Five years ago, when Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 summer Olympics, Chinese officials promised members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that hosting the Games would help improve human rights in the country.
Specifically, Beijing promised that the foreign news media would be able to report freely on the mainland: journalists would be allowed to write about any aspect of China, not confine their reporting to the Games alone.
Beijing has moved to keep this promise. On Friday, it unveiled liberalised rules for foreign reporters that will last from January 1 next year to October 17, 2008, a month after the end of the Paralympics. Article 6 of the new regulations, for example, says: 'To interview organisations or individuals in China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior consent.'
Currently, foreign affairs officials in different regions can require journalists to obtain their approval before travelling to their districts to do journalistic work. Some reporters have been required to write self-criticisms for doing so without permission.
Not so long ago, some mainlanders were beaten and arrested for talking to foreign reporters. As long as the powers that be do not stop such practices, it will not be enough to tell foreign reporters that they can talk to anyone: reporters will not want to get their Chinese contacts in trouble.
The Foreign Ministry has apparently agreed to install a special line that journalists can call if they encounter recalcitrant officials. But there are many people whom the government doesn't trust to talk to foreigners.
Although they have committed no crimes, they are in effect being kept under house arrest, with policemen - either in uniform or plain clothes - outside their homes 24 hours a day.
