China Bans Game Recognizing Taiwan Independence

OhioJoe writes "MSNBC is reporting that China has banned a soccer game that depicts Taiwan as independent. Violators are threatened with $1200 fines. From the article: "The game, 'Soccer Manager 2005', contained content that harmed China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and violated Chinese law, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday."

Comments

Re:So many peanuts, so little gallery.

[The Cisco Kid]

You are assuming that the Chinese government allows its citizens to access this site.

I would think that if they had any power to do so, slashdot would *definately* be one of the sites they would block. Way too many opinions that conflict with the official CN views.

This is actually quite common

[kusanagi374]

This is not an isolated case. Back when Windows 95 was released, Microsoft had problems in India because the timezone worldmap (when setting date & time) wouldn't highlight Kashmir as part of India. To deal with that problem, they just removed country highlighting for good.

They'll probably just release an updated version of the game without Taiwan and move along.

Re:Huh?

[WARM3CH]

Well, some countries are very sensitive about such issues. Even people can be very sensitive about it. Take this recent example: You know that some Arab countries insist on using the name "Arabian Gulf" to call whan we know as "Persian Gulf". Recently, after mentioning this second name in some national geography publications, a large group of Persian weblogs and sites helped making a google bomb. Try searching for "Arabian Gulf" in google and select the first results and see it for yourself.

Re:This is a surprise?

[Tackhead]

> This is still a country with a Communist government (modified, granted, but still not democratic) who has never recognized the independence of Taiwan, who blocks its citizens from portions of the internet at the national level, and brutally rolled over demonstrators in Tienaman (sp) square. What do you think they would go?

This is a country with a modernizing government who has never recognized the breakaway rebellion in the Taiwanese province, who protects its citizens from superstition on the Internet at the national level, and who defended the people against an uprising in Tienanmen square.

It's all in how you look at it. Mao was only half-right. Political power not only flows from the barrel of a gun. Reality itself flows from the barrel of a gun.

> To those who say that economic capitalism leads to democracy, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not holding my breath.

When the Russian socioeconomic system collapsed, Russia tried freedom - and descended into anarchy before reverting to "managed democracy".

When the Chinese socioeconomic system was on the verge of collapse, China adopted policies which placed them on firm ground as the world's first stable fascist state. As a result of this decision ("It is glorious to be rich!"), its leaders remained in power, the Chinese middle class continues to grow, and standards of living continue to rise.

As for America, slouching towards its own socioeconomic collapse (largely brought on by unsustainable entitlement spending and a colossal trade deficit), China is merely the beta test site, from which we can learn what works and what doesn't, as we modernize our political system.

And speaking as someone who lives in America, I'll take the Chinese solution over the Russian solution any day.

Game has flaws too

[Staplerh]

China is probably banning this game because if your going to prohibit recognization of Taiwanese independence, you must make sure you cover all the bases. We're hearing about it now because it is affecting a computer game, but I'm sure that extends to any form of mass media.

However, this game has a number of errors. I quote from the article:

[The game is a C]omputer sports game that classifies Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet as countries

Get real. Macau and Hong Kong are not independent countries, and Tibet hasn't been one for fifty years. The only country there that has some international standing is Taiwan, and that's by virtue of the United States assistance. This game is another case of designers that didn't bother to check their facts, or were intentionally trying to piss of the People's Republic of China. If China wouldn't ban it based on Taiwan, your damned right they'd ban it based on Tibet, and probably just laugh at the notion of an independent Macau. I am certainly not endorsing the actions of China, and regard the invasion of Tibet as a travesty, but sometimes people have to respect political realities.

I am an student from China

[cyfer2000]

It is kind emotional unacceptable to claim Taiwan an independent country. My grandfather resisted Japanese invasion when he was young. Several of his brothers died during that war. My roommate's grandfather was born in Taiwan, fought with Japanese in Taiwan during the 1930's and 1940's. At last, we got Taiwan back after we beat the Japanese in WWII. And now some of the Taiwan politicians claim they are Japanese and claim Taiwan an independent country. It's outrageous.

We Chinese are peace people. We don't have too much ambitious. We enjoy our food and tea. But we don't like Japanese grab our land, or some "want to be Japanese".

