No restrictions of press freedoms will ultimately harm the financial interest by companies like NBC, which paid $900 million for the right to broadcast the games. And technology companies here in the Valley, from Cisco to Google, have found catering to the censorship whims of party apparatchiks to be quite profitable. While the IOC hides behind apolitical rhetoric as China's human rights abuses have accelerated in advance of the games in an effort to sweep the streets of any political dissidents reporters might stumble upon.

As for trying to get past the filters, good luck. Some of the best network engineers in the world, in both China and the United States, have been developing technology to make sure it won't happen while keeping an eye out for anyone who attempts it. It is illegal in China to use encryption without providing the government with the keys they would need to crack it, and the country could obviously care less about the public perception of restricting access or information from the press by whatever means necessary.

Beijing's continued problem with visibility thanks to air pollution serves as a handy metaphor. The economic and industrial boom in the country makes it easy for everyone to overlook abuses and accept obfuscation of the truth as the cost of doing business. And business is good. So while journalists wring their hands and cry about press freedom, you won't see their employers divesting from the country in protest any time soon. (Photo by Simon Osborne)

• Will foreigners traveling to China for the Olympics experience Internet difficulties when corresponding with family and friends back home?

  The government bodies in charge of censoring the Internet have told [engineers] to get ready to unblock access from a list of specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses — certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners are expected to work or stay during the Olympic Games.

  (Translation: No.)
• How do foreign businesses in China operate with the Great Firewall in place?

  A VPN, or virtual private network ... creates your own private, encrypted channel that runs alongside the normal Internet. From within China, a VPN connects you with an Internet server somewhere else. Every foreign business operating in China uses such a network.

• What are the methods commonly used to bypass the firewall?

  "Anyone in China who wants to get around the firewall can choose between two well-known and dependable alternatives: the proxy server and the VPN.

• Why doesn't the Chinese government do more to enforce the surveillance systems it worked so hard to create?

  What the government cares about is making the quest for information just enough of a nuisance that people generally won't bother. Most Chinese people, like most Americans, are interested mainly in their own country. All around them is more information about China and things Chinese than they could possibly take in. By making the search for external information a nuisance, they drive Chinese people back to an environment in which familiar tools of social control come into play.