via: danwei - a brief history of media and information policy in china, eswn - Stupefying the People
pls allow me beg to differ again and offer you another perspective
it is true that past emperors tightly control the information leak or use the media to manipulate people in order to keep their monopoly on power. in my opinion however, the significance of this factor is waning, especially compared with another factor, which, stubborn in its nature, still plays a big role in hindering the emergence of a free press for all people.
rss feed in 1950s china? are you kidding? no, i am not.
Cankao Xiaoxi, literally Reference Information, is a chinese newspaper circulated in certain levels of social hierarchy. the newspaper translated news and editorials from various foreign media on a daily basis and help the government officials to follow what is happening outside of china and how the outside world commnet on the latest development in china.
it's like an RSS news feed or a shrinked version of yahoo news search for china, certainly, in printed format and with "chinese characteristics". the paper's distinguishing feature is not its contents but who can read it - only those on the high hierarchy can subscribe to the paper and enjoy a "free press".
today you could find Cankao Xiaoxi in every street of china, but that doesn't mean peoples of different social hierarchey have the same access to informaiton, high ranking officials still have privileges of reading the media that common people like me don't have a chance to know about. in short, depending on which level of the hierarchery you are, you could enjoy a very wide range of free media or you could only read people's daily.
now let's review a few sayings of Confucianism before we close the discussion:
big man use their brains, and small man use their hands
those who use their brains should rule, those who use their hands should be ruled
if you are not in that position, you shold not talk about realted issues