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How Chinese Evade Government's Web Controls
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "China is moving to 'centralize all China-based Web news and opinion under a state regulator,' the Wall Street Journal reports, but determined citizens have found a way out of previous restrictions in what has become a cat-and-mouse game: 'Many Chinese Internet users, dismissing what they call government scare tactics, find ways around censorship. The government requires users of cybercafs to register with their state-issued ID cards on each visit, but some users avoid cybercaf registration by paying off owners. In response, the government has installed video cameras in some cafs and shut others. ... While certain words such as "democracy" are banned in online chat rooms, China's Web users sometimes transmit sensitive information as images, or simply speak in code, inserting special characters such as underscoring into typing.' Also noteworthy is that major portals seem to be cooperating with authorities' restrictions: 'Insiders who work for the big portal sites say they are already in regular contact with authorities about forbidden topics, such as the outlawed Falun Gong religious group, which their teams of Web editors pull off bulletin boards.'"
This article helps reinforce my constant philosophy that information is now freed of regulation and censorship, and that no law can trump humanity's moral law that makes only offensive crimes truly wrong, legally or morally.
I feel bad for the Chinese, but thankfully the ways around censorship are growing in number. We have to note these gains internationally as we watch our speech get restrained even in the U.S.
No law will prevent the average person from doing what they feel is right, which to me is proof of the inherent rights we're all born with. Every person in this world has the God-given (or inherent) right to speak. It is only government that attempts to restrain it.
Take note, your freedom to speak is declining as we support persons we vote for to further degrade our rights. As the Chinese save up to 40% of their income, they also find ways to save their rights. As we U.S. citizens look to the federal government to educate us, rebuild our mistakes and provide our retirements, we save nothing (1%) and lose rights.
I would say democracy. People (both in the East and the West) at least know what porn looks like.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Pardon my ignorance but wouldn't the availability of free occidental VPN servers and CGI proxys overwhelm the authorities?
I mean they can block a few IP adresses by handpicking them but they cannot go ahead and block the whole internet, can they?
Some small app ala Google WIFI with rolling IPs (in an encrypted list of course) connecting to dynamic hostnames would be too much of a task for the authorities to bear with.
Any other ideas?
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
You are right, but most empires do not like to quietly go down in flames. On the other hand...
./ is not supposed to be going anywhere, and that it's purpose is just informing nerds (TWICE) about stuff that matters, but having freedom of speech does not solve many problems.
I do not think that freedom of speech is necessary for economic growth. Sometimes it might work the other way around. Having a strong leadership with no space for dissent guarantees that if the leader knows the way no time will be lost discussing. Look at Slashdot, many times the discussion is so out of focus that no usable conclusion is ever reached. A group is trying to troll, another to be funny, etc. I know that the
Please, don't jump to the conclusion that I want oppressive governments or dictators. All I'm saying is that China can be (IS) the next economic superpower without the civil liberties or political models of the West. Most people don't know what real freedom is, nor do they care if they have enough 'freedom' to have fun and live a 'no worries' life.
I sometimes think that 'freedom' is way over rated by people like us, who believe in some World way beyond the Rainbow where all software is GNU-like and MS does not exist.
Disclosure: I'm stupid
You assume that the Chinese government have lost the support of their citizens, but is this really true?
Large areas of the Chinese populace are still uneducated and uninformed of the world outside China or perhaps even of these very topics.
And just like most of the democratic countries I know (including the US and my own), most people are either supporting their government or simply don't care as long as they can lead their lives.
Although I'm sure there are many Chinese that are aware of the issues in their country and oppose them, I suspect they amount to little more than a one-digit percentage of the entire population.
This does not mean their cause is not justified, but rather that it'll be a while before anything will change in China.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I'm not sure I agreed with everything he said but it certainly made an interesting discussion.
In case you don't know about the Falun Gong group mentioned in the summary, I've read about them. This group is categorized as a destructive cult by various organizations and cult experts, including Rick Ross (famous anti-scientology deprogrammer). Apparently its teachings include conspiracies, alien invaders and interdimensional travel (WTF? O.o)
Here's more info on Falun Gong, and a testimony of a former member (which doesn't say much unfortunately).
Anyway, it's sad that the reason this cult was censored, is not because they abuse their followers physically and emotionally, but because they threaten the chinese national security.
Well he said "without the fear of being arrested", not "without being arrested". :)
May be the paradigm has changed lately...I thought "If you control mail, you control information". But chinese government has taken it to the next level, "If you control internet, you control everything (information, dissent, negative views and freedom)".
societies are like compressed springs. The more government tries to compress that spring, the greater the chance of it bouncing back and giving a nasty surprise. History has ample examples on this.
