In China's latest bid to be THE world power, it has rented Santa's list of who's naughty and nice.
Most Beijing-based journalists aren't nice to China.
Taipei-based political news scribes have no choice.
China's foreign ministry gets to decide who's cool by issuing or declining J2 (Journalist Class 2, visiting correspondent) visas to those of us based offshore with short-term reporting ambitions.
"He got one."
"So-and-so was turned down."
"His agency, no problem"
"The program was rejected."
You hear all of that.
Now it's my turn. I submitted a photo, passport scan, two resumes and a stiff white application last month for a two-week stay in January. So far, no word.
Plan B, sneak in again as a tourist.