Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Official Vows to "Purify" the Net
Sleeping Kirby writes to tell us China's Communist party leader, Hu Jintao today announced the intent to leverage the economic potential of the web while seeking to "purify the internet environment". He proposes to do this by maintaining "the initiative in opinion" on the internet and to "'raise the level guidance on the internet," thus civilizing and purifying the internet environment.
From TFA:
It's still why I think Bolshevism* and its sequelae are more insidious than fascism: sure, the fascists will shoot you if you agitate against them; but the Bolshevik state would prevent you from agitating in the first place by limiting the set of stimuli that comprise your world.
Reminds me a great deal, actually, of that old Semitic myth about a certain garden and tree of knowledge; whose premise was: fragile and jealous power depends upon the ignorance of its subjugates.
The ignorance of subjugates will always be a Bolshevik, and not a fascist, end.
_____________
* Or Marxism, etc.
Don't they mean purify humanity?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Hu Jintao is a very talented man.
from the article:
Hu stressed the need to exploit the net's possibilities, while keeping a tight grip. "Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration," he concluded.
On the internet I thought one hand was for the mouse and the other was otherwise occupied. Its no wonder he is keeping a tight grip.
liqbase
Well with the unix epoch hitting 1169696969 in 7 hours and thus a dip in the 65% of people spending time with their SO, it should be harder for him to purify the net.
We need to purify the internet of mentioning the word democracy! Oh wait.....
unlike USA with their "think of the children" "piracy", "PAC" excuse
truth ? you can't handle the truth !
From TFA
"Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration," he concluded.
What the hell does that even mean?
You might think that the average person wouldn't stand for it. But I recall someone once saying the "average person" is 5' tall, female, and Chinese.
While China may only house 15-20% of the world's population, that's still a huge fraction. That would be one hell of an astroturf.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Yeah, just what we needed - officials of a country with a long track record in crimes against humanity bent on 'cleaning up the Internet'.
This reminds me of a story about a man who thought he could command the waves.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
Purification of the web != removal of pron.
Silly slant-eyed man, goatse is not going away.
(siwy sant-eyed man, go say nah goin way.)
Free childcare classifieds: www.carebrite.com
'...He loved Big Brother. The End.'
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
Every time you buy some "MADE IN CHINA" shit from WalMart, etc. you help bankroll this type of crap.
Trolling is a art,
Has anyone let Mr. Gore know yet that his creation will be ... upgraded and "purified"?
~~~~_/)~~~~ M.Berk
...that he is going to ban Internet Explorer (tight grip) and force a replacement for SMTP (innovate).
Well, he's nearly got the clout for it. Good luck Hu. You've got my vote! oh wait...
Who does he think he's kidding?
"I aim to misbehave."
I say we purify it by attacking those misguided moral and political crusaders who think they have the right to censor anything.
Unfortunately globally, people have slowly begun to disregard that man has fundamental rights. Not only that, we now all expected to be suspicious of each other.
Some examples:
* Spain preventing shop owners from displaying models of size 6 and under because it glorifies being thin.
* The state of Karnataka, India, banning parents from teaching their child English or any other language of their choice besides the official language.
* The US deciding that a person can be held without any evidence and punished without being able to confront the evidence (assuming their is actual evidence) against them.
* Globally, punishments inflicted that serve only the purpose of vengeance, not rehabilitation.
* Islamic whackos believing that it's OK to kill innocent people to advance their agenda.
* Collective punishment of innocent people due to the actions of a few.
* Growing distrust of neighbors.
etc.
So basically, little by little, the concept of human rights is being eroded. Maybe a few would be more secure in the padded cell, but what's the use of life then?
Anyone who confuses the Web and the Internet isn't qualified to report about either.
And anyone who puts a ® at the end of an entire article as if it was a copyright symbol isn't qualified to copyright or register as a trademark anything.
