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The Internet Censorship Government Politics

China Declares War on Internet Pornography 346

Posted by Zonk from the year-of-the-turtle dept.
segphault writes "The Chinese government has shut down nearly 600 pornographic web sites, and arrested over 200 people for distributing "obscene" content. The Chinese government has also started performing covert surveillance of mobile phone text messages in order to crack down on banking fraud and prostitution organized and perpetrated with text messages. Ars Technica has the story: 'With more than 100 million Internet users, China has the second largest population of web content consumers after the United States. Although the Chinese government promotes web use for business, education, and government activity, the communist regime has committed its resources to crushing web sites that challenge government authority, or distribute content that the government considers to be detrimental to society'"
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China Declares War on Internet Pornography More

China Declares War on Internet Pornography

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  • Chinese government... (Score:3, Funny)

    by aurb ( 674003 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:41AM (#14373996)
    ...has shut down nearly 600 pornographic web sites

    The jedys are going to feel this one.

  • My Dreamjob: (Score:5, Funny)

    by zerojoker ( 812874 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:42AM (#14373998)
    checking content for the Chinese government and censor it accordingly.
    Watching P0rn from 9 to 5 at work... hm wait, that's not that different to my current job...

    • Re:My Dreamjob: (Score:5, Funny)

      by irtza ( 893217 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:10AM (#14374047) Homepage
      They'll have absolutely no problems filling positions for these jobs. Probably will become one of the most sought after jobs in China. Maybe you should move there before it becomes impossible to get a position.

      • Re:My Dreamjob: (Score:4, Insightful)

        by limber ( 545551 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @05:38PM (#14375668) Homepage
        why bother moving all the way to china? Try Canada. here in Ontario, there is a statutory requirement that *every* "adult sex film" in distribution be reviewed by a screening panel of the Ontario Film Review Board.

        In actuality the setup is used as a cash cow for the government -- in order to get a film distributed, you have to pay a fee for them to review it and approve it for distribution. It's kind of ridiculous.

        Joking aside, it turns out that the job is quite mind numbing. the panel members basically sit in a room all day long watching porn on fast forward with the audio muted. they only slow it if they think something verboten (e.g. beastiality, child porn etc) is onscreen.

        Watching porn at your leisure is one thing. But *having* to do so as your job? And you don't just get to watch the stuff you enjoy. You are trapped there watching *all* the bad porn that is being made. Umm, no thanks.

    • Re:My Dreamjob: (Score:5, Funny)

      by pHatidic ( 163975 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:15AM (#14374058)
      I used to have that job, but now I'm on disability leave because of an on-the-job injury: carpal tunnel.

  • oh well (Score:2, Informative)

    by know1 ( 854868 )
    there's always encryption. there's a whole world of dirty internet out there and if people want to see it they will find a way

  • Proxies (Score:3, Informative)

    by SoloFlyer2 ( 872483 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:44AM (#14374000)
    This is just forcing people to use things like proxies or one of the many projects designed to bypass chinas tough filters...
    • Proxies aren't going to help you get porn from Chinese distributors. The native China porn servers are the ones that are getting shut down.

      And calling China "communistic" is quite an overstatement; they're radical socialists. If they were based on communism, I'm sure that the market (i.e. people) would not allow for porn to be shut down...
      • I'm happy to see the massive Chiinese distributors shut down, but not because they sell porn. It's because they spam relentlessly. I'd be delighted to see clear laws in China and elsewhere forbidding that, and those laws enforced.

        If they didn't spam so relentlessly, what people do on their own time with their own bandwidth would be vastly less bothersome to the rest of us. As it is, if I turn spam filters off, I get roughly one-in-five of my email messages as sexual spam. And a bunch of those try their best

      • You didn't get the memo ... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by willtsmith ( 466546 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @08:09PM (#14376239) Journal

        China stopped being communist when switched from a planned/command economy to a free market system. But they made sure to keep the authoritarian regime in place.

        Back in the 1930s and 1940s, they called that fascism. I guess when the pots occupy the media and government infrastructure, they are unwilling to call kettles black.

