ASIA LETTER: Just when you think China is maturing and about to take its place among the great nations of the world, along comes a reminder that underneath the veneer of modernisation, that old authoritarian regime still exists.
Take the story of Yao Ming from Shanghai for example.
Yao is seven feet, five inches tall, wears size 19 shoes, and shoots a basketball like a dream. The 22-year-old is China's hottest basketball sensation, and a young man on the verge of becoming a sports millionaire.
Last week the soft-spoken gentle giant's team, the Shanghai Sharks, finally agreed to release their top star to go to the US for selection in the coveted American National Basketball Association draft.
It has been Yao Ming's dream to play in the NBA since he saw his first televised game eight years ago.
For two years, the Sharks refused to release their top player to the NBA. The team didn't want to lose its biggest ticket draw and a talent it spent years developing.
US basketball scouts have eyed the tall, gangly centre for months, and with his record on the basketball court, it is easy to see why.
Yao Ming can shoot, pass, block and hustle down the court, a rare ability for a player so tall. He is among a group of China's national basketball team players who were dubbed the "Walking Wall of China" after their outstanding performance at the 2000 Olympics.
If selected for the NBA draft, Yao will have secured his ticket to millionaire status. He will be offered a three-year contract worth in the region of $10 million, with an option for a fourth year at $4.6 million.
He will also earn millions of dollars more in endorsements.
His proud parents try to attend all their son's home games, often cycling to venues because they can't afford any other transport.
Now they are seeing the wealth and international recognition their son has craved hit a major complication - the Chinese government.
Just days after the Shanghai Sharks announced they would release their star centre to enter the NBA draft, the Chinese authorities made it clear that his economic freedom would come at a huge price.
The China Basketball Association published complicated new regulations that would force Yao to turn over half his income, including endorsements, to the Chinese government and sports authorities.
The new government rules state that players overseas must give 30 per cent of their earnings to the China Basketball Association, China's equivalent of the NBA - 10 per cent more must go to the State Sports Administration, and yet another 10 per cent to the Shanghai city government.
If Yao does not abide by these new rules, he will face stiff penalties including an unspecified fine, expulsion from the national basketball team and an attempt by the Chinese authorities to invalidate all contracts signed by him.
There are some questions about China's legal claim on contracts Yao might sign in the US. But China has already demonstrated its ability to force companies to drop endorsements by people it doesn't like.
In what appeared to be a warning to NBA teams, Chinese state newspapers carried editorials last week stating that the International Basketball Federation, of which both the China Basketball Association and the NBA are members, has the power to cancel contracts between players and NBA teams.
Yao, who will be the third Chinese player ever to go to the NBA, is viewing the set-back philosophically. "I've already had many frustrations," he told the Shanghai Morning Post.
"A few more won't break me. I am a bit disappointed. But what can I do? People tell me the timing of the new regulations is just a coincidence. I don't think the regulations are aimed at me. But they do create obstacles."
With its recent entry to the World Trade Organisation, and winning the bid to host the Olympics in 2008, China is eager to be seen as a modern, open society able to play in all of the world's arenas.
But the reality is that China is still reluctant to give up the rigid hold it has on its people, and is determined to stretch its control tentacles to all its citizens, even those living and thriving abroad.
China's reluctance to release Yao reflects the view among Chinese leaders that elite athletes are national assets, and should be kept at home.
But Yao is determined to pursue his NBA draft bid, even if it means he will pay the Chinese government a minimum of $5 million over the next three years. The word extortion comes to mind.
But that is the price he is prepared to pay for the right to play his treasured basketball wherever he wants. A hefty price for sports freedom.