Qui s'excuse s'accuse ...

I initially thought that an article in Thursday's FT critical of the Chinese government's "National Renewal" policy,

"The Dark Side of China's national renewal"

written by their Asia editor, New Zealander Jamil Anderlini, was possibly a bit over the top.

I made a point of reading it after learning that every copy of the FT on sale at Beijing Airport on Thursday had the Comment page with this article removed.

Whenever I hear that someone wants to stop people reading something, unless they have used due process to demonstrate a legitimate reason - producing in court convincing evidence that it isn't true, for instance - it tends to make me want to read it.

Whether Mr Anderlini is right or not, the combination of the action taken at Beijing Airport and the rather childish attacks on his article in the comments section of the FT site do make me think that he has evidently touched a nerve.

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