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China Eases Licensing Rules For Foreign Media Sources

Posted by timothy on from the now-transmit-all-yuanna dept.

The New York Times reports that China has "agreed to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country, settling a trade dispute with the United States, the European Union and Canada." Formerly, all such news sources required licensing through China's official Xinhua News Agency. Note that the focus seems to be on financial reporting and information, rather than all forms of news reporting.

36 comments

  1. Press visas by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Its about time. On my last trip to China just a couple of months ago, I did not even bother trying to get a media visa even though I'd been asked to cover/photograph a story for the military press. I declined that story offer simply because getting the press visa was too much of a hassle and you had to undergo extra hassles for all of the camera equipment. Traveling on a tourist visa through China is much easier and they don't give you any grief for even lots of camera equipment.

    In fact, the whole visa issue always is a hassle. If countries wanted to ensure that people come and spend money, then why to they (US included) make getting a visa so difficult? I had to either travel to Washington DC to the Chinese embassy or pay a special travel office $140 to broker the visa on my passport for me.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:Press visas by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If countries wanted to ensure that people come and spend money, then why to they (US included) make getting a visa so difficult?

      China doesn't need foreigners to come spend money on its soil, its making a fortune exporting good abroad anyway.

      As for the US, it's another ballgame: the country's attitude toward visas oscillates between the "keeping these filthy underpaid workers from taking american jobs out" attitude in peace time, to full-blown paranoid "the terrorists are coming!" when national security is threatened.

    2. Re:Press visas by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful
      There's no reason to get a journalist visa unless you're a bonafide journalist. I saw that you took pictures of the toilets - no serious journalist would pull stuff like that, it's a guaranteed mark of the China greenhorn.

      The US makes getting a visa difficult because Chinese people have a big problem with not going home after their visas expire. China makes getting journalist visas difficult because foreign journalists have a big problem with lying their asses off and distorting stories to fit their political viewpoints. A visa is a sovereign act of a country, it's not like buying tickets to a Mets game. Believe it or not, governments occasionally have other priorities than inviting foreign tourists to spend money.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:Press visas by Raynor · · Score: 2, Funny

      If I could be a superhero
      I'd be Immigration dude
      I'd send all the foreigners back to their homes
      For eating up all of our food
      And taking our welfare and best jobs to boot
      Like landscaping, dishwashing, picking our fruit
      I'd pass a lot of laws to get rid of their food
      'Cause I'd be Immigration Dude

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1q2XH1Q3O8

      --
      "Dictator Flakes. They WILL be delicious."
    4. Re:Press visas by BWJones · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's no reason to get a journalist visa unless you're a bonafide journalist. I saw that you took pictures of the toilets - no serious journalist would pull stuff like that, it's a guaranteed mark of the China greenhorn.

      Ah, thanks for your astute commentary on something you obviously know bollocks about. I have some "news" for you... that is my personal blog and I can put anything I want in it. What gets published in the press is another story entirely.

      I have some more "news" for you. This problem you cite of people not wanting to return to China is a demographic one. I am seeing educated people returning to China in droves. They have seen the promise and prosperity possible there and are making a killing. The sight of Porsches and BMWs filling the streets in Chengdu was a surprise to say the least.

      You obviously have a bias against the press or know absolutely nothing about the profession. Either that or you get all your news from Fox, because most journalists I know are remarkably unbiased in their reporting in all corners of the world. China is changing and while they used to have more problems than they currently do with issues of transparency related to human rights, they have much to show the rest of the world now. Granted there are problems with such rapid growth, but the country is so different from what it was just 10 years ago.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    5. Re:Press visas by AncientPC · · Score: 1

      It's also a diplomatic spat between the US and China. The US makes it extremely difficult for Chinese citizens to get visas and thus the PRC reciprocates that towards US citizens.

      I have friends working in Taiwan who have to get a China visa by visiting one of their embassies in Japan or back in the US just so they can travel to China.

      Likewise, I know Japanese and Taiwan citizens do not need visas to visit China.

    6. Re:Press visas by BWJones · · Score: 1

      China doesn't need foreigners to come spend money on its soil, its making a fortune exporting good abroad anyway.

