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Chinese Version of Wikinews Blocked In China

DragonFire1024 writes with this story from Wikinews that says "access to the Chinese Wikinews website has been blocked in China. Wikinews can also confirm that the English version of the website is still available in China. ... Users using the social networking site called Twitter have reported that the site was "blockade[ed] today by the mainland" of China. Others, writing on the Wikimedia Foundation's mailing list also state that the Chinese version of Wikinews is blocked in major Chinese cities such as Beijing."

17 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Poor productivity by Matt+Perry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just imagine if the Chinese government used all this effort on something that was actually productive.

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    1. Re:Poor productivity by mrmeval · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's scary that their government probably has more people in it than the US has citizens.

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    2. Re:Poor productivity by MartinSchou · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Do you honestly believe that 25% of the Chinese population works for the government?

    3. Re:Poor productivity by mrmeval · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I questioned that off the cuff comment because of your response and went looking. It really depends on how you define "works for the government" but most people view that as 'get a paycheck from government' and not a handout, slavery or forced labor.

      I don't have good figures so this is a guess based on light reading. China has a very large government structure. They have state owned banks and other state owned industries. Leaving out the forced labor and slavery I think I could reach 10 - 15 percent. If I add it in I'll exceed it.

      In my meandering I came across this small blarticle about the U.S. government's 'downsizing'. Enjoy.

      http://www.occams-razor.info/2003/01/the_true_size_o.html

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  2. So what's next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I keep seeing "China blocked this" and "China blocked that" stories on Slashdot but I honestly want to know what the purpose is of reporting these blocks.

    How do we as a community move forward on this? What do we hope to gain by publicizing these blocks? How long will it take to make these gains? Is it true that most Chinese don't really care about the blocks?

    1. Re:So what's next? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Censorship is a subject of interest of Slashdot. It interests many people here, including myself. When Australia, US, France, Russia blocks a website of importance (or even a small website) for whatever reason, it is reported. What is gained by publicizing them is information. We know that if we go to China, Google won't yield trustworthy results about recent events concerning China. We know that Wikipedia, Wikinews or even Slashdot may be blocked. We know that Tor works to circumvent this. We know that the Chinese people is informed by biased media.

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    2. Re:So what's next? by EdIII · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is it true that most Chinese don't really care about the blocks?

      Speaking as somebody that has been there they either 1) Don't know about the blocks. 2) Don't know what it is blocking in the first place (Internet is way beyond them) or 3) Know about the blocks and go around it like you would a small disgusting object on the sidewalk.

      It's a non issue for most Chinese. Plenty of /.'ers are going to make sociopolitical statements about this, but in China very few people really care.

      Those that want the information get it. From what I understand all the effort is pretty scary from a western point of view but is largely ineffective.

      P.S - The Internet is not the medium in which most information flows in China. It's cellphones. Most of the places in China that I went to, including some of the poorest parts where some manufacturing is being done, ALL have cell phone towers. I saw people that looked like 3rd world refugees after escaping those mines in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and they had cell phones in hand.

      I honestly believe all the important information about the government is being distributed amongst the people through that medium.

    3. Re:So what's next? by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is absolute bullshit.

      I live in China for several months a year and this is not even close to accurate. EVERYONE knows (and more importantaly/sadly ACCEPTS) the widespread corruption in China. Attempts at "stamping it out" are token attempts, at best. It is widespread and pervasive. At the end of the day, the CCP is about self preservation. Making any serious effort at killing off corruption cuts too close to the bone.

      Yes, Chinese are proud of their country, but better than half would bolt for the door if they were given the opportunity to go to Europe or the US.

      Best,

    4. Re:So what's next? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Informative
      A big problem with your "ideas through cellphones" idea is that the government totally controls all telephone communications. You think NSA bugging was bad? How about when the system is built from the ground up with even more invasive capabilities (ability to block messages, interrupt conversations, etc).

      The internet police are pretty good about cleaning up forums. Sure it's whack-a-mole but they keep on whacking and keep the board clean. For the overseas disruptive internet sites, there is the great firewall or the fact that they're in obscure foreign languages. Lots of people don't like the Party, but there's no way for them to really get together or organize without being shut down.

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  3. Hong Kong by pha7boy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    works fine in Hong Kong. both the Chinese version and the English version.

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    -- All this knowledge is giving me a raging brainer.
    1. Re:Hong Kong by eebra82 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dear Sir/Madam,

      Please note that we are working hard to provide you with state of the art firewalls. As you may know, the internet consists of literately THOUSANDS of web sites and it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to tell you what you may and may not read.

      Kindly report this issue to the authorities and we will take the necessary steps to ensure that your REGULARIZED FREEDOM is maintained at the highest level.

