By Evan Osnos, Letter from China blog @ newyorker.com, Jan. 3, 2013

It’s time for the State Department to take up the matter of American reporters in China, and Chinese reporters in America.

The work of the American press in China has become so contentious, and so central to our understanding of China’s political picture, that it’s worth stepping back, for a moment, to put a remarkable year in perspective: in the span of twelve months, foreign news organizations including the Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News have ratcheted up their scrutiny of China’s politicians to a level of forensic detail that we have rarely, if ever, seen in foreign correspondence [....]

Aren’t these news organizations just pawns in a Chinese political drama, being fed tips and transcribing “dossiers” of juicy information? That is a common theory among Chinese readers, and it’s understandable, given the sudden profusion of reports, and the way they tend to damage one faction or another. But that’s more fantasy than reality. [....]