China Prepares for Olympics

I charge by the hour for that. Seriously, I think the main thing is not to copy-and-paste any U.S. expectations and assume they necessarily apply to China. Regular folks in Shanghai and elsewhere in China often do not to want to talk to journalists, particularly foreign journalists. Hardly anyone talks when they think the subject is sensitive. Submitting interview requests takes twice as long. Locally hired staff struggle to understand what we do and require lots of oversight. Web sites get blocked; e-mail access gets blocked. Foreign media organizations are monitored, though we're never sure specifically how closely we're being watched, listened to, followed.