A few quick comments in my still very Chinese mind massive cencorship is sure a lost course for Chinese government. Almost everybody in China, including officials, believes democracy is the goal and will come one day, although almost nobody believes they should come imminently. Government is doing it to deter "unwashed masses", as gvc pointed out, and doing it as long as they can. Also noteworthy how much government has changed from N.Korean-type 30 years ago: every year they use less and less punishment, even when they use more preventitive method. This is why you see so many creative ways to evade cencorship. democracy and good administration are two separate things. we've seen way too many failed democratic developing countries, so most Chinese buy in the government words about China is not ready for democracy yet. Also democracy is different from free speech. Even after China turns democracy, I expect online porn still largely banned... at that time, we'll see cat-and mouse game for online sex :)
FaLun Gong is notorious among both Chinese in China and Chinese oversea. As Spy der Mann said: it's sad that the reason this cult was censored, is not because they abuse their followers physically and emotionally, but because they threaten the chinese national security. And it's MORE sad because of their aftermath, many other good groups are banned.
A few real codes (abbrevs) for people interested:
democracy--MZ, government--ZF, communist party--GCD, FaLun Gong--FLG, leaders' name are also abbreved, or call "old xxx",... these are just most common ways.
Wow, who writes these stories?
The person writing this story has no clue what they are talking about and probably has never been to China.
I am sitting in a net bar in China at this very moment. I can search google for democracy, I didnt use any Id to get in, its dark so video cameras would be of no use and the only portals that have ever been blocked in my past 3 years here in China have been geocities and a few of the original copy cats. I have been to 100's of net bars all over China and this is pretty much the regular.
The only reason they check Id is Children inder 18 are not allowed in net bars. Net bars will be fined if children are found on their Pc's. The net bars that were closed were closed because of not meeting newly passed fire regualtions in some bigger cities after some fires killed some people.
Don't believe everything you read in the news about China, as much as China is known to pump out the propoganda our own governments and media do it as well.
MB
"Most Americans also have a car, two TV's, a video game system, a cell phone, a job , and could probably obtain illegal substances without fear of being caught."
Uhm, no?
Hasn't Katrina taught you anything? Do you stil think the US is 'the richest nation on earth'? Look at unemployment, illiteracy, innumeracy, infant mortality (43rd, after Cuba!) and poverty figures for the last decades. Compare to any other country and then do the same for the added figures for the whole EU. Be shocked.
"They can also protest openly (within reason) against the government without fear of being arrested."
Yeah...Sheehan found that out today.
"We're basically too busy entertaining ourselves and stuffing food in our faces to realize we are being slowly robbed of our freedoms."
No...to many of you believe FOX and your president.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Um, you do know that by all objective measurements, the US has far lower unemployment than the EU, right? If you use total percentage employed, the difference is staggering. If you use percentage seeking work that can't find it, the numerical difference is small, but important. The US still has the "best" economy bar none.
You can argue about quality of life (but not unless you have experienced both, of course), but the economy is about numbers - stuff is pretty easy to prove there!
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I read this article in Shanghai, China, without a proxy. This is also true for the WSJ article.
221.239.214.3
The US will not abandon elections any time soon. If you know ANYTHING of the US military, you know that if Bush's term came to an end and he didn't get his ass out of the office, the military would pick his ass up and kick it out of the military for him.
People often forget how important the military is for a functional civil society. A military that respects the rule of law and seeks to protect the state is extremely important. If your military does not feel like it is commanded by the civilian state and feels that its goal is not the protection of the civilian government, you tend to get overthrown governments. Popular uprisings that are not crushed are rare, but the militaries taking over civilian governments are a dime a dozen.
In this regards, the American democracy is one of the most secure in the world. The US military would NEVER take up arms against the civilian government unless a leader in the civilian government refused to get his ass out of office when his time was up. Further, even if the military did turn on the civilian government for the purpose of dragging Bush's ass out of office once his term was up, it would end its role there and go back to letting lawyers and politicians clean up the mess.
Fear Bush for whatever reasons you like, but don't fear him because he is going to use the military on the civilian government. In fact, if you recall, the US military refused to enter New Orleans and conduct any sort of peace keeping operations within the city because it is so strictly forbidden in the US constitutions. The only thing the military was allowed to do was provide logistical support and search and rescue operations. If a city getting wiped off the map is not disaster enough for the US military to bend the rules, I would say it is safe to say nothing is going to cause them to break them.