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Foreign-owned Hotels To Install Firewall In China
Frosty Piss writes "Foreign-owned hotels in China face the prospect of 'severe retaliation' if they refuse to install government software that can spy on Internet use by hotel guests coming to watch the summer Olympic games. Republican Senator Sam Brownback produced a translated version of a document from China's Public Security Bureau that requires hotels to use the monitoring equipment. The Public Security Bureau order threatens that failure to comply could result in financial penalties, suspending access to the Internet or the loss of a license to operate a hotel in China. The policy was designed to 'ensure the smooth opening' of the Olympics, as well as 'promote the healthy and orderly development of the Internet, safeguard state security, maintain social order and protect public interests,' the translation of the one of the documents read."
So Brownback is upset that the Chinese government is forcing companies to spy on innocent citizens? Hypocrite much?
They don't care what you think.
China, like much of the world, is very nationalistic, and it's hard for Americans to understand. Your nationality, ethnicity, language... all the same. They can't seperate a criticism of China the government from a criticism the people.
So the government have the Chinese people happily convinced that China is the greatest ever, there ever was, and all criticism from the outside is basically racism. Calling the government corrupt is as personally offensive to the average Chinese citizen as personally calling him a slant-eyed chink.
So, from the Chinese nationalists perspective, they're doing a good job blocking all that "racist propoganda". It's basically (to them) analagous to many western governments banning "hate speech".