Slashdot Mirror
100 Million Online in China
Colin Smith writes "Rising levels of personal wealth in the nation of China means that the country now has over 100 million internet users, and the authorities are discovering just how difficult it is to place a dam against information in the digital age." From the article: "Only last week, the authorities threatened to shut down websites and blogs that failed to register with regulators in a new campaign to tighten controls on what the public can see online. The so-called Great Firewall of China is constantly being breached as citizens and the authorities play a cat and mouse game with the flow of information."
I would guess slashdot is one of the sites blocked in China. Is this correct? Anyone here from China?
With all those millions and millions online in China swapping programs, songs and such, you'd think the RIAA would go after them, if the purpose was really to prevent damage to the intellectual property holder.
What's going to be extremely interesting is watching a closed society like China start talking one-on-one to the rest of the world. I'd give it twenty years before public opinion changes in China. I can't see them sharing information freely and being as nationalistic as they currently are. If you want to stop a future war with China, help them talk to each other all you can. My two cents.
Brains! Brains! Give me Brains!
Also, if they can't *view* certain websites, what's keeping them from using a proxy (possibly an open proxy list) within their web browser to circumvent China's methods of blocking?
One would think that they can only block items for so long until their methods are circumvented. After all, where there's a will, there's always a way. Sounds like a huge cat and mouse game indeed.
Content Management System: A pretentious way of saying "text editor."
42
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
IMO its ethically required! I cannot say I like the fact that Chinese gov is trying to block the free flow of information, but I like it even less when people seem to think if you aren't doing the exact same thing as the US you are evil or not ethical!
There are different cultures and different ideals. Just because someone feels differently than you doesn't make them unethical. Also if someone helps that person who thinks differently than you, the person helping isn't nessesarily unethical.
I know "your either with us or against us", "you either do stuff like we do or your evil" sentiments are pretty popular in the US, but different is not wrong.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
The greatest weapon the US has against oppressive regimes is our cultural, entertainment and information exports. It's hard to oppress a people when they know that there's something slightly cooler then living in China under a communist regime.
The Soviets could regulate so many aspects of their citizenry's daily life, but what they couldn't manage to get a hold on was what they thought was cool. It might be an overly simplistic view, but part of me thinks that it was Coca-Cola and Levi's jeans that brought communism to its knees in the soviet bloc. (and of course, coca-cola and levis is not much to base a government on, which is why so many countries have struggled with the concept of democracy)
I think something similar could easily happen in China.
I don't presume to think that the Chinese would try, or even want to be like the US, but I think there's a certain sense of freedom and independence embodied in American culture, and that freedom is alluring and infectious. The more the Chinese people have access to something as stupid as Slashdot or Wikipedia or...anything, the more they're going to crave more content. The more content they crave, the more content must be censored until something has to break.
:::: the insomniac's digest
With inititives like Haier (Chinese refridgerator manufacturer) building a plant in South Carolina, United States, Chinese companies are definitely expanding. An article in Time (IIRC) said that China's ecnonomy will top that of Japan by 2015, and eventually the U.S. economy. It has been said that Chinese have gotten where they are today because of discipline. Each day, Haier would gather the employees around, and have the name called of who made the most mistakes (like leaving a screw out of a refridgerator) and have them stand on designated green foot prints painted on the floor. This level of discipline will hopefully continue.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
Why not? IBM sold punch card machines to the Nazi's, which were used to track down Jews. It's the duty of capatilists to sell China the rope they are going to hang us with.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
For the last month or so, I've been chatting with a lot of different people in China using Skype. (Nice thing about Skype, is that it's encrypted end-to-end. No JBT's listening in.)
I've found that the people I'm talking to are entirely aware that their government lies to them routinely, and they want to know about their own history.
They know that they lost some relatives in the 1960's, but they have no idea that Mao killed more Chinese than Tojo. They know that something happened in Beijing in 1989, but they don't know that thousands of unarmed protestors were slaughtered. I've been doing a lot of cutting and pasting of wikipedia pages.
I'm convinced that the internet will be the end of the Red Dynasty, and the way it will happen is that the JBT's will lose their ability to lie to the people. Once most Chinese realize that most of their countrymen are sick and tired of the Red Dynasty, then it's game over for the gerontocrats in Beijing.
I only hope that China becomes a free country with as little bloodshed as possible. Killing the Politburo would probably suffice, although justice would demand the demise of thousands of the petty thugs as well.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Soon the Chinese government will learn from modern democratic governments and sophisticated corporations that trying to control the flow of information is the wrong way to go about it.
It's far easier and more effective to control the public's interpretation and prioritization of information than to limit the information itself.
Here on earth, Cubans are in dire straits since the Soviets collapsed
;-)
If by "dire straits" you mean not driving the latest Lexus, then you are correct. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you are talking about. Free health care, free education, one of the better medical/pharmaceutical industries in the world. Also, Cuba is getting along pretty well now all on thier own. They have a VERY strong tourist industry (from everywhere except the states) and also very strong medical/pharmaceutical exports to name a few.
Where did you hear about Cuba's situation? Have you been there? Oh, of course not! But you heard Donald Rummsfeld on Fox News talking about the horrible conditions and oppressive dictatorship
Its true they currently aren't a super propsperous country but does that make them bad? On my trips there, the #1 thing people their are upset about is the US embargo. They don't have any major problems with thier government, its the US government that they have the issue with (the reason for them not being very propsperous).
Truth be told on my last trip thier recently they were complaining quite a lot about one thing the government recently did. That was ban smoking (basically everywhere). That is currently thier biggest beef with the Cuban government, the ban on smoking!
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Which is denied if you act up politically. The health care system has also included prison sentences for the "Crime" of merely being infested with HIV.
"On my trips there, the #1 thing people their are upset about is the US embargo. They don't have any major problems with thier government"
Of course. That is Castro's line, and his government has proven willing to kill and imprison those who express other beliefs.
" That is currently thier biggest beef with the Cuban government, the ban on smoking!"
Yeah, they can complain about that. But let them speak up about the unaccountable monarch that has been foisted on them for several decades? A monarch who has a death penalty imposed for Internet access? A monarch who forces Cubans to live in abject poverty (even taking hotel workers 90%) while he continues to amass a multi-billion dollar personal fortune?
Cuba is not getting along well "on its own". They are still governed by a colonial governor put in place by the Soviets. There is no democracy or sovereignty there.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.