China's control over its media was demonstrated recently by the treatment of a newspaper interview with visiting US President Barack Obama. On the last morning of his visit to Beijing, Obama gave an exclusive interview to Southern Weekly, a newspaper from China's southern Guangdong province. Obama had turned down an interview with the state-run CCTV and instead chosen a paper known for pushing the boundaries of Chinese news censorship.

But the edition of Southern Weekly which hit news stands was anything but hard-hitting. The article included questions about basketball. On harder issues, it repeated remarks that the US president had said elsewhere.

It is understood that the content of the piece was vetted by at least four top party leaders before being cleared. On the paper's website, what should have been a valuable scoop was not even featured on the main page.

China's censorship seemed to succeed in keeping Obama's remarks low-key. Yet Southern Weekly had one trick up its sleeve. Large portions of the front two pages carrying the interview were made up by slogans saying that readers of the Southern Weekly could "understand China" -- a veiled criticism of the government's tactics.