How to develop a meaningful, ongoing line of communication.

We twitter on about this medium as the means by which the world is to be transformed through communication outside of the political and bureaucratic systems of power.

But despite two contacts with someone interested in a common subject, one Joseph Needham, sinologist par excellence, I have no idea if Liang Jiajie of Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, understands that my own interest in sinology is limited to a desperate need to understand her country's political culture and its potential for change.

I don't even know if such questions could get her into hot water under current conditions, or what the restraints might be at any given point in time.

Does this sort of situation pop up from time to time, and is it ever resolved to a babbler's satisfaction? And what might be the best course of action in present circumstances?