The next edition of Asia by Blog will be out soon. It will include this but it's important enough to have a seperate post: Via Marmot comes this piece on Chinese bloggers. The article covers the story of Liu Di, a noted cyber-dissident. It talks about the rapid rise in the number of bloggers in China and the Government's efforts to deal with this profusion of free thought and need for censorship. It estimates China has placed 63 cyber-dissidents in prison although the true number is likely to be higher. There are even hints that some blogs have had a part in influencing political decisions such as a bid by a Japanese firm to build a bullet train between Shanghai and Beijing. More interesting again is an element of self-censorship amongst China bloggers in order to avoid having their sites blocked and on efforts to build a China Wikipedia.

You know what I'm going to say: read the whole thing.

While you're at it the IHT has an article on America's need for a China policy. A small excerpt:

China is rapidly developing into a global economic force. Yet U.S. policy toward China remains confusing and contradictory as a result. The U.S. choice is a simple one: We can either strive to protect our superpower status by trying to impede the rise of China, or we can exhibit more enlightened leadership by helping China mature into a full partner on the global level.

For any American living in Asia in recent years, it has been obvious that the United States and China need to find a way to better understand each other. Time and again, in issues big and small, there has been a tendency to misunderstand and even to exaggerate differences...