Charter 08, a radical call by 300 intellectuals for an end to one party rule was widely expected to die a quiet death. Instead, it seems to be taking on a life of it''s own. Read this article in the Washington Post about the kinds of people who are adding their names... Eight thousand people is still a drop in the ocean in a country of a billion, but if it is so insignificant, then why does the Communist Party want to ban all mention of it from the internet?

I first wrote about Charter 08 for The Guardian ''s online Comment is Free site here, and received a rather rude response  on a state-run website.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the economic crisis for Comment is Free. The economic slowdown is already hitting China, although we don''t yet know how hard. But the leadership will be watching not only how many people lose their jobs, but how those people react. Beijing has kept the population happy with an economic boom and rising living standards. That''s about to falter.

I think you're very brave writing on CiF - some of the comments are v unfriendly! As a tax adviser I'm currently considering a response to their "tax gap" piece, but it'll be long gone by the time I've decided what to say!

Hi Wendy, I''m afraid I decided the only way I could continue to write for CiF was to ban myself from reading the comments. I think blogs on controversial subjects often attract aggressive criticism, and China perhaps more than most. To be honest, I think that this is going to be something that the blog sites are going to have to look at - I know they moderate the sites, but often the line between an offensive comment and a non-offensive comment must be hard to find. There are sites like Andrew Sullivan''s at The Atlantic which accept comments by email and then put them on the site very selectively, and anonymously. Personally, I think that''s the way to go.