Mark MacKinnon's item in the morning's Globe and Mail entitled "China equates Tibetan traditions with U.S. slavery " (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/china-equates-tibetan-traditions-with-us-slavery/article1361525/) ends with an intriguing piece of information:
"In a rebuff of China's state-run media, the U.S. embassy in Beijing Thursday hosted a 'press conference' with 13 independent Chinese bloggers. No official media were invited."
This does strike me as a rather pointed comment on the lack of free press and honest reporting by the Communist Party controlled media in China. As well it is a strong acknowledgement that thanks to new technologies Chinese people can nevertheless be reached with the facts via blogs. While the Chinese blogs that report on the U.S. Embassy briefing will likely be taken down by the Chinese authorities soon after they publish, based on what I have seen in China last summer that will not be before a large number of people have downloaded the content to their hard disks and re-distribute it via e-mail, USB drives, etc.
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