In the places where I have not had the language abilities to read the daily papers consumed by the locals, I have always felt that what I was getting was processed news. Not the raw feed. Not the same set of stories the locals see. Even in Turkey where they do not have a government managed media, I had the sense I was missing a lot. In China, it is not a feeling - it is a certainty. I alternated between two papers China Daily and Global Times because their story choices were notably different - a clue that there they are not reporting the news, rather they are reporting what they would like you to know.
And what do they want us to know? They want us to know that the Chinese government is fighting corruption and cracking down hard on people who do not respect intellectual property rights. Having been shopping in China, I wonder about that. I am not sure they're winning that fight, though a story published in the government outlet might offer clues to the problem. They report busting an illegal publisher - confiscating his inventory and punishing him with a $9000 penalty. $9,000? Penalty? Or cost of doing business?
My favorite stories were about the problems of China's newly spoiled youth. For more see the coming post 'The Princess Problem' - but the combination of the one child policy and China's 'nouveau riche' is having some interesting consequences.
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