China Eases Licensing Rules For Foreign Media Sources 36
The New York Times reports that China has "agreed to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country, settling a trade dispute with the United States, the European Union and Canada." Formerly, all such news sources required licensing through China's official Xinhua News Agency. Note that the focus seems to be on financial reporting and information, rather than all forms of news reporting.
Press visas (Score:5, Interesting)
Its about time. On my last trip to China [utah.edu] just a couple of months ago, I did not even bother trying to get a media visa even though I'd been asked to cover/photograph a story for the military press. I declined that story offer simply because getting the press visa was too much of a hassle and you had to undergo extra hassles for all of the camera equipment. Traveling on a tourist visa through China is much easier and they don't give you any grief for even lots of camera equipment.
In fact, the whole visa issue always is a hassle. If countries wanted to ensure that people come and spend money, then why to they (US included) make getting a visa so difficult? I had to either travel to Washington DC to the Chinese embassy or pay a special travel office $140 to broker the visa on my passport for me.
Re:Press visas (Score:4, Insightful)
If countries wanted to ensure that people come and spend money, then why to they (US included) make getting a visa so difficult?
China doesn't need foreigners to come spend money on its soil, its making a fortune exporting good abroad anyway.
As for the US, it's another ballgame: the country's attitude toward visas oscillates between the "keeping these filthy underpaid workers from taking american jobs out" attitude in peace time, to full-blown paranoid "the terrorists are coming!" when national security is threatened.
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I'd be Immigration dude
I'd send all the foreigners back to their homes
For eating up all of our food
And taking our welfare and best jobs to boot
Like landscaping, dishwashing, picking our fruit
I'd pass a lot of laws to get rid of their food
'Cause I'd be Immigration Dude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1q2XH1Q3O8 [youtube.com]
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China doesn't need foreigners to come spend money on its soil, its making a fortune exporting good abroad anyway.
On one hand you are correct. On the other, I was shocked at how desperate seeming China is to show the world what they are capable of. We were welcomed most graciously by a whole host of people who really, really wanted to share with us what they have been doing. It is impressive.
As for the US, it's another ballgame: the country's attitude toward visas oscillates between the "keeping these fil
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Re:Press visas (Score:4, Insightful)
The US makes getting a visa difficult because Chinese people have a big problem with not going home after their visas expire. China makes getting journalist visas difficult because foreign journalists have a big problem with lying their asses off and distorting stories to fit their political viewpoints. A visa is a sovereign act of a country, it's not like buying tickets to a Mets game. Believe it or not, governments occasionally have other priorities than inviting foreign tourists to spend money.
Re:Press visas (Score:4, Funny)
There's no reason to get a journalist visa unless you're a bonafide journalist. I saw that you took pictures of the toilets - no serious journalist would pull stuff like that, it's a guaranteed mark of the China greenhorn.
Ah, thanks for your astute commentary on something you obviously know bollocks about. I have some "news" for you... that is my personal blog and I can put anything I want in it. What gets published in the press is another story entirely.
I have some more "news" for you. This problem you cite of people not wanting to return to China is a demographic one. I am seeing educated people returning to China in droves. They have seen the promise and prosperity possible there and are making a killing. The sight of Porsches and BMWs filling the streets in Chengdu was a surprise to say the least.
You obviously have a bias against the press or know absolutely nothing about the profession. Either that or you get all your news from Fox, because most journalists I know are remarkably unbiased in their reporting in all corners of the world. China is changing and while they used to have more problems than they currently do with issues of transparency related to human rights, they have much to show the rest of the world now. Granted there are problems with such rapid growth, but the country is so different from what it was just 10 years ago.
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Either that or you get all your news from Fox, because most journalists I know are remarkably unbiased in their reporting in all corners of the world.
So let me get this straight - Fox is biased, but the rest of the Western media is not? Laughable. I'm one of a handful of people in
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Educated people don't illegally immigrate, poor people do.
But it i the educated people coming back to China that are returning at higher rates according to the Chinese government official I talked with.
I'm one of a handful of people in China who publishes his own English magazine,
*Which* magazine? Link? Reference?
and I've moron journalists like yourself come and go.
I'll relay your feelings to National Geographic and Wired... ;-)
You've already got your China story written before you get off the plane, an
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Actually, I came to China initially exclusively to attend a scientific meeting
So why on Earth did you need a journalist visa? Seriously, WTF? This trip needs a tourist visa, which is the easiest kind to get.
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Checking the thousands of visa applications for such names is slow work, so what you do is make journalist passes difficult to get. Large media organizations can afford to arrange for the visas directly with your embassies, so they don't get significantly affected. On the other hand, those pesky indie journalists will stand out like a sore thumb.
And if the reporters you dislike do enter under a to
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It's also a diplomatic spat between the US and China. The US makes it extremely difficult for Chinese citizens to get visas and thus the PRC reciprocates that towards US citizens.
I have friends working in Taiwan who have to get a China visa by visiting one of their embassies in Japan or back in the US just so they can travel to China.
Likewise, I know Japanese and Taiwan citizens do not need visas to visit China.
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That is also true. A visa for a US citizen is much more expensive to obtain than a visa for a non-US citizen. I paid somewhere in the region of $90 US whereas one of my colleagues from Hungary paid ~$15. Most favored nation trading status my ass....
So, what's going on here? (Score:3, Interesting)
According to the settlement, China agreed to remove the requirement that financial news providers be licensed by Xinhua and instead will set up an independent regulatory agency to oversee all financial news and information providers.
OK, so Xinhua's their direct competitor, but they didn't really get much, right? The government is still going to oversee things. Is Xinhua even for-profit? Kind of a thin story.
/. readers working for Bloomberg these days?
And how exactly qualify this as news for nerds? Lot of
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Bloomberg? No. Penny-stock spam? May be.
Well, you need to understand China's IP mindset (Score:1)
All your press are belong to us.
Who cares... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Liberty Prime (Score:1)
Props to the reporters (Score:2)
Everyone who gives a half-damn about this thread must watch a brilliant movie about the journalists that died in the Bosnian conflict, called Harrison's Flowers. I suspect Adrien Brody will never play a better role.
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Oh please... (Score:1)
First of all this isn't your standard /. article, but I'm disappointed so far in the replies.
Its a clear case of tit-for-tat, the Chinese have been in negotiations on an Oil Deal in Iraq [yahoo.com] which they coincidentally landed a couple of days ago - two days later, they back down on financial news services. How much more obvious can things get?
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Yup its true ! (Score:1)
I just had a night stay over yesterday in China and some news site I wasn't able to access (during Olympic period) was able to access !
Hopefully they lift more bans of sites in China so I will not die of boredom to surf in China~
That only seems fair (Score:2)
That only seems fair, given the poor quality of the Stargate SG-1 boxed set I just received, shipped from "Mr gao" in Beijing, China. (Apparently it is actually a "gift" worth $10.) If they want to consume our media and poop it out indiscriminately, they should have to consume all of it. That's how cultures influence other cultures without war these days...