Beijing’s censors silence influential, beloved newsletter

Twelve years ago, British journalist Nick Young moved to China and started an English-language publication that quickly became a must-read for Sinophiles everywhere. The China Development Brief reports on social, environmental, and civil society developments in the Middle Kingdom and has developed a loyal following of mostly businesspeople, academics, and diplomats. In 2001, CDB launched a sister publication in Chinese. It wasn’t a direct translation of the English version, but included original materials providing information exchange for Chinese NGOs dedicated to development and poverty alleviation.

Alas, the newsletter is no more. A week ago, a dozen Chinese authorities paid a visit to CDB’s Beijing offices. After three hours of interrogation, they ordered Young to stop publishing. As Young wrote in a statement issued Wednesday:

I, as editor of the English language edition of China Development Brief, am deemed guilty of conducting “unauthorized surveys” in contravention of the 1983 Statistics Law, and have been ordered to desist. I have since been interviewed by the police section responsible for supervising foreigners in China.

At first, the Chinese authorities allowed Young to keep publishing the English version. But on Wednesday, they shut it down too.

This is discouraging news for anyone concerned about press freedoms in China. Although CDB is not mass media—its website describes it as “deliberately specialist, targeting international readers whose job means they need to understand China”—this is still censorship. And it seems like a reversal of Beijing’s new policy to lift many restrictions on foreign media in advance of next year’s Olympics. I suppose the Chinese authorities could have claimed that CDB’s Chinese version is not foreign media, since it’s run by the Chinese (Young edits only the English edition) and published in their native language. But it’s perverse to allow foreigners more rights than a country’s own citizens. Evidently, the Chinese authorities agree. But instead of allowing CDB to publish in any language, they’ve decided to shut the whole enterprise down. Hopefully, if there’s an international outcry, they’ll reverse the decision.