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

Re:Pressure Works

[Doc Ruby]

No, I have done quite a lot to stop both China's mafia government and the US mafia government. One doesn't cancel the other: they each make it twice as bad.

What have you done to stop either, other than whine about the US mafia government (as a lame excuse for China's mafia government)? Anonymous hypocrite Coward.

Re:Pressure Works

[Doc Ruby]

As I said, one doesn't cancel the other. "Twice" is obviously not a mathematical expression in that statement. And there aren't real body counts in either China's or the US' mass murders.