China Lifts Bans On Social Media, Foreign ISPs In Free Trade Zone 55
hackingbear writes "Beijing has made the landmark decision to lift a ban on internet access within the Shanghai Free-trade Zone to foreign websites considered politically sensitive by the Chinese government, including Facebook, Twitter and newspaper website The New York Times. The new free trade zone would also welcome bids from foreign telecommunications companies for licenses to provide internet services within the new special economic zone to compete with the state-owned China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom; the big three telcos didn't raise complaints as they knew it was a decision endorsed by top Chinese leaders including Premier Li Keqiang, who is keen to make the free-trade zone a key proving ground for significant financial and economic reforms, the sources added. The decision to lift the bans, for now, only applies to the Zone and not elsewhere in China. 'In order to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone, we must think about how we can make them feel like at home. If they can't get onto Facebook or read The New York Times, they may naturally wonder how special the free-trade zone is compared with the rest of China,' said one of the government sources who declined to be named due to the highly sensitive nature of the matter."
Good job, Beijing (Score:2)
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It's a start. And I am happy for it.
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This.
Are they taking notes? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Well, to be fair, the US you can visit any website you want. Unless it's gambling. Or "promotes terrorism". But you know, other than the things that are illegal, everything is legal!
Re:Competition (Score:4, Insightful)
You can visit those too (Score:2)
Umm, landmark? (Score:5, Interesting)
If anything, this looks like another aspect of China's gradual evolution toward a 'repress smarter, not harder' theory of censorship, where they've gradually relaxed assorted easy-but-grating blanket bans as their technology and techniques have allowed them to get the results they want without as many (upsetting for the user) overt and visible exercises of state power. The most effective controls are the ones you never even notice.
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It's not good, but it's still better.
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Consider the analogy of price discrimination:
If you have to set a single price for a good that you are selling, you will be forced to lose customers on the low end(because they can't afford it), lose money on the high end(because they'd pay ten times as much; but don't have to) or su
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And if foreigners use a VPN to access information, you lose all snooping ability. If their connection is not blocked, they will most likely not bother to use a VPN, allowing you to get information on how often they chat with friends, watch cats on Youtube and visit sensitive websites.
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Re:Such a landmark decision (Score:5, Interesting)
Life expectancy doubled 1949-1985
Food poverty fell from 270m in 1948 to 100m in 1985 to almost 0 today
Rural real standard of living per capita has been rising 6.7% per annum. In urban areas 5.5%
Clothing styles have changed as now everyone has adequate clothing for a generation and fashion drives consumer choice
Square feet of living area per person is up about 50% and the quality of housing is much higher
Education in the urban areas is readily available and in rural areas is now often readily available. As contrasted with a few generations ago where education was hard to get.
Why shouldn't the Chinese people think their government has their best interest at heart? They are seeing everyday evidence of their government working to make their lives better. As contrasted with the US where the government has pursued a stagnant wage policy for over a generation.
Re: Such a landmark decision (Score:1)
And we'll just skip over the "let 100 flowers blossom" of the cultural revolution...
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Funny thing is, on Solidot [solidot.org], GP anon would be rated 5, and jbolden would be rated -1.
The common sentiment on Chinese social media would also corroborate those ratings.
A little comparing your own underbelly with other's best faces, plus some cultural ignorance, and you get comedy like this on both sides of the ocean.
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That may be true. I'll plead guilty to ignorance. But what do you think is a more fair description?
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>Why shouldn't the Chinese people think their government has their best interest at heart? They are seeing everyday evidence of their government working to make their lives better. As contrasted with the US where the government has pursued a stagnant wage policy for over a generation.
Because people still get poisoned and sometimes die when some food manufacturer puts adulterants in the product to save money. Just last week I found an article about how all kinds of meats that would be considered undesirable in the USA were being faked into being "beef". There's also the fact that the government is pretty darn corrupt at all levels and rule of law and property rights aren't respected. There's the fact that for the first time Communist Party leaders are becoming rich and their children
Re:Exactly (Score:1)
Took a trip to Shenzhen a few years back.. (Score:1)
I was over there on a business trip, and stayed at one of the top hotels in town. Not sure how they arranged it, but I was able to get to all the sites that I'm told are blocked by the "Great Firewall". Didn't have to bother opening a VPN tunnel back to my office.
This hotel was part of a famous multi-national chain. Not sure if a Chinese hotel in the same price range would have the same ability.
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I've never been refused a stay at any Chinese hotel, but some obviously cater to foreigners, and some obviously do not.
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As a foreigner you are only allowed to stay in certain hotels. Not sure if it has anything to do with allowing you unfettered internet access or to spy on everything you do while there. (maybe both) Just try to book a hotel that a normal Chinese person would stay in, you will find it almost impossible.
That was not my experience. I've stayed in nice hotels that cater to foreigners, and a number of crappy hotels (by American standards) that generally cater to locals. Neither was any more difficult to book (other than the language barrier at the small hotels that aren't used to foreigners). At any of the hotels, you just had to show your passport when you arrived. All the ones I stayed at (other than in Hong Kong) had sites blocked by the Great Firewall.
I will say that the nice hotels I stayed at were only
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That is patently false. I've never had a problem moving around China or staying anywhere I wanted, except during unrest.
kerning (Score:1)
China Unicorn. Does it fart rainbows?
Dangle the bait and find out who is biting (Score:2)
Just in Shanghai last week (Score:1)
We only need a few more companies to (Score:1)
Good Job China! (Score:1)
China already allows some of this (Score:3)
A lot of big, western companies — like mine — already provide our own internet infrastructure and have access to the internet at large. All of our employees are free to read the New York Times, American version of Google, or have FaceBook accounts. And if we don't mind going through the company servers for stuff at home, the company VPN works everywhere in China.
The point of this move in the FA, though, is that China will license private ISP's to provide this service to anyone or company in the free trade zones. *This* would be of great convenience, and I wish I were in this zone. I use China Telecom now and have 50 Mbs fiber service. It's fast as hell and dirt cheap (by American standards), but my connection slows to a crawl as soon as I start routing all of my traffic through a single, private VPN pipe to Germany or California or Sweden.