Chinese Social Websites Go Under "Maintenance" 84
Shastri writes "After blocking several prominent social websites like Twitter, Youtube ahead of Tiananmen anniversary, by the great firewall of China, some popular social sites in China have also gone under 'maintenance'. While it is anybody's guess as to whether these events are related or purely coincidental, the announced maintenance come mostly unscheduled and last for several days might give a hint. A spreadsheet (in Chinese) is being maintained enumerating the sites that have gone down for a maintenance."
Obviously... (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't want any organised protests.
Solidarity? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maintenance of... (Score:1, Insightful)
the Communist state and political ideology. Noone could seriously think that the Communist party would not use any available tool to keep power.
Re:Obviously... (Score:2, Insightful)
Facebook is good for organising a rickroll, but probably not ideal for revolution.
stop doing business (Score:0, Insightful)
If the rest of the world stops doing business with China (who slaughter their own people and suppress political freedom) and the USA (who slaughters other nations' people and kills and tortures civilians) then these nations will wither and be unable to continue their courses of action.
It is up to the world to cut them off until their behaviour has become more acceptable by international norms. But I suppose the allure of those cheap Chinese goods and Hollywood films is worth more than people's lives, so that will never happen.
Re:stop doing business (Score:1, Insightful)
If the rest of the world stops doing business with China (who slaughter their own people and suppress political freedom) and the USA (who slaughters other nations' people and kills and tortures civilians) then these nations will wither and be unable to continue their courses of action.
It sounds good, but forbidding trade hasn't brought down the governments of North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Syria, Libya, or Iran, so why we should think it would work against China?
Re:Interesting what happens (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, going bankrupt is what brought the wall down.
Re:Obviously... (Score:3, Insightful)
Outside of theory, nothing is ideal for anything. Use what you've got.
Re:Parallels to the US (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is more like a silent protest (Score:1, Insightful)
Only on slashdot does chinese censorship remind you of just how evil the USA is.
You are confusing facts with attitudes. (Score:4, Insightful)
Your mistake here is thinking that these "middle class" Chinese people are not aware of Tiananmen/June 04. Indeed they all know about it, and are still supportive of the government's action. These people are voluntarily chosing to supress dissent and bring down their own blogs to support their government. They are being "patriotic" and that is the attitude, which you have to work to change.
The whole thing is kind of similar to the Iraq War issue over here. My liberal friends think that none of the war supporters are aware of the "Missing WMDs" and related issues. They brandish these as some kind of a trump card, thinking that the moment they mention "missing WMD," any supporter will change their mind. Of course that never actually happens as the other side sees these facts as no big deal. We all agree on the facts, it's just that we disagree on their meaning and context. (Another example: Clinton blowjob/impeachment. We all got the same facts, yet there is a wide disagreement about their significance.)
Or consider forced abortions in China. While injecting formaldehyde into a fetus is highly objectionable to most people in the West, a typical Chinese person will find it a "regrettable" yet appropriate means for population control. They would tell you that the parents were to blame for an unauthorized conception, and the abortion was needed to maintain peace, prosperity, equality, whatever. You need to help the Chinese place knowledge into its proper context, not simply "add it to every message."