The Chinese leadership has been more severe in the censorship of the media, its crackdown on underground churches, dissidents and the Internet.

We're not, in any way, any kind of a censorship organization. We're not anti-media. We believe very strongly in the importance of the First Amendment.

If we really saw war, what war does to young minds and bodies, it would be impossible to embrace the myth of war. If we had to stand over the mangled corpses of schoolchildren killed in Afghanistan and listen to the wails of their parents, we would not be able to repeat clichés we use to justify war. This is why war is carefully sanitized. This is why we are given war's perverse and dark thrill but are spared from seeing war's consequences. The mythic visions of war keep it heroic and entertaining…

The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage. They are war's refuse. We do not see them. We do not hear them. They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled. The message they tell is too painful for us to hear. We prefer to celebrate ourselves and our nation by imbibing the myths of glory, honor, patriotism, and heroism, words that in combat become empty and meaningless.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

There is a bit of speculation that Mr Jiang has been pushed aside, as there are certain subtle pressures suggesting that he should step down.

But it's for sure this is not going to make Beijing make any meaningful concessions under pressure.