Posted on 05/15/2008 7:28:57 PM PDT by robertvance
The Chinese government’s decision to allow the seemingly unrestricted flow of information out of Sichuan this week in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake has surprised many. However, the general assumption that the Chinese government ‘all of the sudden’ decided to pursue a policy of transparency and openess is incorrect. This decision was in fact made last year when the State Council passed the People’s Republic of China Ordinance on Openness of Government Information.
(Excerpt) Read more at teachabroadchina.com ...
I think it’s significant that they’ve decided to be more open on this matter, as opposed to merely saying that they’d be more open. (This openness obviously did not extend to the Tibetan incidents). My suspicion is that in wake of the outburst of support for the party after the Tibetan disturbances and the torch incidents, they’ve decided that the Chinese populace is so solidly on the party’s side that this openness will do no harm to their popularity.
At the same time, this openness could improve China’s image abroad.
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