to a

blogpostwherelawyerZhouZehadaskedtheAQSIQdirectortoresigntwodaysbefore

hedid.Hehadarguedinhisblogthatafteranepisodewheremelaminewasfoundinpet

food exported to the U.S. in March 2007, the AQSIQ had urgently facilitated sample

testingofthischemicalinotherproducts,suchasinfantformulaandliquidproducts,but

nothing had been found. In 2008, it was the MOH that found melamine in domestic

products. The paper said that “according to our understanding,” the AQSIQ after this

eventputmelamineonthelistofwhattotestexportproductsfor.“TheAQSIQletgoofa

goodopportunityhere,” theheadof theAgriculturalUniversityofChina’sdepartment

forfoodstudiescommented,followingupZhou’spoint.

I found few references to blog posts or comments posted on the web in my

material,but Ibelievewhat I foundmayreflect the trend to someextent. InmySARS

material in Nanfang Zhoumo's first issue, it was said that people were getting

information fromthe Internetabout theepidemic.Somewebpageswerealsousedas

sources. As we see, during the tainted milk scandal, the Nanfang Zhoumo quoted a

lawyerwhothroughhisbloghadraisedcritiqueagainstthecontrolsystemforfood.He

wasonlyonecriticalvoice,buthisroleasalawyerlenthimsomeauthority.

In theRenminRibao, I foundonereference to thenetizens,but there thevoice

was that of “the public” used in a way not too different from how the Party would

traditionallytalkabout“thepeople,”thegroupitclaimstorepresent.

Thestormofaccountability(问责风暴)In the above‐mentioned story, the Nanfang Zhoumo looked closer at the role and

responsibility of the resigned director of the AQSIQ. The story’s under‐headline read,

“HewasthespokesmanforfoodsafetyinChina.Thedepartmentheledwas1.3billion

people’sassuranceforsafe food.OnSeptember22nd,hetooktheblameandresigned.”

Onhislastpressconferencebeforethat,hehadassuredthathewouldseverelyhandle

thepeopleinvolvedthathadneglectedtheirdutyoractedagainstthelaw.Atthesame

press conference, the paper continued, he was asked why the AQSIQ had not found

melamineinmilkproductsearlier.Thedirectoransweredthatthischemicalwasnoton

anyChineseorinternationallistofchemicalstotestforinbabymilkformula.Thiswas

questionedinlawyerZhouZe'sblog,asoutlinedabove.Further,thepaperreportedthat

already by June,worried reports from a parent and a doctor had been posted to the170SuYongtong苏永通,MaChangbo马昌博:“LiZhangjiangresigns,onemorestepforward”“李长江辞职，下一步……”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.

46

AQSIQ'swebpage(thathadnowdisappeared),somethingthataddedto thesensethat

theAQSIQshouldhaveknownabouttheproblemsatanearliertime.Hence,thepaper

concluded that even though the local governmentdidnot report it, theAQSIQhad its

partoftheresponsibilityforthescandal.171

Like the Renmin Ribao, theNanfang Zhoumomentions themudslide in Shanxi

andthatthecity’smayorhadsteppeddown.IncontrasttotheRenminRibao,however,

the paper reminds its readers that the mayor, Zhang Wengkang, had also left a top

leaderpostbefore–as theMinisterofHealthduringSARS.Bymerelypointing to this

fact, theNanfangZhoumo illuminatedhow thepracticeof “request for accountability”

didnotnecessarilymean theendof thecareerofa toppolitician.At thesametime, it

highlighted that itwasworth remembering the fact that a party secretary, the one of

Shijiazhuang city, had been removed from his party post. “That a full‐time party

committeeleaderisbeingheldaccountableisstillararity,172”thecommentatornoted.

Attheendofthearticle,thepaperinformedthatLiwouldkeephismembershipofthe

CentralCommitteeoftheCommunistParty.

InasmallcommentaryonSeptember25th,aNanfangZhoumoreporterdiscussed

whathecalledtherecent“Stormofaccountability”(wenzefengbao问责风暴,)arguing

thatawellrungovernmentwouldnothavethiskindofstorm,asitwasonlyduetoan

accumulation of problems and that itmainly served to appeal to the “publicmorale.”

(minxinshiqi民心士气)173Intheend,hesaid,itwasastrategythat“mendsthefoldafter

thesheepislost”(wangyangbulao亡羊补牢.)

Coveringthemilkscandal,theNanfangZhoumo,liketheRenminRibao,discussed

severalaspectsof responsibilityandgovernmentaccountability.But it alsopointed to

overlappingrolesandrelationshipsandbroughthistoricaleventsintolighttospecifyits

critique.This investigativeattitudewasquitedifferent fromthedebate in theRenmin

Ribao, which mainly focused on where to go next. We saw that the Renmin Ribao

journalist wrote in the article ”Respect the popular will’s request for accountability,”

that thepublic felt at easenow that the “stormof accountability” had swept over the

country.TheNanfangZhoumocommentatordidnotseemtohavethesameeaseofmind,

171Ibid.172Ibid.(originaltext:”党委正职领导被问责，尚属罕见”)173NanfangZhoumo:“Awellrungovernmentshouldnothavestormsofaccountability”“善治政府不该有问责风暴”,September25,2008.

47

arguing that it mainly appealed to public morale, and that the problem was a

governmentruninanunhealthyway,ratherthanitsindividuals.

QuestionsoflegalityandlawyersasasourceWhen the Nanfang Zhoumo picked up the debate of the “China famous brand” and

“Nationalexemptfrommonitoringproducts”practices,itfocusedonthelegaldimension.

