For any reporter interested in media and communication technology issues, it would be hard to beat China for the prize of most enviable reporting assignment right now. Today’s New York Times reports on how a hundred cellphones bloom, and does it well, but there are so many questions here waiting for answers. Take, for instance, the sheer logistical task of monitoring a web population of 100 Million, even if the government is supposed to have allocated the incredible number of 50.000 people for this (to be able to interview one of those 50.000…). Or the activity of 350 Million cellphone users. Behind it all the constant negotiations between “open” or “closed”, as can be read out of this passage:

“Perhaps most significant, the government sent signals for weeks that the public interpreted to mean that the marches were “politically safe.” But the scale of the protests did seem to surprise the government. There is no doubt that underground chatter created momentum.”

Absolutely fascinating also the information about the police of Shanghai pushing a text message warning out to all cellphone users the day before a planned demonstration.

New things are happening every day, but there’s also a history of wired China – just have a look at Wired Magazine’s In the Kingdom of Mao Bell – from 1994.