At times the CCP can be stunning in its hypocracy. The lead item at Xinhua's website, the official mouthpiece of the CCP, is titled Government for the interest of the people and proceeds to details various efforts taken by the Government to help workers claim unpaid wages, improve peasants' health, deal with AIDS, help the unemployed and the move from "Serve the People" to "Exercising Government Power in the Interest of the People".

At the same time the SCMP reports that all media editors have been told not to report on economist Mao Yushi or his Unirule Institue of Economics. The Propaganda Ministry has blacklisted the professor and banned a book he has written, as well as banning some conferences his Institute has tried to organise. Why? Because he reports on cases of farmland acquisition by local cadres, a common source of local protest and corruption. Even better the news blackout also covers websites specialising in exposing corruption and irregularities by local officials. They are not allowed to follow up on land-seizure cases they have been covering.

"Exercising Government Power in the Interest of the People" indeed.