9 Reporting on mainland

9 June 2014  — Wang Jianmin, publisher of two Chinese-language political magazines in Hong Kong, New-Way Monthly and Multiple Face, and Guo Zhongxiao, a journalist for the magazines, were detained by police in Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, on May 30 for “operating illegal publications,” allegedly for selling to two subscribers and causal buyers on the mainland. The magazines focus on corruption and power...

“Chinese journalist Gao Yu jailed for leaking secrets,” Committee to Protect Journalists, 8 May 2014. (This development updates references to Gao Yu on pages 210 and 213 of the book.  Gao Yu was previously sentenced in 1994 to six years in jail for illegally providing “important state secrets” to institutions outside China for articles she wrote for Hong Kong-based publications.)

“China deepens its disclosure regime,”  Jaimie Horsley (Yale Law School China Law Center), freedominfo.org, 4 April 2014. “Even as the Chinese Government continues to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it is gradually expanding the scope and depth of Chinese citizens’ access to government-held information in potentially significant ways. On March 17, 2014 China’s State Council General Office,...

Activist Tan Zuoren, who investigated whether shoddy construction caused the deaths of thousands of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and posted his findings online, was released from a Chinese jail from finishing a five-year sentence. (This development updates a reference on page 213 of the book.) “Sichuan earthquake activist freed after serving term,” The Standard, 27 March 2014.

In February 2014, the Chinese government issued its new Implementation Regulation for its State Secrets Law, instructing PRC officials to avoid labelling as state secrets information and documents that should be made available to the public.