  • Wow! 600 porn sites!!!!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:45AM (#14374002)
    What's that? Like 0.0001% of all pornsites out there?

  • I believe this is nothing new for china (Score:5, Informative)

    by manavendra ( 688020 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:45AM (#14374004) Homepage Journal
    For a communist country with a long history of very little respect for civil liberties and personal autonomy.
    In the past they have:
    1. China: Police Shut Down Gay, Lesbian Event [hrw.org]
    2. Rampant Violence and Intimidation Against Petitioners [hrw.org] - Chinese citizens who petition Chinese authorities for the redress of grievances are attacked, beaten, threatened, and intimidated
    Not to mention China's stance on Hongkong's pursuit of democracy...

    • Communist country? Are you serious? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Flying pig ( 925874 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:27AM (#14374089)
      China is not a Communist country. It's an oligarchic dictatorship. The fact that said oligarchy calls itself "communist" is about as relevant as Lebanese militias calling themselves "Christian" or the Provisional IRA calling itself "Trotskyite". You can call yourself what you like. But if you want historical parallels for current Chinese government, the Imperial Roman system or the Venetian Serene Republic are probably closer analogies.

      I wouldn't get cross about this misnomenclature except that there have been a very few real attempts at Communist government, notably in India, and they shouldn't be dirtied by association. Let's be clear - if the Chinese people eventually overthrow or modernise their government, it will be the end of the process of the rise and collapse of large scale dictatorships in the 20th Century.

      • Your comment is exactly correct but needs some additional information to provide the whole picture. China's central government (and indeed most or all of its provincial governments) are oligarchic dictatorships (but not totalitarian ones), but the relationship between the two is complex. Generally, the provincial governments have more de facto power than the central government because of corruption and because they tend to just ignore its edicts. Beijing basically doesn't have that much power over the en

      • Re:Communist country? Are you serious? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by FriedTurkey ( 761642 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @01:13PM (#14374665)
        True Communism has been tried many times. It is destined to change into a oligarchic dictatorship everytime. That is why Communism will always fail. Ideals are always thrown out after that much power is given to so few people. Orwell's Animal Farm has happened so many times in different countries. Just subsitute different names for the characters.
        • What you speak of is called "Oligarchical Socialism". True Communism has no government and no private ownership of the means of production.
          • True communism is a magical world where everyone works together for the common good without any personal motivation, or coordinating mechanism. It is based on the denial basic truths about human beings, and the world we live in. Any rational, thinking person should realize that such a mode of social organization and economic distribution is unrealistic and impossible.
            • It works on a small scale: the family. In other societies, on the extended family. On slightly larger scales, the Israeli kibbutz and other communes have been tried, with various degrees of success and adherence to principles.

              Seems like the larger the group, the tougher it is to have it work. You have to care enough about the other group numbers to devote yourself to the needed tasks.
        • You guys are so full of shit propaganda, it's okay, that's what you've been fed. China is following what is called the authoritative model of development, and it's working wonders. It happens to be exactly the same one taken by the Japanese, and the Japanese took it from Germany. If you consider Germany and Japan failtures, I don't think you think well. The statement "Communism will always fail" is bullshit in this context, disproven by history. Compare China with India. China and India are textbook cases o
          • China and India started from the same post-colonialist situation yet half the Indian population, more than half a billion people, still suffers from endemic hunger, desperate destitution, illiteracy, high infant mortality, disease, low life expectancy, and other problems that would shame any self-respecting nation and that China has done much better on.

            Are you joking? Remember something from history class called the Great Leap Forward [wikipedia.org]? Only 25 million people starved to death in China. But that's a drop
      • I wouldn't get cross about this misnomenclature except that there have been a very few real attempts at Communist government, notably in India, and they shouldn't be dirtied by association.

        Umm, no. India tried a socialist approach of nationalization, where the state made almost everything, but so did the private industry. Were there instances where the state used unfair tactics to put down some private institutions? Yes, but that was more out of the greed of the politicians than due to any doctrine.

