On the topic of businesses like Yahoo and Google choosing to yield to censorship requirements in order to operate in China, Li said he understands the business reasons, but, "morally it's wrong to sell people's freedom."

His freedom has become more difficult to maintain over the past two years, the article noted. Though he isn't famous, he has built enough of a reputation that he is something of a marked man.

Still, he has reason to fear. Evidence prosecutors obtained from Yahoo in China has contributed to the jailings of two journalists, and others who have published stories on the Internet also languish in prison, the report said.

As more Chinese citizens move online, their interest in the habits of politicians could be the ultimate undoing of censorship and media suppression:

Li said Chinese people's demands for clean, accountable officials, and their salacious curiosity about bad ones, were the censors' ultimate enemy.

"Our party always said revolution depended on the gun and the pen -- the military and propaganda," said Li, echoing a slogan of Mao's. "The gun is still firmly in the party's hands, but the pen has loosened."