History shows that the FCCC Party is great, glorious and correct. As in 伟大光荣正确.

But your faithful FCCC cadres cannot put on a great, glorious and correct Party without the participation of grassroots members.

We can, however, create the necessary conditions. Please study the following theoretical considerations concerning our December 8 Winter Bash. They will guide you along the correct political line.

Your Party promises Harmonious Society. Therefore, the Party will provide music.

Your Party promotes re-balancing toward a consumption-based model of development. Therefore, the Party will provide a free flow of grog.

Your Party strives for a Moderately Well Off Society. Therefore, the Party will provide finger-foods.

Your Party maintains an appropriately tight monetary policy. Therefore, the Party has kept ticket prices low.

Your Party endorses the Scientific Development Concept. Alas, there is nothing about a disco-themed Winter Bacchanal that even comes close.  Therefore, the Party is letting you down on this one.

But hey, 4 out of 5 is still pretty good! That puts us at 80-20. As students of Party history, you know that Chairman Mao himself only scored a 70-30.

So please: Do your duty to obey Party discipline and buy your tickets now!

DATE: Dec 8 (Saturday)
TIME: 8pm-late (free flow drinks from 8-12)
RESERVATION: required at fcccadmin@gmail.com

VENUE: SWITCH! Grill – 工体北路 66 号瑞士公寓 2 号楼 1 层 Dongzhong Street, Dongcheng, Beijing, China 66 GongTi Bei Lu in the Regentland (across from the Swissotel)

TICKETS: 220 RMB member – 270 RMB non member – each member can by two member tickets, no sale at the door
Ticket price after midnight: free FCCC members, 80 RMB for non members at the door
Tickets can be purchased at FCCC event Thursday 6 and Friday 7 between the hours of 5pm and 8pm. If you can’t make it to The Bookworm for any of the above dates, send us your details and we might be able to arrange for delivery. However, please bear in mind that our resources are limited, so we cannot guarantee that you will receive the tickets in time. The best way to make certain is to drop by The Bookworm and pick them up in person.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China is appalled by the decision of the Chinese government to take this action.

Chinese officials had expressed anger at a documentary the channel aired last November. Melissa Chan did not even play a part in making that documentary. They have also expressed unhappiness with the general editorial content on Al Jazeera English and accused Ms Chan of violating rules and regulations that they have not specified.

This is the most extreme example of a recent pattern of using journalist visas in an attempt to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents in China (see details below*).

The FCCC believes that foreign news organisations, not the Chinese government, have the right to choose who works for them in China, in line with international standards.

Melissa’s expulsion followed 3 months of uncertainty during which time she was issued short term press credentials rather than the standard one-year accreditation. When her final one-month accreditation was not renewed she was obliged to leave the country because reporters are not issued Chinese residence permits without such accreditation.

Melissa Chan is a member of the FCCC board.

The FCCC views this matter as a grave threat to foreign reporters’ ability to work in China.

For further details on this matter please contact fcccadmin@gmail.com.

*At the end of last year an FCCC survey (with additional research) found the following regarding visas for foreign correspondents in China:

• Over the past two years 27 foreign reporters were made to wait for more than four months for visa approvals. Thirteen of these had to wait for more than six months and were still waiting at the time of the survey.
• Three requests presented in 2009 had not received a response, which in practice meant they had been denied.
• Twenty eight permanent postings or reporting trips had been cancelled since 2009 because applications for the required journalistic visas were rejected or ignored by the Chinese authorities.
• In six cases foreign reporters say they were told by the Foreign Ministry officials that their bureaux’ visa applications had been rejected or put on hold due to the content of the bureaux’ or the applicant’s previous coverage of Chinese affairs.

FCCC March HAPPY HOUR

FCCC members are hereby ordered by legal decree (see Articles of Association, Act 537, Dec 2008 and amended heavily for detail ever since where appropriate) to promptly attend the monthly HAPPY HOUR this coming Friday at the evocatively named Scarlett Bar at G HOTEL, 6-30 till late.

We’ve changed the location this month to throw (ssshhhh!) you know who off the scent.

FCCC card-carriers ordering items numbers 1 thru 13 on the drinks menu with a knowing nod and wink may receive discount on selected beer, wine and spirits.

Anyone drinking or strolling towards the washrooms in a suspicious way will be subjected to gentle eviction by the Wangfujing Retail Therapy Enforcement Community (WFJRTEC).

TV camera crews short of revolutionary goon footage beware: Be nice to the trainee teenage bell hops or you will be denied your drinks’ discount card. The above is classified material.

