Gao Xiaosong, president of Ali Music Group and a famous songwriter, complained that Destination Canada had been arrogant and aggressive towards him and had threatened legal, political and diplomatic action before his streaming talk show on Qiyi went off the air this past week.

“In this episode [of Xiaosong qitan], an interviewed tribal chief talked of First Nations’ past experience while applauding the present policy on First Nations (Aboriginal Canadians) … However, the show was strongly obstructed by the relevant Canadian organizations, and the broadcast has been postponed indefinitely,” wrote Gao on his Weibo micro-blogging account.

Gao claimed that Destination Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Tourism Commission, had “demanded the removal of all the contents about the human rights of First Nations,” first through a program sponsor and later on its own. Gao also posted screenshots of e-mails he claimed to have received from Destination Canada.

However, the veracity of the e-mails have been questioned online. Mark Rowswell, a Chinese celebrity famous for his fluent Chinese, questioned the authenticity of the letters from Destination Canada, noting that they had the e-mail domain of .cn instead of .com.

Derek Galpin, managing director of Destination Canada in China, said his organization was not responsible for censoring Gao’s talk show.

Gao’s talk show from the previous week in which he speaks about Vancouver remains available online.

The controversy has appeared ahead of a scheduled state visit to China by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been criticized in Canada for being too lenient on Chinese issues.

During the campaign in 2013, Trudeau was widely criticized by his political opponents for appearing to sympathize with the Chinese government when he said in part: “Their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime…”

Trudeau’s government again came under fire this past June when Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion didn’t intervene when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi berated a Canadian journalist.

“The Minister of Foreign Affairs stood by quietly and said he raised these same issues behind closed doors,” said Conservative MP Peter Kent. “Was the Chinese Foreign Minister as angry and condescending and ingenious in his denials there?” Likewise, NDP Foreign Affairs critic Hélène Laverdiere criticized Dion by saying, “Freedom of the press is an important value for Canadians, yet our minister stayed silent.”

During the same visit, critics also noted that Canada’s Prime Minister accepted a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister even though normal diplomatic courtesies usually only extend to counterparts of the same rank.

The post Chinese Celebrity Accuses Canada of Censoring His Talk Show appeared first on The Nanfang.

Shares in Korean entertainment companies fell Tuesday as speculation increased that China will target the Korean entertainment industry due to South Korean plan to deploy the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Areas Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system.

SM Entertainment Co., known for such K-pop super-groups as Girls’ Generation, closed down 5.3 percent, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, YG Entertainment Corp., the company known for producing “Gangnam Style” superstar Psy, fell 8 percent.

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave of pop culture products, have long dominated East Asia and K-Pop stars and K-Dramas are popular in China. As such, China has become a primary export market for Korean cultural products.

On Monday People’s Daily warned in an editorial that Seoul’s policy to deploy the missile system would “draw fire against itself.”

The rumor is yet to be substantiated by any official channels, but The South China Morning Post (SCMP) cited two sources at local TV stations in Guangdong province as saying they had received orders from the State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) that new approvals for TV programs featuring South Korean pop stars would not be granted in the near future.

“They told us to postpone any plans for new programs that involve South Korean stars or copyright for South Korean TV shows,” one of the sources told SCMP. “They said we would not get approval, even if we made such plans.”

The order was verbally passed on a few days ago by officials from SAPPRFT, SCMP reported.

Reports earlier this week claimed that Korean talent will not be allowed to appear in films, television dramas, musical concerts, variety shows, or advertisements in the immediate future. The restrictions will supposedly begin this month.

A report on news portal Sina.com on Monday that cited unidentified industry sources said SAPPRFT is inclined to limit South Korean artists in conducting entertainment activities in China, but noted it would fall short of a ban.

“Although it isn’t confirmed, there seems to be uncertainty among investors,” Hyun Choi, head of equities at Baring Asset Management Korea Ltd. in Seoul told Bloomberg.

“South Korean entertainment companies are mostly relying on businesses in China, and if they can’t do a large-scale concert or show, it would be a problem for them.”

However even if China regulates Korean content, movies jointly produced with Chinese companies probably won’t be affected as they’re considered local content, Lim Min Kyu, a Seoul-based analyst at Hyundai Securities Co, also told Bloomberg.

The Hallyu phenomenon has been so strong in China that delegates to the country’s political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, have publicly complained of the outsized success of Korean pop cultural products and viewed the popularity of the Korean drama as a blow to Chinese confidence in their own culture.

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Internet news sites that have been shut down include Sohu’s “People (in) News”, “Radial”, and “Strike Today”; iFeng’s “Serious Report”; Sina’s “Geek News”; and NetEase’s “Echo” and “Signpost”.

