China banned the latest issue of TIME magazine

September 29, 1999
Web posted at: 2:34 a.m. HKT (1834 GMT)

From Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy

SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- Chinese officials hope the world's leading company executives, attending the Global Fortune Forum in Shanghai, see the modern skyline of the financial center of a country eager to do business with the outside world.

But Chinese officials don't want their own people to see the latest issue of TIME magazine, which includes essays by Chinese dissidents.

China banned the issue even as TIME's parent company, Time Warner -- which also owns CNN and Fortune magazine -- was sponsoring the Shanghai forum and its top executives were meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"I am disappointed not so much for TIME as for China," said TIME's Asia editor, Don Morrison. "I hope that soon China will be as open with information as it is with other parts of its economy."

MESSAGE BOARD Taiwanese statehood? China Tomorrow     ALSO TIME: China's Amazing Half Century: The 50 places that define modern China TIME: Essay: Despair and Deliverance ASIAWEEK: Quest for Dignity     POLL: How many years will government controls over the media in China remain in place? One year Five years More than ten years View Results

But some of the CEOs attending the forum were critical of Western journalists in China.

Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom -- which just acquired CBS -- said correspondents should not offend the host governments of the countries they cover. And other executives urged that China's definition of human rights be given a hearing.

"Whose definition of human rights do you use?" asked American International Group chairman Hank Greenberg. "Feeding, clothing and sheltering 1.2 billion people is a big job. They're living better than at any time in their history. That's human rights."

The potential represented by this new, wealthy, outward-looking side of China is what's drawn so many corporate chiefs to the conference.

But even though the forum was intended to spur investment, the Chinese government insisted on tight control. Officials demanded the right to choose all the Chinese participants, a demand that Fortune agreed to, abandoning its usual practice for such conferences.

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