Eat after reading, wash down with nice cup of jasmine tea.

See you there. No cameras. Oh, okay. Just one or two.

Yours, with a polite shove toward the bar, THE FCCC MANAGEMENT

FCCC Happy Hours are brought to you by Grey Area Entertainment Ltd.

VENUE: Scarlett Wine Bar at Hotel G, No. A7 Gongti Xilu, 工体西路甲7号
DATE: Friday, March 11
TIME: 6:30pm onwards
ENTRANCE: Free. Non-members very welcome as always.

Despite his best efforts to protect his camera it was confiscated. More than a dozen other journalists who went to this part of Beijing to report had problems, including being manhandled, pushed, detained and delayed by uniformed police and others.

The FCCC, on behalf of its members, calls on the Chinese government to ensure the physical safety of all reporters and their staff while carrying out assignments in China.

The FCCC Board

Some correspondents have been told to register at a Wangfujing district office for permission to report there. This office does not appear to have a listed number and the PSB was unable to provide one to correspondents who asked.

The FCCC is concerned about and monitoring arbitrary interpretation of the reporting regulations. Please inform us if you are blocked from reporting in public space. China’s reporting regulations, which took effect in Oct. 2008, state: “To interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior consent.”

The FCCC Board

Correspondents should be careful if they attempt to enter the village of activist Chen Guangcheng in Shandong Province.

In recent days several correspondents have encountered groups of violent, plainclothes thugs.

Operating in groups of more than a dozen, these men are carrying walkie talkies and blocking all entrances to Dong Shu Gu village. They have pushed reporters around, threatened them with bricks, damaged their cars, confiscated or destroyed their equipment and taken their press credentials.

In one case, the local police – whose office is only 10 minutes away – were called by reporters but did not come to their aid. Since being told about the incidents the police appear to have done nothing to rectify the situation or rein in these groups of thugs.

Correspondents who have been harassed in recent days include representatives of Le Monde, CNN, The New York Times, Radio France International and Le Nouvel Observateur.

To avoid potential danger we urge anybody planning to visit Dong Shu Gu village to first speak to other reporters who have been there.

For more information, please see the New York Times and CNN.

http://”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/asia/19china.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-16/world/china.chen_1_chen-guangcheng-chinese-human-rights-lawyer-camera?_s=PM:WORLD

The Foreign Ministry is organizing a series of trips to Western China including Tibet. The registration deadline for the first trip is this Friday, June 11.

For more information and to register for this and other trips, please see the website of the International Press Center, at http://ipc.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/.

The FCCC Board

President: Stephen McDonell (ABC News)
Vice President: Lucy Hornby (Reuters)
Secretary: Kathleen McLaughlin (BNA)
Treasurer: Tze-Wei Ng (SCMP)

General Board Members:
Jocelyn Ford (US Public Radio)
Peter Ford (The Christian Science Monitor)
Andreas Lorenz (Der Spiegel)
Peter Simpson (Daily Mail)
Richard Stone (Science Magazine)

Associate Board Member:
Giorgio Magistrelli (Consultant to Embassy of Malta)

The outgoing board would like to say thanks to all FCCC members for your support over the past year.

Yahoo has not answered the FCCC’s questions about the attacks, nor has it told individual email users how the accounts were accessed. Password security and malware are ongoing concerns, but it’s unclear whether they are related to this case.

We recommend that you take particular care with any information sent by email, especially with any sensitive information sent via Yahoo accounts. Check your privacy and forwarding settings in all web-based mail (found in Yahoo under “mail options”). Change your secure passwords frequently, but please remain aware that this mode of communication ultimately can’t be considered private.

The FCCC reminds you that email does not appear to be secure in China, and that alternate means of arranging interviews and conducting other sensitive business are often preferable.

For tips on creating a strong password, please see: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10310092-238.html

The FCCC has previously notified members to be cautious about malicious email attachments and provided some guidance on making Gmail secure. There have also been incidents in which the email of foreign correspondents’ local assistants have been targeted.

Malicious email attachments sent to foreign correspondents in China tend to increase around big news events and sensitive political dates. In addition to the Expo messages, the overall volume of malware messages sent to foreign correspondents appears to have grown this week.

Please note: .pdf attachments, often assumed to be harmless, have become a common mode of spreading this type of malware. We suggest caution in handling every attachment you receive, especially as these attacks grow more sophisticated. Regular anti-virus software does not typically pick up these types of malware. If you’re unsure whether an email attachment is safe, you can check here.

More information on email attacks against foreign correspondents in China is available here. Gmail users can find information here.