Regardless of the politics of the Ai Weiwei case, I agree with the Global Times editorial that publishing private mobile phones on Weibo is a breach of ethics and community standards. The editor is, no doubt, going to get a lot of flak and abusive calls for Global Times stance on the issue. It would be more reasonable to publish a GT email address for the Editor, where people could send their opinions and Global Times would have no cause for complaint.

While the forums of the Global Times and the WSJ have been heated and fairly abusive on the issue, it should no get to a point where individuals are physically threatened for expressing views. Abusive and threatening telephone calls are the inevitable outcome of publishing an Editor's mobile number on such a heated issue.

While I understand a number of Ai Weiwei's points, he is taking quite an 'artistic' and very aggressive approach to expressing them and will inevitably offend many people. He appears to enjoy this. Reminds a little of LU Xun who also had a very aggressive approach... It's a certain style designed to create fame through creative expression of grievance.

Repost those numbers everywhere online!

Trust me. If Ai Wei Wei is elected t power tomorrow, he wold be no different from anyone in power. You guys would be the first to cheer anyone standing up against him. There are those in our society who are just plain simple anti-establishment, period. Not understanding that in a modern society which seek to improve and advance, we need to be an organized society. Support and co-operation is important. Vote them out if they do not perform. If no such mechanism is available, fight for such a mechanism to be established but do not put Ai Wei Wei on a pedestal. He is still an unproven item. Until and unless such a mechanism is in place, u have all the right to critical and analytical.

Brilliant. I wonder if the Global Times editorial staff realise that stories such as these, with their comical logic, google translate English and false arguments, serve only to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the Global Times.

Do they seriously think that any westerner, well used to far more sophisticated bias and spin from our own media, would read an article such as this and actually be convinced of the logic of its position?!

It strikes me as surprising that anyone with any sense of journalistic integrity would work for the Global Times, let alone write an article like this, but then again, I'd imagine that whoever did write this lost their sense of journalistic integrity a long time ago, and has sunk to writing anything they can to try to win the favour of Editor in Chief Hu Xijin and get a promotion.

Hope you're enjoying the late night phone calls!

Like most Chinese, the Global Times editorial staff are cowards. Grow up.

# Lee Rong-ji

the measurement of that if a act is ethical or unethical ego-maniac non-ego-maniac drum-beating or simple defensive intuition ,shall be the abstraction of our evaluation of several important components ,which mainly r the political system social taboo and residual mental effect from the just-pasting events , china is a as u should already know a solitude communism country with disdained human rights record ,which is a famous tingling-spot of the international itchy&scratchy game, frequently that makes many countries around the world feels the agony and convenient at the same time ,but for us chinese a bad human rights record is pure agony, part of this agony came from the lack of protection of privacy, which means ordinary chinese citizen have no privacy, this country got the world most sophisticated CCTV web ,foreign websites r blocked, email account and cellphone （especially those activist） r constantly under surveillance ,people get caught and fined for watching porno in their own home ,because of this individual-eliminating system some people got the advantage of super privacy ,the bureaucracy or dear leader ,not only themselves but also their relatives living totally in the fog of mastery ordinary citizen know nothing of their personal life ,financial situation ,family members name ,even their health have became top secret ,some people got prosecuted for leaking leaders prognosis ,here is a iron curtain in china between regime and citizen ,this kind of circumstance designed making citizen feel angry and frustrated ,universally we human recognize isolation as sort of punishment, this is a regime punish its own citizen for no reason ,because in china is no election or ballot, dear leaders have no motive to pretend or pretending anything to earn the populace, most of chinese never see the dear leaders in their whole life, the chance of a citizen occasionally meet the dare leader is zero ,nono, so if u can ,enjoy ur hypocritical president ,at least u have the power to make politician pretending for u ,u r living in other peoples dream ,as long as i concerned ,politician r basically entertainer ,for each ticket u bought u brought it with service and entertainment ,what if the entertainer defying the social contract ,what if after u finish ur payment with ur tax money the actor just disappeared with the money ,what if the actor took ur money and spite on ur face ,many people think chinese have no religion ,all the chinese r atheist ,well we r not chinese worship the only thing that is power ,the sovereign power represente the gun, the killing force, the control of military ,in chinese philosophy money r not grow from ground or exploited from trade ,money come from killing the sovereign power is the golden goose from heaven, every body wants to have their hand on the goose ,this fabulous tradition combined with marxism theory produced the most brutal ideology in human history the maoism theory there is no privacy left at all ,I am a brick of revolution ,i jump into hellhole without hesitation , is lyrics from a famous revolutionary song, in mainland alone maoist killed 40-millions to 80-millions people ,vice president of PRC been tortured to death , chinas vice president died without a whimper ,hundred thousands of artist died form torture and execution, until today there is no official condolence offered to those victims there is scarily any repentance in china ,maoism is still at large , skip the part of residual effect of resent event .i like to ask u the question
do u think aiweiwei a beared fat old artist have the chance to be idolized ? do u think few cellphone nembers r violation to anything？ do u think chinese people rise against the system is not self-defence act ? grow up!!

