Censorship in China

Online companies Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have been under the gun recently for cooperating with Chinese information restrictions in order to have a business presence in the country. A US House Committee is going to begin hearings today on the issue. But freedom of expression does appear to be growing in China. In a story in today's New York Times about press censorship and the government-forced closing of a popular journal, I saw this remarkable quote:

"At the turning point in our history from a totalitarian to a constitutional system, depriving the public of freedom of speech will bring disaster for our social and political transition and give rise to group confrontation and social unrest," the letter said. "Experience has proved that allowing a free flow of ideas can improve stability and alleviate social problems."

Who said this? "A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country's most powerful newspapers." And there was this from Li Datong, the editor of the closed journal Freezing Point:

"The propaganda office is an illegal organization that has no power to shut down a publication," Mr. Li said in an interview. "Its power is informal, and it can only exercise it if people are afraid."

He added, "I am not afraid."

From half a world away, it is difficult to get a sense of how much political freedom there really is today in China. This article leads me to believe that real progress is being made. It also seems to confirm the idea that economic freedom and political freedom go hand in hand. The Chinese government may have wanted the benefits of granting economic freedoms without granting the rights of free expression, but you can't have one without the other. And ultimately, there is no way they are going to be able to keep the lid on the internet, without the kind of major Tienamen Square kind of crackdown that would set their economy and their image way back.

For this, and maybe only this, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger deserve some credit.