With the caveat that FP can't verify the authenticity of this list, below are the highlights of a translation of what purports to be Xinhua's banned terms (Xinhua is China's national news agency).

As popular China blogger Jeremy Goldkorn observes, "Aside from the rather predictable rules about Taiwan... most of the list resembles a guide to Western style political correctness rather than the usual Communist Party list of taboo words and subject matter."

• Physically handicapped persons should not be described by denigrating terms such as "cripple 残废人", "one-eyed dragon 独眼龙", "blindie 瞎子", "deafie 聋子", "fool 傻子", "idiot 呆子". Instead, the appropriate terms are "handicapped person 残疾人", "blind person 盲人", "deaf person 聋人", "mentally impaired person 智力障碍者".
• In reporting about medicine, do not use terms such as "best curative effect 疗效最佳", "cure once and for all 根治", "safe prevention  安全预防", "safe without side effect 安全无副作用." In reporting about medical drugs, do not use terms such as "cure immediately after taking 药到病除", "refund if ineffective 无效退款", "insured by insurance company 保险公司保险", "latest technology 最新技术", "highest technology 最高技术", "most advanced production method 最先进制法", "king of medicines 药之王", "national-class new medicine 国家级新药," etc.
• For persons in the art and literature field, do no use terms such as "movie king 影帝", "movie queen 影后", "superstar 巨星", "celestial king 天王". Normally, use instead "art and literature field person 文艺界人士" or "famous actor/actress 著名演员", "famous artist 著名艺术家," etc.
• As a national news agency, Xinhua should not be using slang, obscenities and gangster talk such as "Wa-sigh (So grateful!) 哇噻", "Mother's 妈的", etc.
• When reports on criminal cases refer to "thieves" and "rapists", the social position of the individual should not appear as a prefix.  For example, a worker who stole should not be described as "worker thief"; a professor who committed a crime should not be written as "professor criminal."
• It is forbidden to use slang or professional terminology that may insult various ethnic groups.  For example, it is prohibited to use "Mongolian doctor 蒙古大夫" for a charlatan doctor, or to use "Mongolian" to refer to the condition of Down syndrome.
• In all reports concerning persons of Islamic faith, "pork" must not be mentioned.
• Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions of China.  Taiwan is a province of China.  In any text, map and map annotations, do not describe them as "nations."  When a nation and its regions are cited simultaneously, pay extra attention to remember to write as "the nation and its regions."
• In the public reports, do not use "Islamic fundamentalism 伊斯兰原教旨主义", "Islamic fundamentalists 伊斯兰原教旨主义者", etc. Use instead "religious extremism 宗教激进主义 (religious extremists 宗教激进派)" as substitute. If the reference cannot be avoided, then use "Islamic extremist organization 伊斯兰激进组织" but not "extremist Islamic organization 激进伊斯兰组织".
• Do not mention the "crusaders", etc.
• In hostage reports, do not use "decapitation 斩首". Use neutral language such as "the hostage was killed by having the head cut off 人质被砍头杀害."

The astronomical success of YouTube and other "Web 2.0" sites led TIME magazine to name "You" their person of the year, beating out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. FP Editor Moisés Naím has a short piece out in the LA Times on "YouTube journalism"—the idea that video clips shot by ordinary people and disseminated online can change the world.

Fifteen years ago, the world marveled at the "CNN effect" and believed that the unblinking eyes of TV cameras, beyond the reach of censors, would bring greater global accountability. These expectations were, to some degree, fulfilled. Since the early 1990s, electoral frauds have been exposed, democratic uprisings energized, famines contained and wars started or stopped thanks to the CNN effect. But the YouTube effect will be even more powerful. Although international news operations employ thousands of professional journalists, they will never be as omnipresent as millions of people carrying cellphones that can record video. Thanks to the ubiquity of video technology, the world was able to witness a shooting in a 19,000-foot-high mountain pass in Tibet.

The full version will appear in the January/February print edition of Foreign Policy. If you're not a subscriber, sign up today!

Naím mentions several videos, some of which were flagged by Passport in recent weeks. We've assembled them for you at the links below.

