Take some time and read journalist Jonathan Ansfield's post on Newsweek's China blog recounting his participation in a meeting with the editors of the Global Times (环球时报). The Global Times is the fiery, flag-waving, tabloid companion to the Party's unreadably staid People's Daily. Ansfield discussed the dialogue with the editors, the Global Times' growing prominence, and provides translations of segments of some of their recent articles:

In late July, as Beijing girded for August, the Global Times took American newspaper accounts of its heavy-handed security measures as a direct affront. “Do Not Taunt the Chinese People,” fumed a front-page headline. A day or two later, when Beijing organizers revealed authorities' plan to designate three parks as protest zones during the Games, the front page of the Global Times played up favorable foreign press about the move (So far, not one protest has been approved) From there the cover piece veered sharply into a recent Pew public opinion poll, which showed 86 percent of Chinese surveyed were content with the direction of the country’s development.

The free talk session came a couple days after that. What, the editors embarked, was so wrong with the Beijing Olympics? How had the coming-out bash devolved into such controversy? I’m a sucker for these sorts of behind-the-scenes affairs. At the rap session, as I’d experienced before, the editors were affable and diplomatic. In private they come off as significantly more flexible than their paper. Besides five or six of them, there was one young Japanese research fellow, one author, one U.S. affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and one foreign reporter (me). We spent the afternoon around a long carved wooden table at a glassed-in teahouse. We chomped on sunflower seeds and talked over one another’s voices. Talking points included traffic, visas restrictions, security, and medal supremacy. Why did Beijing have to be so uptight? Political pressure had filtered down throughout the system, said a ranking editor. It could not be helped.

What about the Global Times? That was another area of particular sensitivity. “People say we’re a just a patriotic tool,” explained the ranking man. “But we aren’t. We have a duty to reflect the ordinary Chinese people’s views. That’s what we’re doing.” 

He also links to a David Bandurski post at the China Media Project blog that is worth a read.

When Imagethief was buying Chinese newspapers commemorating the start of the Olympics on August 8th and 9th, the Global Times had some of the best covers. Most of the rest were unconscionably dull.

See also:

Black and White Cat's translation of a Global Times article defending CCTV 9 anchor Edwin Maher following an LA Times article on him. (Also, my post on Edwin Maher is here.)

Global Times

Yesterday's Global Times. "World media follow China's response to
defeated hero. Most countrymen understand Liu Xiang's withdrawal."