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On New Year’s Eve another outspoken magazine,\u00a0Yanhuang chunqiu\u00a0<\/em>(\u708e\u9ec4\u6625\u79cb), was notified that its website would close, which it did in the morning 4 January. The editorial department continuously comments and updates on its Weibo<\/a>. The print version seems to be unaffected this far, but such a closure is not a good sign.<\/p>\n Are such acts sign of the\u00a0”four new modernizations”<\/a>\u00a0(\u65b0\u56db\u5316)\u00a0that CPC no. 2, Li Keqiang, likely the next Chinese premier, has been talking about during the autumn 2012? One of these ”new” modernizations is ”application of information technology” (”IT-ization”) (\u4fe1\u606f\u5316), and it seems that this ”application” is not beneficial to freedom of speech, but rather the contrary.<\/p>\n While brave people stand up for their rights in Guangzhou, supporting Southern Weekly<\/em>,\u00a0Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia (\u5218\u971e), sits isolated in house arrest in their flat in Beijing. She has been there more than two years now, just for being Liu Xiaobo’s wife. 6 December 2012 some reporters from Associated Press (AP \u7f8e\u8054\u793e) managed to pass the guards and make a short interview with her<\/a>, and crying she described the absurd life she is forced to live. On 28 December 2012, Liu Xiaobo’s birthday, a group of her friends, including Hu Jia (\u80e1\u4f73), Xu Youyu (\u5f90\u53cb\u6e14) and Liu Di (\u5218\u837b), also managed to enter her flat and talk to her<\/a>. How come Liu Xia is not a major cause for concern and action outside China? Her house arrest is surely not legal even by PRC standards, and the emotional pressure on her must be enormous.\u00a0One cannot but think of Wei Jingsheng’s (\u9b4f\u4eac\u751f) proposal for a ”fifth modernization”<\/a> in 1978, namely democratization. 35 years later it is still valid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New years usually come with promises, expectations and hope for a brighter future. The first days of 2013 has proved rather an exception, at least here in China. First Guangdong province propaganda chief (\u5e7f\u4e1c\u7701\u59d4\u5ba3\u4f20\u90e8\u957f) Tuo Zhen (\u5eb9\u9707) heavily censored a new year special issue (\u65b0\u5e74\u7279\u520a) of outspoken Guangzhou newspaper\u00a0Southern Weekly (Nanfang zhoumo \u5357\u65b9\u5468\u672b). This sparked … <\/p>\n