• Murder in the mountains: Chinese soldiers shot down Tibetan monks, women, and children in cold blood, but a climber caught them on tape.
• China can't censor everything: A Sky News reporter risks detention, even harm to report on the simmering discontent brewing in China over land grabs. But the victims haven't been waiting around for him to discover their misery. His report builds on footage shot by ordinary Chinese of clashes between peasants and government hired thugs, and of ordinary people being forcibly evicted from their houses.
• Real or staged, we'll never know: This harrowing video, purportedly of U.S. troops crying and praying during a firefight with Iraqi insurgents, may be a fake. But that didn't stop 86,000 people from viewing it in the first 10 days after it was posted.
• Inside Egypt's jails: An Egyptian police officer slaps around a detainee, to the delight of his colleagues. He didn't think anyone was watching.
• Two U.S. humvees attacked in Baquba: A typical video posted by Iraqi insurgents of a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy.

A Sky News reporter risks detention, even harm to report on the simmering discontent brewing in China over land grabs. But the victims haven't been waiting around for him to discover their misery. His report builds on footage shot by ordinary Chinese of clashes between peasants and government hired thugs, and of ordinary people being forcibly evicted from their houses.

Chinese soldiers shot down Tibetan monks, women, and children in cold blood, but a climber caught them on tape.

We love to see a guy who's pushing 7' 9" using his powers for good:

The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins by using his long arms to reach into their stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards.

Mongolian herdsman Bao Xishun was called in after the dolphins swallowed plastic used around their pool at an aquarium in Fushun, north-east China. [...]

The mammals had lost their appetite and were suffering depression, aquarium officials said.

The heads of the dolphins were held back and towels wrapped around their teeth so Mr Bao could not be bitten.

He then extended his 1.06m-long arm into the mammals' stomachs.

Sadly, the Chinese river dolphin is "functionally extinct" in the wild. It's not clear from the story what species these particular dolphins were, however.

The Chinese government has just announced a new $1 billion plan to provide free education to 150 million rural children. Their schooling has been ostensibly free for decades, but fees are often introduced by local authorities, leaving cash-strapped parents unable to pay. (Fees average $18 a child in rural areas, where the average income is approximately $367).

The primary motivation behind the plan is to narrow the ever-widening gap between wealthy, urban Chinese and their poorer, rural fellow citizens. Education is one of the top financial burdens for rural families, who have been largely left behind in China's economic boom.

Higher spending on education is just one of several initiatives, including more and better rural healthcare, that the government has promised to deliver in response to growing rural unrest. Whether it's enough to stop the riots that seem to be occuring more and more across the countryside remains to be seen. Ironically, one group of children is excluded from the new education plan: The children of the millions of rural families who have flocked to China's booming cities in recent years.

China has stopped following Deng Xiaoping's advice that it "hide its ambitions and disguise its claws," and is now encouraging its people to talk about its "peaceful rise." Naturally, most Chinese are pretty excited about the country's incredible growth and rapid maturation as a world power. 

But if the Chinese are looking for universal acceptance around the Pacific, they're in for a rude shock. A Pew Global Attitudes survey released recently revealed that "[t]here is a good deal of dislike, if not outright hostility, in how the publics of major Asian countries view their neighbors," and China doesn't get a free pass.

The survey, which was conducted in China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States, shows great hostility and distrust among the publics of Asian powers. The Chinese and Japanese hold a mutually unfavourable view of each other, as do India and Pakistan (see table at right). A majority of Indians believe that China will replace the U.S. as the world's superpower, while only a minority held the same belief in China, Japan and Russia. There was however, an overwhelming consistency when asked about the rise of China's military power. A large majority in Japan, Russia and India respond to it as a "bad thing," while the Chinese almost unanimously believe it is a "good thing".

The Pew Global Attitudes Project compiles a variety of other reports on international issues, including Muslim-Western relations and the image of the U.S.

Bob Gates was just confirmed by the Senate as the next secretary of defense. The vote was 95-2 in favor; both nays were from Republicans.

Secretary Gates takes the helm at the Pentagon at an unenviable moment: spiraling violence in Iraq, a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, and an overstretched U.S. military, not to mention nukes in Pyongyang and centrifuges in Tehran. So, what can we expect from Gates? In a new web exclusive, FP takes a look at how he'll run his $500 billion business.