Is China opening up for foreign periodicals?

Liu Binjie

Danwei reports with justified caution on the promise Liu Binjie, an official of the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) did on opening up the Chinese market for foreign periodicals. He spoke at the annual meeting of the International Federation for Periodicals Press (IFPP) in Beijing. The media industry has never been part of the whole WTO-procedure for opening up China's economy.

At the conference, GAPP official Liu Binjie promised foreign periodicals that China will comply with its WTO accession terms by "going a step further" to open China's periodical market and welcome foreigners to participate. Mr. Liu additionally promised that, with respect to lawful professional work, activities and joint-venture projects, foreign periodicals in China will receive the same legal protection and enjoy equal policy treatment as their Chinese counterparts.

"Enjoy equal policy treatment". What that means is that foreign magazines have to stick to the endless row of murky regulations that are being produced at the offices of the GAPP. Now, you might think that their censorship would be limited to the more obvious issues. Well, dogs can become very politically incorrect at some stages, let alone the owners of the dogs.

The word "enjoy" is utterly misplaced and I do not think much is going to change here.