Chinese Force Mass Closure Of Net Cafes 497
Chien Andalusia writes "According to this article from the BBC, the Chinese authorities closed 12,575 net cafes towards the end of 2004. Due to the expense of computer hardware, net cafés have become very popular in China in recent years. The laws governing such cafés are very strict, especially in relation to minimising the amount of exposure children can get to the internet. For example, no net café is allowed to open within 200 metres of a middle or elementary school. The article also briefly discusses other restrictions imposed on Chinese net cafés."
No Spam (Score:1, Interesting)
Hooray. Less spam.
Reading my mailserver logs, it seems the only thing the Chinese use the Internet for is spam, spam, spam.
Re:Sigh, Freedom of speech out the window (Score:5, Interesting)
Nothing about " Freedom of speech out the window" (Score:2, Interesting)
If there would be "speech" during the course, its just someone looking for ONS, instead of the "POLITICAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH". Most adult will use their own computers at home instead of the dirty, ugly public "internet cafe".
This action helps to keep the kids a little bit away the computers and do some real physical pratices.
Secondly, this also helps to crack down the pirate softwares across those so called "internet cafe".
Just to clarify, in term of internet connection, there is no difference from home or from "internet cafe". They all go to the same gateway which prevents anyone from accessing "unauthorised contents".
BTW, 99% of the "Internet cafe" in China has no cafe!
Re:The Censorship Technology Is Good If Used Prope (Score:3, Interesting)
Like in Indiana (Score:3, Interesting)
That's kinda like in Indiana how there is a law that says you can't sell alcohol within 150 feet of a church.
I worked at a grocery store once that couldn't sell it because of that silly law.
China Prohibits Freedom! (Score:4, Interesting)
Because we love freedom!
China (Score:2, Interesting)
I truly believe that education is the silver bullet, that information and communication are what will lift the human race to heights undreamed of. I just think there's something a little deserving of pause about saying "culture of compliance, family, and subservience? Pssh, here, let's give them SSH and proxies and do our best to overturn all controls and make their internet develop like ours, and with a mouse-click, throw down a government we think isn't handling stuff right. It's not that we shouldn't change things we feel are wrong, it's that we should be aware we're dealing with a whole different culture than what most of us are used to, and that culture isn't necessarially just going to morph into the 'standard' one if handed the tools.
I'm not an expert on China; I don't even have a strong opinion on what anyone should do about this kind of thing. I just think it's good to pause now and then and think about what we're doing.
Thinking of the children (Score:5, Interesting)
The main causes given for the closures is locating a Cybercafé right next to a school and allowing minors free access to pornography. What chance do you think a Cybercafé would have to continue trading in the EU, US etc. if it was found to be a magnet for truants and/or providing unfettered access to pornography to minors? They also restrict violent games to certain age groups, which is different to the age requirements we have on our computer game boxes, how exactly? Doom 3 is rated "18" in the UK for example, and companies can be prosecuted for breaking that restriction and selling the game to a minor. The same goes for logging all outbound access - you'd be insane not to log everything if you were running a Cybercafé in the event someone launched a cracking attempt from your premises.
OK, I do have concerns that these logs are going to be "auditted" by the Chinese government for what they might see as subversive elements, disloyal behaviour or whatever. The censorship of free access to information, even if it *is* pornography, should not be blocked - immoral and illegal should not automatically be the same thing. Still, at least the Chinese appear to understand that restricting Internet content is an internal matter and are making an effort to deal with it themselves instead of trying to ram their legislation down the throats of other nations. Now if only they would let their people have a larger say in what was and was not permitted...
How knowing you all are... (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't you think the Chinese government already know that they can't keep easily accessible information away from people? These people are clever - they are after all bringing China forward, from being a backward and poor country to now being poised to overtake USA, EU, Russia and Japan economically, scientifically and politically.
