LA Times on Disney, Murdoch media problems in China

Follow-up to my Computerworld post about new regulations governing Western media operating in China. Don Lee of The LA Times today (via Yahoo news) notes the problems Disney and Rupert Murdoch have encountered in China expanding their respective media empires. The following paragraphs are particularly telling:

Some industry executives and analysts view the curbs against Western media as part of Chinese President Hu Jintao's broader campaign to head off perceived threats to his rule. Communist leaders have long seen the media as more of a propaganda tool than a commercial enterprise. In recent months, the central government has reined in journalists and cut off Internet forums at some major universities as the Internet has helped to foster criticism of party officials and policies.

The restrictions on foreign media coincide with a changing of the guard at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, where longtime provincial official Wang Taihua replaced media veteran Xu Guangchun as head of the regulatory body.

This suggests that guanxi and large business investments in China will only go so far when the central government's plans to maintain social (and political) stability are involved.