China Detains Internet Essayist for Subversion

romcabrera writes: "Reuters reports that 'Chinese authorities have detained a civil servant, whose essays are banned by Beijing on the Internet, on charges of subversion'. According to the article, China has created a special Internet Police Force which 'blocks some foreign sites and shuts down domestic sites posting politically incorrect fare'."

Comments

Why is this news?

[AKnightCowboy]

In case anyone hasn't noticed, China is a hardline socialist dictatorship. They kill people for defying the state and send the bill for the bullets to their families. This is why American protestors really have no idea how good they have it. The "state" doesn't come and kill you if you voice your opinion on something. China's government is bad, we know this. Unless we plan to invade and liberate them then there's nothing we can do about it.

Re:Well done China

[seriv]

I have stop considering China a communist contury. They stop following all the values pf it. I do not consider censurship communist either. It is one screwed up political system.
-Seriv

President Bush says...

[Bakobull]

"We see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own people. " President Bush Addresses Australian Parliament Oct. 22,2003

Re:At least China is better than America

[BigZaphod]

"Really? I live in a beautiful and small European town, with a very good standard of living."

Well, I'm not the original poster, and I don't like a whole lot of things about my country and my government, but... Replace "European" with "Iowan" and you've just described my situation.

Contrary to popular belief, most cities of the US are actually small, quiet, and rural-ish and not huge dirty, noisy, and over-populated.

Re:Invade and liberate?

[fishbowl]

>The USA would probably lose any war with China.

I don't know about that. I think it would likely slag on for a hundred years, with no winner.

After the piss is already in the wine, I don't think nukes are so scary anymore. See, once somebody nukes LA, DC, NYC, and Des Moines once, and after that becomes part of our history and we move on from it, it won't seem so scary anymore (it won't be "unthinkable" anymore).

So the notion that nukes alone can settle a war go out the window. People adapt, and go back to living in dispersed territories, maybe. But it doesn't end WWIII (which any "US versus China" scenario probably represents), which goes on, and on, and on.

Nuclear weapons might start WWIII, but they aren't the end-of-the-world sort of destruction that we'll probably wish they were when this comes down. Rather, they'll be one of those severely annoying tragic things that you can't really do much about, like living in LA despite quakes. You can only play this trump card one time.

Re:These guys mean business...

[TheMidget]

They're upfront about censorship? BS. There are news blackouts on almost everything for the common person. Remember that 600K person march in Hong Kong a few months ago? Average Chinese had no idea it took place. They think their government tells them all the news that's fit to print. They believe the lies about Tibet, the lies about religion, the lies about Taiwan, because no one tells them different.

And how exactly is this different to the United States?

Average Merkins still think that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and that Korea has none!

Average Merkins still think that Microsoft (tm) Windows (tm) is a state of the art operating system.

Average Merkins still think that their intelligence agency truely didn't see 911 coming.

Average Merkins still thing GWB has been elected democratically.

Re:Stupid, Ignorant, Spoled Brat

[PsiPsiStar]

I don't see any U.S. Army troops and tanks on the streets of China killing people who steal CD's, either.

Judging from your post, I would guess you've just been watching the news and not actually going to the WTC protests in Seattle like some of my friends did. After a WTC protest, try checking around on the web for sites put up by the protesters. You're sure to see a few heads smashed and related things. America has it's own Tiannamen Squares if you really want to look for them. But usually American censorship is a lot more subtle. You can give an 'evildoer' person 25 seconds of airtime on a public news program as long as you interrupt them frequently. Its hard to explain a different worldview in 25 seconds with frequent interruptions, and the whole thing makes the news organization seem like it's being objective.

And there have been a number of laws passed raising the bar for what it would take to have a third party elected. Lets face it, we may have some control over national elections, but enough money can essentially force a consensus between the two parties and then we have zilch.

If the two parties agree, your vote is irrelevant. It's not like the multi-party systems found in some other democracies where you can have multiple viable parties.

Freedom and democracy? These are not binary yes-or-no things.

And while it's true that America (where I have citizenship) has a good deal more freedom than China (where I'm currently teaching English) there are a lot more comparisons which could be drawn between the two nations than most Americans would be comfortable with.