A report by the CBC's Patrick Brown on how Chinese authorities are making sure the non-person status of former premier Zhao Ziyang follows him into the grave -- in both the real and virtual worlds.

An excerpt:

China's blogs face the censor

CBC News Online | January 21, 2005

From The National January 20, 2005
Reporter: Patrick Brown

Censorship is a reality in China, affecting almost all sources of information, including the internet.

Zhao Ziyang lived under house arrest after being purged in the power struggle over the 1989 student movement. A non-person for the last 15 years of his life, he's also a non-person after his death on Jan. 17, 2005.

The Chinese now have plenty of newspapers and magazines to choose from, but none carried more than a couple of lines on Zhao's passing, although people have been lining up to pay respects at his home.

On the internet, it's a game of cat and mouse as censors prowl chat rooms deleting references to Zhao.

Fung Zhing Dong, whose company China Blog hosts bulletin boards and weblogs, says users generally know what subjects are taboo.

"I think that as far as politics are concerned, it is really a small problem. According to our surveys, of all of the messages posted on our bulletin boards, only two per cent are removed," Fung says.