      Best regards,
      Mao

  4. Re:The net interprets censorship as damage by gzipped_tar · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, SSL is not intended to be a silver bullet. It can be used to prevent MITM attacks or packet inspection (i.e. content-based censorship). It is not used to defeat other attacks e.g. DoS (simply dropping connection to the "offending" hosts, which has been done before).

    I'm just pointing out a method to "route around it". I believe that no censorship is 100% effective -- there's always a way out. In this case, switching to HTTPS suffices.

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  5. Blocking is not the worst thing by visible.frylock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wait till they start learning the tricks of Western governments. IOW, less emphasis on blocking and more emphasis on spin, misdirection, and obfuscation. Of course, all governments use both to different extents, but the Western governments are masters at the latter. At least with blocking, the government gives away the fact that something is being hidden.

    block : encryption :: spin : steganography

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  6. Re:Censorship never works by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the context of damage control as the Chinese government is trying to do, the problem is not creating airtight censorship, because the news they try to silence come from mainland China itself, they just try to make sure as few as possible gain access to the news in question.

    Because for some reason, when you're pissed at your government because you emigrated from your village to not find a job and still be in a crappy situation, when you learn that people all across the country are protesting and on strikes, it makes you want to do the same thing. Revolutions are like Mexican waves, you can only help them happen if you know what your peers are up to.

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  7. Sounds familiar... by retech · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before you know it, they'll be just like the UK.

  8. Re:Small bit of the picture by Hal_Porter · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I understand correctly the situation in China, the main reason why the Chinese people let the Communists in power is their double digit yearly economic growth.

    I'm not sure I agree with the phrase "let the Communists [stay] in power". At the end of the Cold War it seemed like the Communists would lose power in China just like in Eastern Europe. Vast student demonstrations took place in Beijing during Gorbachev's visit, similar to the ones in Europe that brought down communist governments in a couple of months. The difference was that the Chinese government managed to find soldiers willing to put crush the demonstrations later.

    It was only after this that the Chinese Communist Party abandoned the communist economic system for a version of fundamentalist capitalism. They kept their monopoly on power though. The rapid growth is somewhat misleading - it only applies in cities and only along the eastern provinces of China, not in the vast rural heartland. There China is still extremely poor. Corrupt local party official regularly level bogus taxes in a way reminiscent of gangsters charging protection money. There are regular 'Mass Incidents', the Chinese governments term for abortive uprisings.

    http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/08065YuYu.html

    Recently, a series of mass incidents took place in China. These incidents demonstrate some of the social conflicts within China. First there was the "Weng'an Incident" on June 28, 2008. During this event a police station and a county government office building in Guizhou province were assaulted and torched by the local populace. The chaos started in Weng'an County when people who were dissatisfied with the investigation into the death of a local student gathered at the county government offices and the public security bureau. While officials were handling the case, some people unfamiliar with the exact context of the event surrounded the police station and the office buildings of the county government and Communist Party Committee. The protesters smashed and torched many offices and some cars. The chaos lasted for seven hours and involved thousands of people.[1]

    Second was the "Fugu Incident" on July 3. A driver of a farm vehicle in Fugu, Shanxi jumped into the Yellow River to avoid being checked for traffic violations by the police. Local authorities fished his body out of the river two days later, and were then pursued by angry kin of the dead man, who demanded to know why they were not told of the discovery of the body and demanded to have control of the corpse. The two sides struggled over the body, which attracted many spectators and evolved into a clash between villagers and the police.[2]

    Third, the "Huizhou Incident" on July 16. During this incident more than 100 people attacked police officers over the controversial death of a motorcycle driver in Huizhou, Guangdong. The driver's family members said that he was beaten to death by the security guards of Shangnan Village, but local police were told that he died from a traffic accident. The unrest lasted from early morning to 1 pm. Seven members of the group, which had also overturned a police wagon and raided a police station, were arrested.[3]

    Fourth was the "Menglian Incident". On July 19, rubber farmers attacked police who had been sent to arrest alleged instigators in a conflict with rubber plant managers in Menglian, Yunnan. Forty officers were injured and eight police vehicles were burned during the conflict and two farmers were shot dead by riot police.

    The numbers of Mass Incidents have been growing for years, even when the economy was booming. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, thinks that

    http://www.mac.gov.tw/english/english/macpolicy/risk961228.htm

    Statistics have shown that the number of mass incidents in Chinaâ"including t

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  9. The Effectiveness of blocking sites. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Go to ay school computer lab that has external internet access and blocks MySpace and FaceBook.

    Stay there all day and offer $50.00 to any kid that can get to one of those sites.

    By the end of the day you will be broke.