MCLC: China Digital Times, May 23 (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Terry Boyd-Zhang <terrybz7 at yahoo.com>
Subject: China Digital Times, May 23 (1)
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China Digital Times is blocked in Beijing. As is New York Times, Facebook,
Twitter, and a host of other media and/or individual articles from
particular media. For example, I can open one Guardian or Independent
article but not the next one. Currently, it is not as bad as when the high
level government meetings were in town (when regular work was nearly
impossible) but it is enough to make a person think that the optimism
towards China's development has not been followed with an increase in
cultural openness, neither on the government level nor at an individual
level. Those who can are opting out of the system. Unfortunately, each is
replaced by a surplus of less-qualified people who are eager to play a
larger role in the system. Real change in China will be tremendously slow
in coming. There needs to be a careful look beyond the superficial
economic growth, as dramatic as it appears from the outside.

Terry