Liu had a series of questions: "For instance, under a new law, what would happen to a journalist who criticizes the policies of the central government? Would journalists be allowed to report, on the democracy movement without restrictions or fear of censure? True press freedom means not only the freedom to report on facts and information, but also to express voices of dissent. Can the Chinese Communist Party afford to permit such practices?"
The fact is that whenever the Chinese press exceeds the limited press freedom allowed by the Communist Party, the Party immediately takes that freedom away and more. Limited coverage of corruption, scandals and minor social unrest may pacify the people for some time. But if journalists were free to cover, for example the democracy movement, demonstrations and widespread social unrest, they would surely be charged with fueling unrest and all press freedoms would be banned, including the current policies intended to mollify the people. Sadly, this pattern has been repeated over and over since the Communists took power in 1949.(4)
Government censorship of the Internet in China exists, but, it's practically out of sight, out, of mind.
According to several Internet professionals in China, many Western Websites that were once banned, now can be easily accessed.
At Online Journalism Review's request, Dr. Yun Tao, the vice president of Cenpok Intercom Technology Company, checked the Los Angeles Times' Web site from his office in Beijing. He reported back via e-mail: "No Problem. The headline news right now is Clinton opening national dialogue on social security." And that indeed was the headline of April 8.
"I feel the current regulation actually doesn't affect users at, all," said Yun Tao, who received a doctorate in the U.S. "Actually nobody really cares or can control what you're doing at, home as long as you don't take things into the public."
Kenneth Farrall, the president of Matrix East Incorporated, an Internet consulting firm, also found China's Internet censorship to be very minor, with almost no effect on a user's ability to access information.
He visited three sites for us in China: http://www.voa.org (the Voice of America), http://www.whitehouse.gov. (Clinton's official site) and HYPERLINK: http://www.sinanet.com (a major Taiwan-based online news site). Farrall said that he could access all of those sites freely without resorting to a proxy.
According to Zhang Rong, a government official who works as the deputy director of the Science & Technology Institute in Beijing, "Everybody can get online in China."
