With China attempting to show the world they are ready to implement a newfound freedom towards the foreign press, many journalists are right to wonder if this isn't a façade that will fade quickly once the Games are over.
Both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese government have claimed the Games will bring a historic change for the better in China's stringent media boundaries. But the Human Rights Watch has recently reported what many feared — that China has not been keeping to its end of the bargain.
A number of foreign correspondents have faced threats of an Olympic ban if they do not report positively on other issues. Intimidation tactics on foreign journalists have also been implemented, as have firewalls on sites such as Amnesty International, which recently released an in-depth report on China's human rights violations.
This should come as no surprise. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always been on its toes when it comes to allowing the free voices from democratic nations to reach the ears of their people. A strong example of China's ability to turn a powerful tool for freedom of expression to their own advantage is the internet.
It was commonly believed that, during its formative years in China, the internet would play a key role in voicing the opinions of disgruntled citizens, and would become a new medium for public debate.
But former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon disclosed this year that 'as China's pool of internet users increases, it appears that a decreasing percentage take advantage of technologies such as proxy servers that make it possible to circumvent internet censorship'.
Surveys reveal that most urban Chinese internet users trust domestic news sources more than they trust foreign news websites. MacKinnon claims 'nationalism and xenophobia have found a fertile breeding ground on the Chinese internet, while a pro-democracy movement has been prevented from growing there'.
China's government has always had an interesting approach to the net. Many academics agree the CCP was initially reluctant to apply the internet to mass media, fearful that the fast exchange of information would undermine government authority.
However, the CCP has done an impressive job of using the internet to strengthen its propaganda. In 2006, former Time magazine South East Asia Bureau Chief William Thatcher Dowell wrote that 'Chinese authorities are proving unusually sophisticated at reigning in the internet's free wheeling nature'.
The CCP allows