ven at a time when the Chinese government authorities are feeling threatened by the growth of blogs, and are trying to control it, last month the second annual Chinese blogger conference was held in Hangzhou.

Among other proposals at the conference, the 'real name system' (would require bloggers to register real names and identities with their blog hosting services) policy invited much debate. Most seemed to agree that the proposed system would be hard to implement without destroying the business of many blog-hosting companies. More than that - they are bewildered that they should be feared rather than praised for their creativity and initiative. ... more