To judge from the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006, released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) toward the end of October, the doubters would still seem to hold the upper hand. Scoring 94 points, China came in 163rd, ahead of just a handful of fellow super-censors, including student-turned-master, North Korea which, in 168th, took last place. Taiwan, for its part, scored 10.5 points, ranking it second in Asia behind South Korea and moving it up eight places to 43rd to rank just behind Australia, France, Italy and Spain, and ahead of Japan, South Africa, the United States and Hong Kong.
Details of the index were released just one month after China announced new controls over the distribution of news by foreign news agencies. Going into effect the moment they were issued by China's official Xinhua News Agency, the regulations meant foreign agencies could only distribute news through Xinhua or agencies authorized by Xinhua.
Content was also targeted under vaguely worded prohibitions against anything that undermined the country's national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, or endangered China's national security, reputation and interests. Slightly more specific were bans on material that violated China's religious policies or preached evil cults or superstition, or that incited hatred or discrimination among ethnic groups.
The new rules were interpreted as giving Xinhua the right to select and delete any information it deemed harmful, thus strengthening the government's already draconian powers over the media. Various suggestions were offered as to why Beijing moved at this time, some observers noted the leadership changes expected at next year's 17th Communist Party congress, others looked further ahead to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, when huge numbers of journalists are expected to arrive in China.
Whatever the reason, this recent move has demonstrated at least two things to the world. First, it represents a slipping of CCP Chairman Hu Jintao's mask of being a moderate, non-dogmatic, forward-moving leader, hopefully allowing people around the world to realize the present administration is really the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. The second, albeit of purely entertainment value, is that Xinhua announced that the new rules also apply to news and information released by foreign agencies operating in Taiwan. Dream on, Chairman Hu.