Old School Doesn't Always Mean Ultra Conservative

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China allows newspaper to re-open

The ones calling on it are...? No, they aren't the youths, nor are the the bloggers that use proxies to circumvent Chinese internet filters, nor are they the media moguls who seek to get out their 'message'; it is party elders who have called upon their government to curb the zealous censorship.

It is a reason that some people earn the title of elder, and it is for 'wisdom'; they have grown wise with their years and know a thing or two that they can teach the upstart generations.

The news comes two days after prominent Communist Party elders issued a rare open letter to protest about increased media restrictions and censorship.

The signatories - who included a onetime aide to former leader Mao Zedong and an ex-party propaganda chief - said strict censorship may "sow the seeds of disaster" for China's political transition.

This comes at a time when Beijing is incredibly intent on curbing media freedom and heavily censoring anything that it deems out of sync with adminitrative mandate (Google anyone?)

The Bingdian (Freezing Point) was shut down because it dared to publish an article that questioned the administration.

In his article on 11 January, Yuan Weishi wrote that Chinese history text books never acknowledged the culpability of the government, but blamed others instead.

"We were raised on wolf's milk," he wrote in the article, meaning a culture of hatred and violence.

Ah yes, another way of saying, "we're being brainwashed through government slanted propoganda.". The Chinese public is being very much influenced by theit government to not to speak out; the penalities are severe and the stakes are high.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry on Thursday defended the closure of Bingdian.

Qin Gang told a news briefing that the historian's essay "gravely violated historical facts, gravely hurt the national feeling of the Chinese people, and gravely injured the image of the China Youth Daily".

In other words, the newspaper published the truth that the Chinese government didn't want the public to know.

This is also from the same government which is pressing down heavily on Japan for 'white washing' its history textbooks in regards to its crimes during World War II. Before the Chinese government starts to clean up its neighbouir's yard, perhaps it ought to take a gander at its...