[JimSEA]

For a very long time under the "Peoples Liberation Army", Archeaology was just another tool of state propaganda for sure. However, what I have read lately, academics and curiosity seem to be winning. In China, you can never tell how long the science will be more important than the BS. Books I have read recently approved by the PRC are actually good. It still is very hard for "Outsiders" to publish anything not approved but Chinese scholars are coming "out of the closet".

That said, we can hope they will not slant and/or repress data. Also, they are not so quick to attack the findings in other Asian countries. Their big concern at present is that archaeological discoveries not get in the way of business (ie. Three Gorges Dam). You would get quite ill thinking about what will be lost under the Three Gorges lake.

[blam]

"It still is very hard for "Outsiders" to publish anything not approved but Chinese scholars are coming "out of the closet".

I tend to agree.

"You would get quite ill thinking about what will be lost under the Three Gorges lake."

I can imagine. Well, we'll have another catastrophic event in the future that will put the world into another Dark Ages, the dam will break and be forgotten and archaeologists 10k years from now will be looking into the 'bottom' of the ex-lake and find what's there...