VZCZCXRO3424
RR RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0030/01 0520918
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 210918Z FEB 08
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2736
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0067
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3320

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000030 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM AND EAP/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  2/21/2018 
TAGS: SOCI PHUM ECPS KIPR CH
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA -- THE SATELLITES ARE HIGH AND THE EMPEROR 
IS FAR AWAY 
 
REF: (A)  2007 BEIJING 7330  (B) 2007 CHENGDU 00267 
 
CHENGDU 00000030  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: James Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate 
General, Chengdu, China. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
¶1.  (C)  Summary:  Satellite television ties rural Chinese to 
urban culture and brings unjammed foreign broadcasts to a large 
audience throughout China.  Simple satellite receiver dish 
packages selling for USD 50 bring central Chinese television to 
rural areas and the world to Chinese cities.  To judge by the 
small dishes the Consulate has observed on apartments in 
Southwest China, the many online satellite pirates who market 
inexpensive descrambler receivers do a large business.  Local 
governments sometimes jam home dishes in violation of Chinese 
regulations.  Some Muslims in Gansu and southern Yunnan receive 
Arabic language TV broadcasts from the Middle East.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
Satellite TV Brings the City to Rural China 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 ¶2.  (SBU)  Greatly improved roads and job opportunities in the 
city, the internet, mobile phones, and now satellite television 
bring the city closer to rural China than ever before in its 
history.  This is especially true in Southwest China, a region 
where  transportation and communications have been historically 
difficult due to difficult and mountainous terrain.  Some local 
governments subsidize village satellite TV/cable systems which 
replaced the networks of rural TV relay transmitters about a 
decade ago.  Satellite dishes aren't just used for village cable 
TV but are increasingly seen outside individual homes in rural 
China.  These dishes are aimed at specific PRC satellites such 
as Chinasat 6B which offers 45 channels of unscrambled 
provincial and central television and 90 radio channels 
including Tibetan for Qinghai Province and Mongolian for Inner 
Mongolia.  Domestic satellites broadcasting on the 5 GHz C band 
and can be received with a dish of  90 centimeters throughout 
China although most of these dishes are 1.2 - 1.5 meters large. 
See   
http://www.lyngsat.com/china6b.html for details and a satellite 
coverage map.  Other unscrambled channels from India and other 
countries, including VOA television, could be received by moving 
the dish, but most rural people do not have the language skills 
to understand or the expertise to make the necessary adjustments 
to receive foreign broadcasts. 
 
 
 
And the World to Urban China 
 
---------------------------- 
 
 ¶3.  (C) In Chengdu and many other southwest China cities, 
luxury apartment complexes often receive foreign television 
channels including CNN from rooftop dishes and pipe the signals 
onto cable systems along with regular Chinese cable TV channels. 
 Getting foreign television was once reserved to higher ranking 
Communist Party and government officials. Now many better off 
urbanites in luxury complexes now also get foreign television 
including Hong Kong and Taiwan channels or put up their own 
dishes.  Small 60 cm 12 GHz ku-band dishes are often seen on 
apartment balconies. 
 
 
 
Boring TV, Hidden Dish 
 
---------------------- 
 
 ¶4.  (SBU) Some PRC websites advertise small dishes that can be 
placed almost invisibly within an apartment just inside a 
window, as pictured in a pirate television online forum at 
http://tinyurl.com/yuqkdy . While there are many unscrambled 
domestic channels on the 5 GHz C satellite broadcast band, some 
urban dwellers with access to cable television are aiming for 
scrambled Chinese Hong Kong and Taiwan including localized 
versions of HBO and ESPN with Chinese subtitles.  While it is 
possible to pay licensing fees, a large proportion are likely 
taking advantage of inexpensive receiver/descramblers which the 
increasing amount of computer processing power built into 
digital satellite receivers has made possible. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Satellite television is now becoming more widespread, 
but Chinese intellectuals have been fascinated with this window 
to the world for sometime.  For example, in 2000, just before 
the Taiwan presidential elections, a well-known Chinese writer 
went to a friend's house in the suburbs of Beijing to watch 
Taiwan satellite TV coverage of the elections.  Improvements in 
technology, especially with the switch from analog to digital 
 
CHENGDU 00000030  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
video transmission have multiplied the numbers of channels 
available and made pictures clearer and receiving equipment much 
cheaper. 
 