On September 25th, the paper printed an article where three controversial

aspects of the selection process (pingxuan san da zhengyi评选三大争议) of these

productswerepointedout.ThestorywasbasedonaletterthatlawyerZhouZehadsent

the AQSIQ in the beginning of September. The three questions he viewed as

controversialwere:Whetherthepractisewasagainst the law.Whetherthecommittee

was against the law and whether the practise was reliable.174The vice director of

AQSIQ'squalitydepartmentrefutedall thosecriticisms inan interviewwiththepaper

conductedonSeptember10th.Afterthepracticehadeventuallybeenabolished,thevice

directorsaidtothepaperthattheAQSIQwasnolongerallowedtodirectlyparticipatein

the election of the winner. He then commented upon media’s role: “There are also

problems with the “Famous Chinese Brand products,” and media should reveal the

negativesides.Thisisundisputable,(media)shouldalsohelptosolvetheproblem.”175

OnOctober2nd,the2008U.S.electionwasfeaturedonthefrontpage,butthere

was a reference to the article “The tainted baby milk formula case calls for a

compensation package”176in the margin. In spite of the headline that referred to a

collectivelynegotiatedcompensationpackagetothevictims,thefocusofthearticlewas

onavoluntarylawyers’groupwhoprovidedlegalaidtovictimsprobono.LiFangping,

one of the founders of this group, said concerns about poor people had been the

motivation for the group to be formed. Although the government had promised to

compensatethecostsofmedicaltreatment,onefamilyhadalreadyfiledacivil lawsuit

againstSanlu,hopingtospeeduptheprocessofcompensation.Inthearticle,different

aspectsofsuchanapproachwerediscussed,andtowardsthebottomofthestoryitwas

added that many lawyers and legal scholars believed that a collectively negotiated

compensationpackagewouldbemostsuitableinthiscase.177

174SuYongtong苏永通,XueTian薛田:“Threecontroversialaspectsoftheselectionof“Chinafamousbrand””““中国名牌”评选三大争议”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.175SuYongtong苏永通,XueTian薛田:“HowtodealwithqualityproblemsofFamousbrandproducts”“名牌展品出现质量问题怎么办”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.176DingBuzhi丁补之,ZhaoLei赵蕾,WuYao吴瑶:“Thetaintedbabymilkformulacasecallsforacompensationpackage”“毒奶粉事件呼唤一揽子赔偿方案”,NanfangZhoumo,September2,2008.177Ibid.

48

The volunteer lawyers’ group was not mentioned in the Renmin Ribao in my

material, although it may have appeared later. Lawyers organising outside official

controllikethisisasensitiveissueinChina178.Byinformingaboutsuchadevelopment,

theNanfang Zhoumoprovided useful information to the people despite running risks

withthecensors.

Theindustryandthe“lawofthejungle”OnOctober9th, themilk scandalhad for the first timegottenhalfof the frontpage.A

photo of a farmer and amilk cow,with a dramatic looking heaven behind them and

farmhousesonbothsides,followedthefeaturingstory.Theheadlinewas“TheChinese

dairyindustry:Fromeightgoldenyearstoacompletemess.”179Intheissue,thereader

gottoknowthestoryofthedairy industry inChinathroughseveralarticles.Welearn

thatinthegoldenperiodinthefirstpartofthetwenty‐firstcentury,farmersearned4‐

5000yuanpercowayear,butby2008theannualincomepercowhadfallento1‐2000

yuan,asaresultof,amongotherthings,fiercecompetitionbetweenthebrands.

Thearticlesinthisissueexploredthebackgroundforthechaoticsituationinthe

dairy industry, especially among themilk salesmen (nai fanzi奶贩子) ormiddlemen,

whosemarketwasdescribedashavinga “strong lawof the jungle flavour.”180Sources

with direct experience from the market explained how it had evolved and several

interestorgans fromthe industry talkedabout theproblems. Inan interviewwith the

paper, the leader of the Guangdong food industry committee, Zhang Junxiu, directed

strongcritiqueagainstasystemwherehesaidthatgovernmentdepartmentshadmade

the supervision organs of the industry into “moneymaking sons.” “The profit

relationshipbetweengovernmentandindustryshouldbeembodiedintaxcollecting,”181

he said, referring to how the industry had to pay these organs to be “exempt from

monitoringbrands”andthatthishadcreateda“chainofprofit”(liyidai利益带.)

TheRenminRibaoreportedearlyWenJiabao'sconclusionthatthemilkscandal

wasaresultofachaoticdairymarket.TheNanfangZhoumosent its journalistsout in

178Reportssaidthatseveralofthelawyerswerepressuredorthreatenedbylocalofficialstogiveuptheirwork,forexamplethisinTheTelegraph,September28,2008:“Chinamilkscandallawyersthreatened”.179HeFeng禾风,JiaSiyu贾恩玉:“Chinesemilkindustry:Fromeightgoldenyearstoacompletemess””中国奶业:黄金八年,一地鸡毛”,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.180XuNan徐楠:“Revisitingachaoticscene:‘milkblenders’,connectionsandstupidcows””乱象回溯:“调奶人”,“关系奶”和“傻子牛””,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.(Originaltext:带着浓厚的丛林法则意味)181ZhangJunXiu张俊修,MengDengKe孟登科,WangXia王霞:“Thegovernmentshouldnotmakesupervisingunitsinto“moneymakingsons””“政府部门不能把检测单位变成收钱的”儿子””,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.(Originaltext:政府跟企业之间的利益应该是通过税收来体现的”)

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thefieldtoinvestigatetheconditionsonthegroundandwasthereforeabletoconcretise

theproblems.

ThecaseofSouthKoreaHaving examined the discourses in official and liberal media in China about the two

biggestpublichealthcrisesinthecountryinthereformperiod,Iwillturnbrieflytolook

athowasimilarnationalcrisiswashandledbymediainSouthKoreain2005–2006.

