If there's no independent media in China, how do you explain that a Chinese magazine's interview with Dr. Ai Fen was censored on social media? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/coronavirus-wu... Surely if they're not independent they'd just not have published it in the first place.

Different outlets are controlled by different people some are more loyal to Xi, but ultimately none of them can go wild. Even in this case the news have been removed quickly and Dr. Ai Fen disappeared as well:

https://rsf.org/en/news/whistleblowing-doctor-missing-after-...

> Different outlets are controlled by different people some are more loyal to Xi, but ultimately none of them can go wild.

This is how "independent media" work in most countries that have such a thing: different outlets are controlled by different people, resulting in some diversity of opinion, but not every idea gets the same airtime. Of course the definition of "going wild" is different in a Chinese context.

Also, from the article you linked:

> 04/13/2020 UPDATE RSF has taken note of the video published on the Weibo account of the whistleblower Ai Fen, which suggests that she is free to move, and hopes that it was not staged by the Chinese regime.

A bit of experience from the former Eastern block. Censorship is not always perfect. Sometimes the censor in charge of the magazine/public house is dumb, sometimes the staff sneaks it around them, sometimes it is not yet communicated that some person or topic is in the blacklist.

Exactly. Censorship is never airtight, there are always some gaps that independent thought can slip through.

You do realize they literally tried to shut up the original scientist who first announced the existence of Covid to his other Dr pals right? I lived in 3 provinces in China during school, they have no freedom of anything over there. Their government is attempting to govern their lives with a mandatory government issued social media account. The freedom of speech often means the freedom to deceive and be deceived.

> they have no freedom of anything over there

That depends on what you mean by "freedom of anything". Are people allowed to do everything they want to? No. Are they doing it anyway? Yes.

More concretely with regards to freedom of speech: Are independent media allowed? No. Do they exist anyway? Yes.

> Their government is attempting to govern their lives with a mandatory government issued social media account.

What? That part makes me wonder whether all my knowledge is outdated because I haven't been to China this year and nobody told me about this or whether it's you who's been away for too long.

If I am following you, you are saying it’s not so bad because there is a black market and people are able to successfully break the nations laws. Successful crime in a nation does not equate to being a free country in any way, it just means there are some nooses that havent tightened yet