Magnifisyncopathological

[Updates below.]

ABC Asia Pacific TV / Radio Australia: China restricts foreign press reports

Tight media restrictions in China are set to become even tougher.

The country's top media body has implemented another wave of regulations in a bid to control political and international news reporting.

The restrictions prohibit domestic television news organisations from using any international news reports not approved and provided by the official state television and radio stations.

Many local stations in major Chinese cities have taken to using reports supplied by foreign news services or satellite broadcasters as media competition and the demand for better news services grow.

Press freedom is an ongoing issue in China.

While the country may exhibit all the outward signs of capitalism, restrictions on --

UPDATED 9:20am
Really, it's sickening.

The Guardian: Citizen Ken takes the Chinese by charm

Six days in China seemed to have changed Livingstone from a gaffe-prone City Hall leftie into an advocate of China's new ideology - totalitarian capitalism. In between the grey gravitas of Beijing and the Blade Runner city of Shanghai, he seemed to have found a new authority, a new energy and a new philosophy - central-state-planned capitalism.

And - seriously - read this direct quote from "Red Ken":

'The single most important reason for me coming to China was to get more Chinese companies to list on the London stock market. We want them to choose London and not New York. The Americans have over-reacted to the Enron scandal and foreign executives are frightened of the new rules. We want to tell Chinese businessmen that we will not put you in prison if someone down the management food-chain has forgotten to fill in a form correctly. You are welcome in London.

'China is already the second biggest economy, in real terms, in the world after the USA, and they might overtake the Americans by 2025, so we've got to integrate Chinese people into the economic system, not shut them out like the Americans,' he said.

You cannot reason with people so far beyond it.

UPDATED 4/27/2006 12:35am
People are profoundly unclear on the concept.

UPDATED 7/4/2006 11:15am
Here are some more of those signs of the free market so rampaging through China these days: China Defends Proposed Law to Fine Media:

China defended a proposed law that would fine media reporting on riots and disasters without official approval, saying Monday it wants to encourage responsible journalism - not punish independent reporting.