Chinese advisor calls for improved broadcast coverage in border areas

Chinese advisor calls for improved broadcast coverage in border areas

March 9th, 2009 - 13:31 UTC by Andy Sennitt

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) - A Chinese political adviser has urged the government to improve TV and radio coverage in border areas to counteract infiltration by hostile foreign forces and protect national political and cultural security.

“Border areas lived by minor ethnic groups still face a grave situation in counteracting infiltration through TV and radio broadcasting,” said Ma Qingsheng, member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at the annual session the political advisory body Monday in Beijing.

“Hostile and secessionist forces from overseas have been changing their tactics in infiltrating the border areas lived by minor ethnic groups, by increasing the power of projectors, the hours of broadcasting, and changing the venues of frequencies of broadcasting constantly,” said Ma, vice director of the Committee of Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee.

According to him, among border villages with 20 households each, 23,000 are yet to be covered by TV and radio programmes. In the border areas of Yunnan province alone, 3.5 million people have no access to radio broadcasts, while three million people have no access to TV programmes.

Improving TV and radio coverage in the border areas is utterly necessary to raise awareness of government policy, prevent the infiltration of hostile foreign forces, consolidate ethnic unity, safeguard stability in the border areas, and enrich the cultural life of minor ethnic peoples, said Ma.

He urged the government to build more powerful projectors and strengthening the jamming of hostile foreign radios. The government must increase its financial support to radio and TV services in border areas and encourage the production of programmes in the languages of minor ethnic groups, he said.

(Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1108 gmt 9 Mar 09 via BBC Monitoring)

Andy Sennitt comments: The phrase “strengthening the jamming of hostile foreign radios” is interesting. It’s widely known that China has a considerable radio jamming operation, but it’s rare to see that openly admitted by an official news agency.