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dEF FR0G’S OWN DOUBLE ENTRY
This just in from our travel agent:
Okay, that can’t be good.
I would assume that it’s somehow related to the Tibet Problem. Because it’s hard to spin the status of an entire province when people can just come and go.
We’ve been watching the Chinese Govt stage-manage Tibet on TV after the riots. After they kicked out all the reporters, they’re now showing carefully selected footage and issuing strange stories of rioters who willingly gave themselves up to police and confessed their heinous crimes against the Han Chinese, while CCTV presenters are vehemently denouncing the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the whole thing.
As you may have heard, they’ve been very carefully letting reporters back into Tibet (by invitation only) and shepherding them around – and it hasn’t gone as well as they’d hoped.
Which is wonderful. I’ve lived here long enough to know a professional CCCP media snow job when I see one, and because it’s so blatantly one-sided, it’s hard to imagine who they think they’re fooling besides their own people and possibly themselves. My own pet theory is that they’ve not used to having to fool international media – especially when something as big as the Olympics is at stake – and they’re resorting to the old-school tactics for lack of any better ideas. So it’s nice to see it flop spectacularly.
Anyway, good thing I got my double-entry visa before Tibet happened. I’d get a multiple-entry visa (which I do need for work purposes), but unfortunately, I’m a journalist, and I’m listed in their flag database, which means I can’t get one without going to the China Embassy in person and spending God knows how much time there to deal with the paperwork. I have first-hand experience with Chinese govt bureaucracy, and trust me, it takes up at least four hours of yr time.
Persona non grata,
This is dF
Okay, that can’t be good.
I would assume that it’s somehow related to the Tibet Problem. Because it’s hard to spin the status of an entire province when people can just come and go.
We’ve been watching the Chinese Govt stage-manage Tibet on TV after the riots. After they kicked out all the reporters, they’re now showing carefully selected footage and issuing strange stories of rioters who willingly gave themselves up to police and confessed their heinous crimes against the Han Chinese, while CCTV presenters are vehemently denouncing the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the whole thing.
As you may have heard, they’ve been very carefully letting reporters back into Tibet (by invitation only) and shepherding them around – and it hasn’t gone as well as they’d hoped.
Which is wonderful. I’ve lived here long enough to know a professional CCCP media snow job when I see one, and because it’s so blatantly one-sided, it’s hard to imagine who they think they’re fooling besides their own people and possibly themselves. My own pet theory is that they’ve not used to having to fool international media – especially when something as big as the Olympics is at stake – and they’re resorting to the old-school tactics for lack of any better ideas. So it’s nice to see it flop spectacularly.
Anyway, good thing I got my double-entry visa before Tibet happened. I’d get a multiple-entry visa (which I do need for work purposes), but unfortunately, I’m a journalist, and I’m listed in their flag database, which means I can’t get one without going to the China Embassy in person and spending God knows how much time there to deal with the paperwork. I have first-hand experience with Chinese govt bureaucracy, and trust me, it takes up at least four hours of yr time.
Persona non grata,
This is dF