The Hong Kong Ming Pao carried an article written by Ouyang Wu on November 13 saying that the 2008 Beijing Olympics and China have drawn lots of attention from the world and China is becoming more and more open to the picky magnifying glasses of the international media.

According to the article, only history can show how much political legacy the 17th Party Congress will leave. But the congress has changed China's attitude towards the foreign press -- both stealthily and shockingly.

For the first time, usage of "informatization and taking both the domestic and international situations into consideration" increased in Hu Jintao's report at the Congress, which suggests that China is getting a better understanding of the world.

The article said that the foreign media felt impressed by the "comfortable" and open news service provided during the 17th Party Congress. They received invitations to cover the Beijing Olympics while still praising the news service. And now the "news war" of the Beijing Olympics has already begun. The Beijing Olympics, China's economy, politics and democracy have all drawn much international attention.

The world cannot simply neglect China. As the world's third-largest economy, third-largest trader, China holds the largest forex reserve in the world and ranks the second in contributions to global GDP growth.

Without doubt China is facing the world; the country has the most Asian offices for international media. More journalists than ever before covered the 17th National Party Congress and 30,000 registered and non-registered journalists will certainly report every detail about the Olympics to the world.

The author believes that China has learned from the Party congress' open coverage many tips how to manage the Olympic news. In this way overseas journalists now have the chance to cover key issues; Olympics preparations, Olympics food safety, Olympics security and so on.

These changes indicate that China is learning to treat the international media kindly, says the article. We can see from the regulations for foreign media regarding the Olympics coverage, the Olympics preparation press releases and the improved spokesman system that China is rapidly becoming more and more confident while facing international scrutiny.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua, November 15, 2007)