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China - We Don't Censor the Internet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the alternate-reality-china dept.

kaufmanmoore writes "A Chinese government official at a United Nations summit in Athens on internet governance has claimed that no Net censorship exists at all in China. The article includes an exchange by a Chinese government official and a BBC reporter over the blocking of the BBC in China." From the article: "I don't think we should be using different standards to judge China. In China, we don't have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them. But that's a different problem. I know that some colleagues listen to the BBC in their offices from the Webcast. And I've heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it's blocked. I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all."

26 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. the audience? by victorl19 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Despite the fact that many outside of China know that it indeed does exist, this piece of news is more likely intended for those within China.

    1. Re:the audience? by dinther · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do yourself a big favor. Turn off the TV, cancel the news papers and stay away from those kind of news sites. News is depressing, and depressing news sells. You can't fix bad news but you can agonize over it. The only result is that you are lining the pockets of entertainment news agencies by watching their adds and what's worse, throwing you into a depression causing you to think your country is going down the toilet. Try a two week self imposed news ban. Your spirits will lift, your productivity goes up and your sense of well being goes up. As a result you become a supportive. positive and productive citizen of the kind America needs to get back on it's feet again. Imagine if everyone did this! In order to take back your ability to form your own opinion you have to stop taking in big media news. This takes the power away from the big media and will restore democracy the way it was intended to work.

  2. Hmmm by geoffspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, if his high-ranking government official collegues are able to get an uncensored Internet feed, that must mean they don't have any censorship, right?

    --
    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  3. These are not the droids you're looking for... by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Funny

    Technically... in Chinese legalspeek(tm) he's probably right.

    It's not "censorship" it's "protection of the people from incorrect thoughts".

  4. Looks censored to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hs=B4b&hl =en&q=tiananmen+square&btnG=Search

    VS:

    http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&q=tiananme n+square&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87

  5. Inspiration to us all. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thank you, China. Because every day, when I get up and read the U.S. news, and think "goddamn, our country is going into the toilet," all I have to do is turn to the International section to realize that it could always be worse.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    1. Re:Inspiration to us all. by Firehed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The best can still suck, and I think we've long since lost that title (assuming anyone outside the country ever thought we had it). It's rather stupid to think how much worse we could have things because it results in us thinking that we have it so great - it just lowers the standard. Think of how much better we could have things and *raise* the standard we're looking to achieve.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    2. Re:Inspiration to us all. by justasecond · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "China has a political situation much the same as that in the U.S.". What a load of relativistic crap!

      Are you saying that the U.S. has forced abortions, political executions (with the executee's family being billed for the fucking bullet), wholesale cultural genocide (Do you know the chinese are hauling ethnic chinese by the trainload into tibet to overrun the place? Look up "tibetan spaniel" sometime to see how the fucking chinese have clubbed to death the entire population of tibet's beautiful native dogs), wholesale censorship of the press and Internet, massive "reeducation" (read: concentration) camps, support for mass-murderer dictators (Pol Pot, "Our Dear Leader", etc.).

      Why don't you grow up, pull your head out of your ass and stop spouting "bush=hitler" puke. If you weren't such a skull-full-of-mush parrot for the bullshit your teachers fed you you'd understand that, while the USA is not doing so great now (bush *is* dangerous), there's much worse to be found out there in the rest of the world.