Staring at a white background [on a computer screen] while you read is like staring at a light bulb — Maddox
Maybe he should try "civilizing and purifying" China first.
I tried that once, but i got too many naked ladies jammed in the filter and the heuristic algorithm gained sentience and is currently working in atlantic city. Kind of like skynet, but with porn.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
And this is unique to "Bolshevism" how? Controlling the media to present a picture of fair and rational government has been the aim of almost every government/state/ruler in history and it continues to the present day. You need to hit the books if you think fascists (or democrats - small "d") don't practice this too...
WTF!!!!!!
Here ya go, continue your trade with China, as you trade, you are polluting their environment.
Need I say more?
A vast majority of the world's servers are in countries not named the People's Republic of China. Therefore, to do as he insists, he would have to take control of those servers. I suspect, that even given the large number of people at his beck and call, that is a task beyond his capacity. At some point, every person is possession of sole authority in some organization gets delusions of grandeur.
In plain English: he's FOS.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Hu Jintao knows how to say absolutely nothing and say it well. That sentence is a masterpiece of meaningless airy drivel. You can read it and reread it and there just isn't anything there. Any speechwriter worth his salt should be envious of that hot air.
Of course, the internet may soon be bigger than Asia...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
I think it's obvious the entire slashdot community is going to be 'against' this initiative. We all have experience using 'more than average' time on the internet and particularly the world wide web ; it is completely impossible to 'guide' people on the internet.
China would have to have a ginormous amount of 'censors' constantly surfing and updating their own database of acceptable internet sites to have anything close to a 'guidance initiative'. This is just a media spin on what china has been doing all along, blocking major portions of the internet off completely from it's own citizens.
You can see the ridiculous tracert douginadress.com takes to reach chinese citizens right now ; another comment on China's inability to even provide standard censorship
Ace
The sad thing is, eventually, we'll be buying draconian filtering technology back from the Chinese in order to cope with spam. Sigh.
Article 35. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
Article 37. The freedom of person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. No citizen may be arrested except with the approval or by decision of a people's procuratorate or by decision of a people's court, and arrests must be made by a public security organ. Unlawful deprivation or restriction of citizens' freedom of person by detention or other means is prohibited; and unlawful search of the person of citizens is prohibited.
Article 39. The home of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Unlawful search of, or intrusion into, a citizen's home is prohibited.
Article 40. The freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens of the People's Republic of China are protected by law. No organization or individual may, on any ground, infringe upon the freedom and privacy of citizens' correspondence except in cases where, to meet the needs of state security or of investigation into criminal offences, public security or procuratorial organs are permitted to censor correspondence in accordance with procedures prescribed by law.
Article 41. Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary. Citizens have the right to make to relevant state organs complaints and charges against, or exposures of, violation of the law or dereliction of duty by any state organ or functionary; but fabrication or distortion of facts with the intention of libel or frame-up is prohibited. In case of complaints, charges or exposures made by citizens, the state organ concerned must deal with them in a responsible manner after ascertaining the facts. No one may suppress such complaints, charges and exposures, or retaliate against the citizens making them. Citizens who have suffered losses through infringement of their civil rights by any state organ or functionary have the right to compensation in accordance with the law.
but who will protect our precious bodily fluids from being impurified?
Paging Gen. Jack D. Ripper!!!
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
Oh, wait, you weren't kidding. I'm sorry, I wasn't laughing at you, but with you, at yourself.
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12345
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
"There are certain parts of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try and invade."
668: Neighbour of the Beast
If you didn't buy "Made in China", the Chinese economy would suck. Nobody would be able to afford computers and they won't have access to any sort of information. Only the information printed on the local propaganda newpaper or the (propaganda) radio. With an advanced economy people have computers which they can use to educate themselves and get past the Chinese petty little "censorship" efforts. Do you really think the Chinese govt. can even have mediocre success in censoring? It's all talk. .. because there physically aren't enough workers. So that would benefit both countries and other countries in the world. This will continue until automation helps reduce the number of hours people need to work (and people will be paid more as they work less because the amount of work needed to afford a good lifestyle would be reduced).
