The Last Word: Li Datong--Loosening Up 'Under Pressure'.(Interview)

Byline: Melinda Liu

Early last year, New York Times researcher Zhao Yan was detained by Chinese authorities after the paper published an article accurately predicting that Chinese leader Jiang Zemin would retire. His editors said Zhao wasn't involved in the scoop, and recent reports that charges against him had been dropped were greeted with a sigh of relief. But China is hardly embracing the idea of complete media freedom. The country's Internet police have been more active than ever in their efforts to control bloggers. Even Zhao himself has yet to be released. NEWSWEEK's Melinda Liu spoke with Li Datong--whose own hard-hitting weekly, Freezing Point, was suspended in January but allowed to resume publication on March 1, without him at the helm--to get his thoughts on Beijing and the media. Excerpts:

LIU: You've been removed as editor. What are you doing now?

LI: I've been transferred to work in the News Research Institute of the China Youth Daily (under which Freezing Point is a weekly supplement). People working there are either old or sick. It's a halfway house for retirement. My articles are no longer permitted to be published in China now--not even on the Internet. As soon as my name is recognized, the article would be deleted. My phones are monitored. I am not afraid about that since I have no secrets.

If this had happened 10 years ago you might have lost your freedom too.

Yes. Now they at least pay me my salary. It is a kind of social progress.

From a historical perspective, how do you assess the current period in China?