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Americans And Chinese Internet Censorship
chowbok writes: "The Weekly Standard writes that despite expectations, the Chinese Government has been very successful in suppressing free internet access for their citizens. Key to this success was the assistance of Cisco, who built a giant firewall tailored to the state's needs, Yahoo (who helpfully censors search results and monitors online chats), and other Western companies."
Once again, you've got American corporations helping out regimes that suppress the civilians of other countries. And if it gets rowdy, don't worry, the American government can help fund the armies for those regimes.
And this is why they send planes through American buildings.
Who cares that American Coporations are helping an oppressor? Are they bound to our higher ideals? Do they not owe it to their shareholders to meet the needs of these customers?
Why should I be troubled by this?
- Dan I.
I have no problem with any companies who made equipment for the german war effort. I have a problem with companies who used nazi prisionors as slave labour.
There is a difference.
The Chinese nation will sort themselves out over a long time, and probably peacefully, too - that's the Chinese way, to take the long, nonconfrontational view.
From what the West sees of China, this is not true. If it were not for fear of foreign intervention, China would immediately annex Taiwan and Hong Kong, rounding them under the Communist regime of the mainland, putting to death all who stand in their way. The Chinese government seems to have no problem being confrontational when it comes to political dissenters (a classic case of political stabalization theory gone amuck).
I remember when the Chinese ambassador paid a visit to my university last semester. He said that China was only concerned about creating "One Nation, One Government" with Taiwan. I swore I could hear Hitler's rhetoric ringing in those words.
Tyranny anywhere is a threat to democracy anywhere. When China truly becomes "the people's," then the economic boom you speak of will have an environment in which it can flourish. As long as people do not trust their government, they cannot trust its laws and policies. And fear motivates much less effectively than love does. Until the people can internalize, agree with, and embrace the structure in which they transact business, things will continue to crawl at a snail's pace.
In the meantime, we cannot allow the issues of human rights to "sort themselves out over a long time."
An unjust law is no law at all. - St. Augustine
Yes. Join the John Birch Society.
We Americans must understand that most Chinese support the anti-human-rights policies of the Chinese government. Many Chinese have come onto this message board to criticize our support of human rights in China. On the issue of nationalism and human rights, most Chinese agree with the Beijing government. Most Chinese think and act in this way.
Do you remember the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia? At most 3 people were killed. Hordes of Chinese at major American universities came out of the woodwork to hold demonstrations and to condemn American society. Nonetheless, these Chinese are totally silent on brutal torture of Tibetans. Most Chinese think and
act in this way.
These same Chinese, while condemning American society, fight with tooth and nail to stay in the United States of America (USA).
Another interesting fact about these Chinese in the USA is that many of them are the sons and daughters of officials in the Chinese Communist Party. They siphoned off large sums of money from mainland China and put that money in American banks. They live the good life here in the USA. They fight with tooth and nail to stay in the USA -- to enjoy the human rights that we have -- while they fully support the brutal nationalistic policies of the Chinese government.
My point is that we should not be condemning American companies for wanting to do business with mainland China. If American companies avoid China, then the Taiwanese (the bunch of Chinese on Taiwan) will swoop into China to steal marketshare from us. The Taiwanese exploited our good intentions back in 1989. After the Chinese government committed the Tienanmen Square incident, the American government and its businesses froze or pulled investments out of China. The Taiwanese seized this window of opportunity. They and the Chinese in Hong Kong flooded China with investments. Today, the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. The Taiwanese have manipulated Americans into losing business and marketshare in China. We should not be fools. We should terminate our relationship with Taiwan.
So, how do we deal with China? We enact a law that prohibits any son or daughter of an official (or party member) in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from entering the USA. For example, if Zhu Rongji has a son in the USA, then we kick him out. If he sneaks into the country on
false papers, then we arrest him and deport him to mainland China. We can take advantage of the new office (and tools and funding) of homeland security to implement this policy. This policy will apply to both the highest ranking member of the CCP and the lowest ranking member of the CCP. We Americans will seize (i. e. not return) any funds that such Chinese transfer from mainland China to the USA.
This law should not be lifted until the Chinese grant self-autonomy to the Tibetans and support human rights in all of China. If you want China to change, you "_HIT_ and _BEAT_" the Chinese. Leave the American companies alone; they are not responsible for the situation
in China. The Chinese are solely responsible for the putrid crap that exists in China.
Further, Taiwanese wishing to enter the USA must obtain a passport from Beijing. The Taiwanese constitution supports the nationalistic territorial ambitions of Beijing. That constitution claims that Tibet, Mongolia, and Taiwan are all part of "One China".