Censorship frenzy on rumours of former Chinese leader's death

Rumours that retired Chinese supreme leader Jiang Zemin was dead or dying raced through Chinese cyberspace yesterday, sending official censors into overdrive to excise the messages - which in turn spurred people to craft ever more cryptic and inventive postings.

Searches for "Jiang Zemin" in Chinese or "Jiang" - which means "river" - drew warnings on Sina Corporation's popular Twitter-like service that the search was illegal. In response, posts began appearing about former leader "River" in English.

The internet cat-and-mouse game over the possible death of a former leader underscores how secretive China's Communist Party leadership remains - and illustrates the difficulties of maintaining that secrecy in a well-wired society.

Rumours about the ill health of Mr Jiang, 84, have percolated for months and resurfaced anew after he did not appear at last Friday's celebration for the 90th anniversary of the party's founding. Other current and former leaders - including a 94-year-old revolutionary veteran - were shown by state media in prominent attendance in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

The government's press office declined to respond to questions about Mr Jiang, who led China for a dozen years until transferring power to the current president, Hu Jintao in 2002.

State media have not reported the rumours, however, Hong Kong television stations reported Mr Jiang's death last night, citing sources they did not identify.

Even with the official silence, the government and Chinese society hummed along as usual - unlike when paramount leader Deng Xiaoping died in 1997. Rumours of Mr Deng's demise repeatedly made Hong Kong's stock markets plummet, so worried were investors that the market reforms he championed would die with him.

Steve Tsang, an expert on Chinese succession issues based at Nottingham University, said: "We are not going to see a palace coup of any sort.

"We are not going to see a leadership change as a result of Jiang Zemin's passing away, and we are not going to see a major reversal in any major policy."

In cyberspace, web censors tried to quash any speculation by deleting domestic blog posts about Mr Jiang and blocking overseas media reports that cited anonymous sources as saying Mr Jiang was on his deathbed.

When the Chinese character for "Jiang" became blocked on Sina's Weibo microblogging service, English variations for Mr Jiang's name began popping up - a typical tactic for getting around sensitive issues.

There were posts about "River Ze People", "River Pond People", and "River Lustre People".One user posted an illustration of the character "dian", which refers to a toast for the dead, with "Jonn Ze Min" typed above it.

David Bandurski, a media issues expert at the University of Hong Kong, said censors can't completely scrub the web of every reference to a banned topic, but their vigilance limits the discussions.

As a result, discussions become limited to small groups of online friends who understand the code words, he said.

When it comes to any kind of internal politics, Chinese officials still "want to control the conversation as ultimately as they can," he said.