Miss World contest turns ugly: China charged with blocking Miss Norway following diplomatic row – Arts & Entertainment

In unusual praise for China, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that Beijing deserved credit for its relatively mild response to Washington's announcement last month of a $5.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan. He suggested it could create new momentum toward improved U.S.-China ties.

China has always been quick to denounce others from criticising its conduct as "interference in the internal affairs" of a sovereign state. Yet, China's harsh reaction to America's debt problem tells us nothing new about the US, but it's quite revealing about China. There are four features of China's reaction that mark it out.

In the past three months, some significant foreign groups have been subjected to intensifying pressure from the authorities, reflecting growing fears here about the influence of foreigners and Western liberal ideas. At least 60 activities organized by the United States Embassy in Beijing —including cultural forums, school programs, ambassadorial visits— were canceled between February and April...

China's Sina microblog, a Twitter-like service, appeared to be blocking searches for the Chinese words for "Hillary Clinton" and "Hillary", just a day after the U.S. Secretary of State gave a speech urging governments to end Internet censorship. "In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search result did not display," said the response on the microblogging site.