Who Rules China?

The obvious answer is the Communist Party of China under the leadership of Hu Jintao but you would be incorrect. Fear, abject fear rules China its leaders are like Jason's victims in the Friday the 13th movies frightened of that which goes bump in the night yet their fear is so manifest that what to you or I is only a nightmare becomes reality for them. American President Franklin Roosevelt was famously said "That We Have Nothing To Fear But Fear Its Self." For Chinas political leadership they have everything to fear from their paranoia. What is it that so frightens these men that they could be cast in the next sequel of Scream? Openness and dissatisfaction with their rule as they look at the events taking place in the Middle East and North Africa.

China Tightens Controls on Foreign Press

Public security officials have summoned dozens of foreign journalists in Beijing and Shanghai to be dressed down on videotape, warning them that they had broken reporting regulations by visiting locations that had been selected as protest sites in Internet postings. Journalists were bluntly warned that they faced the loss of their visas, revocation of their credentials and expulsion if they did not abide by new limits on their ability to interview and photograph Chinese citizens, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said in a statement.

Separately, Beijing officials announced Wednesday that they intended to monitor the movements of millions of residents by means of information transmitted by their cellphones. One official was quoted on a government Web site as saying that the new program would provide “real-time information about a user’s activity.”

The project aims to monitor all Beijing residents who use cellphones — about 20 million people — to detect unusually large gatherings. One official said the primary use would be to detect and ease traffic and subway congestion. But Chinese media reports said government officials could use the data to detect and prevent protests.