SouthKoreanmedia Although South Koreanmedia structure was based onWesternmodels and theories,

particularly the Anglo‐American free pressmodel,182ParkMyung‐jin, Kim Chang‐nam

andSohnByung‐wooshowhowthemediaindustryinSouthKoreahasdevelopedunder

strongguidanceofthestate.Fromthe60sthemediabecameanimportanttoolforthe

governmentinitstaskofachievingrapidindustrialisationandmodernisationafterthe

KoreanWar. Media therefore owedmuch of its growth and wealth to the protective

policies and preferential treatment from government. The result was an established

media withmainly conservative ideological leanings and a lack of diversity in public

discourse. In recent years, however, the state’spowerovermediahasdecreasedwith

theincreasingdependencyofmediacompaniesonincomefromadvertisements.183

Atthesametime,theauthorsremarkhowtheemergenceofprogressivemedia,

suchastheHankyorehdaily,represented“evidenceofdemocratisationtakingplace in

Koreansocietyandchangesinthepowerstructure.”184TheHankyorehwasestablished

in1988by journalistswhohad lost their jobs in the largeconservativepapersdue to

their roles in promoting freedom of the press and democracy under the military

dictatorship. Unlike most Korean papers, that are owned by a family or business

conglomerate, theownersoftheHankyorehare62,000shareholdersfromallwalksof

life in Korea.185In the example below we will see how a TV‐program aired on an

independent TV‐channel sent shock waves through Korean politicians, scientists and

evenrockednationalidentity.

ProfessionalethicsunderpressureHwang Woo‐suk and his research team at Seoul National University (SNU) brought

national honour to Korea when they claimed to have successfully produced patient‐

182ParkandSohninCurranandPark2000:121.183Ibid2000:120f. 184Ibid.185TheHankyorehwebsite.

50

specificstemcellsinthelaboratory.186Thegroundbreakingresearch,acknowledgedby

two articles in Science, a renowned international science journal, could someday give

insightintomanyhereditaryconditionsandevencreatereplacementtissuesgenetically

matched to patients. For these achievements, Hwang gained full support from the

governmentand,aswewillseebelow,fromabroadpartoftheKoreanpressandpublic.

Itwasthereforeadevastatingblowtonationalpridewhentheinvestigativenews

program PD Notebook, aired by Seoul‐based Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. (MBC), on

October22ndreportedthatdonorshadbeenpaidforeggsusedinresearch,thatjunior

labmemberswereamongthedonorsandthatHwanghadliedaboutthesourcesofthe

egg cells in the Science paper. This was regarded as a violation against international

research ethics. Two days later Hwang admitted having lied about the sources and

resignedfromanewlyappointeddirectorpositionattheStemCellHub.

In the first program theMBC did not, however, reveal that they had evidence

showingthattheresultsofHwang'sresearchpublishedinSciencein2005wasactually

fakedwiththehelpofamanipulatedphoto.MisinformedbythejournaliststhatKorean

prosecutors had already begun an investigation, a former colleague of Hwang had

admittedthefraudandshowedthereportershowhehadmanipulatedthephotos.The

reporterssecretlyfilmedtheinterview.OnDecember2nd,thetopproducersannounced

onapressconferencethatthereportquestioningtheauthenticityofHwang'sworkwas

yet to come. Realising he had been tricked by the journalists to tell his story, the

whistleblowertoldanotherTVprogramthatPDNotebookhadcoercedhimintogiving

theinfo,therebybreakingprofessionaljournalisticethics.

PublicoutrageandadpulloutsConsideredbymanytobetheworld’sleadingscientistinthefieldofstemcellresearch,

Hwanghadbecomeanationalheroandtheaudiencesupportedhimstronglyevenafter

he had admitted his violations towards research ethics. Over 20 000 commentswere

posted on the MBC's bulletin boards and reporters received threats from Hwang‐

supporters.187Hundredsofwomenalsovolunteeredtodonateeggsforresearch.When

11 firms pulled advertising from the newsmagazine, theMBC decided not to air the

segmentcoveringquestionsabouttheSciencepaper.

ChoonKeyChekarandJennyKitzingerhaveobservedhowKoreanmediain2004

actively promoted a nationalist framing ofHwang'swork, under headlines such as “A186Sciencewebsite,January2006:“HowYoungKoreanResearchersHelpedUnearthaScandal...”(newssection).187NewsGuangdong,December2,2005:“DisgracedStemCellPioneerSeenAsaHero”.

51

great Korean achievement,”188how they advocatedmore financial support and asked

the people to “render its unsparing trust and support' to Hwang's enterprise.”189The

authors remark that “suchwas thedegreeof nationalistic investment in the stem cell

researchenterprisethatanycriticalquestioningseemedunpatriotic.”

The quest to become number one in stem cell research was also seen as

important for the Korean economy, as there were great expectations that Hwang's

discoveriescouldbecommercialisedresultingina“bio‐medicalboom.”Thisisalsopart

oftheexplanationforthepro‐businessconservativemedia’sapproach.

Conservativemedia’sreactionsAfter the first investigative report by the MBC, conservative media showed strong

support for Hwang and spent considerable column space criticising MBC for its

aggressivereportingmethods.Whena journalist fromtheconservativeChosun Ilbo,a

newspaperdescribedas“pro‐capitalandrightwinged,”190gotaninterviewwithHwang

after he had escaped publicity in December 2005, he described the professor in a

sympathetictone:

ThefamiliarvoicesoundedfaintoverthecellphoneonMondaymorning,witharingof

weariness from too much happening too fast. But Prof. Hwang Woo‐suk has been

through much in recent weeks: he has been hounded by investigative reporters,

apologized for ethical lapses as he pushed aheadwith ground‐breaking research, and

quitallhisofficialposts.191

Inmanyofitsnewsstories,thewordingportrayedthescientistas“clean”andtheMBC's

reportingmethodsas“dirty”:

Korea’s broadcasting watchdog could punishMBC's investigative program “PD Diary”over alleged strong‐arm tactics indigging thedirt on cloningpioneerHwangWoo‐suk

andhisteam.

