YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE:

Chinese Communist party veterans defy censors with call for free speech: Former party officials renew attack on 'invisible black hand' after open letter erased from websites (Tania Branigan, 10/13/10, guardian.co.uk)

Communist party elders are defying China's censors by pressing ahead with a bold demand for freedom of expression, after authorities erased their attack on the "invisible black hand" of central propaganda officials.

Twenty-three former senior officials known for their reformist views, including Mao Zedong's secretary Li Rui and a former editor of the People's Daily, Hu Jiwei, signed the open letter. [...]

The letter accuses officials of ignoring China's constitution, which guarantees the rights of free speech and a free press. "This false democracy of formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark on the history of world democracy," it says.