Recent events have stimulated American interest in 'Greater China'. Americans may now be more eager to learn about the region than at any time since president Richard Nixon's 1972 trip melted the ice between Beijing and Washington.
The mainland is far more open to foreigners today than it was 36 years ago. Yet the Olympics' spotlight confirmed that the country still has dark corners that the Communist Party wants to keep that way. Ongoing restrictions on the media recently became more prominent news than the events the media were seeking to report. Less well-known is the continuing denial of visas to some foreign scholars who study sensitive topics.
Even more troubling have been Chinese government attempts in other countries to prevent foreigners from learning about unattractive Chinese policies. In the US, for example, Chinese diplomats have tried to suppress programmes sponsored by certain think-tanks and universities.
They have also encouraged overseas Chinese student organisations that they support to press some universities to cancel appearances by the Dalai Lama. Despite protests from Beijing and the campus Chinese student association, University of Washington administrators did not yield, but emphasised that his presentation would be spiritual and 'apolitical'. In a more famous incident at Duke University, Han Chinese students vilified one of their group as a 'traitor' for suggesting that Tibetan students be allowed to express their opinions, and, after exposure on Chinese state television, as well as the internet, the girl's parents in China were hounded out of their home. Chinese students at Cornell University made death threats against organisers of a film programme on Tibet.
Against this background, the strict restrictions applied by the US government during the recent 'transit' stops of Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, in Los Angeles, Austin and San Francisco can be seen as the result of another, more successful mainland Chinese effort to limit Americans' freedom of information regarding important aspects of China policy.
Since the 1979 normalisation of Sino-American relations, which required the withdrawal of US diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China, the US, out of respect for mainland Chinese sovereignty, has banned official 'visits' by Taiwan's leaders. Obviously, if they were received by the White House, executive branch departments or Congress, this could be interpreted as undermining US recognition of Beijing as the only legitimate government of China and cast doubt on the carefully constructed, yet imprecise, US position that Taiwan is part of China.
Yet, under pressure from Beijing, this ban has been interpreted to also include unofficial exchanges between Taiwan's leaders and the American people, even if they take place far from Washington, and even though no principles of international law require such a broad exclusion.