      On one hand you are correct. On the other, I was shocked at how desperate seeming China is to show the world what they are capable of. We were welcomed most graciously by a whole host of people who really, really wanted to share with us what they have been doing. It is impressive.

      As for the US, it's another ballgame: the country's attitude toward visas oscillates between the "keeping these filthy underpaid workers from taking american jobs out" attitude in peace time, to full-blown paranoid "the terrorists are coming!" when national security is threatened.

      Dude, you have no idea how correct you are. For instance, we have a graduate student who is in the middle of her dissertation research. She travelled to China with us to present at a meeting and now the US is dragging its feet on her visa. She cannot get back into the country until her visa is approved and she has a husband and child back here! Academia and business is rife with stories like this even from countries that have been long time friends of the US, like the UK.

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    7. Re:Press visas by BWJones · · Score: 1

      That is also true. A visa for a US citizen is much more expensive to obtain than a visa for a non-US citizen. I paid somewhere in the region of $90 US whereas one of my colleagues from Hungary paid ~$15. Most favored nation trading status my ass....

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    8. Re:Press visas by dnwq · · Score: 1

      More precisely, China mandates journalist visas so that particular journalists can be stopped from entering.

      Checking the thousands of visa applications for such names is slow work, so what you do is make journalist passes difficult to get. Large media organizations can afford to arrange for the visas directly with your embassies, so they don't get significantly affected. On the other hand, those pesky indie journalists will stand out like a sore thumb.

      And if the reporters you dislike do enter under a tourist pass, you can punish them for the offense of lying on their visa application, rather than risk provoking a media frenzy over press freedom.

    9. Re:Press visas by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      China doesn't need foreigners to come spend money on its soil, its making a fortune exporting good abroad anyway.

      ***face palm***

      You do realize almost all of China's exported goods are the result from previous foreign capital investments...right!? You make it sound as though China came to global economic power on its own which would be in fact incorrect.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    10. Re:Press visas by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1
      Educated people don't illegally immigrate, poor people do. If a restaurant worker came back to China, he wouldn't be driving an Audi, he'd still be a restaurant worker, with a much lower salary and a crappy country to live in.

      Either that or you get all your news from Fox, because most journalists I know are remarkably unbiased in their reporting in all corners of the world.

      So let me get this straight - Fox is biased, but the rest of the Western media is not? Laughable. I'm one of a handful of people in China who publishes his own English magazine, and I've moron journalists like yourself come and go. You've already got your China story written before you get off the plane, and all you want is a quote to support your position.

      I like your "You obviously have a bias against the press"...that's got all kinds of double reverse irony in it.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    11. Re:Press visas by BWJones · · Score: 1

      Educated people don't illegally immigrate, poor people do.

      But it i the educated people coming back to China that are returning at higher rates according to the Chinese government official I talked with.

      I'm one of a handful of people in China who publishes his own English magazine,

      *Which* magazine? Link? Reference?

      and I've moron journalists like yourself come and go.

      I'll relay your feelings to National Geographic and Wired... ;-)

      You've already got your China story written before you get off the plane, and all you want is a quote to support your position.

      Actually, I came to China initially exclusively to attend a scientific meeting and had no intention of writing a story or taking photographs for anything despite a couple of requests from a specific magazine. My story for the press was to be told on my return journey in S. Korea.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    12. Re:Press visas by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1
      I don't get it - the educated people illegally immigrated? Seriously man, either you're intentionally answering the wrong argument (par for the course for a journalist) or you're misunderstanding the whole thing (also sadly predictable).

      Actually, I came to China initially exclusively to attend a scientific meeting

      So why on Earth did you need a journalist visa? Seriously, WTF? This trip needs a tourist visa, which is the easiest kind to get.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  2. So, what's going on here? by mattytee · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From TFA:

    According to the settlement, China agreed to remove the requirement that financial news providers be licensed by Xinhua and instead will set up an independent regulatory agency to oversee all financial news and information providers.

    OK, so Xinhua's their direct competitor, but they didn't really get much, right? The government is still going to oversee things. Is Xinhua even for-profit? Kind of a thin story.

    And how exactly qualify this as news for nerds? Lot of /. readers working for Bloomberg these days?