So why not try to think up something better than just repeating the usual drivel? Could it not be that these net-cafes are actually something that ought to be closed down? I mean, one thing is that about 99% of what you find on the Internet is worthless rubbish, but have you ever been in an average, Chinese internet cafe? I have - they are mostly small, cramped, filthy rooms where no attention has been paid to a basic thing as firesafety, not to mention that you can also very easily get much too close to the criminal environment; and Chinese gangs are not something that it is wise to get involved with at all.
No, in my opinion this is a good move, and one that most Chinese parents are probably happy with.
Re:Not as bad as you may first think... (Score:2, Interesting)
I was in Beijing last summer, and the one thing that struck me was how our American media promotes an image of an evil tyranny in China.
Yeah, at least if you consider Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to be "American media".
Some Christian pastors affiliated with my church are currently being tortured over there for talking about Christianity. Maybe that's not evil to you, or a necessary freedom, but most of us think it's a basic right.
Re:Not as bad as you may first think... (Score:2, Interesting)
Downplaying a freedom as "not important to the rest of the world" could be a great way to keep a populace pacified about not having it.
Not saying that's necessarily the case, but it's a thought.
Re:Yay communism (Score:1, Interesting)
Obviously non-communists states are also capable of being authoritarian/totalitarian. Though democracies/republics by definition are not totalitarian.
Did the right thing (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't prototype, not every move is political motivated.
Think of the children (Score:2, Interesting)
But for some reason, I keep thinking there is a more insidious reason for this rule. The internet, by and large, is the ultimate expression of free speech and thought. It's the best place to get info of different ways of thinking. You wouldn't want to expose the mass populous to alternate ways of thinking until you've made sure that you've properly indoctrinated them.
I doubt most of this article (Score:2, Interesting)
The internet cafes were cheap (around $1 for 4-8 hours) and usually a bit dirty. I was blocked from no site except the San Jose Mercury News, and the site was back online in China the next time I checked. It was not the "Great Fire Wall of China" in action. There have got to be more than 100,000 internet cafes. They're on many, many street corners. Some are built with sleeping quarters attached. Maybe there are 100,000 registered internet cafes, but who really registers anything in China?
I am sure many who live in English speaking countries read these things imagine laws might be followed and enfoced like they are in the UK and US. Strict laws require some enforcement. From what I saw and heard and contrary to what I read from the Chinese press, there was hardly a hint of control over the millions of teenagers online.
If Chinese people are kept in the dark, it seems only to be about their own country (about SARS, e.g.). They often know many details about the U.S., including sports scores, movies and news.
Re:Sigh, Freedom of speech out the window (Score:3, Interesting)
I just wish there was a way to "un-program" them. Of course, from their point of view, this would be "capatalist brainwashing". I'd like to think that we're on the right side of things.. but how can we know ?
Re:Sigh, Freedom of speech out the window (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, it's misguided to imagine that people starving in North Korea, say, or jailed for political dissidence in Zimbabwe, are doing so voluntarily, out of love of their governments.
Interesting topic.
Re:Sigh, Freedom of speech out the window (Score:3, Interesting)
Bad example.
Hitler was an extreme Leftist.
Mussolini would be the one that you're looking for, he was an extreme Rightist (pretty damn close to the same degree as the current American administration).
Apart from the whole holocaust thing ( which I'm not belittling, it just isn't relevant to the left/right distinction ) there really isn't much of a difference between the two which should be a warning to everybody about the dangers of extemists of whatever ilk.
Re:Sigh, Freedom of speech out the window (Score:5, Interesting)
The point is acknowledged that Chomsky is far from "centrist", extremely so in fact.
To see a book written by Mr. Chomsky come to the conclusion that capitalism is bad, wealth and thatpower must be "evenly distributed" is about as surprising as hearing water is wet.
Please note that the views about Power/money/influence beginning with As far as I can tell, the nature of Power... are my own. If Mr. Chomsky has expressed similar views then I applaud him for reaching similar conclusions in his own inquiries into the state of the world.
