Finally, Newsweek Laments Govt. Regulation... in China

Free market capitalism is a much-despised bogeyman to the mainstream media, as our friends at MRC's Business & Media Institute can attest.

So it's somewhat refreshing to find one article in a major media publication -- okay, it's actually Newsweek -- that seems to lament the entrepreneur-choking nature of government regulation.

Of course, the regulatory state in question happens to be the highly undemocratic Communist China, but in the July 28 edition article, "Taking Away Olympic Fun," Mary Hennock and Manuela Zoninsein lament that "Visitors to the Games will find the newly spruced-up Beijing cleaner -- and blander.":

Club owners say the government's runaway regulators are trampling the city's once-thriving entertainment scene. The nightlife guide Time Out Beijing is planning a double issue for August and September: there's not enough going on to fill two single issues. Commercial and legal uncertainties have made clubs nervous about committing to hire big-name DJs and bands. "In the month of the Olympics, there's less to write about than at any time in the last few years," says the magazine's editor, Tom Pattinson. "It's either a private party, or it's not happening."

For plenty of expatriates the party's really over: if they haven't been tossed out of the country, friends of theirs have. Formerly lax enforcement of China's visa laws has turned strict. Younger members of the expat community have been particularly hard-hit, and they're the ones who keep many of the city's nightspots in business. "Numerous bar owners have told me that a good portion of their regular customers are gone, and gone because of visa issues," says Jim Boyce, a self-confessed barfly who blogs about Beijing's nightlife. "I've lost, like, 50 percent of my customers," says Stefano Fin, proprietor of the once-bustling Aperitivo, in the suddenly quiet Sanlitun bar district. "No one comes anymore." Club owners and patrons worry that the next step might be a crackdown on Beijing's previously ignored 2 a.m. closing law.

And the restrictions seem to keep multiplying. "Each day, new rules," says Wang. "Wake up, new rules. We're just always waiting for new rules." Some bar owners have been directed to close the rooftop terraces that usually draw crowds in Beijing's sweltering summer nights: a falling bottle might hit a passerby, they're told. Elsewhere, street-level seating has been banned. Inspectors recently carted off the tables, chairs and ornamental hedges from the sidewalk outside Aperitivo. "What happened?" says Fin. "How do I know? They don't tell you, they just come and take tables away." Demke says he saw a restaurateur in his neighborhood lie down in front of a truck to keep it from driving away with his furniture.

It's a nice start, but the cynical side of me thinks self-interest explains the hand-wringing over Chinese regulation shuttering bars and other night spots.

We can't have intrepid journalists covering the Beijing Olympics deprived of Scotch while in China for the Olympics, can we?