Three cheers for..

FOR the editor and staff of the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly who went on strike when the local Communist Party official in Guangdong censored a leading article slightly critical of the government in Beijing and substituted his own praise for Xi Jinping, the newly installed leader of the country. Many good judges of Chinese politicians have high hopes of Xi Jinping's liberal tendencies -- his two children have been educated at Harvard -- but it is at the grass roots that restrictive policies are applied with the greatest force.