I am not a communist, I don't like communism, we Chinese people don't talk about it much anymore, though US government classify China as a communism country. But I love my country, my nation, just as you guys love yours. I won't allow my country broken. We won't, just like US won't allow the southern separate from the Union, and Canada won't allow Quebec claim independence.

There is always culture difference between portions of a country, but this doesn't mean the country should be broke into parts.

As the presidency of Taiwan, Jacky Chan said my words, "the biggest joke in the world."

Re:I am an student from China

[Anonymous Coward]

I was born in Taiwan and have very close ties there because my sister and my entire extended family are still there. We all follow the Taiwanese politics, both in international as well as domestic issues, very closely.

There are quite a few things I would like to address here. First off, my family has been in Taiwan for more generations than we can count. My grandmother lived under the Japanese rule when she was younger and she has told us many stories from that time. In fact, as many older Taiwanese people are now coming out to say, the Japanese treated us fairly and equally in almost everything. They were willing to provide education to the mass, allowed us to run our own business and even help the economy as long as they were respected as the government. They were not oppressive but rather taught the Taiwanese to embrace our own identity as well as theirs. The only thing they prevented us from was the government. As far as I can tell, you know nothing about the way the Japanese people treated the Taiwanese. Additionally, no one is claiming to be "Japanese" in Taiwan. We are not "Chinese." We are not "Japanese." We are Taiwanese.

Secondly, the Chinese government had long lost control of Taiwan, even before WWII. The native Taiwanese can not even recall the last time China had any established governing power in Taiwan. We remember the Dutch; we remember the Spaniards; we remember the Japanese. But as far as the native Taiwanese are concerned, we did not have any long standing ties to mainland China before Chiang Kai-Shek and his party came over. Even then, we only embraced them because they looked like us and spoke our language. They were "our" people. The newcomers claimed that the Japanese were evil when in reality, they were worse than the previous government. They depreciated OUR currencies against their own and sent our population into poverty, simply so they could be rich with what little they came over with. They killed our educated people. They suppressed the voices that questioned them. They changed everything to their advantage. They took our land, took our money, confiscated our wealth and intimidated us by force. And now we realize that half the people that came over weren't even educated or skilled in anything. It is only recently that people are speaking up. Before this past decade, we lived in fear of being taken and killed in the middle of the night. Because of this, we are acknowledging that the Japanese were better than the so-called fellow "Chinese."

Don't you dare equate this situation to that of the US Civil War or Quebec separating from Canada. If anything, this resembles the American Revolution. (I am very knowledgeable of American history.) The Taiwanese are nothing like the mainland Chinese in culture or thoughts. And don't you dare claim that we are the "same" people. If that is the case, then Singapore should also be part of China.... In fact, didn't all of eastern Asia come from China? That means the Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Vietnamese, etc. are all "Chinese" too.

As for Jackie Chan's statement... why doesn't he take a look at the American election and call it a joke? At least the Taiwanese president won by majority. In fact, has Jackie Chan listened to the voices of the his fellow people in Hong Kong who are protesting against the Chinese government and in support of Taiwanese independence?

Re:This is a surprise?

[NardofDoom]

Since you're an expert, answer one question: Why should any country who believes in the human rights of freedom of speech, religion, assembly and press have anything to do with a nation that does not? It seems to me that the US and Europe claim to support human rights, but only when it doesn't hurt profits.

And China is far from sustainable: The pollution problems there are rampant and growing worse.

Re:Huh?

[salmacis2]

Perhaps you'd have been a bit more tactful if your country had been the target of IRA bombs?

Re:Huh?

[Triskele]

It's a bad idea to suggest to a crowd of Brits that England should just get the hell out of Ireland. I mean, why not make it simple and just let each country have their own island, right?

While you're not entirely wrong, as an American you are really really not allowed to say this. Why? Cos Americans funded a lot of terrorism against the British mainland (NORAID) and we really haven't forgiven a lot of you for that. And in the current climate with America being all "ooh terrorists are threatening us, we must pin down the whole world", we're just not in the mood for that talk coming from you, ok? Particularly when all protestations to your government to cease funding the IRA was met with a deaf ear.

Think what your reaction would be if someone in a bar suggested that the middle east was none of your business and you deserved the Sept 11 attack for interfering in other people's business.