China Daily: Foreign reporters eager to present real China

Looks like a high intensity lightning bolt hit someone at the China Daily recently that foreign journalists want to know the truth about China, so they decided to do an article to inform their readers, just in case they, erm, didn't already know. Here's an excerpt from the story:

French journalist Caroline Puel wants to present the real China to her readers, who are eager to know more about the country with the Beijing Olympic Games just eight months away.

"Most of the time, when you speak about China in France, people think about the ancient culture, the history and traditions, not much about the China (as it is) today," Puel said on Friday. "My job is to present modern China to my readers."

Puel is Asia bureau chief of Le Point, a weekly French magazine, and has been in China for 20 years. The fluent Putonghua-speaker was one of the international journalists and diplomats who shared their experiences at a reception held by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) on Friday...

"Sports is the last thing we want to cover (about the Beijing Games). Instead, we are more interested in the kind of sports common people are doing with," Puel said.

Thank you, China Daily, for the most informative read. We wonder what led to this great big revelation. Might it be the recent letter sent by Reporters Without Frontiers to Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee on the state of Olympic press freedom in China? Hmm...