media - A censured Wen Jiabao

Wen Jiabao

The story in the New York Times on how the press conference of premier Wen Jiabao was slightly modified in the China media has triggered off a bit of interest.

Erased from the official record were parts of Mr. Wen's comments about Tung
Chee-hwa, the Hong Kong chief executive who retired last week - some say got
orders to retire - two years before the expiration of his second term.
Mr. Wen told assembled journalists that "history will render a fair verdict" on Mr.
Tung's contributions. The phrase, which is often used in Chinese to suggest the
possibility of rehabilitation for officials who make mistakes, was deleted.
"Compatriots from the Hong Kong special administrative region will not forget
[Mr. Tung]" was allowed to stand.

Maybe I'm too long here but I could not find it that surprising. I had almost ten years ago a talk with a Xinhua reporter who was covering the diplomatic beat and he was very open on how the systems works. "Even our highest leaders can make mistakes when they talk to foreign guests, even when they read a prepared speech," he said. "Mostly such a mistake is already corrected by the translators and since most of the foreign guests do no speak Chinese, they will not notice the difference. When also the translators do not notice the mistake, the media will bring a correct editions of what our leader should have said."
Sounds like a pretty solid system.