 
 
Satellite Piracy as a Front in the IPR Wars 
 
------------------------------------------ 
 
 ¶6.   (SBU)  Hotels, schools and some businesses can purchase 
dishes openly but sales to private individuals are often done 
with a veneer of secrecy.   Police crack down sometimes - a 
company selling dishes openly was closed down in northwest 
Chengdu near Chengdu S&T University (Chengdu Ligong Daxue] in 
September 2007  People can easily find electronic markets and TV 
repair shops in Chengdu that supply dishes.  Some will deliver 
the dishes in person or ship them through the mail.  A 
motorcycle drawn cart carrying dishes (resembling shallow tubs 
more than satellite dishes but with four strategically placed 
holes) appeared during a December visit to a Chengdu wholesale 
electronics market. 
 
 
 
¶7.   (SBU)  The "Fazhi Ribao" in August 2006 reported on a 
nationwide crackdown on illegal home satellite dishes, noting 
that these dishes violate the PRC State Council Order (1993) 129 
"Satellite Receiving Station Equipment Management Regulations". 
These regulations forbid the private installation or use of 
satellite receiving dishes without the permission of the local 
broadcasting bureau and provincial level government. These 
regulations also forbid the production and sale of satellite 
equipment without authorization. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Cell phone text message advertisements promoting home 
satellite dishes are common in Chengdu.  Websites promoting both 
legal dishes and receivers and illegal descrambling codes for a 
very nominal extra charge are run in Chengdu and elsewhere.  For 
example, the Shenyang Evening News in northeast China reported 
in August 2006 that 3000 homes in Shenyang bought systems from a 
Shenyang satellite pirate that provides satellite television 
decryption codes for six different satellites to customers who 
login for an annual fee of RMB 100 (USD 7)  per year.  The 
satellites carry many foreign programs including adult 
programming. The pirate buys legitimate plug in cards and then 
plugs them into a computer that then transfers the codes to any 
customer who logs in. 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The Chengdu website Southwest Satellite Television ( 
 http://www.cdtvro.com), although its 
top page is flanked by the cyber police cartoon characters Mr. 
Jing and Ms. Cha, not only introduces technical information but 
a wide range of equipment for decrypting encrypted satellite 
television.   Many websites that offer for sale inexpensive 
satellite equipment, especially small dishes for the 12 GHz Ku 
band boast of the many foreign channels their customers can 
receive, but do not mention that many of those channels are 
scrambled.  No problem though, since when customers buy the 
receiver is already set up to receive the scrambled channels. 
One of the most heavily promoted satellites on Chinese satellite 
TV marketing websites is Asiasat 3S carries many scrambled Star 
TV channels destined for Hong Kong viewers.  Asiasat3S also 
offers carries unscrambled channels from VOA television, Hong 
Kong,  India and Pakistan as well as  clear digital audio 
transmissions of VOA and Radio Free Asia broadcasts.  VOA 
Chinese language call-in shows attract callers from both sides 
of the Taiwan straits.  Asiasat 2S offers a strong signal and 
many channels in Arabic from the Middle East.  See for example, 
 
http://www.lyngsat.com/asiasat3s.html and 
 
http://www.lyngsat.com/asia2.html for details on what Chinese 
programs Chinese viewers can get from those two satellites. . 
 
 
 
A Satellite Pirate Compares Pirate and Legitimate Pricing 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶10. (C) Satellite TV entrepreneurs are not hard to find but 
don't like to meet people in their office. With a cell phone 
call, a meeting at a small "satellite office" with nearly no 
inventory to be lost in a raid, is easily arranged.  A Chengdu 
 
CHENGDU 00000030  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
satellite dish and receiver seller met Congenoff in a small 
office on the third floor of an electronics market hive of small 
shops.  Inside the office HBO, a scrambled broadcast was running 
on a small satellite TV.  The businessman said that a satellite 
dish and receiver capable of receiving scrambled television 
channels sells for RMB 600 (USD $95).  When asked what it would 
cost the legal way, the businessman said the receiver costs RMB 
8000 (USD 1150) with an additional RMB 6000 to be paid each year 
for receiving scrambled satellite broadcasts. 
 
