Daily Times – Site Edition — OK. so now Google.com cannot be seen in China and some sort of censored version is available, maybe. Uh, and with China breathing down our necks in international trade can someone explain to me why this is a bad thing? Or is this just about politics? Or the Chinese freaky fears over religious cults? The way I see it this sort of thing puts them at a disadvantage. Of course this sort of censorship will begin here in the USA shortly. Then we will be even again.
The Google.com search engine has been blocked in most parts of China, as Beijing steps up its efforts to restrict the public’s access to information, a Paris-based media watchdog said.
Internet users in many major Chinese cities have had difficulty connecting to the uncensored international version of Google for the past week, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement received here Wednesday.
Aside from the Google.com search engine, Reporters Without Borders said the blocking was being gradually extended to the Google News and Google Mail services. “Google has just definitively joined the club of western companies that comply with online censorship in China,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is deplorable that Chinese Internet users are forced to wage a technological war against censorship in order to access banned content.”
It is bad because freedom loving people in China will try to seek the truth, be arrested, thrown into forced labor camps, which will reduce the cost of Chinese products even more and make our balance of trade problems even worse.
Maybe we could help by arresting people here that trying to get China the truth.
I stand back in awe of the arrogance of Americans who require the world’s population to move forward through history according to rules laid down by Americans. Regardless of history, culture, economics and context.
Should note be made and politics include all aspects and issues? You bet.
Are we the Cops of the World? I don’t know. The guy who wrote the song killed himself in despair.
“Of course this sort of censorship will begin here in the USA shortly. Then we will be even again.”
Just a little parinoid are we?
Lou, what do you know? Have you been stripped of your freedom? Thrown in to forced labor camps? Right now in the US, people have stripped of their freedom, and sooner or later, their might be some stupid draft and whats the difference with that. Forced to fight [and die]. Maybe we should arrest those idiots in Congress.
The only reason labor is cheaper is not because they are being forced. Do you know that many Americans are so poor they are not any better off then the Chinese poor are. You have to realize that almost everything is cheaper in China compared to the US. Sometimes its not about cheapers labor, its the quality of the goods produced. Tell me why the majority of semiconductor chips are produced in plants in China, when the technology companies are the US. How much could they save by using labor in other world if the quality they received was sub-par.
You know the recent shut-downs of the GM plants. Well they made a comparison that said the same time it took the American factory worker to make one part, the Chinese could make two or three, at these benefits: No stupid pensions, Faster, Better quality. As a consumer Americans keep complaining “China is stealing our jobs!” but without China, the sneaker you buy will cost you twice or more and those computer chips you might need in the your computer might cost more and this increase in capital pricing will hurt the consumer the most.
Paranoid? Just a poor sense of chronometry.
I thought this was just part of China’s annual blockade of the net on either side of June 4th…
The story John linked is dated June 12, 2006.
Internet users in many major Chinese cities have had difficulty connecting to the uncensored international version of Google for the past week, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement received here Wednesday.
If we assume that “Wednesday” was June 7th – the Wed after June 4th – “a week” would imply the blockage started on May 30th – the Wed before June 4th…
co-inky-dink??
Or, just the Chinese government blocking access to sites which are “commemorating the 17th anniversary…”?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12035103/
… because suddenly Google IS THE INTERNET?
people walk around China saying “Do you have Google access?”
Just because China wants to take somesite.com out of the phonebook (Google) doesn’t mean anything. The censorship happens when they block somesite.com directly… who cares about the phonebook?
7 The censorship happens when they block somesite.com directly…
Which is also happening, but since the “phonebook” allows a way of finding sites that are otherwise directly blocked it is fo some concern to people in China…
Last paragraph of the article:
Software such as Dynapass, Ultrasurf, Freegate and Garden Networks is normally used to gain access to news and information that is blocked by the firewall isolating China from the rest of the worldwide web. Bill Xia, the US-based exile who created Dynapass, said the jamming of these programs had reached “an unprecedented level” and he was convinced the authorities were deploying considerable resources to achieve it.
>>with China breathing down our necks in international trade can someone explain to me why this is a bad thing?
Because it perpetrates fascism.
Not every American principle should bow to free trade, IMHO.
psst… don’t tell anybody but the internet is full of backdoors.
8. I didn’t say it wasn’t. I merely point to the real issue. Also, see 10.
oh, and not Every American principle should be an Earth principle.
Also, see 10
Why? Does George live in China?
No offense to George, but I think Bill Xia has more credibility: …the jamming of these programs had reached “an unprecedented level”…
I work for a company ( IDT ) which supplies some of the chips used in routers: http://www.idt.com/
One of IDT’s specialties is “Network Search Engines”… http://www.idt.com/?catID=58522
…which, as the blurb states “…accelerate deep packet classification and forwarding…”
These are the kinds of devices which will allow for the “tiered” internet the big ISPs are fighting to implement. They can check all packets to see which should get preferential treatment, and which should be relegated to the “slow lane”.
Good luck keeping those “backdoors” open, as it becomes easier for corporations – and governments – to check what those packets actually contain, no matter what “wrapper” you place them in.