When the founders of what is believed to be the mainland's first electronic underground journal posted its debut e-mail issue last June 4, they encouraged readers to forward sensitive stories to others.
Since then, eight issues of Tunnel have been released from a secret site somewhere in China and distributed to an unknown number of readers by word of mouth.
Interest picked up considerably after Reuters news agency filed a story on the faceless men and women behind the cyberspace publishing venture, and included its e-mail address Tunnel staff view the advent of the World-Wide Web as the logical next step a fight for free expression.
And Although staff say they have a virtually untraceable distribution system, they acknowledge some risk is involved, especially as the Chinese Government has warned it will be vigilant in monitoring potential dissent on the Internet.
Asked why they were willing to take this risk, their reply was simple: 'For freedom.' It is clear they are being very careful. Not only did they ask to be interviewed via e-mail, they kept many of their answers deliberately vague and would not reveal the exact number of staff members, where they are based, their ages, occupations or backgrounds.
On the surface, the rhetoric of Tunnel sounds similar to that of other Chinese dissidents.