        India's

      • India is not Communist (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It should be noted that India is not a communist country. We are in fact the largest democracy in the world (According to population). We have a democractically (Ok i wont go into gory details about cheating during elections) elected government.
      • Mao invented Communism when he was visited by the ghosts of Confucius, Lao-Tze, and Buddha, who told him that to free the peoples you have to enslave them. After some halting attempts at socialism, collectivism, and cultural reform, he finally discovered that capitalism is the best means of accomplishing his objectives.

        Nowadays, the Inner Circle of the Chinese Communist Party gathers once a year to summon the spirit of Mao in a mystic ceremony, where the Chairman dispenses sage advice on such topics as: h
      • IF Dialectical Materialism is any measure of adherence to the Communist Manifesto, the USA is the most successful Communist country in the world.

        Beginning with the Marshal Plan following WWII, the USA has given away more money and aid than all the other contries of the world combined. Japan and Western Europe were rebuilt by American generosity, and it was well into the 70's before they could begin altrustic donations, and then only because we bought their Volkswagons instead of Detroit's junk.

        And now, 50
      • Technically most modern governments fall into this category. Our own government is made up primarily of people from a specific social class and more importantly a social click. The idea of any kid can grow up to be President is largely a myth. Without the backing of the right people, and I don't mean the american people, you simply can't be elected President and in truth hold most offices. The priviledged run this country and so cater to their own social group. Both China and Russia have been run much the s
    • Plus its their right to do so. Porn isnt a 'human right'.
      • Pursuit of happiness.
        Look it up sometime.
        Not only is it a right, it is one of the God Given Rights given to all men, from which all other rights are derived.

        Maybe this phrase will help clear things up :

        "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness . . . "

        (And if porn doesn't make you happy, you probably aren't doing it right.)
        • if you truely belive this, you are sick and should be taken off the streets.
        • Porn is a God-given right? I missed that lesson in Sunday school...
          • Txiasaeia wrote:
            Porn is a God-given right? I missed that lesson in Sunday school...

            The pursuit of happiness is described that way in the US Constitution. Then there's the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and its protections for free speech.

            For Biblical references, I suspect your Sunday school left out all the good bits. Given that Lot thought God would be thrilled for Lot to send his daughters out to the crowd to keep the rowdy neighbors from bothering his angelic neighbors, the wife-ste

            • Re:I believe this is nothing new for china (Score:5, Informative)

              by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @02:52PM (#14375093)
              Given that Lot thought God would be thrilled for Lot to send his daughters out to the crowd to keep the rowdy neighbors from bothering his angelic neighbors...

              And general Christian thought is that Lot was a hypocrite for doing so.

              ... the wife-stealing, husband-murdering David was the anointed of God...

              Widely thought of as a failure of David's, and the reason why he wasn't allowed to build God's temple.

              ... the mother of Christ was an unwed teenager already engaged to somebody else when she got pregnant...

              By the Holy Spirit. According to church thought, Mary did nothing wrong.

              ...and the wild adventures of Onan who was supposed to commit adultery against his own wife by impregnating his dead brother's wife...

              First of all, nowhere in Genesis 38 does it say that Onan was married. Second, there were some very good reasons for levirate marriages to be performed during this period.

              ...and you get one heck of a lot of porn in the Bible itself.

              Porn? Porn is, as far as I'm concerned, defined as gratuitious sexual references in whatever format designed to titilate. Lot's actions showed us how screwed up he was. David's actions, too, go to show why God's chosen wasn't allowed to build the temple. Mary did absolutely nothing wrong, and there's no reference to sex *at all* in the accounts of her conception in the Gospels. The closest you have to any kind of graphic sexuality is the story of Onan, but the story was about how he was disobedient; it wasn't a pornographic story in any way, shape, or form.

              Perhaps you're confusing "sex" with "porn," in which case yes, there are several sexual references and stories with sexual overtones in the Bible. But these references do not mean that the Bible is pornographic, any more than this post is pornographic.