Also by buying Made In China you build a nation of consumers who need services from the US (airplanes, farm equipment, high tech stuff). Even China wouldn't have the needed workers to sustain an developed modern economy
that things disregarded by most Chinese as simply propaganda will make the headlines of the western press...
From wikipedia, In December 2004, the Hong Kong magazine Open quoted an alleged instruction by Hu to propaganda officials in September in which he wrote that, when managing ideology, China had to learn from Cuba and North Korea. Although North Korea had encountered "temporary economic problems", its political policies were "consistently correct". Open also quoted Hu as calling Mikhail Gorbachev, "a betrayer of socialism".
Well, that doesn't sound too good. And he wants to "purify" the internet.
Another interesting summary on wiki of his "Eight Do's and Dont's", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba_rong_ba_chi
Number Eight is interesting, "Regard plain living and hard struggle as an honour, regard living in luxury as a shame."
Perhaps he needs a number nine, which reads something like "Regard the internet as a backward Western evil, filled with filthy images and make-believe."
...thus civilizing and purifying the internet environment.
So the Chinese are suggesting that the 2008 American Presidential Race be banned from the Internet?
Straight outta pre-bubble 2000 sales hype for some dot-com. Yup, China is advancing far faster than we could have ever believed.
Given the reactionary nature of many /.ers, I fear that goatse and related content will get to +5 status in this discussion.
Yeah, these rights are guaranteed in theory and taken away in practice.
:/
...
Which is why we in the US should be worried about suspending them habeas corpus
Hell, even my captcha is 'controls'
Thank God! We need less memory leaks.
Why is it that we can't just immediately nuke anyone that vows to "purify" again ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
No, not How, When. When Jiabao is gonna purify humanity while Who Jintao does the same for the internet :-)
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
"Secrecy is the art of hiding unbeknownst information from people." ~Il Palazzo, Vol 1, Ch 1, Excel Saga
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
I for one welcome our internet purifying overlords!
Every time there's this knee-jerk, robotic reaction I totally don't get. Believe in what you WANT TO believe in. In this case, there's no FA to read.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
The first Chin Emperor (Qin in modern romanization), ZHENG Ying (259-210BC), gave his Dynasty's name to the entire country of China. He burned all the books in the country and banned scholarly discussion of history. Sounds a lot like the current Emperor is just doing what a Chinese Emperor normally does. And that might explain why the Chinese people, whose sense of history extends far further back than most Westerners', tolerate his continued rule. A sense of "unity" for all of China comes from the Emperor. See the modern movie "Hero" for one take on this facet of Chinese culture.
He also changed his name to Shi Huangdi, meaning "First August God". This is certainly nothing that the current Emperor would ever deign to do.
The IPCC has purposely engineered a massive scientific fraud.
From: Chmn Hu Jintao
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:53 PM
Subject: PURIFICATION CAMPAIGN
Chmn Hu Jintao
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am fine today and how are you? I hope this letter will find you in the best of health. I am Chmn Hu Jintao, the Chairman of the "Communist Party" and the "Fifth Civilization Marching Forward Into the Millenium (FCMFIM)", a subsidiary of the "PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC)".
The Fifth Civilization Marching Forward Into the Millenium (FCMFIM) was set up by the late Head of State, Chmn Mao Zedong who died on 9 September 1976, to manage the excess revenue accruing from the electronic commerce and its allied products as a domestic increase in the campaign to purify the internet environment. The estimated annual revenue for 2005 was $45 Billion US Dollars Ref. FMF A26 Unit 3B Paragraph "D" of the Auditor General of the People's Republic of China Report of Nov. 2006 on estimated revenue.