The new sources are all said to have “severely violated” internet regulations by publishing news stories obtained through original sources that are all responsible for “negative effects”, reported Bloomberg. The ban means that all internet news outlets offering “current affairs news” can only publish news reports provided by government-controlled print or online media, and not provided by their own personnel.

“Current affairs news” is a sweeping term in China that encompasses all news and commentary related to politics, economics, military, foreign affairs and social issues, according to the draft version of China’s online information law.

Earlier this month, the CAC banned Chinese news from using social media as a source for news stories as a “campaign against fake news and the spreading of rumors”. Also in July, the Ministry of Culture cracked down on live-stream video sites by making content providers legally responsible for the content they publish.

Last month, tight restrictions were placed on Chinese mobile phone games that require their pre-approval by State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRT), a decision for which it is being sued.

In April, Apple’s iTunes store in China had its movies and books section shut down by SAPPRT.

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Zhang said he was warned by WeChat that his post, criticizing beverage maker JDB Group Ltd., for defaming Qiu Shaoyun, a person hailed by the CCP as a Korean war hero that died rather than betray the location of Chinese troops. “They deleted my post and sent a long report to me, saying they had received a protest from JDB, found that my accusations were ‘untrue’ and ‘violated their rules,’ and would close my account if I wrote a similar post again,” he said.

Zhang accused Tencent of yielding to commercial pressure to “arbitrarily” block public WeChat posts.

Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, is a publicly traded company whose largest shareholder is MIH Group, a subsidiary of the South African media group, Naspers.

Zhang contends that China’s social media must not be influenced by foreign powers. “The importance of Weibo and WeChat is no less than that of an army. It concerns power in political discourse and national security. We mustn’t lose control to foreigners or separatist capitalists,” said Zhang.

Zhang’s isn’t the only pro-China voice being drowned out by foreign influences. According to Globalview, several posts, including those from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, were removed regarding director Zhao Wei’s decision to hire a “suspected Taiwanese separatist”.

“Netizens were shocked. Capital is so powerful that they can block any kind of voice they dislike,” wrote Globalview in a commentary.

Internet controls in China are so strict that numerous accounts and websites are routinely banned and closed for infractions such as “spreading rumors”, as in the wake of last year’s Tianjin explosion. Recent crackdowns have targeted the country’s live video streaming content,

The post University Professor Plans To Sue Tencent For Censoring WeChat Post appeared first on The Nanfang.

The new regulation would require all mobile phone games to receive SAPPRFT approval prior to official release. The stringent process may take up to 80 days to review, particularly if the game contains sensitive topics such as “political or military themes”.

As Tech in Asia reports, some games have been rejected simply for containing English words that have been taken out of context such as “mission start”, “warning”, “lucky”, and “go”.

Meanwhile, other developers say their games have been rejected because they contain traditional Chinese script, a form of written Chinese that is uncommon on the mainland but is still readily used in names of buildings, calligraphy, and movie title cards.

Chen argues the regulation is too rigid, and has called on SAPPRFT to devise a more transparent, efficient and reasonable oversight. Chen also believes the new rules offer a significant advantage to big companies over independent game developers. “With these new regulations, all independent game developers and small enterprises will be driven out of the market, with no glimmer of hope for survival,” Chen said.

Chen and his lawyers have admitted that they have no chance of winning against China’s censorship watchdog. Instead, they hope their case will bring attention to how the new rules are impacting independent game developers.

SAPPRFT has been on something of a censoring rampage of late. In April, they shut down the film and book section of the Apple iTunes China store, and introduced a vaguely-worded law regarding internet domains of foreign companies operating in China.

Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China recently passed strict new regulations on mobile apps in China, ensuring app developers are responsible for censoring their own users who must provide real-name registration.

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The Ministry of Culture (MOC) announced Thursday that live-stream performers will be held accountable for their content. Anybody who streams content deemed unacceptable will be put on a national blacklist, with the MOC conducting random checks on the country’s various live-stream video accounts.

Prohibited content includes pornographic and violent content as well as any live-stream video that displays deformed bodies or the torture of humans or animals. Presumably, it also includes anything politically sensitive. Content creators are being asked to employ supervisors that maintain strict control over live-streams and censor any offending material.

Some 20 live-streaming video providers already signed an agreement this past April. Under the terms of the deal, live-stream performers are required to register their real names, and all live videos must be recorded and saved for at least 15 days for inspection purposes.

This past April, the MOC cracked down on videos showing “predominately attractive women showing their cleavage”. As a result, performers seen eating bananas in a “seductive fashion” were banned from live-streaming videos.

China has some 200 million registered live stream video users, of which three-quarters are estimated to be young and male.

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Styled as a “campaign against fake news and the spreading of rumors,” the new regulations were handed down by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). “It is forbidden to use hearsay to create news or use conjecture and imagination to distort the facts,” said the CAC.

