Our censor, an employee of mofcomm, was a nervous, flighty woman in her forties with long, frizzy hair and a High, childlike Voice, whose name was Snow

She did not come to our office, and aside from that first encounter, didn't attend our story meetings. Each month, we emailed her our list of article topics for the upcoming issue. After we had edited those articles, we emailed them to Snow, and she sent them back marked with her changes. She reviewed them again in layout, and, once satisfied, would give the printer the order to start the presses.

Business content is not censored as strictly as other areas in China, since it seems to be understood that greater openness is needed to push the economy forward and it doesn't necessarily deal with the political issues Chinese rulers seem to find the most sensitive. English-language content isn't censored as much either, since only a small fraction of the Chinese population reads English

One month, we ran a short news brief with figures on the number of mainland Chinese tourists that had visited the United States in 2007, and Snow flagged the number for deletion.

When we wanted to run a piece that was somewhat critical of China's healthcare system, Snow spent days poring through it, typing up lengthy explanations for how we could rearrange the piece to pass muster. The changes were surprisingly minor. She reworded the subtitle "China's ailing healthcare system -- and the government's plan to fix it" to "The Chinese government's plan to fix the ailing healthcare system."

She explained that we had to be careful not to offend anyone at the Ministry of Health, but also that nobody at any ministry was likely to ever read the piece.

Her reactions also provided a reliable marker of the political touchiness of an issue. One article about skyrocketing food prices around the world quoted economists saying that the rising quality of life in China, and the attendant increase in meat consumption, might play a role, because more arable land was being used to grow feed for animals. Snow called me to relate her changes, and grew so angry over that particular line suggesting a link between Chinese meat-eaters and worldwide food prices that she began to shriek, "Are they all vegetarian in the West? No! So many fat people in America, and they dare to say this is China's responsibility?"

Censorship is a must, says China's Nobel winner

Mo Yan, who has won this year's Nobel Prize in literature, says censorship is as necessary as checks at airport security

· Associated Press in Stockholm

· guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 December 2012 03.04 GMT

This year's Nobel prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has been criticised for his membership in China 's Communist party and reluctance to speak out against the country's government, has defended censorship as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and compatriot.

Mo has been criticised by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice-president.

His comments on Thursday, made during a news conference in Stockholm, appear unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him.

Awarding him the literature prize has also brought criticism from previous winners. Herta Mueller, the 2009 literature laureate, called the jury's choice of Mo a "catastrophe" in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter last month. She also accused Mo of protecting the Asian country's censorship laws.

China's rulers forbid opposition parties and maintain strict control over all media.

Mo said he doesn't feel that censorship should stand in the way of truth but that any defamation, or rumours, "should be censored."

"But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest principle," he said in comments translated by an interpreter from Chinese into English.

Mo is spending several days in Stockholm before receiving his prestigious prize in an awards ceremony next Monday.

He won the Nobel for his sprawling tales of life in rural China. In its citation, the jury said Mo "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".

In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm.

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs... they also wanted to check me even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."

Mo also dodged questions about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Peace prize winner. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring a bold call for ending China's single-party rule and enacting democratic reforms.

China's reception of the two Nobel laureates has been worlds apart. While it rejected the honour bestowed on Liu, calling it a desecration of the Nobel tradition, it welcomed Mo's win with open arms, saying it reflected "the prosperity and progress of Chinese literature, as well as the increasing influence of China."

Although Mo has previously said he hopes Liu will be freed soon, he refused to elaborate more on the case.

"On the same evening of my winning the prize, I already expressed my opinion, and you can get online to make a search," he said, telling the crowd that he hoped they wouldn't press him on the subject of Liu.

Some, however, have interpreted Mo's October comments as if he hoped the release of Liu would make the jailed activist see sense and embrace the Communist party line.

Earlier this week, an appeal signed by 134 Nobel laureates, from Peace prize-winners such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Taiwanese-American chemist Yuan T Lee, called the detention of Liu and his wife a violation of international law and urged their immediate release.

But Mo suggested he had no plans of adding his name to that petition. "I have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me to do something I don't do it," he said, adding that has been in his stance in the past decade.

Mo is to receive his Nobel prize along with the winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and economics.

The Nobel peace prize is handed out in a separate ceremony in Oslo on the same day.

«Российская газета» и китайское издание Global Times выпустили приложение «Russia Insight»

В конце ноября китайская газета Global Times и «Российская газета» подписали в Пекине соглашение, в рамках которого начнется выпуск секции “Russia Insight” в Global Times, сообщает РАСО.

Секция “Russia Insight” будет распространяться внутри Global Times (версия на китайском языке) в 17 регионах континентального Китая, в том числе Пекине, Шанхае, Тяньцзине, Чунцине, Хэйлунцзяне, Ляонине, Цзилине, Шаньдуне, Цзянсу, Чжэцзяне, Фуцзяне, Гуандуне, Сычуане, Хайнане, внутренней Монголии, Синьцзян-Уйгурском и Тибетском АО (общий тираж – более миллиона экземпляров). Первый номер Global Times с 8-полосной секцией “Russia Insight” вышел 8 декабря, следующий выпуск – 22 декабря. Планируется, что в 2013 году секция будет выходить ежемесячно.

“Russia Insight” ориентирована на массового китайского читателя и уделяет особое внимание внутренним политическим, экономическим, деловым, культурным, научным и другим новостям из России, а также двусторонним отношениям между Россией и Китаем. Все материалы из секции будут также публиковаться на веб-ресурсе www.ezhong.ru.

«Российская газета» – государственное издание, одна из крупнейших газет России. Тираж ежедневной версии составляет 185 тыс. экз., а еженедельной – 3,5 млн. экз.

Global Times (версия на китайском языке) – популярная ежедневная китайская газета, которая принадлежит государственному издательству «Жэньминь Жибао». Ежедневный тираж газеты – 2,4 млн. экз.