Look, I have traveled in China, and even had the distinct honor or training at the (northern) Shaolin Temple in Henan, near Dengfeng.
What Mr. McGee is saying is not completely correct, and not completely incorrect. We often paint the Chinese government as this Orwellian villain, with overbearing constriction on the truth. That is not correct, China's government hardly has the resources to ban Facebook and censor Google, let alone control all sorts of information from a myriad of sources. While certain embarrassing historical events are surgically removed from their official history, such as the Tienanmen Square massacre or the Trung Rebellion in Nam Viet in 40 a.d., few real threats against free information are carried out. Hence why people like Huang Weikai and Lou Ye are still free people and can operate inside and out of the country.
What Mr. McGee clearly does not understand is how well -as someone who is foreign born- he is treated, and that many of the foreign businesses are treated with a greater latitude than the Chinese businesses. This is in order for the government to save face, as those who are originally foreign have much greater contact with foreign countries and media, as this article proves somewhat.
Chinese nationals are often the subject of political corruption as well, especially outside of Shanghai, oddly enough. In 2011, the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities held their annual conference in Shanghai, which for the 2008 games, and the 2010 international expo underwent major reconstruction and a -to put it kindly- "flushing out" of many of the more corrupt officials and administrators that it once held. But, once one reaches the inner areas of the nation, corruption and the extreme wealth difference and poverty that come with it are much more evident.
While I actually applaud China on its approach to banning extreme violence rather than worry about cuss words or pixel genitals, I worry about any kind of censorship in this form, especially religious censorship. Occult censorship is often used as a code-word for politically dissonant religious sects, while the religious practices of these so-called "occult" people are no different than their mainstream counterparts, religious sects objecting to oversight by the cultural ministry are belittled and outcast.
Keep in mind, though, that China has a wide array of political beliefs. On Chinese State TV, or CCTV, while I was there, they had an open and free discussion of wealth inequality in China on one of their forum "talking-heads" TV shows. The serious issue of masses of people not being able to enjoy China's newfound economic prosperity is a hot issue amoung the nation's communists, and rightly so. Seeing billionaires drive their Mazerati around in front of the hovels in Shanghai and Zhengzho was a real eye-opening moment for me. And in rural communities, the division between the wealthy and the poor is much, much greater.
The Cultural Ministry tends to attract hard-line conservatives, much like how many conservatives all over the world attempt to guard their cultures against change. Overall, the government of China is much more progressive, and their is an ongoing, public debate over the attitudes in the government and its priorities. The communists want government action on wealth inequity, while the conservatives want to guard Chinese culture from outside influence, especially from Japan. This is the continental divide of Chinese politics at the moment.
My point being, that with this type of media censorship, we see the Chinese government at its worst, not at its best.
In closing, please keep in mind that China is a vast country with all types of people in it. Some are corrupt or totalitarian, but most, especially outside the government's cultural ministry, are wonderful people. They just wish for the well-being of their country and its people, but have a very different take on specific ways to go about it than you or I do. What China wants most of all is respect, and I think they deserve it, being one of the oldest and most learned cultures on the planet, but there is no doubt that they go too far in the pursuit of this respect.