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China Unblocks the BBC (In English)

Posted by kdawson on from the firewall-what-firewall-i-don't-see-any-firewall dept.

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.

7 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Poor them by McGiraf · · Score: 1, Troll

    poor them, the level of protection from harmful content by their govenement is getting lower and lower.

  2. Unblock by Wowsers · · Score: 0, Troll

    Unblock the BBC, that alleged bastion of impartiality. They are about as impartial as Pravda.

    --
    Take Nobody's Word For It.
    1. Re:Unblock by Wowsers · · Score: 0, Troll

      Who exactly do you think the BBC is against? The BBC is against everyone it doesn't like (the list is long and pointless to this argument), they long ago gave up being impartial. And being in the UK, you too would resent paying for their propaganda, which is paid for by threat of prison to any non-payer, even if you never watch the BBC and only watch other channels instead - you pay.
      --
      Take Nobody's Word For It.
  3. rearry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    rearry?

  4. Slashdot Moderation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    is a fucking joke. To quote President-VICE Richard B. Cheney: Go fuck yourselves AND Bush.

    Thanks for nothing you motherfuckers.

  5. USA is a police state, China is free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm a white European living in China (the People's Republic). I used to live in USA for 2 years. Comparing those two countries I have no doubts China provides more freedom than USA. USA is practically a police state nowadays. As a white male in China I'm treated like a god. I can do almost whatever I want to. I'm not interested in so calle 'political freedom' as it is bullshit I believe. It really doesn't matter who'll win the USA election. Whether it is Barack, Clinton or McCain. It doesn't change ANYTHING. USA is (and will be) a servant of Jews and the president is a dummy. There is no essential difference between the Communist Party in China and USA government. In China you can do your time for critizing government, in USA you can go to jail for clicking a fake 'pedo links'. The latter is worse for me. I'm a loyal guest on the Chinese soil. I support Chinese communists for what they are doing to its country. I can do teenage girls in poor Chinese region without any problems. There are no Jews in China. Food is great. Prices are small. Pirated software everywhere. Even pedophilia is accepted. The only thing you can't do is critizing authorities. But who gives a fuck about critizing authorities if he has money, high living standards and teenage girls??? Think of it, especially you Americans. You are nice fellows so I really feel sorry for you. Herman.

  6. Re:if you only read mandarin by zoogies · · Score: 0, Troll

    The idea that democracy is the model of perfection for government is one that's just plain wrong, but one that's also taken completely for granted, no questions asked, most of the time. I am not saying that the US model is bad. It's not. But you seem to be saying that China, if it were informed and its people not repressed enough, obviously would trend towards democracy because democracy just rocks so much. Do you really think that a democracy is all that feasible for a country of China's population? Yeah, India is a democracy. And India is also a budding world power, isn't it? I think there are a lot of points that need to be made here. First: "Red China" is not communist except in name. China's economy is not growing the way it has been by being communist. You seem to assume that since the media calls it "communist" China all the time, that companies are all state-owned. I'm no expert on the particulars, but I do believe that is false. Also, there is a huge disparity in well-off-ness, particularly as you go from the cities to the rural areas. This is very, um, communist. The majority of the Chinese don't put much cred into things the government tells them. Let's move away from the traditional western view of those pitiable, brainwashed, and oppressed Chinese populace, mindlessly following what the government tells them. Bullshit. There are a lot of poor people in China. But they're not stupid, mindless government drones incapable of free thought. Which is sometimes more than we can say about the West. This particular view of communist, oppressive, anti-rights China is very much a Western one, and in many ways it has merit, because let's face it, the Chinese government isn't exactly full of angels, and the communist party's history there is not one of sterling uprightness and fluffy bunnies and such. But one thing I hope West will just get over is the feeling that since we live in America, land of democracy and perfection, we can trust the government and media. We can let them tell us how we should think about "Red China", because there's no significant government oversight in what the media says at all. We are free of propaganda and brainwashing, because our free, democratic governments would NEVER do something like that. So to sum up, I do not completely disagree with the things you say, but it looks like you're subscribing wholesale and rather blindly to the Western media view on communist China, and I wanted to add a different perspective. Things are not great, but things are not as BBC tells it either (just look at their coverage of the Tibet riots), and it's time we started questioning our own media, here in the West, and holding it up to the same standards and microscopes we apply to such heavily censored, oppressive regimes as "Red China."