But where did Tom Friedman get the idea? Isaac Stone Fish of Foreign Policy decided to find out.

I asked Friedman whether all this was true, and he responded by email:

“I only deserve part credit,” he noted. “The concept of ‘China Dream’ was created by my friend Peggy Liu, as the motto for her NGO about how to introduce Chinese to the concept of sustainability.”

Friedman’s “China Dream” column references Liu and her NGO JUCCCE. In his email to me, he wrote, “I adapted her concept in the column below and just took [it] all the way to [the] top and made it a challenge for Xi Jinping.” “I just took it to a higher level — put it right in his face so to speak — in hopes of making it scale by challenging the next party chairman to adopt it,” he added.

May we recommend Friedman consider putting Chinese censorship of the New York Times “in (Xi Jinping’s) face, so to speak”?

Thomas Friedman: I only deserve partial credit for coining the ‘Chinese dream’ (Foreign Policy)

In the January 28 issue of The Economist, the editors wrote: “In this issue we launch a weekly section devoted to China. It is the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United States in 1942 that we have singled out a country in this way.” Two weeks later, BJC reader Anlicia picked up a copy of the February 18 issue from Page One, a reputable book store in Beijing’s central business district, and found that someone had ripped out the article “Grappling in the dark” regarding Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun. Of course the country might have censored Internet searches of Wang Lijun’s accusations against princeling Bo (though coverage has been remarkably skittish, as various factions jockey to align themselves for or against Bo’s “Chongqing mafia“), but hard copies of magazines?

We understand the issue’s already a couple weeks old, but we wonder if someone really wanted to read that article, or if they didn’t want anyone else reading it. Several of our friends have heard of pages getting ripped out of magazines before, and of course there’s the practice of hiring goons to clear newsstands of offending publications, but as to this particular case? Similar encounters, anyone? tips@beijingcream.com