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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002481 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2032 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCUL SOCI CH JA
SUBJECT: PREMIER WEN'S VISIT TO JAPAN DOMINATES NEWS CYCLE 
 
Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton. 
  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C) Mainland media has presented saturation 
coverage of Premier Wen Jiabao's trip to Japan this 
week as print, online and broadcast media have given 
the visit top billing.  With few exceptions, the 
treatment has been straightforward and upbeat.  The 
official and popular press has emphasized Premier 
Wen's focus on building economic ties, energy issues 
and his warmly received speech in the Japanese Diet. 
The Propaganda Department has handed down no formal 
guidelines on covering the visit, our contacts said, 
although some outlets continue to practice self- 
censorship to avoid missteps on an inherently 
sensitive issue.  Internet discussion forums have been 
flooded with commentary about the visit, mostly 
lauding Premier Wen's performance and the positive 
implications of a potential improvement in Sino-Japan 
ties for China's future.  Beijing's university 
students do not appear overly focused on the Premier's 
travels.  One Beijing University student said the mood 
on Japan has calmed considerably since the April 2005 
anti-Japan demonstrations.  Some chatters on the 
"Strong Nation" patriotic web forum were more 
negative, however, urging Chinese to have "no 
illusions" in their dealings with Japan.  End Summary. 
 
All The Upbeat News That Fits 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) Media reports on Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to 
Japan this week have been resoundingly upbeat.  The 
official Party mouthpiece the People's Daily has run 
front-page coverage, complete with photos above the 
fold, each day of the visit.  On April 13, the paper 
printed a picture of Premier Wen meeting Emperor 
Akihito.  The official Guangming Daily's front pages 
have followed suit and the paper also published an 
editorial on April 12 praising "a new era of mutual 
prosperity" for China and Japan. 
 
¶3.  (C) High-circulation print outlets have also given 
the visit pride of place, with the popular daily The 
Beijing News running a steady diet of front page 
headlines and pictures, along with a number of opinion 
pieces.  Among the latter, a typically optimistic 
example in the paper's April 13 edition played on the 
"melting the ice" theme, noting in the headline that 
"spring is expected."  The CCTV nightly national news 
broadcast has also aired ample adulatory coverage of 
the visit.  In the run-up to the visit, the 
Government-run TV network also broadcast a documentary 
series on Japanese society that was noteworthy for its 
avoidance of thorny historical issues and other 
disputes. 
 
¶4.  (C) The weekly magazine "Oriental Outlook," which 
is under the editorial umbrella of the official Xinhua 
News Service, ran an attention-grabbing cover about 
China-Japan relations on its April 12 edition -- a 
superimposed picture of the actress Zhang Ziyi waving 
elegantly in the foreground to a sumo wrestler 
standing in a dark background.  The article inside was 
one of the few to sound a downbeat note, reporting 
survey results of Chinese and Japanese university 
students' impressions of each others' countries.  The 
headline read, "Japan and China: So Close, Yet So Far 
Away."  The poll results indicated that 46 percent of 
Chinese college students have a "not good" or worse 
view of Japan, while some 56 percent of Japanese 
students held negative impressions of China.  Only 13 
percent of Chinese students have a "good" or "very 
good" opinion of Japan, while 8 percent of Japanese 
students see China in a positive light. 
 
No Guidelines, But Self-Censorship 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) The Propaganda Department has not handed down 
any formal guidelines regarding the visit, said Zhou 
Qing'an (protect), a professor at the Tsinghua 
University School of Journalism and Communications and 
a free lance journalist.  Zhou speculated, however, 
that propaganda guardians may have called editors and 
urged them informally to present the visit in a 
positive light.  In any case, he said editors and 
journalists are practicing self-censorship on the 
Japan visit story.  Zhou, who wrote the April 13 
 
BEIJING 00002481  002 OF 002 
 
 
Beijing News "spring is expected" opinion piece, said 
he composed the column in a rush as a favor to the 
editor in chief after the latter spiked another 
journalist's draft for being "inadequately 
optimistic."  As part of this, Zhou said Mainland 
media outlets are choosing to shy away from sore 
subjects such as history, Japan's position on Taiwan, 
territorial disputes and other issues. 
 
¶6.  (C) In fact, despite the good cheer on the air 
waves, media still must tread carefully in its 
treatment of Japan issues, said Sanlian Life Weekly 
journalist Cai Wei (protect).  The popular magazine, 
which aims for a middle-class, urban readership, 
intended to run a series of features about Japanese 
history and culture concurrently with the Wen visit, 
Cai related.  Although the content was not 
controversial on the surface, editors were skittish 
because of trouble the journal had with the censors in 
¶2006.  The magazine was reprimanded four times last 
year for articles on the Cultural Revolution, Tibet 
and other issues that propagandists deemed 
inappropriate.  Cai stressed that at a time when 
Sanlian's circulation is growing and advertising 
profits are up, editors do not want to risk 
disciplinary action.  "We decided to be careful," Cai 
acknowledged, and scrap the planned Japan pieces. 
 
"Strong Nation" Netizens Preach Caution ... 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Internet chat rooms have been largely devoid 
of the usual anti-Japan bashing as netizens have 
instead focused on hope for improved bilateral 
relations.  Unsurprisingly, national pride has come 
through in many posts.  One chatter on a Sina.com 
forum, discussing the countries' difficult history, 
wrote that "as long as we are strong and independent, 
we can't feel insulted by other countries."  At the 
same time, the "Strong Nation" forum, a magnet for 
those with vigorously patriotic views, was home to 
thousands of colorful comments.  Some were cautious, 
such as the netizen who wrote that "China should have 
no illusions about Japan."  But others were more 
extreme, such as one hardliner who wrote that as long 
as China keeps growing and "freezes Japan out for 10 
more years, then Japan will be nothing." 
 
... While Students Yawn 
----------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C) Meanwhile, on university campuses in Beijing, 
where the April 2005 demonstrations started, students 
are taking a low-key approach to Premier Wen's Japan 
visit, said Shi Rong, a senior at Beijing University. 
Shi related that among her classmates, very few are 
paying attention to the news from Tokyo and Kyoto. 
"The mood is much calmer than two years ago," she 
said, ascribing the change in part to the recent lack 
of negative press about Japan.  In this vein, she 
judged that students "tend to get agitated only when 
the news is bad."  Because young people get most of 
their information online, when they glance at the 
headlines on Internet news portals, they tend to pass 
over the links to news stories that seem dry.  "But if 
one of the headlines read 'Japanese Parliament Member 
Throws Tomato at Wen Jiabao,' of course we would all 
read it," Shi said. 
RANDT