Nowhere in my reading of Manufacturing Consent (MC) did I see any any anti-capitalist references. The only place MC comments on "even distribution of power" (that I noticed) is in discussing the 1984 elections in Guatemala. Chomsky and Herman question how meaningful elections could be in a state where power is concentrated in the hands of an authoritarian junta that has just executed or "disappeared" most of the journalists, political rivals, and judiciary in the country. I have not read any of Chomsky's other writings, so I cannot speak on them.
Nice sig: So let me ask you: are you more proud of your ignorance or your bias?
The question implies that ignorance and bias go together and encourages the reader to fix the bias by fixing the ignorance. I heartily agree with this viewpoint, which is part of why I found reading MC so interesting, even IF the the author's positions are in some way as baseless as those of Limbaugh. The important thing is to gather one's information from a variety of independent sources (including direct observation where possible) so that one can make informed opinions and choices about the world.
Though Rush pushes this limit, I do not believe that anyone can lie and misrepresent in everything that they say. Included in the deception are little scraps of truth buried in page B17, Appendix 25, or in what things one observes at events first hand, but are not said by others reporting on the event or using that event to push their agenda.
Your post induced me to read up on Mr. Chomsky as I didn't know much about the man or his views aside from reading one of his books. Wikipedia has a very in-depth article [wikipedia.org] that discusses many points of view on the man and the cult of personality surrounding him. As with everything, somewhere amongst the words of critics and of followers lie small truths. That he (or any other person) is a lier and propagandist or an insightful thinker that cares more about ideals than opinion is something one must discover for one's self and is not something just to take a single source's word for.
More thoughts on capitalism, wealth, and power:
As they are by definition made up by more than one person, all societies are by definition compromises between the desires of their members. Various societies try to balance these desires by employing various economic systems. In a [completely fictional] utopia all people would be able to have anything that they want and never have to deal with fulfilling desires of others that conflict with their own. As the world is finite conflicts do arise and economic systems are employed to work these conflicts out. The general hope (I believe) is that the chosen economic system will provide a basis for supporting the other ideals of a society; be they listed in the US Bill of Rights or others such as a right to education, a right to health care, or a right to choose to garden in the nude. What ever they are, these ideals of a society provide the framework for discourse and function within it.
I have no problem with laizes-faire capitalism, regulated capitalism, socialism, communism, or any other economic system as long as the chosen one[s] allows the ideals of my society to flourish internally. The problem I have is
Re:China remains an Evil Empire (Score:3, Interesting)
France is not the beacon of anyone. The left fails to hate France, simply refraining from jingoist sentiments spewed by neoconservatives. IF you wish to call that admiration, by all means do so, you are obviously a partisan ass to begin with.
Re:China remains an Evil Empire (Score:3, Interesting)
Case in point. There are at least eight million people in New York City. Did most of them report to work? Did offices and stores close because everyone was going to be out protesting in the streets? No. You are making idiotic assumptions because thousands or tens of thousands of people expressed themselves democractically. That is still an insignificant fraction of the population, especially if you consider how many of those protestors were not from New York.
88% of the French (according to the latest poll) dislike our president.
Around half of the American population doesn't like him either. Perhaps this explains your "resentment" for "the Left"? You claim that your feelings are justified, after all.
Talking to a Left-leaning person, France will come up as one of the "successfull" alternative models of society.
Canada is quite similiar, i.e. a democracy with socialist leanings. But hey, Canada was not chosen as a target by the Right, so no complaint over their form of government or dislike of Bush. Just France, they who dared to stand in the way of American will.
Oh, and you must not have been in New York when the Chinese Premiere was in the Waldorf-Astoria for a few days. Probably did not see the massive protests on Park Avenue that ran day and night (I worked nearby, I saw it firsthand). He lived in luxury, meeting US officials for exquisite lunches. Our government drooled over the chance to rake in billions over increased trade with China.....but oh those evil French, looking to make money in a similar fashion! EVIL!
a much more evil (here we agree, I hope) Chinese leader.
If you are still paying attention, which leader in all of China's history would you consider good? Bet you can't come up with one, because you dont know a damn thing about the nature of their society. Prove me wrong, if you will.