            • The pursuit of happiness is described that way in the US Constitution. Then there's the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and its protections for free speech.

              While I would argue that the second amendment does indeed protect freedom of speech, the first amendment does so in a far more direct fashion.

              The second is only effective in that you generally don't try to violently silence somebody who's got a gun.

              1st: Freedom of Speech and Religion
              2nd: Keep and Bear Arms
              3rd: They can't force you to keep me in you
        • No no man, you didn't post the updated Preamble:
          We hold these truths to be self-evident – that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Self Pleasure ...
        • it is one of the God Given Rights given to all men

          you insensitive clod.... they are also given to women... you sexist bastard..
    • The PRC has no civil liberties, so there is nothing to respect. Far from making things simple, that actually is the biggest challenge of maintaining order, because the PRC has to live up to Big Brother.

      Ironically, this is probably a very popular policy in China, as the majority of the country is what Americans would call hardline conservative. This is especially true in rural areas. Not so much in the cities, which are changing so fast no one is really in control. Of course, I really can't quantify this

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The only real difference is what we are willing to accept as harmful porn or as detrimental to society. In America, many states still have laws on the books that prohibit co-habitation and/or gays. We also crack down on sites that we regard as illegal. A good example is child porn. Of course, most states define child porn as below 18 YO. But in other countries (and cultures and times), a child would be defined as below 12 (or possibly when a women starts menstruation or a boy grows hair). We have a loser de
  • I would think they have said ..... All your porn is belong to us ...... (groan :-))

  • Nothing to see here, move on (Score:5, Interesting)

    by liangzai ( 837960 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:49AM (#14374015) Homepage
    China regularly launches campaigns like this, and although the "saohuang" (clean up the porn) movement is effective in barring domestic porn sites, there is absolutely nothing China can do about the influx of porn from abroad, especially from Japan and the West.

    Furthermore, China is becoming more and more lax about porn, which any visitor to the country will realize within a day or so. Only the hardliners are still fighting it, but they might as well start a program to eradicate all the flies in the world. It is all in vain.

    Now, why is China fighting porn? Because it is an old taboo since the times after the Tang dynasty. Before, China was sexually liberal, and now the times are turning again. This has to do with the opening up to the outer world in general, and with Internet in particular.

    You should also note that there is no law against downloading or consuming porn in China. It is legal, it is practiced, and it is virtually unfiltered on the net (bar a few percent of the sites). What is illegal is copying and distributing porn, especially for commercial purposes. Spreading less than 20 "huangdai" (yellow tapes, porn videos) is not punishable. 20--99 tapes (or images) is punishable, and above 500 tapes (or images) is considered severe, with a potential lifetime imprisonment. This also goes for digital content.

    The effect is that China is consuming as much porn as the rest of the world, but they won't be able to cash in on it. This is bound to change in the future, if you ask me.

    • Re:Nothing to see here, move on (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rolfwind ( 528248 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:14AM (#14374052)
      Well, at least our friendly Bush administration has something in common with Communist China:

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/09/19/AR2005091901570.html [washingtonpost.com]

      Now who knows what other similiarities they have? Perhaps we'll find out that they actually torture prisoners in secret locations to fight the war on terror, similiar as China tortures a diverse range of seperatists for their own "war on terror":

      http://www.cfr.org/publication/4765/chinas_war_on_ terror.html?breadcrumb=default [cfr.org]

      Nothing to see here, move along people!
      • Well, at least our friendly Bush administration has something in common with Communist China

        Oh, but there is one very big thing that they do not have in common. The Chinese government hates Christianity. There's something about empowering the lowly that threatens them. In fact, they are so anti-Christian, that the leader of the free world had to put on his pastor's frock and preach over there:

        http://www.bennyhinn.org/yourlife/InTheNews-Chris t ian-Persecution/Bush-Challenges-China-on-Religious -Free [bennyhinn.org]

      • Perhaps we'll find out that they actually torture prisoners in secret locations to fight the war on terror, similiar as China tortures a diverse range of seperatists for their own "war on terror"

        You know why media reports about Gitmo have been scarce lately? Some bright military public affairs officer told the "journalists" that they were actually looking at Castro's prisons where he tortures pro-democracy dissidents and librarians and they lost all interest.

