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China Declares War on Internet Pornography
segphault writes "The Chinese government has shut down nearly 600 pornographic web sites, and arrested over 200 people for distributing "obscene" content. The Chinese government has also started performing covert surveillance of mobile phone text messages in order to crack down on banking fraud and prostitution organized and perpetrated with text messages. Ars Technica has the story: 'With more than 100 million Internet users, China has the second largest population of web content consumers after the United States. Although the Chinese government promotes web use for business, education, and government activity, the communist regime has committed its resources to crushing web sites that challenge government authority, or distribute content that the government considers to be detrimental to society'"
China regularly launches campaigns like this, and although the "saohuang" (clean up the porn) movement is effective in barring domestic porn sites, there is absolutely nothing China can do about the influx of porn from abroad, especially from Japan and the West.
Furthermore, China is becoming more and more lax about porn, which any visitor to the country will realize within a day or so. Only the hardliners are still fighting it, but they might as well start a program to eradicate all the flies in the world. It is all in vain.
Now, why is China fighting porn? Because it is an old taboo since the times after the Tang dynasty. Before, China was sexually liberal, and now the times are turning again. This has to do with the opening up to the outer world in general, and with Internet in particular.
You should also note that there is no law against downloading or consuming porn in China. It is legal, it is practiced, and it is virtually unfiltered on the net (bar a few percent of the sites). What is illegal is copying and distributing porn, especially for commercial purposes. Spreading less than 20 "huangdai" (yellow tapes, porn videos) is not punishable. 20--99 tapes (or images) is punishable, and above 500 tapes (or images) is considered severe, with a potential lifetime imprisonment. This also goes for digital content.
The effect is that China is consuming as much porn as the rest of the world, but they won't be able to cash in on it. This is bound to change in the future, if you ask me.
FTFA: The Chinese government also recently increased surveillance of mobile phone text messaging, a popular method of communication in China where 383 million individuals use mobile phones.
For one thing, I didn't know that it was that easy for the cops. I bet it's even easier here in the US. Now that I know that the police have this capabliltiy, I can be a bit more vigilant about my own civil liberites, as much as I can. These things that China is doing is bringing to light some of the capabilities that police around the world have.
I am curious though, exactly how easy is it? Can some local cops in anytown, USA do this?
I'm curious if they are blocking Slashdot? If no, then they will do it after this article :D
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Interesting how the Chinese government goes all out on pornography, but does absolutely nothing to try to stem the rampant software and video piracy that takes place there. I need hardly mention the millions of machines spewing spam out into the internet.
I wonder whether the rest of the world would be for the better if China was completely segregated from the rest of the internet, with the only access through safe "portals" supervised by the government.
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Your comment is exactly correct but needs some additional information to provide the whole picture. China's central government (and indeed most or all of its provincial governments) are oligarchic dictatorships (but not totalitarian ones), but the relationship between the two is complex. Generally, the provincial governments have more de facto power than the central government because of corruption and because they tend to just ignore its edicts. Beijing basically doesn't have that much power over the entire country. My favorite example is this: China actually has the most stringent environmental regulations in the world, but they simply can't be enforced.
What do you mean by "most stringent environmental regulations"? I doubt China would pass into law, even if they knew it were totally unenforceable, EU-level regulations.
True Communism has been tried many times. It is destined to change into a oligarchic dictatorship everytime. That is why Communism will always fail. Ideals are always thrown out after that much power is given to so few people. Orwell's Animal Farm has happened so many times in different countries. Just subsitute different names for the characters.
I'm really getting sick of stories treating the Web as if it were just another conventional medium, like TV or publishing.
The whole point of the Web is that everyone is a producer. Even though, yes, there are millions upon millions of end-users who do nothing but read cnn.com, aol.com, foxnews.com, and the like, there are also millions of everyday users who produce their own content. Be it through commenting on blogs (or running their own ones), maintaining a MySpace page, writing to a LiveJournal/DeadJournal/Blurty/etc., or actually running their own domain, Web users are making their own corners of the Web. For that reason, I find it deceptive (if not outright insulting) that the body of Web users are described collectively as "consumers". "Users" would be more accurate.
I can see where the conventional news outlets would be inclined to reinforce the notion that the Web is a one-way, inactive medium (like television), but it isn't.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
OK, just to defend China for a second, how can we be sure that the press did not say the Chinese shut down 600 kiddie porn websites? I mean, when you think about it, if you are charging people with running a porn website (e.g. "Click here to see Carmen Electra") chances are the authority that enforces that law must be hiding something. (e.g. a 12 y.o. alter boy). But if you are going after the sickos who run the child porn sites, then you have a reason.
However, the way the Western Media continues to call China a bunch of "commie scumbags" or say things like "Don't take your loose girlfriend to China" or "They'll arrest you for picking your nose" or "General Mao is watching you", perhaps China has a reason to block out our content.
However, going to the EU, the UN, or even our government to whine about "Those Americans women are showing there boobies on the Internet" is total crap!