I am the Chairman of the Contract Award Committee, and my committee is solely responsible for awaiting and paying of contracts on behalf of the People's Republic of China. My Committee awarded Contracts to foreign contractors for Vigorous Purification By One Hand Grasping Matters in the cheap plastic consumer goods producing areas of Sichuan. We overshot the contract sum by US$25,000,000.00. We have paid the contractors and withholding the balance of US$25,000,000.00. But, because of the existence of some of the domestic laws forbidding civil servants in PR from opening, operating and maintaining foreign accounts, we do not have the expertise to transfer this balance of fund to a foreign account.
However, this balance of US$25,000,000.00 has been secured in form of Credit/Payment to a foreign contractor, hence we wish to transfer into your bank account as the beneficiary of the fund. We have also arrived at a conclusion that you will be given 20% of the total sum transferred as our foreign partner, while 5% will be reserved for incidental expenses that both parties will incur in the course of actualizing this transaction, and the balance of 75% will be kept for the committee members.
If you know that you will be capable of helping us actualize this transaction, you should send to me immediately the details of your bank particulars or open a new bank account where we can transfer the money US$25,000, 000.00, which you will be holding in trust for us until we come to your country for our share. Your nature of business does not matter in this transaction. The required details includes your company's name, address, your private personal telephone/fax numbers, your full name and address, including your complete bank details where the transferred fund will be routed by the Shengdong Bank.
Note that this transaction is expected to be actualized within 21 working days from the day the required details are forwarded to the People's Ministry of Finance who will approve the needed foreign exchange control allocation for the release of this money to your account. Please, treat this as top secret. You should contact me urgently.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Yours RESPECTFULLY,
Chmn Hu Jintao
In other news, astrophysicists have announced that they now know what all that dark matter is: it's stupidity.
Starting with me. Because he'll have to pry my porn from my cold, dead hands.
Yes but because of the washing machine I don't need to spend that half hour washing clothes. Also, If I was willing to have a 1950's quality of life (no cable tv or internet) and still get better health care (improved life expectancy and infant mortality rate) I can only work 8 hours a day. It means having to give up wearing designer clothes and opt for $30 shoes instead of $100 ones. Oh yeah I'll have to give up my cell phone, cook food at home more, and eat out less.
I think a 1950's middle class lifestyle can be had by working less than 8 hours a day. It'd just be considered poverty today.
Finally, someone is going to "purify" the internet of its spammer infestation! Hooray!
Fascists never tried to control the media? What was Goebbels doing then? A talk show? Or Mussolini, or Franco for that matter. You seem to be taking this right vs left obsession a bit too far.
I think the term you want is "authoritarianism". The desire to totally control others is truly egalitarian. It is not restricted to any race, creed, religion, class, or political ideology.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Wanna "purify" and bring civility back to the net?
Then cut off AOL's access.
Hee Hee Hee.
What?
So Hu is on the First?
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
Choosing between extreme right and left wing politics, i.e. Stalinism and Fascism is choosing between bad and worse. Id say that Fascism is still worse although thanks to North Korea the margin is getting rather slim.
With China's internet users set to outnumber US users in two years, why wouldn't they wan't to control the whole enchilada? http://rawstory.com/news/2006/China_internet_users _to_overtake_US_01232007.html/
Am I the only who's seen this and immediately thought of the slashdot moderators?
Dear Sir,
Please be advised of an old adage we have here in America: it's like herding cats.
In short: good fucking luck. You'll need it.
Sincerely,
Me
blog |
"purify the internet environment" to who's moral standard? Maybe we need an Open Moral Standard?
He is just pissed that he responded to an "I Love You" e-mail virus
Wow there is a lot of anti-China rhetoric out here. Sure I hate the great firewall as much as the next /.ter but...
.xxx domains, Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA, banning online gambling...
How is this any different than local efforts to purify the internet like segregating the dirty pics into
You can find out all about international efforts to purify the net here. And its already outdated.
