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Censorship The Internet

Blogging Sweeps China 122

Posted by michael from the they-can-have-dave-winer-if-they-like dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Dissident astro-physicist, Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley, interviews Isaac Mao, founder of CNBlog for New Scientist. Asked what is his strategy to expand blogging under China's censorship regime, Mao's response is typically Taoist: 'What is our strategy? We do not have a strategy. But the information flow in the blogosphere has its own Way. The Way is our strategy: personal, fast, connected and networked.'"
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Blogging Sweeps China More

Blogging Sweeps China

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  • China is one of those funny places where they really crack down on the incoming news. Taking a look at some of their latest news, it's hard to reconcile the rosy glow that they have in regards to their country with the actual happenings of their military overseas (submarine in Japanese waters) and communist neighbors (not a word about the imminent overthrow of Kim Jong Illmatic).

    On the other hand, unlike many Western countries *cough cough* that send the secret police to "visit" people who wish to express

    • Oh, really? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:43AM (#10930407)
      You say: China allows its dissidents a full voice.

      http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1964

      Tiananmen dissident tortured to the point of becoming psychotic. He splattered paint on Mao Zedong's portrait.
      Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) - An imprisoned Chinese dissident has become psychotic as a result of the torture inflicted upon him, one of the man's friend told Free Asia after fleeing China.

      Yu Dongyue is a former newspaper editor who was arrested during the Tiananmen protests and sentenced to life for "counter-revolutionary propaganda": he had defaced Mao's portrait by splattering it with paint.

      In 2001 Lu Decheng, another dissident, who was jailed for years but released early, saw Yu in Hunan No1 Prison. "He was almost unrecognisable," Mr Lu said who recently escaped the mainland in a perilous three-month journey. "He had a totally dull look in his eyes, and he kept repeating words over and over again as if he were chanting a mantra. He didn't recognise anyone."

      "There was a big scar on the right side of his head. I asked his mother if Yu had ever received a head injury, but she said he never had."

      Mr Lu said that another inmate at the prison told him that Yu had been tied to a power pole and left in the sun for several days.

      "After that, they locked him in solitary confinement for two years and that's when he got like that," Mr Lu stressed. "He has been tortured to the point of psychosis."

      Officials at the Hunan No1 Prison were not available for comment.

      Yu Dongyue, Lu Decheng and Yu Zhijian were school friends from Hunan province and had been active in the pro-democracy movement before travelling to Beijing in May 1989 to join thousands of demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.

      As a result of his involvement, Mr Lu said, his house was demolished, his wife threatened to the point that the authorities forced her to divorce him, and his minibus confiscated, depriving him of the means to earn a living.

      Phone tapping, mail interception and surveillance became a regular part of his life, he added.

      Speaking from an undisclosed location, he said he fled so that he could tell Yu's story. He did not reveal any details about his escape.

    • Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I think you're getting it mixed up

      Komintang = Taiwan

      Communists (if you can still call them that) = China = Gong Zharn Dong (rough translation)

    • On the other hand, unlike many Western countries *cough cough* that send the secret police to "visit" people who wish to express an unpopular opinion,...

      Er, examples?

      I'm not calling BS, but it would be nice to know if you've got examples of "many" Western countries sending "secret police" to "visit" those who only "wish" to express unpopular opinions.
    • They of course drown out the voices with their own party-led voices proclaiming the benefits of the Komintang .

      You're thinking of China(1), not China(2).

      1. China, Republic of
      2. China, People's Republic of

    • You have to be fucking kidding. Unless you ARE the chinese government-run news agency(who must have recently recruited the Iraqi Information Minister), you have been living under a rock for a couple decades...

      Free speech? Bullshit. It isn't even that they have transparent censorship. They have downright oppression. Everyone breathing should know this by now.

      Isn't this the same government that ran over students protesting with a tank. A TANK.

      America has, in my opinion, a rediculously poor record for our f

  • Blogs (Score:4, Funny)

    by Claire-plus-plus ( 786407 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:07AM (#10930320) Journal
    The sound of one hand blogging

  • Reminds me.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by modifried ( 605582 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:08AM (#10930321) Homepage
    .. of a Douglas Adams quote:

    He believed in a door. He must find that door. The door was the way to... to...
    The Door was The Way.
    Good.
    Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.

  • What the hell? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by downbad ( 793562 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:15AM (#10930337)
    What is our strategy? We do not have a strategy.

    ...
    The Way is our strategy: personal, fast, connected and networked.
    Right.

  • Sounds (Score:5, Funny)

    by fozzmeister ( 160968 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:24AM (#10930351) Homepage
    Sounds like an IBM ad!

  • Excellent... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:25AM (#10930355) Journal
    Tomorrows news.

    China blocks all blog sites.

  • Astounding (Score:5, Funny)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:28AM (#10930364)
    China's bloggers look like they may actually be even more pretentious and boring than their western counterparts. I didn't think it possible.

