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China Censors Web To Curb Inner Mongolia Protests

Posted by timothy on from the call-it-inmo-for-short dept.

angry tapir writes "China is blocking mention of Inner Mongolia on Chinese microblogs and social networking sites, as part of an effort to clamp down on protests that broke out last week in the region. Two of the most popular microblog services operating in China no longer allow users to search for the term 'Inner Mongolia.' Sina's and Tencent's microblogs have 140 million and 160 million users, respectively."

25 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. China and US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least the Chinese only censor the web (for national security) inside their own country. US on the other hand tries to censor it around the world for something little like downloading one mp3.

    1. Re:China and US by khallow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's a difference between "try" and "censor". I also like how the US censors for "something little" while China censors for "national security". There's always someone to equivocate the vile actions of China to the considerably less vile actions of the US.

    2. Re:China and US by harrytuttle777 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The U.S. Government has sold out to the highest bidder and no longer has the interest of the citizen at heart. In your example the highest bidder is Big pharma. In times it was the Chines Government. (Clinton and the bags of cash from PRC). Tomorrow, it will be the Mexican government.

      -A country destroys itself from within long before the enemies can do so from without.
      -But then again according to You-tube I am a faggot, so you should not listen to anything I say.

    3. Re:China and US by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Actually the actions of the US seem more vile in this light. China censors with the fear of a national uprise, something that might endanger the nation. The US censor already when the revenue of a rather insignificant company is threatened.

      Personally, I'd consider the latter worse. Censoring because you fear the nation is endangered (as real or imagined it may be, or as 'good' or 'bad' the government may be in the first place) is at least understandable. Censoring to protect the revenue stream of a company nobody gives a fuck about that isn't in any way a threat to the stability of the country should it fail is not.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:China and US by igreaterthanu · · Score: 2

      Even if you cannot afford to buy the freedom to listen, you also have the freedom to speak. Copyright doesn't get rid of that, whereas China's censorship does.

      --
      I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
    5. Re:China and US by somersault · · Score: 2

      It's "YouTube", faggot ;)

      --
      which is totally what she said
    6. Re:China and US by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually if you look at the list porn is not a very high percentage

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blacklisted_keywords_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China

      I.e. they ban Playboy so they can claim to be blocking porn to protect the innocent Chinese people from lascivious foreigners. Pretty much everything else on the list is there because the government wants to stop Chinese people discussing things like Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen.

      Funny how Americans here will often claim that the US government claims to be doing things for one reason but is really doing them for a completely different (and completely self serving) one but assume that people running an extremely ruthless one party state with strict censorship will act rationally in the best interests of the majority of their people.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    7. Re:China and US by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Show me one government that doesn't put its own interests before those of the country and I'll only ask whether they have lax immigration laws.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:China and US by khallow · · Score: 2

      Actually the actions of the US seem more vile in this light. China censors with the fear of a national uprise, something that might endanger the nation. The US censor already when the revenue of a rather insignificant company is threatened.

      Of course, it seems more vile to you. I just want to point out that protection of the revenue of a rather insignificant company in international trade is a more valid and legitimate national interest than oppressing the populace and ignoring their petitions for redress.

    9. Re:China and US by The+Dawn+Of+Time · · Score: 2

      Aren't you onboard with the greater good, citizen?

    10. Re:China and US by LordLimecat · · Score: 2

      Actually the actions of the US seem more vile in this light. China censors with the fear of a national uprise, something that might endanger the nation. The US censor already when the revenue of a rather insignificant company is threatened. Personally, I'd consider the latter worse

      Then move there, and enjoy your reeducation-by-labor camps.

      I guess for some people any article is an excuse to lament how terrible life is in one of the richest and freest countries in the world. Had it occured to you how whiney and petty your complaints might sound to those in Inner Mongolia, or to Liu Xiaobo, or to any of the folks who tried to protest during the Olympics?

    11. Re:China and US by bluemonq · · Score: 2

      Actually if you pay attention to the recent porn crackdowns in China instead of the simply leafing through the keywords being banned you'd know that they're pretty damn serious about the 'preventing the youths' morals from corruption' thing.

    12. Re:China and US by VocationalZero · · Score: 2

      +5 for this pro-oppression Chinese propaganda officer? What the hell has happened to you, slashdot? Its a sad day when the statement that upholding intellectual property law is less moral than authorities deleting information from the web to stop information about human suffering from propagating is considered at all "insightful".

  2. chinese wikileaks - where are you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't help but wonder where wikileaks is on this subject. There was soo much hope and potential for wikileaks to be universally recognised across countries, continents and cultures as being pro liberty. Sadly the recent diversions have hindered this cause.

  3. Re:Fuck off Chairman Mao by creat3d · · Score: 2

    Yep, America is one of the very few places where you can say anything you want, yet have no say at the same time.

    --
    Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
  4. In the future... by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I actually fully await for the US to start doing something similar some day. The PROTECT IP Act. et. al. are already a good way in the same direction, the next logical step would be "PROTECT CHILDREN Act" or "PROTECT INNOCENCE Act" which would allow the government to start censoring material for "ethical reasons."

