China Does U-Turn, Lifts Ban On Websites

krou sends in a Guardian (UK) article reporting that overnight talks with the International Olympic Committee have resulted in the Chinese government lifting a ban on websites such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the BBC Chinese language service "in Beijing, Shanghai and possibly further afield." Websites with information on the Falun Gong, Chinese dissidents, the Tibetan government in exile, and the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests are still inaccessible. (We've been discussing Chinese Olympic censorship right along.) Quoting: "A spokesman for Amnesty International said: 'It's good news that our site has been unblocked in Olympic venues and perhaps elsewhere in Beijing, but it is still a long way from the "complete media freedom" promised. It seems public outrage has succeeded where the IOC's "quiet diplomacy" had failed.' Chinese engineers quoted in an article in the Atlantic Monthly said they had been told to prepare to unblock access for a list of specific internet protocol addresses to used by foreign visitors. But Andrew Lih, a new media author in Beijing, said it seemed the authorities might have simply decided it was easier to lift blocks for everyone. 'It's possible [to block individual locations] but would be very complicated,' he said."

Comments

More Accurately

[Anonymous Coward]

China Does U-Turn, Lifts Ban On Certain Websites

Title is way too optimistic.

Re:More Accurately

[Kleinbottler]

China Does U-Turn, Lifts Ban On Certain Websites

Title is way too optimistic.

Totally agree. As an expat Beijing resident with press connections the story moves by the day. Bottom line is that while generally open at the moment (i.e. in the Olympic press center) there are still sites that are blocked including a China blog at a major US news outlet. The Chinese generally allow VPN but if you go to certain sites you will still be stopped. Free proxy servers are tissue paper and generally not useful. The authorities, from observation and experience, can and do target individual computers. The Chinese are getting cleverer and more subtle at "shaping" the internet landscape and where you can go. Overall bottom line is that whatever little concessions might be made to the press center users the control of internet access will get worse not better. People who give credit to the Chinese for the access they have allowed are living in lalaland. The Chinese are grudging every concession and reneging whenever they can.