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.

Comments

It's Transistor Radios All Over Again

[coaxial]

The conventional wisdom is that in the lead up to, and during, the olympics that Great Firewall is going to be deactivated for those with IP addresses originating in parts of Beijing where foreigners are expected to be. The idea is that foreigners will come to China, not see anything a miss and then go back to their home countries and spread the false impression.

It's a page right out Chairman Mao's playbook. When Nixon went China, the handlers routinely gave people on the street transistor radios to listen to. That way Nixon and Kissenger would say, "Wow. What a nice scene. China truly is wonderful place." Then as soon as these people were out of sight of dignitaries, goons (I'm sorry, "the advance team") would collect the radios for redistribution to other Potemkin Villages.

As David Byrne said, "Same as it ever was."

I'm going to be in Beijing next month in a hotel down by the Bird's Nest. I'm going to have to check out the Great Firewall.

Re:regarding the olympics

[mathnerd314]

Bet you that china is also clearing out people from the cities that the games are being hosted in as well. Forcing them to move away so that the only people that reporters will have access to are high paid officials, loyals, or paid pretenders. You may laugh, but Beijing is planning to kick out a bunch of migrant workers during the Olympics (link) to make room for everyone else.