Singapore, a city-state of 5 million people armed with some of the world's strongest libel laws, successfully coerced the world's most prestigious newspaper into retracting coverage that was only mildly critical.
Fast forward to Thursday October 25, when The New York Times published a damning investigation into the family of China's Premier Wen Jiabao, uncovering that his family has controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion. It was the third story published by Western media this year (Bloomberg published the other two) that discovered great, possibly ill-gotten wealth in the families of high-ranking Chinese officials. On Friday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the article "smears China and has ulterior motives." Full story