SIXING FOR ALL PRANK CALLERS!

No seriously, grow up. It was posted on Twitter even, which no one in China can actually read.

btw, Global Times

"If you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen."

When many Chinese officials are acting above the Chinese law, it is ironic to complain that citizens are lack of ethics.

Whether you like it or not Aiweiei is an internationally recognised figure who people will listen to.

By pursuing him, in many ways China is opening pandoras box. The whole world, from governments, galleries and normal people (who contributed to his fund) are following his case and his treatment will be reflected in their opinions of the Chinese establishment. It further undermines the newspapers and media of China, who are already unable to compete with not only the western press (BBC, CNN etc), but even the middle eastern (al-jazeera).

Any look on Weibo will show you that China is becoming an increasingly superficial place, people taking photos of their legs or a 45 degree angle shot of their faces being the norm lately, especially among the 90s generation. Compare this to the politically aware and passionate youths in America, UK and europe who are discussing global issues such as international finance, climate change and the old evil capitalism.

Rather than use provocative figures such as Aiweiwei to launch real debates about issues, the Chinese papers would rather simplify and polarise his views, thus preventing any sensible argument, contributing to the dumbing down of Chinese society and further undermining its media industry.

Interesting. Ai Weiwei's strategies have a lot of effect. Global Times is a split-personality newspaper. Their articles on Ai Weiwei before he was put away are positive and encouraging. You could see that from the links under the Maverick Must Bow Before The Law article (or how was it called?) that appeared soon after Ai's disappearance. And after Ai was released, Global Times was the first newspaper he was allowed to speak to. In fact, this is the only interview until now that he was allowed to give. He has in fact spoken to many foreign reporters since his release, but to be called interviews, the conversations had to be about art. So apart from art interviews, Global Times has been the only officially allowed media channel for Ai Weiwei since his release. And to a certain extent, they have allowed him a voice. Now he attacks them and groups them with those who get 50 cents for every harmonious comment on the Internet. Global Times is a newspaper for people who want to have their cake and eat it. Every newspaper, every kind of media in China has to be like that to survive, and still be interesting and profitable. When I spoke to Ai Weiwei in early July, soon after he was released, he said that now he was like any common person, he had to protect himself for a while, he could not speak out openly. So he kept a comparatively low profile, until he was ordered to pay a huge sum very fast, without documentation, because his tax records and everything in his office was just seized and disappeared, nobody seems to expect any kind of fair or even legal procedure. Ai Weiwei was able to hit back very effectively, many thousands of people openly donated money to him, and millions of people in China and abroad got to know about or were reminded of his case. Now Ai Weiwei has made personal attacks on Global Times editors, among others. This is not nice. They are not the people who jailed him. One could even say they helped him. But they also represent the system. It's like when a certain Peaceful Prize winner from last year, not the little girl, and not the former one-party enforcer, took on the academic establishment in the 1980s, and became famous in certain circles. Or when a few writers started a survey called Duanlie in 1998. Duanlie means split, rip apart. Everybody in the writing business who wanted to participate was encouraged to negate any positive role of established critics, established traditions and practices of modern and contemporary writing, and so on. The critics and professors that these writers and critics rebelled against have not jailed anyone, not directly. They were just perceived to be symbols of a system that prevented the rebels from being heard, and prevented an increased openness in literature and philosophy, in publishing and in academics in general. In fact, many people in the media and in publishing may encourage critical minds and publish interesting material in many cases, but they will not encourage free speech in general, and they will write or speak what they do not believe in to protect themselves. Ai Weiwei is only one person in a long line of people who have decided to fight the system. Because of his father, because of his national and international standing in art and architecture, and because of unique skills, he has been remarkably successful. Personal attacks are not nice, just like exposing yourself in public. But as others have pointed out, even in the comments of this Global Times article, which seem to be remarkably uncensored, the reality of politics and society in China is such that such acts seem comparatively harmless, and even justified.

you deserve it

yes, thanks Goodness, China is really a moral place
Nr. 1 & only on this planet between Humans !

Facebook publishes your phone numbers online

Arh... so that's why it's banned in China.

Thank goodness China is such a "moral" place

Seems like Ai was just returning some of the spite that GlobalTimes fenqing editors so often dish out. If there is an immoral force on the web it is a propaganda outlet like this rag.