Althoughthejournalists’methodswerequestionable,theimpressionwasthatnational

pride andpopularopinion shouldgobefore critical investigation.PresidentRohMoo‐

hyunshowedhisconcernaboutthesituationinapostontheofficialwebsite:"Protest

messagesandphonecallscanbemade,butcancellingadvertisingshowedthingswent

toofarandasocialclimatethatdoesnottoleratecriticismhasbeencreated."192

188JoongAngIlbo,February13,2004,inChekarandKitzinger2007.189KoreaHerald,February16,2004,inChekarandKitzinger2007.190ChekarandKitzinger2007.191TheChosunIlbo,December5,2005:“CloningPioneer‘JustWantedtoLeaveitAllBehind’”.192NewsGuangdong,December2,2005:“DisgracedStemCellPioneerSeenAsaHero”.

52

OnDecember12th,SNUsaiditwouldstartaninvestigation,andthreedayslater

the MBC broadcasted the interview with the former colleague that claimed he had

doctored the photos. On December 29th, the university determined that all of the 11

stemcelllineswerefabricated.

In theaftermath, thediscourseofnationalpridewas turned intoadiscourseof

national shameand traumaand thevirtuesof “Koreanqualities”, suchas “thehungry

spirit”, previously praised as essential to Korean achievements and manifested in

Hwangandhisenterprise,weredebated193.

MarketforcesandnationalismIn Korea, popular outcry and a powerful conservative pro‐businessmedia playing on

nationalistsentimentsalmosthinderedseriousresearchfraudfrombeingbroughtinto

daylight.Butwhennationalistsentimentsgotoutofhand,eventhePresident,whohad

investedmuchconfidenceandmoneyinHwang,steppedforwardtoprotectvaluesofa

healthypublicdebate.FortheliberalRoh,withabackgroundasalabourlawyer,itwas

probablyaquitenaturalsteptotakeafterall.HistragicsuicideinMay2009,aresultof

the intense pressure the incoming government of LeeMyung‐bak put on him and his

supporters,194may serve as another example to illustrate the difficulties of being a

liberalvoiceinacountrywheretheconservativeforcesareasmassiveasinKorea.

In the end, the independent progressive media was able to disclose the

hollownessofsomeofKorea’s“scientificachievements.”Thefraudituncoveredwasofa

dimensionneithertheconservativemedianorthegovernmentcouldaffordtocoverup.

Concludingnotes

In this thesis, I have examinedhow twoChinese newspapers covered the two largest

publichealthcrises in thereform‐era. InaHabermasianspirit Ihavetriedtoconsider

the characteristics and the condition of the Chinese public sphere by looking at its

institutionalframework,theparticipants’statuses,whichtopicswerediscussedandthe

inclusiveness of thedebates. I have also closely examined the language in the articles

andusageofparticularterms.

I have showedhow the persistence of traditional institutional arrangements of

themediaensurethattheparty‐statestillhasmuchcontrolofpublicdiscourseontopics

193ChekarandKitzinger2007.194Suh2010

53

of public interest, such as politics. Yet, market reform and the emergence of

investigating journalism inpapers suchasNanfangZhoumohave led toawideningof

thetopicstobediscussedwithinthelimitsofcensorship.

Duringthemilkscandal,theofficialpartypaperRenminRibaoairedmorevoices

anddiscussedmoretopicswithawidersetsofopinionsthanitdidduringSARS.Still,the

extensiveuseofunchallenged ideographswereserioushinders forarationaldebate. I

have showed how the word ”science” and later the concept ”scientific development”

wereutilised in severalways in order to give legitimacy to theParty and the current

leadership, but without being clearly defined. It seems, however, that pointing out

responsibilities and underliningmeasures taken, such as removing people from their

jobsorstrippingthemofpartyposts,weresomewhatmoreacceptablein2008.

Both in2003and2008, theconsumersasagroupgotaspecialattention inthe

Renmin Ribao, and in 2008 violations against the consumers set off critique towards

severalaspectsofthecurrentsystembyitscommentingjournalists.

Thatbeingsaid,accesstothedebateintheRenminRibaowaslargelylimitedto

officialsources.Ihaveshownhowforeigngovernmentsandinternationalorganisations,

suchastheWHO,werequoted,but inastronglyselectiveway.Thesamewastruefor

foreignmedia, whichwas usually brought in as proof either of hostile foreign actors

attackingChinaorassupportingfriends.MostofthenationalistsentimentsIidentified

werepropelledbyarticlesinforeignmedia,includingTaiwanesepapers.

In the Nanfang Zhoumo, amuchwider range of voiceswere included, such as

poorpeasants or ”people in the street.”The journalists themselvesbecame important

witnessesthroughvividreportsbasedontheirownobservationsinthefield.Sensitive

topicswerediscussedandnewconnectionsbrought intothelight inacriticalmanner.

Thepaperwasobviouslyrestrictedbycensorship,butinrestrictiveperiodsitreported

about the events between the lines. At the same time, the Nanfang Zhoumo actively

advocatedformoregovernmentopenness,amoreresponsiblemediaand,althoughina

lessdirectmanner,morefreedomofthepress.

InHabermas’s theory, the ideal public sphere is onewhere citizens are able to

influence rulers through the power of the best argument. The extent to which the

debates in theNanfang Zhoumo or other liberal papers are able to do this is hard to

measure. I havenevertheless shown thatwhen information thatmight hurt theParty

anditspositionwerebroughtintotheopenitwashardforthePartytosimplyignoreit.

54

At the same time, it is not given that the liberal views expressed in Nanfang

Zhoumo find resonancewith the population at large and their perceptions ofwhat is

best for them and their country. Nationalism and patriotism are strongly rooted

sentimentsthatshouldnotbeignored.Norshouldthefactthatjournalistswithastrictly

“professionalist” approach to their role belong to the rarities, even though an

investigative culture has emerged in some papers the recent years. Not only is their

traditional role tosupport theParty,most journalistsalsobelong to theurbanmiddle

class that has gained from the market reforms and the economical growth the later

years.ThismayserveasanadditionalexplanationtowhythePartystillisabletomainly

controlthepressthroughthemosteffectiveway–self‐censorship.

