Confidence in China's democracy

Editor's note: This the second and concluding part of the interview of Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Hongbo published by the German newspaper Die Welt, including on its website, on Sept 22 and Oct 2.

Q: It is said that China is not a country with full press freedom and reporters are subject to strict supervision and restrictions. Some reporters were even taken into custody. In China, access to Internet is also monitored. Is this a reflection of the ruling Communist Party being not confident enough about media reports?

A: Well, press freedom is always a hot topic. Some argue that such freedom obtains in China while others deny it. I would like to talk about this problem from an different perspective. In May last year, an institution from Maryland University in the US conducted a poll in more than 20 countries including the US and China. The survey showed that 89 percent of the respondents in China believe there is press freedom in their country. Among them, 12 percent think China has full press freedom, 26 percent confirm there is press freedom in China while 51 percent say the existing press freedom in China needs further improvement. Therefore, we can come to two conclusions: the majority of Chinese believe there is press freedom in China and people have different perceptions of the yardstick of press freedom.