Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
October 8, 2010
August 6, 2008
The Political Games
Gold medalist (speedskater) and Darfur activist Joey Cheek has been banned from entering China for the games. The Chinese can't help being the heavy-handed authoritarians that they really are.
July 30, 2008
Political gymnastics
Read King Kaufman's take on China, Olympics, and the dread "Politics." Nothing is above politics. Certainly not the Olympics.
June 30, 2008
Case in Point
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
JFK
Case in point. Sometimes its the intimate injustice that burns brighter than the whole corrupt system. No to say that in a democracy horrible crimes or that an ass of a official don't try and cover stuff up. But democracy has systems and institutions, such as a free press, in place that allow this kind of thing to get dealt with. In ways short of burning down the local police station.
JFK
Case in point. Sometimes its the intimate injustice that burns brighter than the whole corrupt system. No to say that in a democracy horrible crimes or that an ass of a official don't try and cover stuff up. But democracy has systems and institutions, such as a free press, in place that allow this kind of thing to get dealt with. In ways short of burning down the local police station.
April 14, 2008
Hack the System
Here's something Truly Awesome. I came across doing some random China googling. Go read. Its the (translated) story of a attempt to slip pass the Chinese state security system. The wife and baby of Hu Jia, a Chinese AIDS activist now in prison, is under house arrest in a housing complex with the perfectly Orwellian name of BOBO Freedom City. What follows is a commando-style attempt to deliver milk powder for the baby. Now, clearly the author has played way too many computer games, and narrates his story like its an action movie that plays only in his own head. I totally approve. A certain detachment from reality is necessary if you're going to poke your finger in the eye of the Chinese Secret police and not piss yourself. So go read the story and read Rebecca MacKinnon for more information.
June 30, 2006
Next
It now appears that we were getting worked up over that North Korean missile test for nothing. Instead let us hype the China Threat.
June 15, 2005
Banned In China
This is a bothersome story. Not so much that China is censoring. A duck has to fly, fish got to swim, and oppressive dictatorships have to oppress. It's that Microsoft is actively helping the Chinese government in this censorship:
Microsoft Corp.'s new MSN China Internet venture is censoring words such as freedom, democracy and human rights on its free online journals, Microsoft said yesterday, putting itself in the middle of a major Web controversy.
The company said that its MSN Spaces service in China, which allows users to set up their own Web blogs, is acting in accordance with local laws. "MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates," said Brooke Richardson, MSN lead product manager.
The move comes as the Chinese government is attempting to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based Web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, Reporters without Borders said, citing Chinese figures.
What good does the internet do to fight oppression if the fricken internet providers are lining up to help the oppressive regime. So China is literally banning the "democracy." I eagerly await action from the Bush administration. In the meantime lets get this blog banned in China!
Free Tibet!
Independence for Taiwan!
Democracy in China!
Are we banned yet?
Microsoft Corp.'s new MSN China Internet venture is censoring words such as freedom, democracy and human rights on its free online journals, Microsoft said yesterday, putting itself in the middle of a major Web controversy.
The company said that its MSN Spaces service in China, which allows users to set up their own Web blogs, is acting in accordance with local laws. "MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates," said Brooke Richardson, MSN lead product manager.
The move comes as the Chinese government is attempting to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based Web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, Reporters without Borders said, citing Chinese figures.
What good does the internet do to fight oppression if the fricken internet providers are lining up to help the oppressive regime. So China is literally banning the "democracy." I eagerly await action from the Bush administration. In the meantime lets get this blog banned in China!
Free Tibet!
Independence for Taiwan!
Democracy in China!
Are we banned yet?
January 27, 2005
Bastards
Rulers of China: Not good people.
China has detained dozens of people, some of whom have been severely beaten, for trying to mark the death of former leader Zhao Ziyang, witnesses said.
The allegations came as the government intensified security to prevent mourners attending Saturday's funeral in Beijing for Zhao, the former Communist Party secretary general purged for opposing the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen democracy movement.
At least three people, including a woman in her 70s, were punched and manhandled by police officers outside the government offices which receive complaints in the Chinese capital, witnesses said.
China has detained dozens of people, some of whom have been severely beaten, for trying to mark the death of former leader Zhao Ziyang, witnesses said.
The allegations came as the government intensified security to prevent mourners attending Saturday's funeral in Beijing for Zhao, the former Communist Party secretary general purged for opposing the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen democracy movement.
At least three people, including a woman in her 70s, were punched and manhandled by police officers outside the government offices which receive complaints in the Chinese capital, witnesses said.
January 16, 2005
Hero
A Hero died today. Learn a little about him:
Zhao sealed his fate with an act of courage unseen among China's totalitarian leaders before or since—he broke ranks. He alone sacrificed his career, and his freedom, when he sided with the students and tried to prevent the bloodshed that came on June 4, 1989. In the words of leadership at the time, "Comrade Zhao Ziyang committed the serious mistake of supporting the turmoil and splitting the Party." Despite the changes that have swept China in the past 15 years, that remains the official verdict on Zhao. It is also the Party's most vulnerable point. Any reformist contender for power could at any time propose clearing Zhao's name. Doing so would likely divide the CCP between closet reformers who agree with Zhao's ideas and the rest who fear that democracy will mean the Party's collapse. For China's current, conservative leaders, Zhao may be more dangerous in death than he was in life.
His name is Zhao Ziyang. Learn. Then help.
Zhao sealed his fate with an act of courage unseen among China's totalitarian leaders before or since—he broke ranks. He alone sacrificed his career, and his freedom, when he sided with the students and tried to prevent the bloodshed that came on June 4, 1989. In the words of leadership at the time, "Comrade Zhao Ziyang committed the serious mistake of supporting the turmoil and splitting the Party." Despite the changes that have swept China in the past 15 years, that remains the official verdict on Zhao. It is also the Party's most vulnerable point. Any reformist contender for power could at any time propose clearing Zhao's name. Doing so would likely divide the CCP between closet reformers who agree with Zhao's ideas and the rest who fear that democracy will mean the Party's collapse. For China's current, conservative leaders, Zhao may be more dangerous in death than he was in life.
His name is Zhao Ziyang. Learn. Then help.
May 29, 2004
Rewriting History Games
The thing about rewriting history is that you have to get it anywhere it appears. China has censored a game I've played on PC called Hearts of Iron. It's a World War 2 grand strategy games. China pulled it because it showed (historically) that Tibet, Manchuria and Xinjiang as independent nations, as well as Taiwan as occupied by Japan during WW2. The Chinese government said that the game was "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty." Keep in mind the game is historically accurate. I guess China in trying to get a claim on Tibet and Taiwan has rewritten history so that they were always part of China. You can get all the textbooks, but can you get everything? It boogles the mind.
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