I got an email from Myanmar on May 3. It was from Soe, a local Myanmese reporter I became acquainted with during my visits to Yangon last year. "Happy World Press Freedom Day!" she greeted me over the email. There was no other content, but I could feel her excitement.

This May 3 was the first World Press Freedom Day for Myanmese media, which had been under ironfisted censorship for nearly half a century.

As part of the democratic transition, the reformist Thein Sein government has plunged into a series of reforms on freedom of the press. The austere censorship was announced to be abolished in August 2012. Since then, Myanmar media has developed in a relatively unrestrained and liberated environment.

Just a few days ahead of World Press Freedom Day, the Myanmese government awarded licenses for daily publication to 10 more private newspapers, leading to so far a total of 26 private approved daily newspapers in Myanmar. The new titles included the International Herald Tribune, the global version of the New York Times.

Approving the publication of an original version of a US newspaper for the first time is a resolute step and of symbolic significance. The former military junta tightly shut its door against foreign media in the days when some Western countries fiercely punched at its media censorship.

However, the news didn't catch much attention worldwide. It's anticipated that various Western ideas and products would pour into Myanmar as it opens its door, just as has happened in China's reform and opening-up.

But I really marveled at the quick and deepening footprint of the West in Myanmar's press reforms. Talking online with Soe in recent months, I was told that various kinds of cooperation between Myanmese and Western media are already underway.

It was also reported on World Press Freedom Day that some 20 young US and Myanmese journalists have been invited to take part in a two-week-long cultural exchange and journalism fellowship in Myanmar jointly sponsored by some US nonprofit organizations, foundations and media outlets.

Myanmar is undergoing a peaceful evolutionary reform promoted from top down. It's very different from the dramatic change of the Arab Spring in some West Asian and North African countries, and it doesn't follow the model of China's reform and opening-up.

Although the Thein Sein government is wooing Western support on Myanmar's democratic transition through catering to the West in many aspects, such as revising relevant laws and regulations related to external cooperation, many Chinese observers are optimistic that Myanmar won't be Westernized considering Myanmar's unique historical, cultural and religious background.

However, China should be wary of a possible growing tendency of pro-West or pro-US thinking among Myanmar public with more Western thoughts and products swarming in. This is something unavoidable in any country. China, at the beginning of reform and opening-up, once witnessed overflowing Western liberalism and intellectuals heavily tempted by Western culture and values.

The Myanmese public's understanding of China will also be susceptible to Western penetration. It's not exaggerated to say most Myanmar people's understanding of China is like a blank page. When I first met Soe, it took me a while to win her trust and she felt it to be incredible that China is so big that it takes at least four hours to fly from Hong Kong to Beijing.

Given freedom of expression, the opening Myanmar is like a sponge ready to assimilate various thoughts.

Strategically, Chinese observers don't worry about the exclusion of China in Myanmar's foreign relations, given the two countries' geopolitical intimacy, deep economic and historical bonds. However, if China doesn't learn to motivate its grass-roots power in public communication with Myanmar, like enhancing cooperation with local media, it will risk losing on the Myanmar battlefield of soft power.

US political scientist Joseph S. Nye aggressively criticized China and Russia in his recent article in Foreign Policy, pointing out that the two countries fundamentally don't get the notion of soft power as they mistakenly see the government as the main instrument.

His argument has stirred discomfort among some Chinese scholars. However, as seen in Myanmar, US soft power to a large part profits from unofficial channels such as NGOs, media and other organizations. This is exactly what China lacks.  

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. yujincui@globaltimes.com.cn