China's Globalization Means Shrinking Web Access

I wrote most of this column at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin, the giant port city (population: 15 million) a half-hour bullet-train ride southeast of Beijing. It’s a sleek aircraft-hangar of a building that’s hosting the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, what the Chinese call “summer Davos.”

That all sounds pretty modern and global and connected, doesn’t it? Technologically sophisticated, too: I arrived too late this morning (lots of traffic in Tianjin) to get a seat at the question-and-answer session with Lei Jun, the founder and chief executive officer of smartphone maker Xiaomi, so I sat in a comfy chair in one of the cafés strewn about the convention center, drinking a coffee and tapping into the conference Wi-Fi to watch live on my laptop instead.1467046314628