Although the government restricts access to a number of foreign Web sites, many technically savvy Beijingers know how to get around the barricades. To get to The New York Times on the Web or to sites related to Falun Gong, for example, Chinese who know the proper codes can dial a device called a proxy server, which effectively masks the identity of the site being visited. Some government officials use proxy servers to read the Times Web site. But domestic Web sites face a great deal more direct pressure, from readers hungry for the broadcast of more information and from a government that wants less. We make our own judgments.
News here has great value, but it also has risks.
Today, it writes some of its own dispatches but mostly buys copy from the Chinese press. Many private Web sites in China avoid news that has not been sanctioned by the government, especially political news, even though urban Chinese are inveterate news junkies and there is great market demand. But it is in the chat rooms that the dicey stuff appears. It's the chat rooms that make us really nervous. Especially around sensitive days, like June 4, we have to screen very carefully, since you never know what will appear.