    3. Re:Inspiration to us all. by Virgil+Tibbs · · Score: 3, Funny

      no i'm saying china has a SIMILAR situation. which country is it which has lots of its infra structure run by immigrants some of them illeagal yet refuses to give them citizenship? no on no account am i sayin the u.s. implements the single child policy and i totally agree with your views on tibet and i just go mad when i here about these dogs but is the US MUCH better? while the us is one of the most politically free countrys, that doesnt mean that the elections are nesscessarily fair OR free with a 2 party democracy things can get pretty confused - it being an either or question instead of "who" now i know this system has some benefits, i dont deny that, but it does create politics which is very mainstream, with nobody daring big changes in policy. oh back to a few other of your points... censorship of the press? which country has big investigations and scandals about various newspapers reporting intelligence programs which it is not allowed to and getting into shit with the government oh and support for mass murderers? well there are several blood-thirsty dictators which the US, sorry bush, "supports"(look in asia and africa) but i'd prefere not to go into case studies. the us has the one of the largest prison populations in the world additionnaly, like china, it is one of the only developed countries in the world in which execution is leagal. personnaly I like the US(they are keeping taiwan safe), I just wish it would keep the moral high ground it has traditionally held at the moment they are being hipocritic going after afganistan - yep, fine, good iraq? hmmm compare iraq to north korea compare iraq to iran compare iraq to china - the only reason the US doesn't bomb them tomorrow is because of lucrative trade deals. I agree the U.S isn't Nazi germany. I never said it was. but i do think it is moving closer towards WWII italy. I just wish, since after the UN, it is the only one who feasably can. It would stick it's butt out , doing something good, and go tell china to go f**k itself (metaphorically) persaonnaly i wish it put itself more into NATO and the UN

      --
      www.tdobson.net #### Dare to Dream #### blog.tdobson.net
  6. no filters by yakumo.unr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    tiananmen square didn't happen either, why would we need such a thing as a filter. And no idea what google is talking about at all

  7. There are no tanks in Baghdad! by Jonsey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think I've found Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf's new job.

    Spin for one government is the same as a spin for another government, right?

    Trust The Computer, The Computer is your Friend. Happiness is Mandatory! (I'm dressed as a troubleshooter this Halloween, but an Iraqi Information Minister would have worked as well)

    --
    I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
  8. O RLY? by focitrixilous+P · · Score: 3, Informative
    So, searching for any topic on google in china would give the same results, correct?

    US Image Search for Tiananmen Square

    China Image Search for the same

    Who doesn't censor the internet, now?

    --
    SAILING MISHAP
    1. Re:O RLY? by cdrudge · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well it's obvious that Google.cn just hasn't had the opportunity to index the entire internet. You know that the internet is a pretty big place and Google.cn is still fairly new. Give it 10-15 years and check again.

  9. Like we didnt do this by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sometimes when you buy an old radio in Wisconsin, where lots of German immigrants settled, you'll find all the shortwave radio coils have been snipped out. In WW2 the govt censored SW reception by going into people's houses and doctoring their radios so they couldnt puick up far-away radio stations. Not one of the highpoints of the bill of rights.

    1. Re:Like we didnt do this by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I found a source on Google News:

        I worked in a repair shop with some old timers during the early 80's. One day,
      a customer brought in a set that didn't work on the SW bands. The old-timer in
      the shop found a snipped coil and had the set fixed in a matter of minutes.

      I asked him how he found the problem so fast. He told me he had disabled the SW
      bands in that same set 40 years earlier! He further explained that all the
      repair shops had been under government directive to disable SW reception in any
      set brought in (by a foreign national) for repair. Our government apparently
      thought it could minimize espionage in this manner.

      In the following couple of years, I fixed no less than a dozen sets that had
      been disabled in the same manner. Several of those still had the "serviced by"
      sticker from the same shop on the back. And I have a few in my collection that
      have been fixed for the same ailment.

      Terry

  10. Re:Wow by mctk · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's not tr^[NO CARRIER]

    --
    Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
  11. Searching different in China by PoconoPCDoctor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think just using the CN in a google search must not be returning the same results, but there's no way for me to test this.

    For instance - plug in the term censorship in the same link that the AC used -

    http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=censorship& btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw

    I saw links to Wiki with full articles on censorship in the ROC. Would this work if searched while located in Bejing or anywhere else in the ROC? My guess is no. Other hardware filters are in place.

    --
    "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair" - George Washington
  12. Right, Long Live The Revolution, Comrade by Phat_Tony · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just like Tibet has always been a part of China, but was momentarily mislead by the dangerous oppression of the Dalai Lama, until the people of Tibet rose up with the welcomed support of their Chinese brothers in a glorious revolution to overthrow their Buddhist oppressors and rejoin their traditional homeland.

