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Chinese Social Websites Go Under "Maintenance"
Shastri writes "After blocking several prominent social websites like Twitter, Youtube ahead of Tiananmen anniversary, by the great firewall of China, some popular social sites in China have also gone under 'maintenance'. While it is anybody's guess as to whether these events are related or purely coincidental, the announced maintenance come mostly unscheduled and last for several days might give a hint. A spreadsheet (in Chinese) is being maintained enumerating the sites that have gone down for a maintenance."
They don't want any organised protests.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Interesting. At first, in reading the summary, I thought this was the governments attempt to censor various sites. However, the article seems to imply that this is some passive aggressive form at protesting the censorship by major social websites. It's kinda like having an enemy go on a hunger strike to protest killing his people. It sounds interesting, in the current environment, it'll probably have the same effect as online petitions.
Actually, going bankrupt is what brought the wall down.
Unfortunately, I can imagine it, although not as a federal political action. Take a good look at what happened to Cult Awareness Network for a stunning example of political censorship.
Your mistake here is thinking that these "middle class" Chinese people are not aware of Tiananmen/June 04. Indeed they all know about it, and are still supportive of the government's action. These people are voluntarily chosing to supress dissent and bring down their own blogs to support their government. They are being "patriotic" and that is the attitude, which you have to work to change.
The whole thing is kind of similar to the Iraq War issue over here. My liberal friends think that none of the war supporters are aware of the "Missing WMDs" and related issues. They brandish these as some kind of a trump card, thinking that the moment they mention "missing WMD," any supporter will change their mind. Of course that never actually happens as the other side sees these facts as no big deal. We all agree on the facts, it's just that we disagree on their meaning and context. (Another example: Clinton blowjob/impeachment. We all got the same facts, yet there is a wide disagreement about their significance.)
Or consider forced abortions in China. While injecting formaldehyde into a fetus is highly objectionable to most people in the West, a typical Chinese person will find it a "regrettable" yet appropriate means for population control. They would tell you that the parents were to blame for an unauthorized conception, and the abortion was needed to maintain peace, prosperity, equality, whatever. You need to help the Chinese place knowledge into its proper context, not simply "add it to every message."
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.