Comments on: New York Times Reporter Chris Buckley Denied Visa Renewal, Forced To Leave China [UPDATE]

By: King Baeksu

King Baeksu — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:23:27 +0000

Anyone else having problems opening up certain Wall Street Journal stories on China these days? China Real Time report still seems to be unblocked, but many features on China give me a “Safari can’t open the page” message, and then for the next several minutes the entire site suddenly becomes blocked. For instance, the story on the front page of their Asia site right now, “Chinese Fly Cash West, by the Suitcase,” cannot be opened. Is it just me? Seems like another more subtle approach to “containing” the dastardly Western media and other forces “hostile to China.”

By: RhZ

RhZ — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 07:44:08 +0000

I am with you on this. There is little reason for optimism in my eyes right now, even if Xi is actually a decent person. He doesn’t control as much as people think…and its gonna need some major crisis for him to gain more leverage, again assuming he is really a closet reformer.

They said the same thing about Wen, but when push came to shove all his reformist policies got delayed and delayed…until now when they will be canceled. And the repression tightened and tightened at the same time…then again he had Hu next to him. Hu seems in retrospect to lack in creativity, putting it mildly.

By: P.

P. — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:05:31 +0000

This.

As per your closing paragraph, I’m puzzled at the pundits who continue to push the “let’s just wait and see” angle when it comes to the new leadership and how committed they are to reforms: increased Internet crackdowns, increased maritime tensions, a more aggressive foreign policy, this visa stuff. Lots of other stuff that I can’t think of at the moment because of a New Year’s hangover.

Reformers they are not. Granted a big hullabaloo has been made over this new anti-corruption campaign, but aren’t these tightening Internet restrictions designed to protect most cadres from the country’s burgeoning ranks of amateur online gumshoes?

Ugh. Just ugh.

By: KopyKatKiller

KopyKatKiller — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 05:03:24 +0000

I think a lot of foreign newspapers will pull out sooner rather than later… So, getting kicked out by the retards in Beijing is no biggie. Foreign newspapers should just go to the Republic of China and run their operations from there. Send in reporters on 3 month tourist visas and rotate them. They’d probably get better coverage by not having a journalists visa anyway.

By: King Baeksu

King Baeksu — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 04:01:06 +0000

Obviously, it was Barboza’s feature on Wen and his family that provoked the CCP dragon, causing it to spew fire all over the NYT’s operations in China by blocking it the same day the story came out. However, denying him a new visa would have made him a martyr, while at the same time lending further credibility to his many revelations.

Better to make his associates pay. Death by a thousand cuts and all that. Those crafty commies seem to be learning that more subtlety is required when dealing with the Western media than they have displayed in the past.

Welcome to 2013, folks. A chill is in the air, and it’s not just the winter weather.

By: Chinese Netizen

Chinese Netizen — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:09:46 +0000

Good luck with the new job, Philip…as you know, the CCP thugs can be especially vile to those in China who claim Chinese ancestry regardless of nationality.

Part of the whole “wo men Zhong Guo ren…” tactic when intimidating/bargaining/celebrating/etc.

Your book is still one of my faves and recommended to many people…