From The EastSouthWestNorth Blog:
For someone who has any familiarity with the official Chinese media — especially the Xinhua news agency — the impression must be that if Chinese government officials have to rely on these media (or propaganda mouthpieces) as the principal sources of information, then that country must be in ‘heap big trouble.’ But the fact is that the Chinese government officials do rely strongly on Xinhua to inform them. You say, Holy cow! However, they rely not on the public version of Xinhua; instead, there are various internal Xinhua reports known as Internal Reference Materials (ÂÜÖÈÉ®ÂèÇËÄÉ˵ÑÊñô) that are circulated within officialdom. Internal reference materials are classified as national secrets and so no one can talk about them openly.
The following is a translation of a long article in Phoenix Weekly (via Xici) about these internal reference materials.
