The New York Times is launching a new, online Chinese-language edition. The site — at http://cn.nytimes.com/ — will launch sometime this evening; Thursday morning Beijing time. It is expected to expand over the next couple months.

According to a press release, the mission of the new site is “to provide China’s growing number of educated, affluent, global citizens with high-quality coverage of world affairs, business and culture.” But will the Times be allowed to do that? China’s government isn’t exactly known as one to reward investigative journalism, especially online.

Either way, this will be interesting to watch unfold.