The power of blogs or millenary ambivalence?

The Times of London reports on the furor caused by a blog written by Rui Chenggang, "who sparked [a] nationwide controversy with his blog entry 'Why Starbucks needs to get out of the Forbidden City'" (the link though is nowhere to be found). Allegedly the blog received more than a half a million visits and it seems that the audience was divided between those supporting and those opposing the anchorman's idea of taking a Western company out of the forbidden city, but most of them agreeing with the post. It is important to note that there are many others coffee shops in the forbidden city, but the blogger and director/anchor for the China Central Television seems to think that only the foreign one is misplaced because "there should be a limit to protect [their] cultural traditions". It is also important to note, that the same person has usually taken steps bridge cultural differences and misunderstandings, which makes the affirmation even more strange, taking into account that it is in the same country where the cultural revolution tried to erase the same traditions. Still, the controversy shows that blogs, even in countries that tightly control Internet, are a very powerful medium with a reach some times difficult to measure.