If they don't like the porn on the Internet, then chances are they are defintely not going to like it when we send them the Chinese-dub of Brokeback Mountain.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Speaking as a marxist as well as someone who has studied some of the various ideologies behind communist movements (marxist leninism, maoism, etc), there is nothing specifically wrong about sexuality. What it comes down to is how you and your culture feels about it, and it can go either way:
Example A: You are a policy maker in an authoritarian socialist government. You personally perceive sexual licentiousness as having a negative effect on your society. For this reason, you identify such licentiousness as a product of a culture formed by capitalism. In order to remove capitalism completely from your society, you'd also have to overturn capitalist values and culture, so that also means making an effort to inhibit what you think is sexual deviation.
Remember, most conservatives in the United States have similar views on sexuality (a product of culture), but they do not link it to any economic system--most would relate the issue to religious matters if to any body outside practicality.
Example B: You are a policy maker in an authoritarian socialist government. You personally perceive that a more liberal view of sexuality would be socially beneficial. Therefore, you identify anti-sex views in your culture as being values that have been imposed upon the working class by a capitalist elite. Since your goal is to oust the elite class and do away with their imposed culture and economic system, you must make an effort to encourage sexuality.
As you can see, communist ideologies are not necessarily equiped with pre-defined views on much of anything outside of economics and class struggle. Whatever you are for or against, you need to make the case for whether or not such a thing is antisocial.
Politics work like that in the US as well, but the government has a slightly different attitude about what needs to be done.
You have to be careful in any case. In a communist country, it may be "think of the people!" In the US, an equivalent might be, "think of yourself!" Or, in either, "think of the children!" If you think about it, those statements are nearly identical when you follow them to where they're meant to lead you (hint: yourself).
You guys are so full of shit propaganda, it's okay, that's what you've been fed. China is following what is called the authoritative model of development, and it's working wonders. It happens to be exactly the same one taken by the Japanese, and the Japanese took it from Germany. If you consider Germany and Japan failtures, I don't think you think well. The statement "Communism will always fail" is bullshit in this context, disproven by history. Compare China with India. China and India are textbook cases of why socialism is good and capitalism is rotten; China and India started from the same post-colonialist situation yet half the Indian population, more than half a billion people, still suffers from endemic hunger, desperate destitution, illiteracy, high infant mortality, disease, low life expectancy, and other problems that would shame any self-respecting nation and that China has done much better on. India has forgotten half its population, half a billion people, the Indian politicians and the Indian well-off classes don't have a care for them, whereas China has provided universal healthcare, education and services or its people that have been decent and wise and now China is in a *far* better situation than India by any measure and that's indisputable.
/ china_india_compari...
i ews_uriarte.html
Just google for information and learn if you don't already know
"In Education, 99.1% of Chinese children attend school for 9 years,
this ensures a high level of literacy. In India, literacy is 50 to
60%... China with lesser cultivable land, produces double the food
grains, at 415 million tons per year compared with India's 208 million
tons per year.... India's per capita earning is US$440 per year against
US$990 per year in China... As per the World Bank, the poverty line
definition is US$1 per person per day or US$365/person/year, for
underdeveloped countries like India, China etc. As per the official
data from both governments, China has 3% population below the poverty
line, compared to India's 26 to 29%... China attracts 87 million
tourists per year (this is expected to reach 90 million in 2002)
against 2.5 million per year to India.... China started their family
planning policy in 1970, India in 1952, in 2001 our birth rate was
nearly 3 times more than China...." From
http://www.wakeupcall.org/china_india_comparision
And there's more and more and more measures why socialism in China had
been a Success and Capitalism in India had been rotten. And guess what,
it isn't limited to China and India, here's the example of Cuba that
the US has terrorised with severe ecomonic sanctions and tried to make
sure it never succeeds as a nation. Compared to Latin America and
despite the US sanctions against it, Cuba has done very, very well. In
fact, socialism is proven
""Cuba's achievements in social development are impressive given the
size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development
index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be
the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [Cuba]
demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if
they focus on the right priorities - health, education, and literacy.""
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/sfeature/sf_v
The pursuit of happiness is described that way in the US Constitution. Then there's the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and its protections for free speech.
While I would argue that the second amendment does indeed protect freedom of speech, the first amendment does so in a far more direct fashion.
The second is only effective in that you generally don't try to violently silence somebody who's got a gun.
1st: Freedom of Speech and Religion
2nd: Keep and Bear Arms
3rd: They can't force you to keep me in your house(military), unless it's wartime and congress approves it.
4th: The cops/government needs a warrent to search you and/or seize anything.
5th: You're guarenteed a trail, protected from double jepardy
6th: You have the right to defend yourself in court.
7th: Another double jepardy protection, and if the lawsuit is more than $20 bucks you're allowed to demand a jury trial.
8th: They're not supposed to beat your ass(cruel and unusual), or fine you everything for something minor.
9th: This list isn't complete
10th: If it's not authorized in the constitution, the federal government can't do it. That doesn't mean that the state can't. If the state doesn't do it, it's for the people.
I don't read AC A human right