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China Hits Internet With Secrecy Rules
MetalHead writes "Anyone running a Web site in China may be interested in this story." You should check this out even if you don't run a Chinese site; it's yet another case of a government cracking down on news media.
So, no, logic isn't universal. People (especially in totalitarian regimes like China and Cuba) don't always have complete information, and even if they do, prejudices often get in the way. Like the US in this case.
BTW, most Australians who know anything about the issues agree that our censorship policies have been infiltrated by the religious right and Something Should Be Done(TM). Unfortunately, the only thing that can be done is vote out the present Federal Government and that won't happen for another 18 months or so :(
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Come on folks. This is the same totalitarian regime that led the slaughter of peaceful protesters in Tiananmen(sp?) Square, then refused to let their media mention that anything happened. This is one-and-a-half steps away from the regime that led the Cultural Revolution. These are ruthless dictators, and they will NOT let free speech occur until the only 'free speech' is in their favour.
/. sort of article.
This is not news.[1] This is not a change of policy. This is entirely consistent with the Chinese government's way of doing things.
Something you might want to consider then next time your government talks about 'wonderful foreign trade opportunities with China.'
[1] Which isn't to say that I don't think it should have been posted--it's definitely a
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Henceforth, all moderators will be hired from the Peoples Republic of China. All current moderator points have been revoked. All new moderators will come from this pool of Chinese agents.
Moderation catagories will now be:
Dissenting -1
Dissenting -1
Dissenting -1
Dissenting -1
Stealing American Nuclear Secrets +1
Please return to your normal browsing.
Sometimes, you can walk a fine line between two opposing needs. There is a happy medium where each need is satisfied. I believe that there is an "unhappy medium" where neither need is satisfied, and the government is actually at risk of losing the Internet opportunity as well as their own control over their people.
The Internet is not about technology. It's been around since the sixties, and the Web could have been invented in the seventies. The Web is about community; the technology only gives us an opportunity to meet, and that's where the magic starts. Strict control over a portion of the Internet immediately renders that portion useless.
I think that the only chance for the Chinese government to survive in its present form (and, frankly, I'd rather it didn't) would be for it to close off the Internet entirely to its people, and to ignore it as an economic opportunity. I feel that anything less would destablize the Chinese government. The nation would not collapse, China would still exist, but it would have a new form of government.
If the Chinese government allows access but try to control it, they will destroy their own power structure and lose an economic opportunity simultaneously.
--The basis of all love is respect
Perhaps a combination of both?
It's really a trade-off, IMO. Chinese people are raised in an environment where their freedoms are restricted "for the good of the state," and thus enjoy a tiny fraction of the crime rate of other countries and relatively happy, quiet lives. Lots (most?) of the population is either content to let the government censor news and information or is oblivious to the fact.
Other (most) countries take a different view, where information is relatively free and people are less encumbered when expressing their views and opinions. At the same time, we are, like you say, taught that excessive government control ("oppression") is quite the evil thing, and how can you argue, since the people teaching us this have access to all the information we need to make a qualified opinion on the matter while those on the other end of the stick don't?
Everyone says China is a corrupt government run by corrupt officials and a corrupt legal system, but you know, there's probably as many facts supporting this as there are supporting the same conclusions about America.
I'm not trying to defend China here or anything, but a lot of these decisions really are based in a person's perception (or, rather, what the media likes to stress) and the way they're brought up.
If I may refer to a Star Trek quote, logic dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Unfortunately, you cannot accurately quantify (for example) a person's need for privacy with one's need for safety. They're two completely incomparable items, and comparisons like this are what makes countries and governments different, and are things most easily influenced by emotion and upbringing.
Meaning no disrespect, you might want to go over your polysci notes again.
"Communism goes hand in hand with Totalitarism" HUH??! Communism (theoretically speaking, i.e. Marxism) is absolutely and utterly at odds with totalitarianism. In fact, democracy was supposed to evolve into communism (through a few steps), and culminate in the dissolution of government. Government by the people, for the people. The problem with communism is that it assumes that if people are equal and happy, avarice, greed, and powerlust will die out. Never going to happen.
You'll notice that I never refered to China as a Communist country in my original post...
Moving on, "They [governments] are not evil, they just have a different method for creating a great country."
...and also...
"Again, I don't agree with their methods but I do know they aren't evil."
While it's true that governments may not be inherently evil, they're also not inherently good, and not necessarily interested in creating a good country. Take the Taliban in Afghanistan, for instance; I can't imagine that they have anything other than their own power/money, and the destruction of anyone they hate in mind. They did _not_ forcibly take control to create a happy, egalitarian society.
As a final point, I'd point out that "evil" is a vague term. Wiping out all hints of cultural impurity (a la the cultural revolution) may not have been an evil goal to those doing it, but to me it is, no matter what.
And regardless of all of this, we still have to look at China's record. No matter what comes out of their mouths, the blood on their hands won't wash off easily.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
The schools I went to never had such brainwashing. Is the state of education in the US really so bad? Don't answer this, I probably already know the answer.
China & Cuba definatly have bad things going on in their country. The US definatly has good things going on. Also, C&C have good things, and the US has bad things. To say that the things which you consider important are the only important things shows incredible arrogance.
In most of the rest of the world, a government which executes minors, has a huge percentage of it's population in jail, mainly for minor drug offenses, and denies it's sickest citizens health care would be considered inhumane, yet as that is what you are used to in the US you don't consider it "enlightening" to learn this.
The US has a long history of meddling in the affairs of other nations, from the United Fruit Company's affairs in Central America, to Vietnam and more.
This is not to say that only China & the US have governments which abuse their powers. Every government does, from the smallest to the largest.
Open Your eyes, and see what your government does wrong, this is more important to you than what happens on the other side of the planet.
The crime of leaking state secrets has been used to jail journalists and is often invoked against opponents of the Communist Party.
Funnily enough we've seen exactly the same thing here, both in the past during the 30's - 50's when Communism was a little too popular for comfort (we can all afford to be tolerant about it now because it hasn't an ice-cube's chance in hell of making a revival anytime soon!) and more recently with the "nuclear secrets leak" where funnily enough a scientist who just happened to be from China (our big opponent supposedly) was accused of betraying state secrets.
Yes, that's a far cry from having to have /. monitored every day by a special FBI task force *hi guys!*, however, consider the fact that there are STILL twelve documents in the FBI files on the John Lennon investigation which they won't release. I wonder what would be the fate of any web-site that put them up if they got hold of them?
Also, while China is bad and all, We the people are still trading with the buggers, not mention Indonesia, Burma, anywhere else horrible you care to mention.