So,whateffectdidthoseparticularscandalsandthereportingonthemhaveon

theclimateof thepublicsphere inChina?First, IbelievethatSARSwasaseriouseye‐

openerforthenewleadershipinBeijing,showingthatitstraditionalapproachto”risk

communication,” that put political stability before access to information, no longer

served the Party’s interest as well as it had during the Mao‐years. By declaring a

situationofcrisis,however,thecentral leadershipweregiventheopportunitytomore

effectively make local and provincial governments implement otherwise unpopular

policies. Secondly, the taintedmilk scandalmade food safety into a politically correct

topic to discuss, and journalistswere given the task tomake sure similar caseswere

revealed. I believe this is closely connected to the fact that the group affected by

contaminated food are not just ordinary people, but also consumers, and consumers

haveaspecialpositioninasocietywherethelegitimacyoftherulingpartylargelyrests

upon itsability tosustaineconomicgrowth.Thirdly, Ihaveobservedhowadiscourse

of”openness,”thatwasthedomainoftheNanfangZhoumoin2008,hadmovedintothe

columns of Renmin Ribao and into the speeches of the top leaders in Beijing.

The”openness”of theofficialdiscoursedidnot,however,refertoanykindofpolitical

reform in thedirectionofa freepressor freedomofexpression,but rather toamore

efficientgovernment.

Inthesensethata largervarietyoftopicshavebeenopenedfordiscussionand

inquiry,thescandalscanbesaidtohavebroughtastrengtheningofthepublicspherein

China. At the same time, amore proactive and humble central government that talks

aboutopennessandaccountabilitymayhavestrengthenedthelegitimacyandpowerof

theParty,whichdonothavepoliticalreformsonitsagendaforthetimebeing.

55

Finally, the example from South Korea shows that wide and inclusive public

debatemayalsobeunderpressureinademocraticcountrywherefreedomofthepress

isinstitutionalised.

InSouthKorea,itwasnotstatecensorship,butstrongpressurefromcommercial

interestsandthedominatingnationalistideologythat,throughapowerfulconservative

press, endangered an inclusive public sphere and almost led to silencing the critique

againstthecheatingscientist.Still,theexistenceofindependentactorslikePDNotebook,

thatwereabletostanduptothedominantpowers,madesuretheaccusationsoffraud

eventuallywonthrough.

In China, state censorship put restrictions on the work of the press when

covering the scandals, as shown in this paper.But commercialisation andnationalism

havealsohadimpactonthepublicsphereinChina.Manyhavearguedforthepositive

effectscommercialisationofChinesemediahashadonthediversityandinclusivenessof

thepublicsphere.Owners(usuallylocalgovernments)andjournalistshavebothgotten

new roles and incentive patterns that in turn have brought about more liberal

publicationsandinvestigativejournalism.

Nationalism is a strongly rooted sentiment in China aswell, that affectsmedia

discourseandthusthepublicsphere.Itcanbeplayedupontorallysupportandunity,

but at the same time, thegovernmentneeds to curbpopularoutburstsofnationalism

thatmayhurtChina’simageabroadorthepositionoftheleadershipathome.

56

Tables

Table1:SourcesusedinthetwopaperswhencoveringtheSARSoutbreak

Category Renmin Percent Nanfang Percent Centralgovernment(WenJiabao,Statecouncil,departmentsetc.) 70 20.2% 4 7.4%Localgovernments(provinceandcity,incl.HongKongandTaiwan) 35 10.1% 7 13.0%ChinaspresidentandPartyleader,HuJintao,Politburo 7 2.0% 1 1.9%TheCentreforDiseaseControlandPrevention(CDC) 18 5.2% 1 1.9%Hospitaladministration/leadership 23 6.6% 4 7.4%Experts(scholars/psychologists/expertsonChinesemedicineetc.) 20 5.8% 5 9.3%Medicaldoctors 12 3.5% 2 3.7%Nurses 13 3.8% Recoveredpatients 11 3.2% Patient'srelatives 2 0.6% Relativesofhealthpersonnel 5 1.4% Commonpeople/peopleonthestreet 4 1.2% 17 31.5%Chineseorganisations 1 0.3% Chinesecompanies 2 0.6% 4 7.4%OtherChinesemedias 7 2.0% 4 7.4%WorldHealthOrganisation 27 7.8% 1 1.9%Foreigngovernments(incl.diplomaticenvoys) 33 9.5% Foreigncompanies 2 0.6% Foreignorganisations(incl.HongKongbased) 4 1.2% Foreignresearchinstitutes 4 1.2% Foreignnewspapers+foreignjournalistsquestionsatpressconferences(incl.HongKong) 28 8.1% Commentariesbythepapersjournalists(orarticleswithastrongcommentingcharacter) 14 4.0% 2 3.7%Commentariesfromexternalactors(incl.Xinhua) 4 1.2% 2 3.7% Totalnumberofsourcesperpaper/100% 346 100.0% 54 100.0% Total Perart. Total Perart.Totalnumberofarticlesperpaper/Numberofsourcesperarticle: 220 1.57 16 3.38

57

Table2:Sourcesusedinthetwopaperswhencoveringthetaintedmilkscandal

Category RenminPercent Nanfang

Percent

Centralgovernment(WenJiabao,Statecouncil,departmentsetc.) 46 32.6% 3 5.8%Localgovernments(provinceandcity,incl.HongKongandTaiwan) 29 20.6% 1 1.9%

AQSIQ 15 10.6% 5 9.6%

Internalcontrolactors 1 0.7% 1 1.9%

Hospitaladministration/leadership 2 1.4% Experts(scholars/psychologists/expertsonChinesemedicineetc.) 7 5.0% 7 13.5%