    --
    Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
  13. I was just in China by todesengel · · Score: 3, Informative

    and I tested this out. Searching for "Tiananmen square" yields plenty of results, but 90% of them weren't accessible. I never had any other "connection problems" other times I was on the web.

  14. For Internal Consumption Only by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Despite the fact that many outside of China know that it indeed does exist, this piece of news is more likely intended for those within China.

    No kidding. I've met people recently from China and they don't know where we all get off on these things. They claim there are any number of small newspapers and such all over the place. They also think we tend to make a bigger deal of things than we ought and their country is just fine thank you very much.

    Of course, if you grew up never knowing otherwise or thinking outside the box someone has constructed around you, you may be so indoctrinated. Same way Brits appear indoctrinated that they must read in the Sun or News of the World what trollop David Beckham is frollicking around Spain with or Americans feel the overwhelming urge to tell others how they ought to live and behave.

    Those friends and colleagues listening to the BBC webcast, since we don't know otherwise, may be checking for new words or topics they need to add to their filters.

    However you shake it up, China is in for a bit of adjustment when the 2008 Olympics bring people from all over the world into China where they will be expecting access to news and media as they had at home. Perhaps China has already thought of this and is constructing exclusion zones...

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:For Internal Consumption Only by steve_ellis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Based on my experience in hotels in China aimed at foreign tourists (so-called 5-star hotels--certified 5-star by the Chinese government), all of them appeared to have unfiltered internet access available. Since many of them are affiliated with big western hotel chains, I'm guessing they get their feeds from their corporate parent, although the government itself may provide unfiltered feeds to hotels targeted at foreigners. I observed this in several major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Xian & Guangzhou). On the other hand, the great firewall is in place and working very nicely on residential dial-up, DSL, and in internet cafes (my nephew has at times had both dial-up and DSL service).

    2. Re:For Internal Consumption Only by jfb3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Almost everyone will be in Beijing for the Olympics and only in Beijing. Any number of visitors you think are "LARGE" (I assume you're a US citizen, CAlifornia?) are not really large for them. The margin of error in their population count is about the same as the entire population of the US. Even 200,000 new visitors at any one time to Beijing is only about a 1.3% increase in population, not such a big deal. Most of the city wouldn't even notice because these visitors won't be using the same facilities as the locals.

      The Chinese government isn't concerned about minor leakage around the Great Firewall, they know it happens. Heck, I was just involved with a project that needed a faster connection with lower latency to the Beijing office and we bought/leased a private fast connection from Malaysia or Hong Kong or some such place that entirely bypassed the government firewall. Totally legal, totally legit.

      What the Chinese government seems to be concerned about is managing the volume of information influx so as to manage the rate of change that is occurring. It seems they see and accept change, they just want to manage the rate of change to forestall any catastrophic problems. Now, I'm not an apologist for the government of China, I think they're generally a bunch of despotic asses. But they do have a problem "upgrading" 1.4 billion people who have almost no concept of laissez faire economics.

  15. google knows all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. go to http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
    2. look at the bottom left of the page, there's a string of chinese characters
    3. use google language tools to translate that string.
    4. it says: "According to local laws, regulations, and policies, some search results are not shown."
    5. indeed, search for "tiananmen" in http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen and compare

    no censorship! just local laws, regulations, and policies. some results are not shown, big deal.

  16. He is technically correct... by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The PRoC government doesn't censor the internet. The private sector companies does it for them, "voluntary."

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  17. Four Words by Yvanhoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Tien Anmen Google Images

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  18. Want to know what it is like for real Chinese? by juuri · · Score: 5, Informative

    After 9/11 I was dating a girl from the Mainland. She had been in the states for a few years and still had a really positive view of her homeland. One night we were watching one of the tributes to the heroes of that day (she was really into that stuff) and they showed a quick summary of history for the last 25 years. As it was going on they showed the protest in Tienamen square and the student confronting the tank and then being... well you know.

    She had never seen it.

    She had no idea that had ever happened.

    It's hard to put into words how sad she became and the rage that immediately followed towards her homeland. There's a lot governments are good at repressing things in most any country from public knowledge, but the ability to completely hide something from your people that the rest of the world knows about? That's just criminal.

    --
    --- I do not moderate.