The People's Republic of Rumor
at the A group of people the other day were at the large shopping mall at a place called Shuangjing, just inside Beijing’s Third Ring Road, looking at their cell phones and comparing notes. “Don’t go to Sina Weibo—it’s too famous,” one person advised, referring to the largest of China’s electronic bulletin boards. “Go to Wangyi. It’s not so well known so it doesn’t get blocked so quickly.” The people were all scanning websites for news about the torrential rain that fell last week in Beijing and surrounding Hebei Province. The official media have reported that sevent...