You said: "Because in the free world, defaming the government, disrespecting a culture, discussing human rights, and discussing religion might be rude, or they might be the subjects of perfectly appropriate academic discussions, but they are not illegal." I agree, but I think you are arguing that such discussions are a normal and required part of our technical work in semi-public fora and I think that's stretching the meaning of the terms you list. Which is why I think we've been invited with the blessing of the government, and why I think THEY (for all values of they) assume we will conduct "business as usual." Otherwise there would not be much point in proposing that venue/country. I can imagine a few "cultural adjustments" such as taking off your shoes before entering certain buildings and so on, but I am not expecting a radically changed IETF meeting agenda. The most recent meeting I attended in China featured some very interesting presentations on the history and current deployment of Internet technologies in China, particularly with respect to IPv6 and with respect to the mobile Internet. I hope we can invite some of these speakers to our meeting if we make it to China. Ole Ole J. Jacobsen Editor and Publisher, The Internet Protocol Journal Cisco Systems Tel: +1 408-527-8972 Mobile: +1 415-370-4628 E-mail: ole@xxxxxxxxx URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf