Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

China Does U-Turn, Lifts Ban On Websites

Posted by kdawson on from the by-some-definitions-of-complete dept.

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."

10 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. U-Turn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's no U-turn. At best, it's a hard left.

    1. Re:U-Turn? by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's no U-turn. At best, it's a hard left.

      So that's more like a L-turn then?

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  2. What better way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What better way to nail subversives ?

    Let them convict themselves by allowing that whicvh is is deemed illegal in China ?
    The Historical approach..

  3. Interesting... by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Didn't they say they were going to spy on visitors' traffic too? Nothing about that here, maybe they're hoping we'll forget.

    If I was going, I'd take tor with me on my laptop. Also I'd buy a laptop first.

  4. I confirm it! by vivaoporto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right now I'm browsing the sites mentioned on TFA and nothing happ&/"$%& NO CARRIER

  5. More Accurately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    China Does U-Turn, Lifts Ban On Certain Websites

    Title is way too optimistic.

    1. Re:More Accurately by Kleinbottler · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

  6. Tempest in a teapot by mu11ing1t0ver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm surprised none of the stories about this mention how easy it is to VPN out of China and thus bypass any blocks they throw up.

  7. Why Tor? by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Chinese firewall doesn't block encrypted traffic. A far superior solution is to simply VPN to somewhere. That's what I do when traveling if I am in any location that I don't completely trust (airport or hotel network for example). I SSH to a server I have at home and tunnel traffic through the connection. It is then as though I was surfing at my house.

  8. Can everybody swallow the blue pill? by jopsen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm surprised none of the stories about this mention how easy it is to VPN out of China and thus bypass any blocks they throw up.

    The problem is that ordinary citizens in China doesn't know what happen on Tiananmen Square in 1989. Do you seriously expect the average Chinese citizen to be able to get VPN out og China, and risk his/her life/career on it because the sites are illegal.