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December 01, 2004

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Kristof, the NYT and China

Nicholas Kristof looks at the recent arrest of NYT researcher Zhao Yan. Kristof asserts:

While The Times's policy is, wisely, never to comment on the sources of articles, my own private digging indicates that Mr. Zhao was not the source for that scoop [on Jiang Zemin's official retirement]. He is innocent of everything except being a fine journalist who, before joining The Times, wrote important articles in the Chinese press about corruption.
Kristof has been refused a visa to visit by the Chinese authorities, which he casts as part of a clampdown on dissent and reporting by China. Which it could easily be, although China is also responding to America's tight visa system with similarly tight restrictions. Earlier in his op-ed he gets it right:
So what are China's new leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, really like? Are they visionaries who are presiding over the greatest explosion of wealth the world has ever known? Or are they ruthless thugs who persecute Christians, Falun Gong adherents, labor leaders and journalists in a desperate attempt to maintain their dictatorship?

There's some evidence for both propositions, and they are probably both true to some degree.

Hu and Wen have one main priority above all else: to keep the CCP in power. Everything else flows from that.

 posted by Simon on 12.01.04 at 03:17 PM in the




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Understanding China
Excerpt: Simon Says: Hu and Wen have one main priority above all else: to keep the CCP in power. Everything else flows from that. Yep. But it goes farther than that. I'm going to take this opportunity to get up on...
Weblog: Brain Fertilizer
Tracked: December 1, 2004 10:21 PM


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