    TWW

    • Yeah, that Tao quote is as pretentious as it gets. Of course there are plans and strategies, but speaking like a character out of an RPG game makes for much better media soundbites.
    • Hey, now. Give us a chance. This whole interweb is still catching on in some of our best parts like the deep south and the plain states. Couple more months, and we'll show YOU who is the most arrogant, pretentious, ill-informed isolationists on the planet. We can do better, we PROMISE. Maybe more websites about our pet cats?

      Sincerererely,
      America's Web Commubity
  • "The Way is our strategy: personal, fast, connected and networked.'"

    I think they forgot "...and censored, too."

  • Sex (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Claire-plus-plus ( 786407 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:31AM (#10930375) Journal
    It is interesting that once again sex became the big reason many people have jumped on to a new technology. As that article said, blogging got a big boost from a sex blog, the sex increased visibility for the blog server and introduced many new users to blogging. It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice.

    • Re:Sex (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why?

      Sex is THE fundamental drive of all life on earth. Why would it surprise you to find it at the top of most human agendas?

    • Re:Sex (Score:2, Funny)

      by SPBesui ( 687868 )
      I've heard that Godiva Chocolate is better than sex. Maybe you could try that.
    • While I also wish there were more intellectual pursuits that brought people together in this manner, I think that it's more a means. The manner they are gratifying their carnal desires seem to at least not be destructive and hopefully once they are taking part in this communication medium, they will be able to pursue avenues of deeper thought. :)

    • "It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice."

      uh... better than sex? *scratches head*

  • Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aggles ( 775392 ) * on Saturday November 27, 2004 @08:49AM (#10930424)
    Good for the Chinese. Courage to communicate in spite of government's attitude is a positive sign from a country coming out of the dark ages. Now, how about some Iraqi blogs? For all the funds being pumped in there, one would think the Iraqis would have something to say. I'm tired of hearing everything about what is really happening there, third hand. Just so they use a language that can be translated by services such as http://www.worldlingo.com/

    • Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Regarding the Iraqis, I think they're a little too busy keeping themselves from dying of starvation, thirst and heatstroke (You do know that their electrical system still isn't stable?)

      Once the citizen's life in Iraq becomes relatively stable, and they are able to find jobs, and they can get their kids back in school again, I'm sure there will be some people who will blog. But right now, the place is a veritable hellhole, and we're not going to be seeing anything on the web anytime soon.

      BTW There was a

    • Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:5, Informative)

      by G-Man ( 79561 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @10:45AM (#10930985)
      How about just Googling 'Iraqi blogs'? Too general for you? Try 'Healing Iraq', 'Iraq the Model', 'Riverbend', 'Salam Pax'.

      No, I'm not giving you the URLs. Do at least a little work. Sheesh. These people have been blogging for over a year and a half - Salam Pax was blogging when Saddam was still in power. Sorry if I come across as caustic, but your question and the response by the ACs above show that people haven't made the merest attempt to find out for themselves. Anyone who really cared could find Iraqi blogs over a year ago.
      • Don't blame him; there's just not enough information about these blogs in mainstream media sources -- and in spite of how long the internet has been available, most of us still get most of our information from mainstream sources. I was at a panel about blogging and the war on terrorism at an academic conference and there was one panelist writing about the "dear_raed" blog. He had interesting things to say about it, but he basically seemed to think that Pax was the only Iraqi blogger and that he stopped in

  • The Tao of business (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wish I could get away with that philosophy in business ...

    Venture Capitalists: So, tell us, why should we give you seed money? What's your detailed corporate strategy?
    Me: We don't have a strategy. The company has its own Way. The Way is our strategy.
    Venture Capitalists: Well, fair enough. Sounds good to us! Here's $300 million.

    Somehow I'm a little skeptical of the "meh, it'll all work out by itself in the end" style of planning ...

    • because you haven't been raised to see that when you do not put your own expectations on things, and just do them, you see the best ways to do things easier. Their strategy is to do and adapt to what is instead of planning for what they expect and having it fall to shit when things happen they didn't expect, like you often see in day to day life here in the West.

      There are ups and downs to both approaches. But they do both work, in their way.
    • Actually, the Art of War was huge in 80s on Wall Street for business and investment strategy.

      Somehow I'm a little skeptical of the "meh, it'll all work out by itself in the end" style of planning ...

      That's what happens when you make straw men. One of the metaphors that is used in the book to describe the method is "rolling a boulder down a hill." What this means is employing a minimum of effort by making use of the natural features of your environment. Designing strategies that ignore or flaunt those fe

  • Great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @10:04AM (#10930765) Homepage
    Blogging Sweeps China

    Great that those bloggers are lending a hand! With the economic expansion and lack of time and all, the dust has really been piling up in the corners lately.
  • ...of the current government in China. It'll one day, not to long from now, end with political protest, but the government will be virtually dead by then due to the internet.

  • Coming Soon.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by inkdesign ( 7389 ) on Saturday November 27, 2004 @11:23AM (#10931194)
    Chinese Blogger Executed After Testicle Electrocution.
  • There are a lot of cats in China.

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