    1. Re:So, what's going on here? by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      And how exactly qualify this as news for nerds? Lot of /. readers working for Bloomberg these days?

      Bloomberg? No. Penny-stock spam? May be.

  3. Well, you need to understand China's IP mindset by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 1

    All your press are belong to us.

  4. Who cares... by cosmocain · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...about financial information when all human-rights-related things still get filtered? this is no good news for the masses, it only shows the two-faced attitude of china towards capitalism/communism.

    1. Re:Who cares... by stephanruby · · Score: 1, Insightful

      ...and it only shows the two-faced attitude of the US towards capitalism/human rights.

    2. Re:Who cares... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank god we have spineless cowards like yourself in the world

  5. Liberty Prime by pieisgood · · Score: 1

    Communism is a temporary setback on the road TO FREEDOM!

    --
    Eat sleep die
  6. Props to the reporters by dontmakemethink · · Score: 1

    Everyone who gives a half-damn about this thread must watch a brilliant movie about the journalists that died in the Bosnian conflict, called Harrison's Flowers. I suspect Adrien Brody will never play a better role.

    --

    War as we knew it was obsolete
    Nothing could beat complete denial
    - Emily Haines
    1. Re:Props to the reporters by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Odd that nobody seemed to make a brilliant movie about the soldiers or civilians who died in the Bosnian conflict. A movie maker making movies about journalists? I bet you that journalists write about his movie...hey it's like a backrub circle! I also bet that reporters come are portrayed like heroes instead of the journalism school graduates that they are.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:Props to the reporters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jebus what's your problem, a jurno fuck your wife or summit? In large chunks of the world it takes a lot of guts to point a camera.

    3. Re:Props to the reporters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In large chunks of the world people don't have a choice whether a gun is pointed at them or not, seeing as they're don't have the privilege of coming the from another country to point a camera. With all respect the journalists, it's their choice to go to war zones. Much like mercenaries, they willingly accept the risks in exchange for rewards (monetary or not). Civilians and soldiers (the latter, more often than not, especially in conflict zones like Bosnia) don't get the choice.

  7. but China regulates the new "Internet reporters" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Foreign media may be winning some freedoms, but they likely have built-in barriers:

    - some don't know the nuances of Chinese language
    (some don't even speak Chinese) &

    - Chinese people's resistance to speak to them

    ---

    Sig: When is China going to allow people there
              to have & use Amateur Ham Radio stations,
              ie, in their hand, cars and/or homes?!?!? :-/

  8. Oh please... by nx6310 · · Score: 1

    First of all this isn't your standard /. article, but I'm disappointed so far in the replies.

    Its a clear case of tit-for-tat, the Chinese have been in negotiations on an Oil Deal in Iraq which they coincidentally landed a couple of days ago - two days later, they back down on financial news services. How much more obvious can things get?

    1. Re:Oh please... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      What's obvious about it? The fact that governments make deals with one another? Oh my shocking I'm getting the vapors Auntie Mae...cheneyhalliburtonearthquakemachine....WHARRRGARBL...

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  9. About time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about the licenses needed to view your very own purchased DVD?

    What about the "free speech zones"? The requirement to get a permit to report?

    How about the G7 reporters who were holed up in their lodgings by the US police to be arrested if they left?

  10. Yup its true ! by kasnol · · Score: 1

    I just had a night stay over yesterday in China and some news site I wasn't able to access (during Olympic period) was able to access !

    Hopefully they lift more bans of sites in China so I will not die of boredom to surf in China~

  11. How is Canada in on this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Canada blocks foreign media itself.

  12. That only seems fair by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The New York Times reports that China has "agreed to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country

    That only seems fair, given the poor quality of the Stargate SG-1 boxed set I just received, shipped from "Mr gao" in Beijing, China. (Apparently it is actually a "gift" worth $10.) If they want to consume our media and poop it out indiscriminately, they should have to consume all of it. That's how cultures influence other cultures without war these days...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  13. First Dude! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > 'Cause I'd be Immigration Dude

    Well, I've got to hand it to you Mr. Palin, that probably would help your wife get elected next time. And she needs all the help she can get.