Every politician will talk about purifying the internet, making it safe for you and your children because most people have a knee jerk reaction, and it distracts from real issues.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
Doesn't China's central government have better things to do with their time and money? Like cleaning up the air and water? Getting clean drinking water and treating waste water for everyone? Cracking down on corruption? Working on things that will actually improve everyone's lives and save billions of dollars?
More to the point: I somehow doubt rural protests and riots, which by official Chinese statistics number in the tens of thousands per year, have anything to do with the Internet.
Beijing has the worst air pollution in the world. Don't be surprised if the marathon in the 2008 Olympics is called off due to extreme smog.
...the Internet is to cut China off from the rest of the world!
Let them have their own Internet. Then once they've finished spamming and hacking each other, maybe, just maybe, they'll ask nicely if they can come back.
-Maurice
FixingTheWeb.com Helping to keep the bad guys out...
I thought Jintao died in rush hour two? Or He/she was put in jail? Either way I forget...
Good luck with that.
fine, but he has to ask Al Gore first.
ôó
I don't speak Chiness, or bureaucratess. I can not make sense out this statement:
> He proposes to do this by maintaining "the initiative in opinion" on the internet and to "'raise the level guidance on the internet," thus civilizing and purifying the internet environment.
Does this mean WDS, and EDS, up the wahzoo? Are they looking to filter porn, or subversive ideas, or both?
This is scary. They tried all of the in these in the "Great Leap Forward", "Cultural Revolution", etc but look at how many people died during those periods. According to credible historians all these revolutions have killed about 38 million people. Also the "one child" program kill more females infants. I'm a 5th generation American-Chinese so I'm not being discriminating against Chinese but Chinese kill more Chinese than all of the wars it had fought with foreigners.... this is no better then in the US we kill more people in vehicle accidents than all wars fought since the Revolutionary War including the current are in the Middle East.
Laugh? I nearly bought a round.
IX CCXLIX XVII II CLVII CXVI CCXXVII XCI CCXVI LXV LXXXVI CXCVII XCIX LXXXVI CXXXVI CXCII
For those unfamiliar with this sort of rhetoric, I offer this translation from Politburospeak to English:
Hu: seeking to "purify the internet environment
English: Pr0n is for Politburo members and senior Party officials only.
Hu: leverage the economic potential of the web
English: Profit
Hu: maintaining "the initiative in opinion"
English: Crushing censorship
Hu: raise the level guidance on the internet
English: Crushing censorship plus jail time for trying to evade it.
Hu: civilizing and purifying the internet environment
English: Anbiguous; could mean either, crushing censorship, pr0n is for Politburo members and senior Party officials only, or both.
Hu: Ensure that one hand grasps development
English: Profit
Hu: while one hand grasps administration
English: pr0n is for Politburo members and senior Party officials only
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Going from the clip's English description this young girl was possibly executed for
3 7548917870
being a prostitute and without a trial. I doubt she didn't get some sort of a trial
because regimes like China thrive on formalities but hey: No matter what she did...
she didn't deserve this.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-45633855
To be fair you might not want to see it, the execution by rifle shown in the clip is
extremely graphic and they show a close-up of her head half of which is missing.
Why do we afford scumsucking regimes like China "Most Favored Nation" status??!
Maybe the Chinese government can start the 'purifying' job by eliminating all that SPAM comming out of China? Somehow, millions of email ads for Viagra flying through Chinese email servers just doesn't have that pure, fresh feeling I expect from a Communist dictatorship... ;-)
While he's at it, perhaps he can stop the guys from Chinese IP addresses that keep remotely probing my systems with ssh login attempts and for web application flaws. I'm just about ready to start some of my own "purification" by banning all IP ranges that resolve to locations in China (okay, okay, I'll probably be nicer and just use some IP tables scripts to ban or tarpit the malicious IPs individually).
It truly mystifies me that some people can believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, or that there was a worldwide flood from which two of "every animal" were rescued by riding it out in a giant ark, or that all humans are descended from two humans (and the genetic bottleneck presented by the few humans who survived the aforementioned flood).
