November 10, 2004

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, several Canadian media reported on China's Internet blockade and the closing of cyber-caf s to restrict free speech. The development of the Internet gives the Chinese access to information and facts that China's ruling Party does not want them to know. Consequently, the number of people arrested or detained for expressing dissatisfaction with the government or exchanging information on the Internet has increased considerably. Based on information from Amnesty International, in 2003, the number of people arrested increased 60% compared to previous years. Currently, there are at least 54 people imprisoned for sending email, setting up websites or exchanging information about Falun Gong on the Internet.

The Ottawa Citizen

Monday, November 08, 2004

It may be expedient to wink at the Chinese government's continued repression of its own people. But no matter how advanced China's economy and culture may be, it is still a dictatorship, and it must be treated as one.

The latest example of Chinese repression is a familiar one. The government says it permanently closed 1,600 cyber-cafes between February and August, for violations such as letting children play violent or adult-only video games. It has also fined operators a total of about $14.7 million, and temporarily closed 18,000 cyber-cafes for "rectification."

[...]

This latest wave of closings is merely the most recent government attack on free speech. The Internet threatens the government's ability to control its population, therefore the government views it as a threat. China jails dissidents for subversive online postings. It restricts access to information about subjects it deems dangerous: information about Falun Gong, for example. Or Taiwan. Or Tibet.

Closing the cyber-cafes is just one more way the Chinese government attempts to control speech. The proliferating cyber-cafes are difficult to monitor. It's easier to just shut them down.

Today's Chinese government justifies such repression using terms designed to make it easier for its people and its western trading partners to swallow. Thus, China disguises its censorship as the protection of children.

[...]

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=f31b8fa1a542-4a26-be19-9e0896053626

October 23, 2004

China is the country Reporters Without Borders described this year as "the world's biggest prison for cyber dissidents." China is responsible for jailing more cyber dissidents than all other countries combined.

[Posted: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/26/53849.html]

The Internet is opening up a brave new world to Chinese hearts and minds

By MARGARET WENTE

Globe and Mail Update

Oct 26, 2004

XIANGYIN, CHINA, Down a garbage-strewn back alley in the grimy Hunan town of Xiangyin, the Internet cafe is crammed. In the stifling basement room, three dozen twentysomethings are transfixed by their computer screens. I fork over one yuan (about 15 cents) to check my e-mail and the global headlines. The connection is so fast, I could be sitting in Toronto.

Xiangyin is a provincial backwater. But it has 60 or 70 Internet cafe, [...]

In the gloom, a red-shirted kid is chatting on-line with a pal. "What are you talking about?" I ask. "Falun Gong," he says nonchalantly.

So much for censorship. Falun Gong is a banned spiritual [group], and public discussion of it is forbidden. But even the state can't regulate private Internet chat.

The kid, who's unemployed, says he comes to the Internet caf every day. Chat, movies and video games are cheap, less than 30 cents an hour. He says all his friends come here, too.

"These small cities used to be isolated," says Guo Liang, one of China's foremost authorities on the social impact of the Net. "But now people have a window on the world." In a study he conducted for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Mr. Guo found that the Net is transforming daily life among young adults in places such as Xiangyin. They mostly use the Net for entertainment and chat. But they also use it for news.

"I love to read the negative news reports on-line, especially the common people's complaints," one focus-group participant said. "Those brave reports could never be released by the traditional media; only on the Internet is it possible to read them."

A woman Net user said: "All Netizens can participate in the discussions. I love to hear so many different voices on the Internet."

[...]

"China is the only country in the world where reading news is the No. 1 or No. 2 thing that people do on the Net," says Mr. Guo, who has obtained funding from Western think-tanks to further his research. "It means they're not satisfied with the traditional media."

The Net means that government efforts to censor foreign news are futile. Today, the booming population of young English-speakers can log on to CNN, the BBC and The New York Times.

When the SARS epidemic broke out in the summer of 2003, the government at first tried to stifle information. "But we just logged on to the WHO site in Geneva and found out everything," says Carrie Yang, a 22-year-old journalism student in Beijing.

Her friend Grace adds: "We can criticize whoever we want, because no one knows who we are."

Trying to control the Net, says Michael Ma, a 23-year-old Beijing businessman, is like "trying to contain fire with paper." Mr.Guo himself used to write a popular newspaper column about the Net that explained how to get around official firewalls.

[...]

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041026.gtcowent26/BNPrint/Technology/?mainhub=GT