 
 
Hubei Local Government Illegally Jams Home Dishes 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Apparently regretting the loss of viewers to distant 
stations, some local governments illegally jam satellite 
receivers.  An October 2007 issue of China Radio (Zhongguo 
Wuxiandian) by three engineers at the Yichang, Hubei Province 
radio monitoring station discusses their investigation of 
satellite TV interference in the Three Gorges area.  In April 
2007, the Three Gorges Development Co. informed the monitoring 
station that company employees and 3000 other nearby households 
were complaining about terrible television reception on the 
local cable system.  The engineers found a strong jamming signal 
which they traced back to the Letianxi Township Broadcasting 
Bureau.  The Bureau admitted to transmitting jamming signals on 
the 4 GHz satellite TV frequencies to stop people from using 
home TV dishes in violation of regulations.  The engineers 
condemned the Broadcasting Bureau for violating national 
regulations and disturbing local people and brought the case to 
the attention of higher level leaders. 
 
 
 
MII Responds with Urgent Notice Reaffirming No Jamming Policy 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU)   In September 2007, the PRC Ministry of Information 
Industry issued its ministerial notice (2007) 459  "Urgent 
Notice Forbidding the Design, Manufacture and Use of Television 
Jamming Equipment"  (see   
http://tinyurl.com/ypkhp3 for Chinese text)  which "condemns a 
small number of  units, which out of their own selfish interest, 
have recently been jamming TV broadcasts, making it impossible 
for them to get Central Chinese Television, and so disturbing 
the populace as to damage local harmony and social stability." 
 
 
 
Religious and Ethnic Minorities Tune in to Satellite TV 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶13.  (C)   Chinese satellite TV broadcasts including Mongolian 
from Inner Mongolia TV,  Tibetan from Qinghai Province TV and 
TAR TV and four channels of Uighur language TV from the Xinjiang 
Uighur AR make it possible for widely dispersed minority people 
to receive TV in their own languages.  TAR TV's Tibetan language 
channel TAR 2, has some local programming along with many 
Chinese movies dubbed into Tibetan.  US diplomats traveling in 
Qinghai Province (Ref A)  and in southern Yunnan  Province (Ref 
B) have noticed many satellite dishes used to receive TV 
broadcasts from the Middle East including some at Islamic 
schools. 
 
 
 
Tibetan Monks Enjoy Indian TV 
 
----------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (C)  In the Tibetan Autonomous Region and other ethnic 
Tibetan areas of China, technically skilled monks set up 
satellite TV systems with inconspicuous dishes for their 
brethren.  Not only do the monks get news broadcasts otherwise 
denied them, they also enjoy foreign entertainment.  In some 
monasteries, Indian dance programs have become so popular that 
it has become a fad to move their heads back and forth as Indian 
dancers do and to shake their head to mean "yes" as in India. 
The monks may also be watching the several Buddhist satellite 
channels from Taiwan as well. 
 
 
 
¶15.  (C) The October 2007 VOA television interview with the 
Dalai Lama in Tibetan was received at some monasteries in 
 
CHENGDU 00000030  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
Tibetan areas of China.  VOA and RFA have audio feeds on TV 
broadcast satellites that are not jammed and for practical 
reasons (satellite dishes pointed up at a dish strongly reject 
ground signal coming from the side)  would be difficult to jam 
effectively over a radius greater than a few miles. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
------- 
 
¶16.  (C)  Satellite news leaks through China's information 
firewall along with the foreign satellite entertainment 
programming that the bored viewers of Chinese central television 
are turning to.  One Chengdu businessman commented that getting 
Taiwan television wouldn't likely change people's attitudes 
because what Taiwan television broadcasts show are mostly 
entertainment programs and not the documentary programs that 
would give people on the mainland an understanding to of 
Taiwan's impressive democracy.  As a  provider of alternative 
unfiltered news  satellite TV may prove to be quite influential. 
 
 
 
 
¶17.  (U)  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Beijing and 
Consulate General Chengdu. 
BOUGHNER