Honestly, I don't see how one can look at our modern understandings of physics, chemistry, geology, biology, astronomy, etc., and still believe that these events actually happened.
In short, how do you reconcile your beliefs with modern knowledge and evidence?
wants to be the first monkey to touch the monolith
and start scrubbing
China's building a giant pipe-cleaner in order to clean out the series of tubes. But they won't need a truck wash.
[Insert pithy quote here]
The internet is now the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.
From TA "Hu stressed the need to exploit the net's possibilities, while keeping a tight grip. "Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration," he concluded."
The more you tighten your grip Secretary, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers. ~~ Modded quote from Princes Leia (Star Wars Episode IV)
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
Are they going to purify it like they are trying to purify Tibet? On a separate note, I like the Internet more as the Wild West.
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Here is the wikipedia explanation. -Sigh- I don't know if people in countries other than the U.S. have been innoculated with continuous fetus-to-grave anti-communist/marxist propagana like we have. It is very droll.
Think someone in China might be delusional?
Chinese purification of the net is like shitting in the drinking water. Nothing they can do will affect it but for the worse and they will be the ones responsible for making the mess. Those in charge over in China must have sick minds if they think they can rule the net and determine what is clean and what isn't. Pathetic is all I can say.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
The Internet is made by people.
From Teenagers to Big Business, the best and the worst of human behavior is digitally displayed for all the world.
Don't blame the system, it shows life as it is,
not some idealist utopia.
Perhaps researchers of human behavior can learn more about how people really behave
in our modern world.
There are those who do try to purify the human race,
but they are known as war criminals,
the worst of all crimes,
destroying humanity and free will, in the name of government or religion.
You'll see that the comments made by the Chinese government were only in regards to the Chinese internet community, and that the "purification" referred to making it easier to administer and develop the financial potential of the Chinese internet. This entire post is sensationalistic nonsense that glosses over the more boring bits of reality in order to make a mountain over a molehill.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
Hu is probably just trying to find a reason to take down China Bounder's blog about his sex adventures with Chinese women. He pissed off a lot of people, some very powerful. After all, Chinese women are so innocent, and this dirty foreigner is corrupting them!
From TA: "Hu stressed the need to exploit the net's possibilities, while keeping a tight grip. "Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration," he concluded."
In other unreported comments he went on to explain China's new computer initiative involving Linux and the new Chinese made and developed hardware. He said that his remarks applied equally to the new smart phone due to be released at the Beijing summer IT fair.
"It is exactly the same", he said "ensure also that one hand grasps hardware while the other grasps the OS. This way all users are given full integrated experience and can exploit potential of modern computer science to maximum without distraction from driver problem.
"Ensure one hand grasps phone network while other hand grasps mobile appliance. Only so can stability of both be assured and West China networks kept immune from crashes.
"Ensure also one hand around throat of developers and other around phone application environment. So can help users avoid distraction by non optimally working applications not authorized by Party.
"In coming weeks will be propounding further on four principles of making happy users and clean and healthy computing and phoning environment: protect OS, protect hardware, protect applications, protect networks. Trust in Party."
I am very surprised these inspiring comments, which will alas strike a chord with only one or two Western computing and mobile phone companies, and which are a devastating if tactful correction to the whole Open Source movement, failed to find their way into the press.
They said: Hu2's house? Ren2's house!
Rots of ruck!
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
To me, "maintain the initiative in opinion" sounds more like excessive propaganda and shills pushing Chinese government's agenda online, not limiting anything. With throngs of humanware, it is easy to defeat any clever captcha or other protective measures made under presumption their oponent is an automaton.
Think spam, only ideological spam. After all, they don't control the Internet and can't censor it effectively, so they will probably try to flood it and force others to carry the stigma of being "censors of 'truth' ".
right on!
