What has Interfax been smoking ?

I just received a press release issued by Interfax China that makes me wonder if there are perhaps two countries in this world that are called "China". They want to promote an undoubtedly very expensive survey on the Chinese print industry and they come with some amazing figures and statements.

A full 83% of respondents stated that they believed that foreign invested magazines are better than Chinese published magazines. Furthermore, this advantage in public perception extends beyond magazines to also include newspapers, books and bookstores (details provided in the full report).

Now, only very few Chinese can lay their hands on a foreign magazine (be it in Chinese or a foreign language), so it is a pity we do not know who they have been asking the questions, since that often defines what kind of answers you get.
The results are definitely at odds with a survey done by Guo Liang a few years ago who discovered that the online urbanites had hardly any interest in foreign media of the online kind. Basically only three percent of the surveyed online population said they would look at foreign websites. At the time I found that percentage of three percent very low, but 83 percent with a positive viewpoint sounds like researchers who have been cooking the books.
We go on:

This finding has very strong strategic implications for foreign companies competing within China’s print media sector which, thanks to the WTO, is now largely open to foreign investment. Although it is not necessarily very easy to navigate the required permits and licenses, with the notable exceptions of editorial and national level distribution, almost all other areas of print media are now largely accessible.

Media, including the print media, have never been part of the WTO-process and have been carefully excluded. Regulations have never changed in such a way they would facilitate in stead of ban foreign participation in Chinese media. When foreign media got access to China was only because they have up editorial control and published small quantities anyway.
We read on:

As of 2007 China led the World Association of Newspapers global top 100 ranking
with 25 Chinese newspapers topping the list by circulation volume.

Now, the circulation volume in China is not audited by any independent organization and according to industry sources halving the "official" circulation figures is not enough to get closer to the reality. In fact, the print industry is the only media industry that saw the growth of its advertisement revenue drop since 2005, causing a bit of a panic.
Otherwise - I do not have enough time to find links that support my arguments - listen to our Chinabiz Speaker Tom Doctoroff, interviewed by the China Business Network.