Published: November 24, 2008 10:49 am            

China blasts new Guns N’ Roses album

BEIJING (AP) — A newspaper published by China’s ruling Communist Party is blasting the latest Guns N’ Roses album as an attack on the Chinese nation.

Delayed since recording began in 1994, “Chinese Democracy” hit stores in the U.S. on Sunday, although it is unlikely to be sold legally in China, where censors maintain tight control over films, music and publications.

In an article Monday headlined “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn.”

The album “turns its spear point on China,” the article said.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to faxed questions about the article, although a spokesman speaking on routine condition of anonymity said: “We don’t need to comment on that.”

Spokesmen for the Culture Ministry and State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, government bodies that regulate album releases and performances, could not be reached for comment.

The Global Times article referred only to the title of the album and not to specific song lyrics. The record’s title track makes a reference to the Falun Gong meditation movement that was banned by China as an “evil cult” and warns “if your Great Wall rocks blame yourself,” in an apparent message to the country’s authoritarian government.

Songs from the album could be heard on Internet sites such as YouTube and the band’s MySpace page on Monday and it was not immediately possible to tell whether China’s Internet monitors were seeking to block access to it.

Monitors use content filters that highlight and sometimes block messages containing words such as democracy. That prompted some Internet users to combine English and Chinese characters in their postings about the album to skirt such monitoring.

China approves only limited numbers of foreign films and recordings for distribution each year, partly due to political concerns but also to protect domestic producers.

        

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