Members of China’s Elite Denounce Censorship

[Updated 2/16; scroll down]   This looks like very good news for China:

A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country’s most powerful newspapers, have denounced the recent closing of a prominent news journal, helping to fuel a growing backlash against censorship.

The trigger for the protest letter, which was leaked to journalists, was the closing of a Chinese newspaper with an independent streak.  Kudos to the New York Times for its excellent coverage to the China censorship story. 

Not reported as prominently is a quiet protest movement in which millions of Chinese have resigned from the Communist Party (via the dissident Epoch Times).

Update 2/16:   A partial climbdown by Beijing?  Freezing Point will reopen, but without the leadership of its courageous editor, who said this:

“This is a ridiculous decision!” Mr Li was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

“The soul of Bingdian has been extinguished. Only a shell is left. If the staff decided to protest, no-one will do the job. It will be an empty paper on 1 March,” he said.