Lawyers 4 7.7%

Healthpersonnel 2 1.4%

Patient’srelatives 1 0.7% 1 1.9%

Shopstaff 2 1.4%

Commonpeople,peopleonthestreet,customer 4 2.8% Chineseorganisationsincl.interestgroupsandprovisionalassociations 9 6.4% 9 17.3%Chinesecompanies,dairyproducers,milkstations,dairyfarmers 10 7.1% 11 21.2%

OtherChinesemedias 1 0.7% 2 3.8%

WorldHealthOrganisation 1 0.7%

Foreignmedia(incl.HongKong) 1 0.7%

Commentariesbythepapersjournalists(orarticleswithastrongcommentingcharacter) 10 7.1% 7 13.5%

Commentariesfromexternalactors(incl.Xinhua) 1 1.9%

Totalnumberofsourcesperpaper/100% 141 100.0% 52 100.0%

Total Perart. Total Perart.Totalnumberofarticlesperpaper/Numberofsourcesperarticle: 98 1.44 18 2.89

59

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Sciencewebsite,January2006:“HowYoungKoreanResearchersHelpedUnearthaScandal...”(newssection):http://www.sciencemag.org/content/311/5757/22.full(AccessedMay16,2011).Sæther,Elin,2008:RadiolectureatP2‐akademiet,NorwegianBroadcasting(NRK):“MediaspolitiskerolleiKina”(http://www.nrk.no/nett‐tv/klipp/394766/)(AccessedMay11,2011).TheChosunIlbo,December5,2005:“CloningPioneer‘JustWantedtoLeaveitAllBehind’”:http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/12/05/2005120561021.html(AccessedMay16,2011).TheHankyorehwebsite:http://www.hani.co.kr/english/editorials_intro.html(AccessedonNovember15).TheTelegraph,September28,2008:“Chinamilkscandallawyersthreatened”:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3096660/China‐milk‐scandal‐lawyers‐threatened.html(AccessedMay13,2011).WHO’sofficialhomepage:http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/infosan_events/en/index.html(AccessedMay11,2011).ArticlesfromtheRenminRibao:2003:RenminRibao:“Leanonscienceandfirmlykeepconfidence”“依靠科学坚定信心”,April24,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:”Atypicalpneumonia–expertssaythataslongastherightkindofpreventionisexercisedthereisnoneedtobeafraid”“广东省部分地区出现非典型肺炎专家指出只要预防得当不必恐慌”February12,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheSARSinGuangdongisalreadybroughtundereffectivecontrol,mostsickenedhaverecoveredandlefthospital”“广东非典型肺炎已得到有效控制大部分病人痊愈出院”,February15,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“ThecauseofSARSisbasicallydetermined,theuseoftargetedantibioticsisveryeffective”“广东非典型肺炎病因基本确定采用针对性强的抗生素治疗非常有效”,February19,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheMinisterofHealth,ZhangWenkang,isansweringjournalists’questionsaboutSARS”“卫生部部长张文康关于防治非典型肺炎答记者问”,April3,2003.

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BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“ZhangWenkangdeclaredataStateCouncilpress‐conferencethatitissafetoliveandtravelinChina”“张文康在国务院新闻发布会上宣布,在中国生活旅游是安全的”,RenminRibao,April4,2003.GongWen龚雯:“TheresponsiblepersonattheNationaltravelbureauexpressed,whenexternallyinformingaboutthetravelsituation,thatitisassuredthatitiscompletelysafeandhealthytotraveltoanyplaceinChina”“国家旅游局负责人对外通报旅游情况表示中国各地的旅游安全和健康完全有保证”,RenminRibao,April4,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“OnaninvestigationandresearchvisitattheCDC,WuYiemphasisthatitisneededtobuildandimprovetheresponseandhandlingsystemforsuddenlyemergingpublichealthcases”“吴仪在中国疾病预防控制中心调研时强调要抓紧建立和完善突发公共卫生事件应急处理机制”,April5,2003.BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“People’shealthisofutmostimportance–anevaluationofmycountry’sworktopreventandcureSARS”“人民健康重于泰山—我国非典型肺炎防治述评”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.WuJia武侠:“HowtopreventandcureSARSaccordingtolaw?”“防治非典如何依法办事?”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“ThecentralgovernmentfocusonSARSinTaiwan”“中央政府关注台湾非典型肺炎”RenminRibao,April4,2003.LiaoLei廖雷,ZhangYong张勇:“ArepresentativefromtheWHOsaystheWHO’sstandontheTaiwanproblemiscompletelyclear”“世卫组织代表说,世卫组织在台湾问题上的立场一直是明确的”,RenminRibao,April24,2003.RenGuoping任国平:“Speculationswithevilintentionsdonothelpthesituation”“恶意炒作于事无补”,RenminRibao,April17,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“MayorsofthreeAmericancitieswenttheir“Chinatown’s”todine”“美三城市市长到“唐人街”用餐”,April18,2003.BaiJianFeng白剑峰:“Howtotreatatypicalpneumonia–theMinistryofHealthannouncesrecommendedmethod”“非典型肺炎如何治疗卫生部公布推荐方案”,RenminRibao,April7,2003.ZongHuanping宗焕平,WangSihai王思海:“Morethan200sickenedhasrecoveredandlefthospitalinBeijingandHongKong”“京港二百多位“非典”患者康复出院”,RenminRibao,April14,2003.YuShujun王淑军:“SpecialistsbriefaboutpreventingandcuringofSARS–don’tmisuseChinesemedicine,boilinaproperway”“专家提示预防非典—中药勿滥服煎服应得法”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.

