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China Arrests Thousands In Internet Porn Crackdown

Posted by Soulskill on from the that-fourth-party-crap-doesn't-sound-so-bad-anymore dept.

Clandestine_Blaze writes "Chinese police have arrested 5,394 people — with another 4,186 criminal cases in the works — in one of the largest crackdowns on Internet porn in the country. Even more arrests are expected in 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Security's website (In Chinese or Google translated into English). According to the Reuters article on the crackdown, one of the justifications was that the pornography was 'threatening the emotional health of children.' From the English translation of the Ministry of Public Security's website linked above, it appears that certain provinces are also offering 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan rewards, per person, for reporting illegal websites to the government."

11 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm ever so thankful by Entropy98 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Um... you can still go to jail for porn in the USA

  2. China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. There may be an entity called the Communist Party of China, but by no means is China Leftist, or even Socialist. They are a Fascist Autocracy.

    No liberal or leftist government would attack the consumption of adult pornography. (Nor would they even care.)

    Not that I am advocating Communism, which has failed everywhere it has been tried, and is an unworkable ideology, but as a leftist, who is deeply concerned about the rise of Right Wing Fascism around the world, I am concerned what this could cause Western governments to adopt. We have already seen that a large percentage of our Christian Right extremists in the USA and Canada do not believe in sexual equality or egalitarianism, or freedom of speech. I worry this will give them ideas.

    1. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by plasticsquirrel · · Score: 5, Informative

      As an American living in China, it pains me to see this sort of hysterical nonsense on Slashdot all the time. China is the new Evil Empire, apparently. Scream "fascist" all you want, but you and most other westerners do not understand Chinese civilization or the role that government has traditionally played in it. Then again, maybe the U.S. should "pre-empt" their errors, and save China from the Chinese. :-P

      The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women. This goes back to the revolution, in which women were eager to participate to get some basic equality with men. You can argue that women have a choice, but in poor provinces, you can bet that it would be akin to prostitution, where young women are basically forced into the lifestyle because they have no other options.

      Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.

      I am not going to try to explain 5000 years of Chinese civilization to you, or explain every way that it is different from the West, but I would encourage Slashdotters to read this article from the LA Times. It explains quite a bit about the role of government in China and how the West has gotten it wrong with predicting that China would become more like them (developing a rights tradition, embracing democracy, etc.).

      Article: Understanding China

      --
      Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
    2. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by furball · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women. This goes back to the revolution, in which women were eager to participate to get some basic equality with men.

      How's that working out for the women in China? Here in the West where porn is legal (for the most part), we have Germany with a female prime minister. Great Britain had a female PM also. The US has had multiple female VP candidates. We have numerous female in cabinet positions. A woman currently is the leader of the House of Representatives. Another is running DHS badly. Another woman heads the state department. That's the public sector. In the private sector we've had countless female CEO that I'm not going to bother listing all of them.

      Are there any signs women are equal with more men because China does not allow porn? I'm not terribly familiar with the internal governing of China or who runs their corporations. I'm amazed I even know where China is on the map.

    3. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You've drunk the Kool-Aid. I've lived in China for years, and I've heard a few westerners speak exactly as you do.
      There are two major forces at work here:

      1. Propaganda, nationalist extremists, and a strong feedback mechanism between the two.
      2. Historical revisionism.

      That mysticism argument goes something like this:
      "Oh you can't possibly understand Chinese culture; It's too complex for you, and even if you learned Mandarin, read every book written in Mandarin, you still can't understand because you weren't born Chinese"

      The reality is quite simple to understand. China is crashing into the modern world and as individuals try to make sense of it all, the national identity is in crisis. From the top down, there comes authority and an appeal to history, nationalism and racism.
      From the bottom up, comes sexual revolution, and rejection of tradition, as well as some reflection of authoritarianism that came from the top.

      Basically you're just generalising, and generalising sucks because it gloms everyone together, then stamps all over individuality.

      Ps. I didn't find Chinese girls and guys ;-) in the least bit conservative about sex.

    4. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by NecroPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women.

      And China's deification of Mao, who preferred young women (we'd consider him a pedophile) didn't demean women? (The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng)

      How about the one-child policy, which causes Chinese to prefer male children, to the point where female children are abandoned or "accidentally" killed? You'd think that would demean women.

      --
      I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
    5. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So female politicians leading a country isn't empowerment of women?

      The upperclass has always operated under different rules from general population. We've had queens, emperesses and princesses going back forever in both the west and the east. If female politicians leading a country were a sign of general female empowerment then women have not been repressed since at least the days of Cleopatra.

      What pray tell is empowerment of women then?

      Economic and social parity with men in the general population.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  3. Re:I'm ever so thankful by gzipped_tar · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong. "

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  4. Re:I don't understand by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As the wise Dr. Cox once said: “I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the Internet, there would only be one website left, and it would be called ‘Bring back the porn’.”

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  5. Darknets by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In some corners of the world it is time to get serious about crypto and darknets. If the chinese government is not careful, their attempts to suppress pornography may lead to the creation of networks which will ultimately bring them down.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  6. On the other hand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Socialist crackpots have defined socialism and communism as good, hence by definition nothing bad is part of it.

    If a state does bad things, the state is not a socialist state, hence it cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about socialism.

    Similarly, capitalist crackpots have defined the free market as good, hence by definition nothing bad is part of it.

    If a market produces bad outcomes, that market is not a free market, hence it cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about capitalism.

    Untruths about socialism cannot be accepted even in the most private corners. (Cue Norway, where the Socialist Left party announced that the state is better than parents at raising children most of the time).

    Similarly, untruths about capitalism cannot be accepted even in the most private corners. (Cue the United States, where the Republican Party regularly announces that the individual is better than the state at doing everything all the time.)