China Warns Foreign Performers About Law

Government Says Entertainers Shouldn't Do Anything To "Ruin Ethnic Unity"

(AP)  The Chinese government warned Thursday that foreign performers and entertainers should not violate Chinese law or harm ethnic unity during live performances, in a sign of increasing nervousness about disruptions ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The government wants to guard against performances that could tarnish the country's carefully cultivated image of order and control. Authorities were alarmed in March after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her concert in Shanghai.

Authorities said her outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings," and vowed to be stricter on foreign performers.

The notice on the Ministry of Culture's Web site said China should strengthen rules about foreign performers including checks on their background.

"The content of the performance should not violate the country's law, including situations that harm the sovereignty of the country," the notice said, adding that they should also not harm "national security, or incite racial hatred and ruin ethnic unity."

The statement also said performers should not promote pornography and superstition, and that agencies bringing foreign performers to China will be banned for two years if they violate the rules.

The rules were first introduced in 2005, but the statement reinforces before the games open on Aug. 8.

Musicians in Beijing have gone into hibernation this summer as live performances have been stopped in bars, a music festival canceled, and clubs suddenly told they need a live performance license.

Opposition to China's 58-year rule over Tibet is a popular cause among artists and musicians in the West, and has drawn frequent condemnation from foreign governments and activists. The issue was reignited after violent protests broke out in March in Tibet, leading the Chinese government to shut off the area to foreign media and crack down on alleged offenders.

[runningralph]

American kids don''t want to go into science? Who says? The ones that don''t like science are most likely the ones that are incapable of learning science. These kids today don''t remember Sputnik. Bill Clinton was a dim figure in history to these kids.

[jmurrieta1]

When Bill Clinton gave away America''s technological edge to China, bringing hundreds of thousands of Chinese graduate students and tech workers to the USA to be trained under the H1B visa program, he gave away America''s last chance of resisting Chinese world domination. And Dianne Feinstein was a big help to the Chinese in this regard.

Even now, "American business leaders" push for more Asian imports under H1B and other programs. American kids don''t want to go into science? Big surprise, they saw what happened to their grandparents--the Sputnik generation, who trained for years, worked for modest incomes, then were fired in their "peak earning years" by those same "American business leaders" who wanted to make a few more bucks.

These are the real traitors to America.

[mom_o_truth]

Made in China. Much more to come. We made ourselves dependent. Can we do without them ? Once upon a day China will dominate the Earth again. You are looking at the next-World super power. Wake up people.

[sandycat2]

Arrested and deported? What a joke. The US has trouble arresting and deporting illegals who come here. So what are you talking about?

[runningralph]

China has the right to make and enforce laws in their own country. Anyone that doesn''t like Chinese laws should not go to China. If foreign musicians and athletes came to the US and broke the law, they would be arrested and deported. China can and will do the same. Show business people think because they make lots of money they know more than others and they take advantage of their notoriety to promote causes that have no merit.. Tibet for instance or wierd religions. Also, China has quit Communism. They have taken up capitalism now, big time. And they have made great strides since doing so. Communism is a way for a country to starve and go broke.

[deacon20081]

So I guess Janet Jackson won''t be performing....

[alphaa10-2009]

Visitors to the world''s richest communist dictatorship will do as they are asked (told) to do. Or else...

This is a police state, and the people of China know that all too well. Trumped-up charges, summary police procedings and forced labor camps are the norm. Civil order in China does not involve the freedoms much of the rest of the world takes for granted, including the right to assemble peacefully for redress of grievances and to speak freely.

Most of the Chinese people do not share the glittering wealth the PRC hoards for its favored classes. The poorest live in abject poverty.

Even Marx and Lenin, championing a "dictatorship of the proletariat", would be appalled at how a revolution in the name of the Chinese people has become rule in the interest of perpetual state power.
The Mandarins of Beijing are alive and well.

The fact a privileged class of capitalists is given a long leash by these Mandarins never should be misconstrued to mean "economic liberalization leads to political liberalization"-- the wisdom of Condi Rice notwithstanding.

[stn_sage]

China supposedly wanted to host the Olympics to show the world that it had moved into the 21st century!

Yet, now it suddenly is setting even more restrictive rules of conduct than it already had imposed on its'' peoples!

This certainly is''t in keeping with the spirit of the Olympic Games under which they agreed to host it!

If they can''t host it under the open, peaceful spirit of the Olympics which it represents, they invite the worlds'' ridicule onto themselves!

[whatinthewld]

They are dangerous - we are beginning to see their true side, but we haven''t seen anything yet!!

[whatinthewld]

If we are willing to open our eyes, we are seeing the true "communist, people oppressing, controlling and limiting everything" China.
It is true that we are to live by the laws of the country,....but it looks like China is afraid they will loose control and the people of their country will see what true freedom.