of Western culture. It comes as China's vice president kicks off a trip to the United States

this week, one designed in part to head off mounting tensions between the two countries.

Kathleen McLaughlin is a Beijing correspondent for our partner GlobalPost. She has this report.

KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN, GlobalPost: From clothes to coffee, to food and movies, Western culture

is big and getting bigger in China. KFC is the country's most popular restaurant chain.

A Buick is the top-selling car. At a public square in Beijing, 35-year-old Hou Xiazhou

and friends show off moves they learned from watching their American idols on the Internet.

HOU XIAZHOU, skateboarder (through translator): The West influences us a great deal. For example,

those of us who skateboard now are all learning from the West, from America. We watch how

their professional skateboarders practice, and imitate their methods. The way they dress

influences how we dress. We imitate how they skateboard. Watching them inspires us to think

about how skateboarding should be. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: Western culture swept into China

when the country opened to foreign trade 30 years ago. Western brands and ideas have exploded

in the past decade, as economic boom expanded the country's middle class. Now the government

is pushing back. President Hu Jintao says China's culture is being infiltrated by hostile

Western forces. And the government has set new limits on Chinese mass media. First, they

issued edicts that killed some racy and wildly popular TV shows and pushed others out of

prime time. Xu Fan is a professor at the Communications University of China, the country's top training

ground for budding TV journalists and hosts. XU FAN, professor, Communications University

of China: The rules are meant to restrict two types of programs. The first is crime

programs that show audiences how crimes are committed, how to steal and rob, criminal

techniques and scenes of the crime. This is what ordinary people like to watch. But these

types of programs are against law and order. Second are dramas with contents of immortality,

moral and ethical betrayals. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: What's allowed and what is not is murky. Take

"China's Got Talent." In one episode, a poor man who sells duck necks for a living dresses

up like a suicidal pig to try to earn money for a karaoke parlor for his wife. In the

end, the man's wife comes on stage to for the judges and wins both their tears and approval.

Regulators deem this show has a social value. But they threatened to cancel China's hugely

popular version of The Bachelor, If You Are the One. In one famous episode, the bachelor

asks one of the female contestants to ride on his bicycle. She replied, "I would rather

cry in the back of a BMW." To stay on the air, producers eradicated content with a negative

social impact, brought on older contestants, and added a professor from a Communist Party

school as the third host. Xu Fan says producers are finding it difficult to figure out what

might offend regulators. XU FAN (through translator): There are good intentions behind the regulations.

But then the rules become very complicated. And people down the line still have to carry

them out. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: But many of China's culture consumers disagree with the

government's very premise. Wang Tingting, who works for an insurance company in Beijing,

is certain that Western culture isn't taking over China. WANG TINGTING, office worker (through

translator): I feel both cultures are very good. They should be mutually beneficial,

and not replacing each other. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: Chinese culture often takes Western influences

and makes them its own. Walk into KFC, for example, you will find an egg tart, rice porridge,

and a menu almost unrecognizable to someone in the States. That fusion has happened on

the Internet, too, which, with more than 500 million users, is even more popular than television.

Kaiser Kuo is an American who has lived in Beijing for 16 years. He's a spokesman for

Baidu, China's top Internet site, and a well-known local rock musician. KAISER KUO, Baidu: A

lot of the memes that have become popular in China are kind of indecipherable to Western

audiences. And, of course, that's because they're sort of irreducibly Chinese. So I

think the idea that Chinese culture is in some way becoming Westernized is a little

misguided. I think that these are -- there isn't a strict, you know, sort of dichotomy

between Western and Chinese culture. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: The government, however, has also

begun Internet crackdowns in the name of fighting off Western culture. They started by forcing

people who use Chinese versions of Twitter to register under their own names. But these

restrictions could stifle the very creativity the country needs to develop. KAISER KUO:

In recent years, we ve seen the Internet really blossom into -- well, it's fully -- it's the

crucible contemporary culture in China. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: That contemporary culture may

be precisely what the government is worried about. Over the next two years, China will

change power at the very top and get a new president. The last thing it wants during

this rare and secretive transition is the kind of freewheeling discussion that's now

happening online with its Internet users. While many topics like China's power transition

are being banned on social media, posts about pollution, corruption and government negligence

spread like wildfire. Last summer, many Weibo users criticized the government after a notorious

high-speed train crash that killed nearly 50 people. Before censors deleted it, one

offending post read -- quote -- "China, please slow down your breakneck pace. Wait for your

people. Wait for your soul. Wait for your morals. Wait for your conscience." Recently,

China's netizens attacked Beijing's government for withholding the truth about air pollution.

They reposted and discussed at length the U.S. Embassy's independent air data. In the

end, Beijing's government caved and started publishing more pollution stats on its own

website. Jeremy Goldkorn, longtime China media watcher and founder of the online magazine

"Danwei," says the government clampdown likely has more to do with posts like that than with

Western culture itself. JEREMY GOLDKORN, "Danwei": I think the real concern is a loss of control.

And presenting this as a pushback against Western culture is a way of talking about

control that doesn't have to use those words. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: The government may find

it hard to take back control. Doudou Song works for a Japanese car company. Her favorite

TV programs, the social issues talk show "Day Day Up" and "Happy Camp," a variety show,

were removed from prime time. She now mostly watches TV clips online instead. DOUDOU SONG,

office worker (through translator): Every day, especially now that I'm working, when

I drag my tired body and mind home, I really want to have a moment of relaxation. I want

to laugh out loud. But I can't be as easily satisfied as before, so I feel a bit disappointed.

KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: She misses her shows. Doudou was even more offended by how the rules

were rolled out, with no public input. DOUDOU SONG (through translator): I feel perhaps

they have good intentions, but their methods are very undemocratic. They're too forceful.

It feels like a monopoly. KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: This generation of Chinese wants a voice.

Freedom is what Hou, the skater, talks about when asked what he likes about Western culture.

HOU XIAZHOU (through translator): It attracts and interests me a great deal. I think it's

very free. And that really attracts me. Their thoughts are very open-minded and positive.

KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN: The government may find it very difficult to change his mind. gd#Z

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in China over the growing influence of Western culture Normal Microsoft Office Word JEFFREY

BROWN: Next tonight, the debate in China over the growing influence of Western culture Title

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