Security china,China censors Web searches on Jiang Zemin’s health

Security china,China censors Web searches on Jiang Zemin’s health-China’s media censors on Wednesday began blocking Internet search terms to try to tamp down speculation on the health of ailing former leader Jiang Zemin.
Speculation has been rife on Internet microblogging sites that Jiang,84,was dying,or had already passed away,after he failed to appear Friday alongside other top leaders for official ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding. Jiang has been rumored for years to be in ill health.

On the most popular local Twitter-like microblogging site, Sina.com, searches were blocked for terms including “301,” the name of the Beijing military hospital where China’s top leaders are treated. Also blocked was Jiang’s name, which means “river” in Chinese, as well as terms like “brain death” and “brain dead.”

As is typical,savvy Internet users, called Netizens here, found creative ways around the restrictions by chatting openly using other common words for “river” to refer to Jiang.
There was no official word on Jiang’s health — not unusual in a country where even the most basic facts about senior officials are closely guarded secrets. But the explosive growth of the Internet in China, with the millions of microblogging sites, called “weibo” here, is challenging the Communist Party’s traditional monopoly of information.

The blocking of the search terms suggested the leadership was aware of the ongoing speculation and was determined to clamp down and control the timing and manner of any announcement regarding Jiang.

The current leadership may also be sensitive to how the public will react to any eventual announcement of Jiang’s passing.
Jiang — who took over as party secretary in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 —was widely viewed as a free-market economic reformer who reduced the state’s role in business, brought China into the World Trade Organization and improved relations with the United States.

As Communist Party chief in Shanghai, Jiang, a Soviet-trained electrical engineer, is also is remembered for dealing with student protests there without bloodshed.

In 2005, when Zhao Ziyang, another popular former party secretary general, died, the leadership went into crisis mode trying to craft an official, low-key announcement, to prevent Zhao’s death from reigniting a national debate over the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Helping fuel the rumors about Jiang’s health on Wednesday was a heavier-than-normal police presence during the day outside the 301 Military Hospital.
Also late Wednesday,the Web site of a Hong Kong television station published what appeared to be a tribute to Jiang, without specifically confirming whether he had died.

Jiang was last seen publicly in 2009, at ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Since he has been reported to be in ill health in recent years,his death would not be a surprise in China.
Still,reports of Jiang’s failing health come at a sensitive time, when China is preparing for a transition next year to a new generation of leaders. Jiang was said to be the leader of one faction maneuvering behind the scenes to support his favored candidates for elevation to the ruling Standing Committee.