Changes promise 'facts, not cliches'

Moves are in train to upgrade China's official spokesperson system and improve communications between the government and the public, as Sun Shangwu and An Baijie report from Beijing.

When official spokesman Mao Qun'an greeted a senior editor at a recent forum at Peking University, the journalist confided that the sight of Mao always reminds him of the time a pandemic ravaged China a decade ago.

"The moment I saw you, I wondered whether there had been another outbreak of SARS," joked Ma Weigong, deputy editor-in-chief of China Radio International.