        China's gulag system is called Laogai [laogai.org]. If you'r
        • Interesting. So you are saying it's OK to torture people as long as you lable them "terrorists mass murderer" first. I think China is doing pretty much the same thing no? I mean aren't they labling the people they torture "terrorists mass murderers" too? Like the US. I don't think they are using a trial process to get to a guilty verdict either. They simply call somebody a terrorists and then carry them off to some secret prison to be tortured. Just like the US.

          I guess I just don't see the difference there.

        • Meanwhile, Western leftists think that the occasional terrorist mass murderer getting slapped around is much more worthy of attention and support than peaceful political dissidents in leftist dictatorships, even dictatorships that have strayed from the "faith" like China.

          Far be it from me to stop a self-satisfied rant from completely mischaracterizing the political views of tens of millions of people, but are you talking about Western leftists like Amnesty Interational [amnesty.org]? Or maybe you mean Human Rights Watc [hrw.org]

    • The taboo must be pretty strong. I had privately been suspecting that sooner rather than later China would start producing porn as their costs must be pretty competitive, and we all know there is a pretty big niche for asian content. Perhaps in time we will see the financial interests in producing chinese porn coalesce and finally outsource our "adult entertainment".
  • The Chinese govt. can outlaw communication that they can't listen in on. That means they can enforce whatever policies they want. Also they can outlaw the use of proxies, and then spy on people to make sure they aren't using them.

    So because the citizens don't have rights, the government can do whatever it takes to make sure that no illegal communication takes place.

    That being said, they must see the internet as a huge threat to stability. It has already been shown in other countries that when people are pee

  • Benefits of this... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by IAAP ( 937607 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @09:55AM (#14374024)
    really.

    FTFA: The Chinese government also recently increased surveillance of mobile phone text messaging, a popular method of communication in China where 383 million individuals use mobile phones.

    For one thing, I didn't know that it was that easy for the cops. I bet it's even easier here in the US. Now that I know that the police have this capabliltiy, I can be a bit more vigilant about my own civil liberites, as much as I can. These things that China is doing is bringing to light some of the capabilities that police around the world have.

    I am curious though, exactly how easy is it? Can some local cops in anytown, USA do this?

    • I am curious though, exactly how easy is it? Can some local cops in anytown, USA do this?

      Technology wise, it is pretty straight forward. Legally, it requires a search warrant.

      I know that many people are going to scream, the Bushies are doing it right now. Well technically, they are not. The NSA is monitoring communications that are crossing borders to other countries. Constitutionally, this is legal, for the same reasons that customs is allowed to search your luggage without a warrant when you ente

    • Re:Benefits of this... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Siddly ( 675342 )
      I'm not sure whether this is a "dog bites man" or "man bites dog" story. Many governments are doing this. In the UK, it was used successfully to trace IRA bombers and others and in one case to prove the accused in one case were no where near the crime scene. UK, US, China, Russia and wherever, personal technology like the web and email records store copies of what we do. It has good and bad sides, the bad side is when something you said is misconstrued and you are made to suffer, e.g if this communication i

  • On the other hand... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:04AM (#14374039) Homepage
    How much liberty and freedom would you sacrifice to remove goatse and tubgirl from the net?
  • Let me get this right... China doesn't want to see people demonstrating because they fear democracy. And they're attacking porn. Sorry, but I can't think of a better reason why half a billion Chinese would take to the streets.

  • It's all in the definition (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ztucker ( 938031 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:15AM (#14374059)
    It should be noted that in China the word "democracy" is considered pornographic
    • That's perfectly logical: power is an aphrodesiac, democracy is placing power in the hands of the people, therefore democracy is the state handing out an aphrodesiac, which is contrary to the one child policy.

  • War on Porn Vs War on Drugs (Score:4, Funny)

    by masterpenguin ( 878744 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:18AM (#14374066)
    I'm taking all bets on which war is going to be won first.

