Restricted Media In China

For spring break this year, my mom and I took a 9-day trip to China. As we all know, China is a communist country and governed by a strict dictator. Almost every aspect of China is controlled by the government. Their media is no different.

On this trip, we were given two tour guides, both China residents. The tourists asked many questions about their government, including what they thought of their dictator and their views of past events that had gained global attention.

One response we received was "I found out from a friend who works for the police." The Chinese government is very selective as to what it allows the Chinese people to see and hear. Many of the "unfavorable" events that occur in their own cities are never mentioned on the news and China residents are either oblivious to these events or they find out from leaks in the government.

Here is a link to the Council on Foreign Relations that discusses media censorship in China: http://www.cfr.org/publication/11515/

I never could have imagined a place that didn't have public relations until I visited China. Maybe they have public relations but all of their practitioners are working for the government. I really don't know. I loved China but I could never work there.