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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.
Every time you buy some "MADE IN CHINA" shit from WalMart, etc. you help bankroll this type of crap.
Trolling is a art,
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
Isn't it coincidentally like the US Court definition of porn: "I know it when I see it"?
ARGH. People get this wrong constantly. Go and actually read the legend of King Canute, he knew the waves wouldn't stop and carried out that little exercise to show that he didn't have power above God's will. (At least, he did if it ever really happened.)
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."
In a US-style republic, those being governed have the option to have their say (not equal representation) in electing (and recalling) people to govern for them. This method of governance has obvious and non-obvious flaws, as we've seen in the US implementation since its inception.
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.
How many times have you heard some politician in America accuse someone of "distorting the facts"? In China, Article 41, which at first says that people have a right to criticize the government, then goes on to say "but fabrication or distortion of facts with the intention of libel or frame-up is prohibited." This is a much higher bar to political speech than the US has. Can you imagine being practical to criticize an elected official if you had to verify all your facts even to the point of not being allowed any "distortions". Seems reasonable, until you are thrown into Jail because you rounded up the amount and said the national Debt was 9 trillion when really it was just 8.6 trillion, or you get thrown in jail because you are found to exaggerate the amount of corruption or mismanagement in government.
You want a world without negative political campaigns, you go ahead and find it in China. You want a world where people are afraid to speak their minds about their government, go to China.
Just read the whole thing, there is a little something for the authoritarian in everyone.
Look at Article 54, for instance: Article 54
It is the duty of citizens of the People's Republic of China to safeguard the security, honor and interests of the motherland; they must not commit acts detrimental to the security, honor and interests of the motherland. Even look at the parts you quoted from, such as Article 40 (with the important part bolded): 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 offenses, public security or procuratorial organs are permitted to censor correspondence in accordance with procedures prescribed by law. So basically, in the guise of devising a legal protection on privacy, the government is given explicit authority to open people's mail "to meet the needs of state security" and to "censor correspondence". The only restriction on censorship is that they follow some sort of standard procedure as defined by a law.
A familiar pattern should emerge, eventually, as you read through the CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. First it talks about the rights of the people and then it gives the state broad authority to take away those rights to pursue some government interest such as "security" or "public order". In some cases taking away that right must be merely "lawful", so as long as they use some standard form or procedure then just about every so called right is subject to the whims of lawmakers, with no real grounds for judicial review.
Yes, there are some similar exceptions in the US Constitution, which US lawmakers regularly try to take advantage of, just as they do in China. But I do think that the exceptions in the Chinese Constitution are far broader in scope and more powers are explicitly delegated to the government which give it broader authority over people's lives.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
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.
He also changed his name to Shi Huangdi, meaning "First August God"
To quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Huangdi:
he created a new title, huangdi, combining the word huang from the legendary Three Huang (Three August Ones) who ruled at the dawn of Chinese history, and the word di from the legendary Five Di (Five Sovereigns) who ruled immediately after the Three Huang
His original name was Qin Shihuang, and it is a simple, but clever trick when he invents the title 'Huangdi' (~'emperor') and changes his name to Shi Huangdi, which was almost hist name before. If you want to look it up yourself, try this online dictionary: http://www.zhongwen.com/noads.htm.
Apart from that, I find you opinion absurd. The Chinese don't 'tolerate' Hu Jintao and the Communist Party because they are 'culturally conditioned' or whatever. The simply like what they see around them, in general: increased wealth, increased status in the world etc etc. They want more of it - wouldn't you? Don't tell me that Americans would choose freedom over wealth and progress any time. And calling the Chinese president an 'emperor' is simply childish name-calling and just goes to show that you don't have anything else to have your opinion in.