Porn Sites Pop Up In China 126
crimeandpunishment writes "It may only be a temporary glitch, but it's one that's providing some pleasure for Internet users in China. Previously blocked websites, including ones with pornography, are suddenly accessible in China. The country has a long history of cracking down on online pornography. One analyst says it's far more likely that this is a glitch, not a change in Internet censorship policy."
Change in policy, glitch, or... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a trap designed to let the government perform a high-profile sweep of "perverts".
Most porn isn't blocked (Score:5, Interesting)
not applicable to hotels? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was there two years ago. Spent time in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as Shenzhen and Shanghai (the last two being unequivocally mainland China). No problems at all accessing pr0n, I can tell you. But is that because I was at various ritzy hotels where the censorship rules don't apply equally?
Re:not applicable to hotels? (Score:2, Interesting)
Happy ending? you mean you get married and live happily ever after, right?
Re:Why is China blocking porn? (Score:3, Interesting)
Except that there is a "1 child" policy in most of China. So they should instead make porn legal, and hope people would have less real sex*.
*Based on the porn available in the western world, and the amount of sex people have, this does however not work :}
For the same reason everybody blocks porn. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."
- Orwell, 1984.
But that's just the root cause of all totalitarian ideologies. You're looking for the proximate cause, which is why this specific form of control is useful.
Fortunately, the fictional society in George Orwell's unintentional HOWTO also featured a "Junior Anti-Sex League", and it's there for the same reason that China features a ban on pr0n.
Totalitarians have known precisely what's wrong with unregulated sex, and they've known it - even if just instinctively - since before the written word.
"It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. ( ... ) There was a direct intimate connection between chastity and political orthodoxy. For how could the fear, the hatred, and the lunatic credulity with the Party needed in its members be kept at the right pitch, except by bottling down some powerful instinct and using it as a driving force? The sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party had turned it to account."
- Orwell, 1984.
Of course, it's not just the Chinese totalitarians who do this sort of thing. The United States is full of Republichristian fundamentalists to the point that the gay evangelist and toe-tapping Senator are practically cliches.
The Catholic priesthood is celibate - and when it says "Think of the children!", methinks it doth protest too much. But even without its legions of pedopriests, the Catholic Church's ban on contraception comes from the same place: control mating opportunities amongst the laity, and you can keep 'em in church -- because without sex, your gigantic cathedrals (which feature some of the most beautiful architecture/lighting/windows/artwork ever created, and giant mindblowing-reverberating pipe organs that still sound awesome centuries after their construction) were the closest thing a Dark Ages serf would ever get to experiencing ecstasy.
Meanwhile, the marital history of the guy who founded that other religion from the Middle East speaks for itself, and the resulting social policies, in which tribal leaders and rich dudes get four wives... well, with all the wives taken 4-at-a-time to the upper crust, that leaves the low-ranking tribesmen with nothing to look forward to but to strap bombs on themselves in order to hurry up and get their mojo on with those 72 virgins waitin' for 'em in the afterlife.
China's ban on pr0n is just a symptom of a much wider phenomenon that's practically universal amongst authoritarians. The goal isn't th ban pr0n, but the reason it is there is a very good one: it works.
Re:Why is China blocking porn? (Score:5, Interesting)
China does indeed block porn out due to moral concerns. Socialist morality is real and predates the people's revolution. I know tons of Chinese people and precisely two religious folk. It's funny, the most isolated (from the rest of China) and outward-facing city, Wenzhou, has more Christians than just about any other place I've seen. It's also funny that you can use Christians because they're so blinkeredly honest. A businessman friend of mine swears by (Chinese) Christian accountants. He would never anyone else for the position because Christians have this goofy moral code that says they shouldn't steal and lie like the rest of the population of China.
China did tear down temples and persecute monks relentlessly. The real Shaolin monastery was destroyed. Any temple you see has been rebuilt since the 80s. The Tibetans in particular suffered from atheist persecution when their theocratic state was conquered. The Falun Gong might be a crazy cult but they fulfilled a need, a great spiritual hunger that was going unsatisfied.
Disagreement is different from lack of knowledge. Calling somebody ignorant just because it disagrees with your worldview is wrong. Stop doing it.
Re:Why is China blocking porn? (Score:3, Interesting)
I stand by my claim that the poster is ignorant and made strong claims based on nothing more than erroneous presumptions. Exactly what part of my response do you disagree with? Everything you say fits very well:
1. You yourself claim that the stereotype about Christians among Chinese is positive, not negative.
2. "The rest of China" is predominantly religious, not atheist. Feel free to verify that fact yourself.
3. You point out various types of religious persecution that aren't against Christians at all. So using terms like "anti-Christian" is highly misleading.
4. Nice to drag Tibetans into this: it has to do with territorial and ethnic control and very little with religion. Then again, aren't all "religious fights" essentially political ones?
So no, I'm not going to stop doing "it".
Re:For the same reason everybody blocks porn. (Score:1, Interesting)
Meanwhile, the marital history of the guy who founded that other religion from the Middle East speaks for itself, and the resulting social policies, in which tribal leaders and rich dudes get four wives... well, with all the wives taken 4-at-a-time to the upper crust, that leaves the low-ranking tribesmen with nothing to look forward to but to strap bombs on themselves in order to hurry up and get their mojo on with those 72 virgins waitin' for 'em in the afterlife.
It might be useful to remember Abraham had 3 wives and the pre-existing culture, before these marriage customs were adopted, involved pre-arranged marriages where the children, especially young girls, were prevented from making their own choices. In the context of history, restricting a wealthy man to four wives was unheard of even in Christian Europe at the time that other religion from the Middle East was being adopted.
What the stories of Jesus and Mo really convey is a strategy for defining limits on tribal leaders...all the other stuff about keeping low-ranking tribesmen in line was already there. Including the promise of 72 virgins and afterlife, etc. The story of religious revolution in Mecca is very interesting in that one can interpret it as a violent or peaceful event depending on their conscious frame, but the story is not focused on the tribal leaders, except generally.
Individual people are given short shrift (intentionally, I think), unlike a fairy tale, whether part of the mob, forgiven, guilty or repenting. Mo just says, "That's okay, that's not okay," ostensibly referencing the sky-fairy manual in his head. It is statues and idols that get destroyed and a meteorite (at least theoretically) that replaces them in the sacred house of worship. All the other bits of revenge plots, flight through the desert without food, and nasty wars trace to this event, when these particular individual tribal leaders are told to shove it and reprimanded by a mob of unhappy low-ranking tribesmen.
I think it's a little presumptuous to assume a particular interpretation which has reached us today, that Mo took four wives as a tribal leader in the context of having gotten rid of the previous tribal leaders, implies exactly what you say it does. Or speaks for itself, as you say.
Re:Why is China blocking porn? (Score:3, Interesting)
Minor point, but a quick glance at the Wikipedia article shows that while all Judeo-Christian variants agree that there are Commandments that must be followed, and that there are 10 of them, they cannot seem to agree which Commandment is which. For instance, the Sixth Commandment is "thou shalt not kill" for Episcopalians, but "thou shalt not commit adultery" for Lutherans. If you mix and match denominations, you could obtain anywhere between 9 and 12 Commandments.