Buried in an article about harassment of foreign reporters in China was this:
Conditions have improved, according to two reports issued in the last week by Human Rights Watch and the Foreign Correspondents Club of China. But both reports concluded that the government has not lived up to its promise and that reporters continue to face harassment, detention and stonewalling, especially in rural areas of the country where officials are either unaware of the new rules or ignore them.
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What is ALWAYS ignored, in China the central government does not have the strangle hold on the provinces and local officials like the western press assumes. That to change age old practices of harassment of the news media will not happen overnight.
The provinces in China are autonomous, in some respect even more so then in the states. That when Beijing hands down an edict or law, it does not mean the local officials are going to go lock step.
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Beijing accused of unfair play
8-7-2007