You've got an up hill battle on your hands though. Basic economic laws (and I mean LAWS) have been pissed on from a great height by every power hungry & well meaning moron since the dawn of time, and every time the "unintended/unforseen/ignored" consquences kicks the passer by in the crotch.
"but but - all we wanted to do was protect our jobs we didn't mean to start armageddon" wankers.
Doesn't it worry the US that with all the money poring into the US from China, to bolster credit card spending and such, that This country will eventually own you.
I know the USA doesn't see the Deficit as a problem but if chine can control your economy it controls the country.
What happens when they want to purify the USA? Cheers Bob
It Seems I've developed an aversion to proprietary software
"purify the internet ..."
You could always put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
Shouldn't the Olympics of 2008 be boycotted just like the Olympics of 1980? China has done far worse things to the people and environment than Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
And if you step ALL the way back to Marx's day, it's fairly clear that he was right.
Clear to who? A sheltered, pampered useful idiot?
Marx viewed economics as a zero-sum game. That fundamental problem makes all his theories as utterly worthless as tits on a bull. Or posts from an ignorant college twerp who has never been responsible for anything his entire worthless life and worships Castro's executioner.
Care to tally up how many millions of people have been murdered in the name of Marx in the past 150 years or so?
To quote Ronald Reagan: "A Communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-Communist is one who understands Marx."
Of course, it would probably be easier if your politicians were not so tightly related to the big oil companies, but that's another story. Or is it ?
And mod me down all you like, I have plenty of karma to burn. Burning karma does not produce greenhouse gases :-)
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
I can attest, as I am posting this from Beijing, that Chairman Hu has little or no control over vast swaths of internet communications, nor can he possibly hire enough censors to get the job done (especially since much of the Internet is in English- the Chinese are RUNNING to catch up to other countries in their foreign language instruction).
What he's doing is employing a time-honored tactic among Chinese political figures- he's essentially urging "the masses" to clean up the internet for him. The project isn't really to purge the internet, but to mobilize a base of support.
It works like this- Hu gets people riled up about the filthy internet, and a number of patriotic/nationalistic bloggers and other busybodies start loudly denouncing anything that they perceive to be anti-Chinese. This includes various Japanese things, various Taiwanese things, racy English bloggers in Shanghai, Starbucks in the Forbidden City (I was there last week, really!). They'll make enough noise on Chinese-language sites to shout down some dissenting opinions, and some Chinese hackers will take down a few other offending sites, like that Marxist blog they mentioned on boingboing today. But what it will principally gain him is a loud proxy voice in public opinion forums on the web. In a nation without a free press, but with pervasive internet, that's the best he can hope for.
It all makes sense if you think about "the dirty internet" like "gay marriage". If you're not looking for it, it certainly won't find you (in China). But you can get your supporters awfully riled up, and then point them at things you really care about, like d3m0r&cy.
The internet was designed to withstand a nuclear war. Somehow, I think it will withstand this Chinese "purification" process...and also the RIAA, for that matter...
And do you have to heed every word from der Fuhrer, the Emperor, or the Politburo?
No?
You're FUCKING WELCOME!
If you don't want to find yourself living under sharia, where women are universally treated as the possession of some man (and men are allowed to "possess" more than one woman....), and homosexuals are killed, you'd better drop your asinine, reflexive, and reactionary anti-Americanism and start rooting against radical Islamists in Iraq and Iran.
Else you're a feckless drooling moron who willfully won't see an evil, literally-medieval menace to Western liberalism. You know, such things as fundamental human rights, free speech, religious freedom, etc. Those don't exist under Islam.
Mao: 40 million, give or take a few
Stalin: 20 million, give or take few
Pol Pot: 2 million, in a country with a population of 5-8 million or so at the time...
North Korea: 1+ million and still counting...
How does it feel to be a vaguely human-shaped, useless waste of protoplasm?
I don't see Marx on that list, do you?