NYT: Foreigners fear China and self-censor more than Chinese

In a NYT reviewtitled "Censors Without Borders" May 6, 2010, EMILY PARKER
describes how foreign writers and academics are increasingly self-censoring to avoid risking their relationship with China's ruling party.
Most interestingly, she notes that Westerners are self-censoring even more than the Chinese, because they understand the risks even less than the Chinese. She quotes an academic anonymously, who claims all western academics self-censor - "collectively are compromising our academic ideals in order to gain access to China". And the pressure to do seems to have increased in recent years. "Suddenly we’re all Hong Kong, where no one wants to offend the mainland because it’s too close" says another academic. And yet, living in Hong Kong, I am daily reminded by the best selling Apple Daily that speaking out and refusing to self-censor is not just feasible, it is the best policy for publishers who want to make money outside the mainland and are not beholden to China for other business.
It is strange that westerners should be so nervous. After all, they generally have less to lose than Chinese, and China has a neijinwaisong policy; in recent years it has rarely locked up westerners up or tortured them, all though there are exceptions, such as the American geologist Xue Feng