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XuJinzhang胥金章,HuangXianbin黄献斌:“ToguardagainstSARSoneshouldfollowthe“fourdiligent”“防范非典要做到“四勤三好””,RenminRibao,April19,2003.LiuTaishan刘泰山,MaoHaowen冒浩文:“HowtoeffectivelypreventSARSinthecommunity?”“社区怎样有效防非典?”,RenminRibao,April22,2003.HuYonghua胡永华:“Humanityhavethepowertoconquerallkindsofinfectiousdiseases”“人类有能力征服各种传染病”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.ZhuYu朱玉,ZhangJingyong张景勇:“WhydosomeSARSpatientsdieatonce,whilemostcompletelyrecover?”“为何有的非典患者很快死亡而大多数人能痊愈?”,RenminRibao,April20,2003.MinistryofHealthinRenminRibao:“TheMinistryofHealthrequestastrengtheningoftheorganisingoftheresearchworktofindthecauseofSARS,scientistsfromaroundtheworldisintensifyingitsresearchonthecauseofSARS”“卫生部要求加强非典型肺炎病原学研究的管理，世界各国科学家正加紧研究非典型肺炎的病原”,April14,2003.LiuSiyang刘思扬:“WhenHuJintaowasonaninspectiontriptotheAcademyofMilitaryMedicalSciencesandtheChineseAcademyofSciencesheencouragedtheresearcherstocarryforwardthespiritofpatriotismandinaspiritofbenefitingthepeoplemakeuseofscientificstrengthtowinoverSARS”“胡锦涛考察军事医学科学院和中科院时勉励科研人员发扬爱国奉献勇攀高峰为民造福精神运用科学力量战胜非典型肺炎疫情”,RenminRibao,April21,2003.WangShujun王淑军:“NoneedtobeafraidofSARSaslongasoneproperlypreventsandtreats”“非典型肺炎做好防治不足惧”,RenminRibao,April4th,2003.LuoChunhua罗春华:“SARSwillbesubduedoneday”“降服非典会有时”,RenminRibao,April24,2003.BaiJianfeng白剑峰:“TheCommunistPartyisatforefront–afrontlinereportfromthepreventionandcuringofSARSworkattheSino‐JapaneseFriendshipHospital”“共产党员冲在最前面—来自中日友好医院防治非典一线的报告”,RenminRibao,April21,2003.GongWen龚雯:“岂容借疫情发“黑心财”“Howcanwetoleratethattheepidemicsituationisusedtomakemoneyinasinisterway”,RenminRibao,April18,2003.(Originaltext:“对破坏市场秩序的“黑心”经营者，依法处治，决不手软”)ZhuJianhong朱剑红:“TheNationalCommitteeofDevelopmentandReformstartsaspecialinvestigationintopricesofmedicinesandrelatedproducts”“国家发展和改革委员会—开展非典药品和相关商品价格专项检查”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.ZhangXiaosong张晓松:WhenbuyingandtakingChinesemedicine,oneshouldreadtheinstructionindetail–donotreadilyplacetrustin“miracledrugs”forpreventingSARS”“购买服用中药应细读说明书莫轻信预防非典“特效药”,RenminRibao,April23,2003.

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LiuTaishan刘泰山,MaoHaowen冒浩文:“Handlewithacoolhead,makepersistentefforts,fulfilassignedtasks,don’tshouldertooheavytasks,GuangdongisinfullforcecarryingouttheSARSpreventionandcuringwork””沉着应对再接再厉不辱使命不负重托广东全力以赴做好非典型肺炎防治工作”,RenminRibao,April19,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“TheStateCouncilpressofficeiscarryingoutapressconference–deputyministerofthestandingcommitteeoftheMinistryofHealth,GaoQiangetc.answersjournalist’saboutthesituationofpreventingandcuringSARS”“国务院新闻办公室举行新闻发布会卫生部常务副部长高强等就非典型肺炎防治情况答记者问”,April21,2003.XinhuainRenminRibao:“Inthemidstofcrisis,unionisstrength–peopleofthewholecountryareresistingSARSinaconcertedeffort–anonspotreport”“危难中，我们众志成城—全国人民齐心协力抗击非典纪实”,April24,2003. 2008: CengHuafeng曾华锋,ZuoYa左娅:“InfantsinGansugotkidneystonesfromdrinkingbabyformula–theMinistryofHealthishighlysuspectingcontaminationofbabyformula–SanluCompanyisrecallspartsofitsbabyformula”“甘肃婴儿喝奶粉患结石，卫生部高度怀疑奶粉污染，三鹿公司召回部分奶粉”,RenminRibao,September12,2008.XinhuainRenminRibao:“Itispreliminaryassumedthatunlawfulelementshaveaddedmelaminetorawmilk–Beijing,HubeiandHunanetc.hasalsoreceivedreportsofinstances”“初步认定不法分子在原奶中添加三聚氰胺北京湖北湖南等地也接到病例报告”,September13,2008.WangJunping王君平:“SeverelyhandlingSanlubabyformulacase,theStatecouncilisactivatingthehighestlevelofresponseforlargenationalfoodsafetyaccidents,establishingurgentsmallleadershipgrouptodealwithitandgivesfreerescueandcuringforthesickened”“严肃处理三鹿婴幼儿奶粉事件国务院启动国家重大食品安全事故Ⅰ级响应成立应急处置领导小组对患病婴幼儿免费救治”,RenminRibao,September14,2008.ZouYa左娅:“PublicationoftheresultsofaperiodicspecialinvestigationformelamineinSanlu'sinfantformula”“婴幼儿配方奶粉三聚氰胺专项检查阶段性检查结果公布”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.WangJunping王君平:“TheMinistryofHealthissearchingatmaximumscaleforinfantsthathaveconsumedSanlu’sbabyformula”“卫生部‐最大限度搜索服用三鹿问题奶粉患儿”,RenminRibao,September17.RenminRibao:“ThespokespersonoftheMinistryofForeignAffairsisansweringjournalist’squestionsabouttheSanlucase”“就三鹿奶粉有关问题外交部发言人答记者问”,September17,2008.

