When Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took the reins of China's Communist Party and government in 2002, liberals expressed modest hopes that they would loosen the tight gag on freedom of expression.
The government did indeed relax some controls in the first few months, and critics are steadily becoming bolder. But it has become clear that the Communist Party is not about to open the door to its own demise.
In early 2003, Hu rapped the state television network on the knuckles for pandering to government officials. The party called for hard-hitting reporting and officials were told to be more responsive to the media. Journalists became more open in their reporting, even though it meant nudging the invisible line that every journalist knows is not to be crossed.
But the promise of a "Beijing spring" was dashed in March 2003, after the outspoken daily 21st Century Herald published a letter by Li Rui, former secretary to Mao Zedong, harshly criticizing past and present party leaders - specifically Chairman Mao, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin. The paper was soon shut down, and more than a year later remains closed.
Since then, officials have stepped up attacks on Internet dissidents, scholars and journalists, leading some observers to say freedom of speech is more threatened than in the grim days shortly after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
While there has been a notable lifting of media taboos, such as reporting on disasters, corruption or social issues, the unwritten rule remains that any news potentially threatening to the party is off limits.
Earlier this year, two former editors and the former general manager at the hard-hitting Southern Metropolis Daily in Guangdong were arrested on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Chinese sources believe the real reason for their arrest was the newspaper's active coverage of SARS, as well as the case of Sun Zhigang, a graphic designer who was beaten to death while in police custody in Guangzhou.
The most telling example of the clampdown concerns a best-selling book published earlier this year, "An Investigation of the Chinese Peasantry." The title echoes Mao's seminal work, "The Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement of Hunan."
The new book's shocking look into the plight of farmers was an instant hit, and the husband-and-wife authors were soon turning up on television shows and in the pages of newspapers and magazines around the country.
But despite the new leadership's stated concern for the plight of farmers, the book's assertion that things are not so good down on the farm was too much for the party. The Propaganda Department banned the book a few months ago, and the co-authors, Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao, face a lawsuit by a local official whose son is a judge in the local court. In February, Jiang Yanyong, the 72-year-old retired Army surgeon who a year earlier had gone to the foreign media with proof of SARS, wrote an open letter to the leadership in which he called on the government to admit responsibility for the 1989 crackdown during the Tiananmen protests.
Jiang and his wife were detained on June 1 on their way to the U.S. Consulate to apply for a visa to visit their daughter in the United States. His wife was released two weeks later, but Jiang was held for 49 days. The government has said that his case is not closed.
In May, Bao Tong, a former high-ranking official, lashed out at the party for failing to introduce any reforms since 1989. He particularly cited party interference in the media and publishing sectors. Bao, who spent seven years in prison for opposing the 1989 crackdown, and is now under round-the-clock surveillance. Such government efforts have not been entirely successful. Aggressive young journalists continue to dig into a growing array of sensitive news, from the recent scandal over fake baby formula that killed dozens of babies, to the growing army of petitioners who arrive each day in the capital to air their grievances over runaway local corruption.
Chinese intellectuals and journalists warn that this should not be mistaken as a move toward true freedom of expression. They say that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao will not sanction any reform that will undermine the party's - and their own - authority.
As one Western diplomat said, the party is not in the business of putting itself out of business.