One half of 1980s rap group Public Enemy showed up in Beijing Saturday, to the, uh, bemusement, of a few thousand fans. To say it was odd seeing a relatively sparse crowd try to get excited for a group most Chinese had never heard of, and few foreigners ever really knew, would be an understatement. (Most common line heard: "What's their famous song again? Oh yeah, I think I know that.") To give you a better sense of the atmosphere, by far the biggest response from the audience came when Marky Ramone took the drums and they performed a stirring rendition of "Hey! Ho! Let's Go!"

However, the weirdest aspect of the PE performance was hearing the anti-authoritarian group rapping about fighting against abusive power to an audience of China's youth. Suffice to say that this irony was not lost on any foreigners in the audience. In contrast to the Rolling Stones, who were not allowed to sing five of their songs last year when they came to China, PE seemed to have free reign.

Let's do a side-by-side comparison to see if we can make any sense of the censorship policy. Here are the lyrics from two different songs, and you decide which is more of a threat to 'stability' in China:

Song one:

I'll never be your beast of burden;

My back is broad but it’s a hurting;

All I want is for you to make love to me;

Song two:

Got to give us what we want;

Gotta give us what we need;

Our freedom of speech is freedom or death;

we got to fight the powers that be;

Chinese censors are worried about people making references to sex, but inciting a revolution gets a pass. (Maybe when you have 1.3 billion people anything that could result in procreation is a threat.) Public Enemy is literally advocating overthrowing governments that stand in the way of freedom, while the Rolling Stones brag about their sexual prowess.

To be fair, the Chinese are not the only ones that are confused when it comes to censorship. When the Rolling Stones played the Superbowl last year network television cut Mick's microphone several times according to numerous reports:

"In Start Me Up, the show's editors silenced one word close to the song's end, a reference to a woman so sexy she could arouse a dead man. The lyrics for Rough Justice included a synonym for rooster that was removed."

So Start Me Up, the song so edgy that Microsoft used it as its theme, was a threat to children everywhere, but Satisfaction lacks sexual inuendo. I guess lots of people pick and choose decency standards arbitrarily.

In Beijing, it was not just the censorship, or lack thereof, that caught notice. The concert, which was held in Chaoyang Park where beach volleyball will take place during the Olympics, was supposed to be a practice run for the games. Based on the experience yesterday, I venture to say there are going to big problems.

First, the police are entirely incapable of devising a cohesive plan about anything. When we showed up they told us we could not bring cans or bottles of beer in , but that plastic cups sold on site should be no problem(fair enough). Sure enough, we brought cups in without an objection. An hour and a half later I went out to bring more back to my friends. This time they stopped us, saying beer was not allowed in. So we were stuck with half a dozen beers outside the stage area. However, a few hours later I noticed people coming in with several cups in plain sight, without any problem. Essentially the security had no clue what the policy was.

In addition, Beijing decided to show that they are really 'law and order' types. Just off to the side of the stage were dozens of army officers marching around in a display of pointed awkwardness. They provided the perfect contrast to the militant members of PE parading around in fatigues shouting "Fight the Power!"

Far be it from me to tell the Chinese how to run their country, but if they are trying to change the world view that this is an authoritarian state, teams of soldiers parading around at public events might not be the image you want to project.

All in all, I think it's safe to say it's good Beijing still has a year to prepare for the games.