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China Unblocks the BBC (In English)

An anonymous reader writes in with news that China has unblocked the BBC Web site — the English-language version at any rate. No announcement was made, because China has never acknowledged blocking the BBC for the last decade. The Chinese-language version of the site has been blocked since its inception in 1999. The article speculates that the easing of censorship may be tied to the upcoming Olympic Games.

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Re:regarding the olympics by KevMar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This will be interesting.

    People from all over the world will be visiting and all kinds of reporters will be onsite. How many reports do you think we will see that tell us China blocks part of the internet. Telling us stuff we already told them but they refused to listen.

    This will be a big black eye for China because the whole world will be faced with the details and feel the impact.

    This could get interesting.

    I saw one person mention tor as a work around. I think using a VPN could also work for them.

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    Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
  2. Re:It is open if you understand English by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually the middle class has been the core of most revolutions in the last two centuries. You need educated people to lead a revolution.

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    Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
  3. Re:ironic... by Itninja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That different because your were being blocked for western capitalist legal reasons. It's only ethically wrong when it's for eastern communist legal reasons. Duh!

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  4. Re:And the BBC blocked... by MrSteveSD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The BBC also refused to show the Star Trek Next Gen episode "The High Ground" because Mr Data mentioned that terrorism sometimes works and that Northern Ireland became independent. Also a while back the BBC had an open discussion on Google's collaboration with censorship in China. A few people pointed out that the BBC also engages in censorship and the BBC deleted their comments. In the end they had to give up as a torrent of people started to complain. If you look at the BBC's "Have Your Say" today, you will see that all discussions are totally locked down and pre-moderated despite the BBC's initial promise of an open discussion system.

    The more general issue though is that the BBC (and other outlets) engage in widespread self-censorship. Just look at the way the BBC handles the official statements of different governments. When it comes to Russia the BBC treat them with suspicion and try to second guess them and look at all the possible ulterior motives. When it comes to the US or UK, there is no such analysis and the arguments become confined within the narrow parameters laid out by those governments. So BBC discussion of Iraq becomes an analysis of how our good intentions have gone wrong, or why we messed up with the intelligence, rather than trying to look at any possible ulterior motives etc.

  5. Re:if you only read mandarin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So much for the classless society communism promises.

    You're incredibly naive. Do you actually believe that China is a communist state? If yes, I might have a bridge to sell you.

    Seriously, the fact that someone claims they're something doesn't make it true. Would you point at North Korea and say "democracy doesn't work" because they call themselves a "democratic republic"? Of course not.

    That's not to say that communism does or can work - it doesn't, and it can't. But no matter what, communism hasn't got the slightest thing to do with modern China.

  6. Re:regarding the olympics by isomeme · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I very much doubt we'll see any significant unfavorable coverage from the major corporate news media. All the big corporations are desperate to get or keep access to Chinese markets -- it's hard to ignore a billion potential customers. And they know very well that the Chinese government will remember who said bad things about them when it's time to negotiate licenses and deals.

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    When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.