[common_]

Actually, irrelevant. There would be more articles that are critical of China if newspaper publishers weren't paranoid about losing a shot at a payday buyout from a Chinese media firm.

[thanksgiving]

Are you sure? My uninformed guess would be to assume that if you're critical and they can't just shut you down, they'll more likely pay you a reasonable amount to shut up.

[bostik]

Sounds unlikely as that would only incentivise being openly (and vocally) critical.

If you have the resources and the time to invest in a long game, scorched earth strategy is likely going to be more effective.

[volgo]

Wrong. There's negative China articles coming out every day. If you just browse HN you'll find a fair selection of them