Slashdot Mirror
China Employs Campus Internet Overseers
d'alz writes "China's Internet police, reportedly including as many as 50,000 state agents, have monitored the Chinese citizenry's online habits. They have blocked Web sites, erased commentary and arrested people for what is deemed anti-Party, or anti-social, speech. Several hours each week Hu Yingying, a college student, goes to a little-known on-campus office crammed with computers. There she logs on, unsuspected by other students, to help police her university's Internet forum." From the article: "Under the Civilized Internet initiative, service providers and other companies have been urged to purge their servers of offensive content, ranging from pornography to anything that smacks of overt political criticism or dissent. The Chinese authorities say that more than two million supposedly 'unhealthy' images have already been deleted under this campaign by various mainland Internet service providers, and more than six hundred supposedly 'unhealthy' Internet forums were shut down. These deletions are presented as voluntary acts of corporate civic virtue, but have a coercive aspect to them, because no company would likely risk being singled out as a laggard."
What is most interesting, at least in my opinion, is that economic success, which we once thought of as solely the result of a free market, is also attainable by a heavy-handed communist society. China is soon to be the world's economic leader with its billion or so people and growing technological prowess.
So what are they doing right? We can sit back and bask in our freedoms, but as we can see from our current situation, we will languish economically. Is the rate of growth of China's economy sustainable and is there anything we can learn from them in regards to our own economy?
Everything else is a red herring. Anyone that tells you the most important problem with China is its lack of civil rights is either ignoring their economic threat or is purposely leading you away from that topic. One or two hundred people locked up for no reason or a handful of "bad images" are just a blip on the radar compared to the damage they will be able to inflict against us if they ever gain the economic upper hand.
Get over it people, its China and they will do as they please. Whats what part of being a soverign country is; being able to make their own laws.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
Fuck the government. Democracy is bullshit, our president is incompetent, and we should go communist. Our whole system is wrong.
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Now, I personally don't believe any of that. Not to troll, but to everyone posting about how the US is just like the PRC on censorship - read the above again. I can say that. All I want. Without fear of retribution from the government. I can talk about socialism, communism, monarchy, even anarchy. I can even encourage them - peacefully, of course. People in China can't even DISCUSS democracy, period.
We censor things here because they threaten monetary income; ignoble, I'll admit, but we don't jail you just for criticizing the government. People of the free world, first recognize what you have, and others have not. That's the first step to freedom for those who don't have it.
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
The Chinese banking system is apparently rife with bad loans - over $1 trillion dollars worth (see link below). In the early '90's the real estate bubble combined with dodgy loans threw Japan into a fifteen year recession. It also caused the LDP government to lose power. A banking meltdown and recession would have profound effects on China (and the rest of the world). It could cause the government to loosen it's grip on the people of China. Or it could cause chaos, as the government becomes increasingly desparate to maintain it's power.
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(http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,208
[Insert pithy quote here]
Chinese aren't Americans. For most of the "peasantry", it would never even occur to them, because a lot of them see little difference between the CCCP and the old emperors. No matter who is in charge, plants still need to be grown and harvested, and it's never been a good idea over there to speak criticsm too loudly. Also, the Party has done a reasonably good job of providing stories to focus nationalistic attentions on.
You mention 1984, remember the proles in the story? Winston was an exception to the norm for his society, and the only place dissension was even minutely likely to arrive was the Outer Party. The proles, who could make or break any government, tend not to because they are sheep. That's the primary reason that, in China, the Party monitors universities so closely. A university is where the people smart enough to manage to lead a revolution are likely to wind up, and as a result they would have to be watched very closely.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see China turn into a free country, but I don't see it happening. I know a lot of people whose job is studying China for U.S. military intelligence purposes, and they don't see it happening anytime soon either.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to conviction
Jeez - what's the big deal or surprise? Welcome to the real world. Yes, China is evil. Yes, they hate democracy, freedom, individual rights, and free speech. And they do many, many things far worse than mere internet censorship. If we hate that so much, let's stop doing business with them. To the US and much of Europe, the internet is about breaking down international barriers and creating a borderless world. To China, it's about economics and creating a competative advantage. Some users/developers see the internet as a philosophical tool to cut across political boundaries, promote individual freedom/rights, and end all government censorship. To others, it's just a technology without all this artificial political baggage. In this respect, it's a bit like the open source movement with the initial development philosophy pitted against the big company mentality that's started to overtake the movement. For the internet, national laws and boundaries will define how the internet is used moving forward, not some abstract philosophy and wishful thinking.
That is quite an accomplishment. I feel like I am doing good if more than 50% of the products I buy aren't made in China. Do you have any suggestions or resources? As far as everyday household items, it seems like there isn't much choice in many places but Wal-Mart and Target.
Once I tried to find an online resource for information on a shoe company that actually has a good reputation and treats its employees fairly. All I could find were websites which listed a few companies they hated, but didn't give anything practical other than, "These companies and these politicians suck." If we vote with our dollar, we don't have to put all our trust politicians.
Very funny. I invite you to visit any of the hundreds of cities in China with over 1 million people, tour for a few weeks, and come back and tell me with a straight face that anyone's in control over there. China for the past two decades has been chaos--not only protests everywhere, but also the wonderful hurly-burly of an urban marketplace in many ways freer than anything we have here in the West.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG