NewsTrust.net - Blog: Top Stories on China - Check our News Comparisons

Here are the results of our two-week News Hunt on China, from July 28th to August 10th. With all eyes on the host of the 2008 Summer Olympic games, we found some great journalism from a variety of international and US sources, covering a range of issues, from human rights to pollution and the Chinese economy.

This week, we started a new feature we call 'news comparisons' -- and looked at how different news outlets covered these two issues: media censorship and the changing role of the Communist Party. Please give us feedback on this new feature, by adding your comments at the end of this post. Besides these 'news comparisons,' we've also listed some of this week's top-rated news and opinions about China.

Top Rated Stories on China This Week

Last week, we listed some of the top rated stories on China from the first half of our News Hunt. Here's a sampling of top rated stories from this week:

World Seeks a Label to Define the Beijing Games - Wall Street Journal

From Beijing to Battery Park, Activists Stress Causes - New York Times

China's Environmental Crisis - Council on Foreign Relations

The Olympics: Unveiling Police State 2.0 - Huffington Post

Who'll start the rain? - Salon

News Comparisons

This week, we're starting a new feature suggested by our members earlier this year: 'News Comparisons' that show how different publications covered the same story about China. To experiment with this idea, we've produced two News Comparisons on China: media censorship and the changing role of the Communist Party. Please let us know what you think about these News Comparisons, in the comment section of this post.

Media Censorship

Despite guarantees that China would impose "no censorship on the Internet" during the Olympics, foreign journalists were unable to access scores of Web sites when they arrived in Beijing. International uproar led the Chinese government to lift bans on some sites, like Amnesty International, but others, including sites discussing the Tiananmen Square protests, remain blocked. Will the Olympics prove a step forward for press freedom in China, or will media censorship continue, unaffected? Here are different perspectives on this issue, from some of our top rated stories.

In an op-ed in The Telegraph, exiled Chinese dissident Shao Jiang warns to "not get overexcited" by the unblocking of certain sites. "Freedoms of expression and information don't just apply to foreign journalists and international NGOs. Ordinary Chinese web users – who number more than in any other country in the world – still endure Internet repression. Web sites are blocked, searches are filtered – with the help of global companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!."

The Nation also took a jaundiced view of how loosening media restrictions would affect the Chinese, "who are less focused on human rights and dissent than international viewers ... The grandeur of the arenas and the ceremonies – and China's medal count – are what domestic journalists and broadcasts and their target audiences focus on. And, if all goes smoothly in Beijing, that may still be what international audiences remember most about the 2008 games."

Xinhua, the state-run newspaper in China, upheld the government's hard line, contending that "Journalistic freedom, at any time, is a relative but not absolute conception." Like the United States, which has limitations on media freedom, "China regulates the Internet according to law. The Chinese laws forbid anyone to spread illegal information, such as preaching an evil cult like the Falungong, or do anything that harms national interests through the Internet."

Changing Role of the Communist Party

The Communist Party has maintained political control over China since 1949. The Olympic Games have turned a spotlight on the Party's responses to the social and economic changes impacting the country. Can the Party overcome new challenges such as a its rapidly growing middle class and the democratizing force of the Internet? or will it fail to adapt to these new changes? Here's how different publications addressed this question in some of our top rated stories this week.

For the past seven years, Beijing has worked tirelessly to host Olympic Games that would inspire awe abroad, and pride among the Chinese people. But, as Elizabeth Economy and Adam Segal point out in Foreign Affairs "the Games have come to highlight not only the awesome achievements of the country but also the grave shortcomings of the current regime." They find the Party's "record is poor when it comes to transparency, official accountability, and the rule of law. It has responded clumsily to internal and external political challenges -- by initially ignoring the international community's desire for China to play a more active role in resolving the human rights crisis in Darfur, arresting prominent Chinese political activists, and cracking down violently on demonstrators."

Other analysts draw different conclusions about the Party's handling of China's coming out party. Jim Yardley in the New York Times argues that "the Communist Party has proved resilient." In the face of dramatic economic shifts and a new change agent in the Internet, he says, "the party has adapted and navigated its way forward, loosening its grip on elements of society even as it crushes or co-opts threats to its hold on political power."

The future of the Communist Party may become clearer in the wake of the Olympic Games. The Economist cautiously forecasts that party "leaders and officials at every level will begin to relax after months if not years of preoccupation with this event. Olympic security restrictions will be removed. Dissidents will stick their heads up again. Debates spawned by China’s recent crises are likely to become less fettered."

This Week's Topic: Russia
Our featured topic this week is Russia, with a focus on the conflict with its neighboring country of Georgia. Our host for this News Hunt is founding member Walter Cox, who has studied Russian and U.S. relations for years, and is also an active Wikipedia editor.

As of Tuesday morning, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev had agreed to the terms of a cease-fire between the two countries, following hostilities in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. How are news media from around the world covering this dramatic event, and interpreting the widely divergent claims from both sides? As we continue to follow this developing conflict -- and its resolution -- help us find and review excellent journalism on this important topic. Please submit high-quality news and opinion -- or review unrated articles (the ones with grey stars) on our Russia topic page.

Here's an early sampling of our findings on Russia so far:

News

Roots of Georgia-Russia clash run deep - Christian Science Monitor

How would McCain mediate a Russia-Georgia conflict? - Think Progress

Russian intellectuals – the hand that feeds them - Economist

In Georgia and Russia, a perfect brew for a blowup - New York Times

Opinion
A path to peace in the Caucasus - Washington Post

The real wake up call of the Russia-Georgia conflict - The Guardian

Russia bids to rid Georgia of its folly - Asia Times

Russia blames the victim - New York Times