Seems like Ai was just returning some of the spite that GlobalTimes fenqing editors so often dish out. If there is an immoral force on the web it is a propaganda outlet like this rag.

well well well, let's watching a bitchy media talking about ethics...how ironic is that. i like naked truth more than fucking ridiculous cover-ups.

I hope your edition in English is not just your waste of time, as it looks to me , when reading this 2 comments now, after mine previous ! I will write as much as I can AND ARRIVE; TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MUST BE SOME (at least = me :-) WHO APRICIATE HAVING NEWS FROM CHINA DIRECTLY AND NOT OVER "TRANSMITTERS" AS WE ALL (UNFORTUNATELY FOR US) HAVE HAD TO HAVE FOR TOO MANY CENTURIES BEFORE THIS NEW GLORIOUS DAYS OF CHINA ! thank you for taking your time , China , and giving us your editions in english over internet, on daily bases .WHAT A GREAT COUNTRY ! Ethic is invented in China ! That, 4 example, is ethicaly correct : to translate own newspapers in English, although maybe there is only one person in the world who knows to apriciate that this much !

Ah, I see, so posting your phone number is a personal attack, but running vicious attack editorials in a national newspaper about a man who was in prison without consulting him, quoting any of his defenders, or even attempting to find ANY shred of evidence confirming his guilt, that's just good journalism!

Fucking pathetic.

if publishing telephone number is unethical, then you should criticize the publisher of Yellow-pages first

I have to admit, to hear you guys talking about "ethical" is probably the most ironic thing I have ever witnessed.

Bravo Lee Rong-ji, Bravo ! I thought only in communist´s countries people are able to develop and learn how to think properly, but, I C , here by your comment : IN MALAYSIA also ! Great ..is probably a matter of race , not just of system, isnt it ? Call me a racist , if this, my positive racism, as I calling it , am, but I do think so ! I think globaly - is obvious who is the best in all and in everything, not just in good looks, music , dancing, singing and sports , as black race is , but in that and in much, much more than that , as you "yellow people" really are = something special !

Such acts of publishing other commentarors' telephone numbers or names is an act of spite and egoistical drum-beating. Like a gorrilla or a chimpanzee to show everyone how great he is; that he is a potential alpha male. The same with politicians who behaves similarly.

Is Ai Wei Wei therefore a hypocrite? Manipulating the unthinking public for his own ego, glory, and self importance? Chances are he is. A true person of the people would be humble and possess values that are untouchable; Key of which would be humility. Others would be sincerity and real concern for his people which he would feel strongly in terms of giving his life for them. Does Ai Wei Wei measures up to these?

Is he anywhere near Mr Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Kung Fu-Tze?

I have known many politicians in Malaysia; Many pretending to be champion of the general populace but in truth, crooks, scoundrels, hypocrites, b*st*rds and arrogant pr*cks looking down disdainly at the people who gave him support and votes as fools, suckers, and idiots.

Chinese people must be smarter. Never idolize anyone who stands forth until his character has been vetted by trials of fire. Never be naive and trusting unnecessarily, especially of political or public figures.

You make them. Not they leading around like a stupid cow by the nose.

So Ai Wei Wei, what you did, in my view as an impartial observer, is that you are a spiteful and small man. Thumbs down for you from this "unthnking" member of the "mob".

Of course, no one knows who Ai bla-bla-bla is ! I knew that ! from the very first moment when here in western Asia (also know under stupid "Continent of Europe" name :-) all TV news started tralking about him - I knew - again one China-man whom no-one in the world or in China vere knew before , like that ill Chinese man who won some Nobel for something, praise of Loosers !I swer I thought this - exactly this and nothing but this ! And I still do not know who is that Aj-aj-aj ...by us known as the expression for when something hurts kids !

you R right, perfectly correctly writing . Thank you, Global Times , you are making my days seam better here in West ! I agree with you ... and am reading recently daily your e-news ! I did not liked when Westerns start talking us about that ... artist .. I found amazing , to tell the least, how Angela Merkel knew his name - once on TV I saw her with President Hu, who arraived here in UE / EU , United Europe, to maybe help us Europeans, and she dared to mention how she herself apriciating some "recent postive changes about ..." I guess this Ai ... however ( & I thought :"does she knows all Chinese citizens this well ... also to pronounce their names ?" :-) Shortly : Go on , China, go on dearest still existing communist land of goodenss, of cleverness, of using own minds system , of finesse, of richest & only still living, own history on this planet , go, China, GO !

So you worry about your mobile number being made public by Ai Weiwei?
In all of your newspaper articles I have always heard you say that in China nobody knows Ai Weiwei. So what is the big deal?
Ai Weiwei himself he has been locked up in a black cage with no cellphone at all. Did you try to get him online?
You are a disgrace to the journalistic profession.

io want my comment back here