The regulator listed a number of social media-sourced stories that have been reported in the news that have turned out to be false, including one involving a bus fire.

A number of websites have been punished by the CAC this year for having published unverified stories include Sina, iFeng, NetEase, and Tencent. The latest regulation comes after a long line of restrictions placed upon media and the internet in China.

In March of last year, WeChat users were forced to comply with new rules that forbade a number of illegal acts including lying. The month before, the CAC forced all WeChat users to register their accounts using their real names. Last May, some 35 dating websites were shut down for spreading pornography.

In the wake of last summer’s Tianjin explosion, websites were shut down and some 15,000 people were arrested in an online crackdown that aimed to “clean the internet” of “improper online speech”.

In July 2015, new regulations forbade Chinese journalists from working with Western news media in order to prevent state secrets from leaking out. This past February, Chinese President Xi Jinping called upon Chinese news media to adhere to party principles with a symbolic visit to the news offices of CCTV and Xinhua.

The CAC has been front and center in getting Chinese internet services to take on censorship responsibilities of their own. Last April, the CAC called on Sina Weibo to improve its censorship over its users, blaming it for “failing to censor illegal content”.

The new restrictions come a week after the former head China’s internet censorship bureau stepped down.

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As of August 1st, all mobile app developers in China will be compelled by law to conduct real-name registrations of their users and preserve records of their activity for at least two months. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) explained the new regulations are necessary because “Some apps have been used for spreading violence, terrorism, pornography and rumors, while some apps are violating users’ privacy and cheating money from them.”

Developers must verify the identities of their users by recording their phone numbers or other personal information. At the same time, developers must guarantee the security of their users’ personal information, and promise not to collect information on the location of their users.

Mobile app providers will be made responsible for their users, while developers must “improve censorship” by issuing warnings, suspensions and even bans to any users sharing “illicit information”.

The new regulations also make app stores responsible for ensuring all apps are authentic, while being on the look-out for piracy.

These new regulations follow this month’s announcement that all mobile app games distributed in China must be pre-approved by Chinese authorities, paying particular attention to video games with “political and military themes”.

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Starting July 1st, foreign franchises launched in China will require approval from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), before they can be broadcast on Satellite TV in China.

Reality TV has proven enormously popular in China, eclipsing traditional dramas and war serials. Two hit TV shows directly impacted by the new rules are Chinese-versions of The Running Man and The Voice of China, originally from South Korea and the Netherlands.

Under the new rules, broadcasters can air no more than two reality TV shows adapted from foreign-made shows during the prime time viewing hours of 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm each year. Shows must be submitted for approval two months before broadcast.

SAPPRFT blames the lack of innovation in Chinese television on the immense success of foreign-inspired shows, claiming they are not focused on content beneficial to Chinese viewers. “The reliance on imported program formats has been squeezing out the creative incentive of domestic producers and broadcasters,” read the SAPPRFT in a statement. “Audiences are craving more Chinese original programs that are fun to watch and feature healthy tastes.”

SAPPRFT further clarified that Chinese-made television shows “can tell Chinese stories and advocate Chinese spirit better” than foreign-made ones because “Only innovative TV programs with Chinese cultural characteristics can carry the Chinese Dream themes, socialist core values, as well as patriotism and Chinese traditions.”“only innovative TV programs with Chinese cultural characteristics can carry the Chinese Dream themes, socialist core values, as well as patriotism and Chinese traditions.”

The rising popularity of reality television in China has been met with push-back from the Chinese government. Last year, SAPPRFT restrictred all satellite TV broadcasters to a single reality television show per year. The government also ordered the content of these shows to be “close to the masses, with no exaggeration and no mixing the spurious with the genuine,” a criticism of the large stable of celebrities used for these shows.

The state censor also banned children from endorsing products in advertising, a move that specifically counters the meteoric rise of the hit reality show and motion picture Daddy, Where are We Going?

As with previous “bans” such as those related to “time travel”, last year’s SAPPRFT order doesn’t appear to have been carried out to the letter of the law, and reality shows are more popular than ever in China.

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Although games with political and military themes will face the most stringent restrictions, no mobile apps will be exempt from the new regulations.

According to Tech in Asia, for each game, provincial authorities will first take five days to review the application, after which it will be sent to SAPPRFT for a further ten day review. If China’s national censorship watchdog deems the game acceptable, it will inform provincial authorities who will then notify the developer within three days whether the game has been accepted or rejected.Approved games must then launch within a 20 day-window. If the game doesn’t launch within the 20 day-window, it must repeat the authorization process all over again.

SAPPRFT has had few issues with censoring online applications as of late. In April, they shut down the film and book section of Apple iTunes China store, and introduced a vaguely-worded law regarding internet domains of foreign companies operating in China.

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