    The War on Drugs

    or The War on Porn

    Place your bets now...

  • Sorry for the Chinese (Score:3, Insightful)

    by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @10:22AM (#14374074)
    I'm sorry for the Chinese, I think the pornographers are going to kick their ass.

  • The Chinese have misunderstood the Internet (Score:5, Funny)

    by ReelOddeeo ( 115880 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @11:06AM (#14374195)
    Clearly, the Chinese government has misunderstood the very purpose of the Internet [google.com].

    Such a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Internet is, and was intended to be used will result in the Chinese people using the Internet for less desirable purposes such as dissent, subversion, and spreading dangerous ideas such as freedom of thought and expression.

  • Disturbing priorities (Score:3, Interesting)

    by David Horn ( 772985 ) <david&pocketgamer,org> on Sunday January 01, 2006 @11:20AM (#14374243) Homepage
    Interesting how the Chinese government goes all out on pornography, but does absolutely nothing to try to stem the rampant software and video piracy that takes place there. I need hardly mention the millions of machines spewing spam out into the internet.

    I wonder whether the rest of the world would be for the better if China was completely segregated from the rest of the internet, with the only access through safe "portals" supervised by the government.
    • Interesting how the Chinese government goes all out on pornography, but does absolutely nothing to try to stem the rampant software and video piracy that takes place there.

      Hang on a minute, lets drop the scitsofrenic slashdot attitute for a moment so I can get this straight. Our piracy alright, fair-use blah blah, bittorrent rulzes!!1!, but China is "teh evil". Having visited there, I can tell you that piracy isn't really anymore rampant than here in the west. The primary difference is that the legal mark

  • To sum up (Score:5, Insightful)

    by deblau ( 68023 ) <slashdot.25.flickboy@spamgourmet.com> on Sunday January 01, 2006 @12:02PM (#14374377) Journal
    Sex is good, unless it's for money, then it's bad (in capitalist America, who would have thought?). Porn is good, unless you're a conservative. Sex with children is bad, but selling it is really bad. Violent porn is very, very bad. Violence in general is bad, unless you're under a repressive government, in which case it's OK to overthrow a dictator if it's yours [historyplace.com], but not if it's somebody else's [cnn.com]. China is terrible, because they spy on their citizens. America is the greatest country on Earth, we'd never do that. Oh, wait [cnn.com], yes we would. It's great to speak out [cornell.edu], unless you're in a paranoid government that doesn't follow its own laws [findlaw.com] (but I just covered that). But we're still the best, because we're loud, over-confident, and we've got the 82nd Airborne [army.mil], and all you other countries don't, so neener neener. Oh yeah, and we've got God on our side, and that beats all you heathens.

    Did I miss anything?

  • China no longer a communist state (Score:3, Insightful)

    by GauteL ( 29207 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @12:04PM (#14374393)
    .. as substantial privatisation has happened over the last few years. They are still oppressive though.

    It does not seem like being oppressive is the problem the US or the EU has with communist states though, as they are conducting extensive business with China these days.

    An oppressive facist police state is perfectly ok, as long as there are possibilities for making money from them. This makes a mockery of the argument that the US invaded Iraq to free the people from oppression.

  • s/China/Western World (Score:3, Informative)

    by xiando ( 770382 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @12:10PM (#14374427) Homepage Journal
    Please consider how Internet censorship is being implemented in the "free world" when reading this story.

    Example: Starting January 1st 2006, it is illegal to have organized debate on how to by-pass copyright restrictions in Finland. It is also illegal to distribute software, also free software, that can be used to by-pass copyright restrictions. This is a violation of free speech in the Internet in The Free World(tm).

    Another example: In many countries now it is illegal to inform that the World War II holocaust where claimed six million jews supposedly died is a hoax. You don't even need to be accused of lying, which you are not by informing about this issue, in many countries you will simply be put in prison on the vague charge of "denial".

    And there are many, way too many, examples on how free speech is being violated and limited in the western world.