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FengHua冯华:“Safemilkneedstobeprotectedsystematically–interviewwithLiuChengguo,directorofChinaDairyIndustryAssociation”“放心奶需要机制保障—访中国奶业协会理事长刘成果”,RenminRibao,September21,2008.WangBixue王比学:“Whowillrecallunsafeproducts”“谁来召回不安全食品”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.XinhuainRenminRibao:“WenJiabaoleadsanexecutivemeetingattheStateCouncil,decidestofullymonitordairyproducts,andreorganisethedairyindustry”“温家宝主持召开国务院常务会议，决定全面检查奶制品，整顿奶制品行业”,September18,2008.SuXianlong苏显龙:“AfterthecancellationoftheselectionofChinaFamousBrand”“名牌评选取消之后”,RenminRibao,September23,2008.ShiGuosheng石国胜:“Howtoinspectwhennot“exemptedfrominspection””“不“免检”如何检?”,RenminRibao,September24,2008.LuoGuojun骆国骏:“Hebei–theresponsiblefortheSanlucasearedealtwithaccordingtoPartyprotocol”“河北–“三鹿奶粉事故”有关责任人受到组织处理”,RenminRibao,September17,2008.WangFangjie王方杰:“SanluGroup’schairwomanandgeneralmanager,TianWenhua,isputundercriminaldetention”“三鹿集团原董事长总经理田文华被刑事拘留”,RenminRibao,September18,2008.PengBo彭波:“Another12criminalsuspectsinHebeiarecaught”“河北又有十二名犯罪嫌疑人落网”,RenminRibao,September19,2008.WuYan吴焰:“Respectthepopularwill’srequestforaccountability”“尊重民意的问责“,RenminRibao,September24,2008.WangMinghao王明浩:“ThespokespersonofShijiazhuangCitygovernment–onwhytheSanlubabyformulacasewasdelayed”“石家庄市政府新闻发言人—三鹿奶粉事件为何迟报”,RenminRibao,October1,2008.LiBin李斌,HuangJinquan黄全权:“Weshallberesponsibletothepeople–WenJiabaovisitschildrenillfromthe“Sanlumilkformulacase”inBeijingandinspectsdairyproductmarkets”“我们要对人民负责—温家宝在北京看望“奶粉事件”患病儿童并考察奶制品市场”,RenminRibaoSeptember22,2008.

JiangHongbing姜泓冰:“Scientificdevelopmentisofutmosturgency”“科学发展迫在眉睫”,RenminRibao,September22,2008.LiShijia李诗佳,WangJiangang王建刚:“WenJiabaohadaninformaltalkwiththeleadersoflocalChineselanguagemediainAmerica”“温家宝与美当地华文媒体负责人座谈”,RenminRibao,September26,2008.

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NanfangZhoumo2003:ChenMin陈海,JiangHua江华:“Guangzhouisstrugglingagainstanunknownvirus”“广州抗击不明病毒”,NanfangZhoumoFebruary13,2003.WuZhanguang吴展光:“InterviewwithanexpertatChineseCentreforDiseaseControlandPrevention–howtohandleahuge,suddenlyemergingpublichealthcrisis?”“国家疾病预防控制中心专家访谈重大突发公共卫生事件如何处理?”,NanfangZhoumo,February13,2003.LiYiyan李一言:“Fearstopswithopenness”“恐慌止于公开”,NanfangZhoumo,February13,2003.LiHujun李虎军,GuoGuangdong郭光东:“WhatdoweleanontowinoverSARS?”“我们靠什么战胜”非典”?”,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.LuRong卢嵘,DuJunxiao杜峻晓:“Ningxiaistryingtoblock“SARS””“宁夏追堵”非典””,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.WuZhanguang吴展光,ZhengYigong(ShanxiFinancialDaily)郑亦工(山西经济日报记者):“XingcountyinShanxi–arecordfromapoorcounty’sSARSstruggle”“山西兴县一个贫困县的抗非典纪录”,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.LiuHongbo刘洪波:“The“atypical”caseofHaicheng”“海城的”非典型事件””,NanfangZhoumo,April24,2003.2008:YangXiaohui杨小卉:”Howtomonitorthesafetyoffoodproducts”“安全食品的监管之道”,NanfangZhoumo,September18,2008.XiaoXun笑蜀:“Countlesspublicrelationsshowthedegenerationofmedia”“无量公关凸显媒体病变”,NanfangZhoumo,September18,2008.SuYongtong苏永通,MaChangbo马昌博:“LiZhangjiangresigns,onemorestepforward”“李长江辞职，下一步……”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.NanfangZhoumo:“Awellrungovernmentshouldnothavestormsofaccountability”“善治政府不该有问责风暴”,September25,2008.SuYongtong,苏永通,XueTian薛田:“Threecontroversialaspectsoftheselectionof“Chinafamousbrand””““中国名牌”评选三大争议”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.

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SuYongtong,苏永通,XueTian薛田:“HowtodealwithqualityproblemsofFamousbrandproducts”“名牌展品出现质量问题怎么办”,NanfangZhoumo,September25,2008.DingBuZhi丁补之,ZhaoLei赵蕾,WuYao吴瑶:““Thetaintedbabymilkformulacasecallsforacompensationpackage”“毒奶粉事件呼唤一揽子赔偿方案”,NanfangZhoumo,September2,2008.HeFeng禾风,JiaSiyu贾思玉:“Chinesemilkindustry:Fromeightgoldenyearstoacompletemess””中国奶业:黄金八年,一地鸡毛”,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.XuNan徐楠:“Revisitingachaoticscene:‘milkblenders’,connectionsandstupidcows”“乱象回溯:“调奶人”,“关系奶”和“傻子牛””,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.ZhangJunXiu张俊修,MengDengKe孟登科,WangXia王霞:“Thegovernmentshouldnotmakesupervisingunitsinto“moneymakingsons”“政府部门不能把检测单位变成收钱的”儿子””,NanfangZhoumo,October9,2008.

public health crises on chinese front pages – an analysis

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