  5. Interesting, No mention of this in China Daily by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I did a search in China Daily http://search.chinadaily.com.cn/all_en.jsp?searchText=Inner+Mongolia+&searchword=Inner+Mongolia and these is no mention of this story at all. The entire story may very well be a fabrication by anti-revolutionary forces.

    I am in China, there really has been no mention of it. And you can be sure I posted Anonymously for this one.

  6. Re:Fuck off Chairman Mao by drolli · · Score: 2

    You mean, lets say, any Muslim in traditional outfit can enter a plane and because he is afraid of flying pray "Allah is great", without any fearing to be removed from the plane? You mean, one can wear a t-shirt with "fuck [name of local governor]" on it and police will threat him like anybody else? You mean one can not be imprisoned without seeing a lawyer for saying something which the police *considers* to be a terrorist threat.

    I am glad to hear that.

    There are no political forces who want to have a "kill switch" on the Internet?

    I appreciate that the USA and the western world in general is very free right now, but i urge you to be careful when making comparisons, or take this for granted. Good chess players watch their own defense.

    Its more complicated than "the Chinese" "censoring the net" for "political reasons". Its that han-Chinese in some regions are not tolerated so well in the local population - to say it nicely. Its sometimes less of a political conflict, but more a race problem. Sometimes external organizations give support for political reasons, but it ends up for stimulating demonstrations - which are close to racial nationalism - during which people have been killed, not by the police, but by the protesters, telling that these protests where *not* peaceful sit-ins on the streets, but violent unrest. Stimulating unrest *is* a crime in many European states, and i have no doubt that it could happen that your web page may be put off line.

    If you want to have a confirmation that feeling suppressed by a central government does not make people nicer or more understanding for human rights, look to the Baltic states. Some of these try to put the considerable Russian speaking population (people who also had no say in going there) into a serious disadvantage, up to forbidding to speak the Russian language in public places.

    So while i hope the Chinese government finds a way to deal with this in a constructive manner, i have to say: maybe the time to solve this complicated problem has just not yet come. Maybe they figured that if they use this "kill switch" deaths can be prevented. While we may dispute about it (and i would), this idea is not *so* far from some things i have heard in Europe/the US.

  7. All this reminds me of something.... by Nrrqshrr · · Score: 2

    The Tunisian contagion finally reaching China?
    Somehow I feel that all these "big" countries will suffer the same fate. China may actually collapse under it's own weight if something like this continues. Heck, the Tunisian revolution started from some small village in the south of it and then spread like fire on grass. China seems to have built the same tension from class differences and the rising social needs (and of course frustration from censorship).
    The chinese government might be able to distribute money like the petrolium mafia-countries do, right now, to calm the angry mobs, but personally, I do expect some kind of change in China.

  8. Re:Fuck off Chairman Mao by sortius_nod · · Score: 2

    I thought it was:

    America, where you have the right to say anything, but say nothing of value.

    Either one is good.

  9. Re:Fuck off Chairman Mao by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, you have the right to say what you want. Actually, you're encouraged to and almost badgered to do it. Because our powers have noticed something: Nobody cares. Worse, since everyone may say what they want, we believe actually the bull that we're free to say what we want. Which is actually true.

    We're just not free to listen to anyone we want.

    Or, more accurately, our powers noticed that it does not matter whether me or you say something, not even when done in a blog or other means to make it public past the reach of our voice when standing on a soap box. Why? 'cause nobody listens. Duh. Only if you start saying things they don't like AND you get an audience, that's when they get active.

    So, essentially, you're free to say what you want. Just hope you don't get too many to listen or you might be in trouble.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Re:Fuck off Chairman Mao by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sorry, but America has become a fascist state. Watch this video from two days ago:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUU3yCy3uI

  11. Rhymes by TemperedAlchemist · · Score: 2

    China and Ingsoc have such a nice ring together, don't you think?

  12. Pictures by rayver · · Score: 2

    Looks like there's pictures and a small blip of text about it here: http://www.innermongolia.org/english/index.html It also looks like all Chinese news sites (.cn) are censoring any mention of it as well.

  13. The myth of Clinton and China by decora · · Score: 2

    In On the Brink by Henry Paulson he clearly describes his relationship with Chinese leaders while he was CEO of Goldman Sachs.

    When he became secretary of terasury in 2006 he was constantly on the phone with them. They get more mention in his book on the crisis of 2008 than Dick Cheney does.

    China bought hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Treasury bonds, as well as Fannie and Freddie bonds, through the 1990s and in the 2000s they really ramped up.

    I.E., during all of the years when the 'Anti-Clintons' were in the whitehouse and/or congress, 2000-2008, China basically bought a massive, ginormous chunk of the US housing market. When you pay your mortgage, part of it goes directly to the Red Army.

    It has nothing to do with Clinton, Bush, the GOP, the Democrats, etc. We don't even have words to describe how the system has changed over the past 20 or so years.