    The first amendment seems to be the only one left in the USA now and it is under constant attack. Eye-ball the story and ignore place in the world (China), this is something every citizen should protest against, regardless of where in the world it happens - And it is, sadly, a trend that I see too clearly all over the world these days.

    Btw. You might aswell start using http://tor.eff.org/ [eff.org] right away - Sadly, tools that allow anonymous communication have now become necessary and essential.
    • Or did a Holocaust denier just get modded (5, Informative)?

      Don't get me wrong, I would jail the guy for thinking or saying this, but I wouldn't mod him up either.

      (referring to parent post)

  • Damnit, China is not communist! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Theovon ( 109752 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @12:36PM (#14374514)
    It WAS communist, but due to trade with other countries, capitalism has become a dominant part of their economy. It's just not a democracy or republic. Technically, China is a "Capitalist Dictatorship."

    As an aside, it seems that people want to blindly attach communism all the time. Yes, communism is bad, but to just blanketly poopoo it is stupid. The truth is that communism is one of the fastest ways to bring a country from total anarchy and poverty to a functioning economy. The problem is that Marxist socialism and communism don't dissolve into democracy like the ideaists said it would. Instead, the people in power don't want to let go of their power, and it becomes a totalitarian, oppressive dictatorship. China's transition to a capitalist dictatorship is probably less disruptive to the people and economy than the sudden switch from communist dictatorship to capitalist democracy in the former USSR. Yes, China's government really sucks and they need a revolution, but this needs to be considered objectively. Sudden revolution could be disasterous locally to China and globally. And things like this usually get worse before they get better.
    • The truth is that communism is one of the fastest ways to bring a country from total anarchy and poverty to a functioning economy.

      All of that is short term. Without free enterprise the economy won't grow. The only countries that can sustain marxism for long are countries with a lot of natural resources to exploit. Communism will never work because absolute power will corrupt absolutely. Regulated captialism is the only economic system that works despite its flaws.

  • Hmmm spying on own citizens (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Easy2RememberNick ( 179395 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @12:52PM (#14374570)
    Cracking down of pornography, wiretapping its own citizens' communications without a warrant.

      Wait a minute! Where have I heard the same thing recently?

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @01:15PM (#14374674)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I seem to remember that what I'd generally call "sex control" was/is a big deal in communist countries.

    Is it a function of the general social tilt of the culture (eg, Russian, Chinese, etc) or is there something about totalitarian communism that's anti-sex?

    A met a couple of people from behind the then-iron curtain when I was in college in the 1980s and the impression they gave me was that the general social culture was very accepting of promiscuity and pretty open sexually despite porn being strictly black-
    • To answer your question, my belief is that these values are cultural norms that are being taken to the extreme by a totalitarian government. The alternatives you gave are not necessarily alternatives, but two things that work together.

      Speaking as a marxist as well as someone who has studied some of the various ideologies behind communist movements (marxist leninism, maoism, etc), there is nothing specifically wrong about sexuality. What it comes down to is how you and your culture feels about it, and it

  • Finally... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Aragorn DeLunar ( 311860 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @01:45PM (#14374776)
    Someone thought of the kittens!

  • Hey China! (Score:3, Funny)

    by merc ( 115854 ) <slashdot@upt.org> on Sunday January 01, 2006 @03:35PM (#14375254) Homepage
    Do you have an e-mail address where I can report porno spammers being hosted in China?

  • Where's the outrage? (Score:4, Funny)

    by prisoner-of-enigma ( 535770 ) on Sunday January 01, 2006 @06:45PM (#14375935) Homepage
    As I sit here, the comment count is only at 212. Come on folks, where's the outrage? The righteous indignation of people being oppressed?

    One this is for sure: if this article were about the United States clamping down, there'd be 900 comments thus far, with 899 of them calling the U.S. everything but Satan himself. But since it's China, nobody says (much of) anything. Just goes to prove once again that everybody's eager to call the U.S. the #1 enemy of...well, just about everything, but when real oppression happens outside U.S. borders, they're given a free pass.

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