China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Internet freedom (18)

• Newly Created English Vocabulary with Chinese Characteristics

  

  The China Economy Observations blog has a list of created vocabulary works relevant to China that play on English words. For example:

  Freedamn 自由

  n. Once you think you can do what you want to do, you are also damned in Malegebi.
  一旦你以为自己可以想做什么就做什么，你在马勒戈壁也就玩完了。

  ie. Life is dear, love is dearer. Both can be given up; then all you have is freedamn.
  例 句：生命诚可贵，爱情价更高，二者均已抛，自由也未到。

  Shitizen P民

  n. a shitizen of a particular country like China is legally accepted as belonging to that country without any right of citizen.
  P民是在特定的国家，如中国，在法律上被认定属于这个国家但没有任何公民权利的“公民”。

  ie. “I’m a senior official as your mayor, and you are only a shitizen!”quote from a high-rank drunk Chinese official, Mr. Lin.

  » Read more
  • February 27, 2010 11:02 PM

• The Tensions that Define China’s Relationship with the West

  

  In the Guardian, Tania Branigan gives a primer on the key issues causing tension in relationships with Western countries, including Taiwan, Tibet, Iran, currency, human rights, and Internet censorship. For example:

  Tension 1 The Dalai Lama
  Meeting of Tibet’s spiritual leader with Obama is a passing irritant

  What’s the problem?
  China’s Foreign Ministry has urged Barack Obama to cancel his meeting with the Dalai Lama, in Washington on Thursday, warning it will damage Sino-US relations.
  View from the west
  Washington and Europe are anxious to highlight the cause of exiled Tibetans and concerns about human rights in the autonomous region, particularly since the unrest of 2008. Every US president for the past 20 years has met the exiled spiritual leader. Obama delayed their meeting because he wanted to visit China first. That led to accusations he was soft-pedalling.
  View from Beijing
  China accuses the Dalai Lama of heading separatist forces – he says he seeks only meaningful autonomy – and has taken a tough line on his meetings with heads of state, particularly since his high-profile 2007 visit to the US. In 2008 it cancelled an EU summit after learning that French president Nicolas Sarkozy was to meet him.

  Meanwhile, an article in the Observer looks at the worries that plague China’s leadership even as they exert growing influence on a number of issues around the globe:

  Analysts predict further tension, rather than a spectacular confrontation, between China and the west. Gao argues that the stakes are too high for both sides. “The decision-makers in this town are cautious, prudent people; not because they are afraid of the other side, but because they know increasing friction is bad for China, bad for the US and bad for the world,” he said.

  Beijing may be increasingly confident, but it does not yet believe its smooth ascendancy is a given. Underneath the veneer of confidence lie persistent anxieties about the true strength of its economy and society, and how to handle issues such as soaring inequality and endemic corruption. Such domestic vulnerabilities enhance the appeal of promoting popular nationalism, yet also reinforce the potential dangers of international disputes.

  » Read more
  • February 13, 2010 9:57 PM

• Web Inventor: China Will Relax Censorship

  

  On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the Internet, discussed Google in China and gave an optimistic perspective of the role of the Internet in China. From the Times:

  Speaking about the dispute between Google and China, Sir Tim said: “I think that openness increases steadily.

  “Every time you open it, the genie comes out of the bottle and it’s very difficult to put it [back] in the bottle.”

  He said he expected that countries such as China, which fiercely moderate some items online, would eventually open up, even if it will take a long time.

  “The internet has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness,” he said.

  “It tends not to go backwards … [but] a government that is used to working with an uninformed citizenry might take a while to move to a position where the citizens are informed.”

  » Read more
  • January 31, 2010 10:57 PM

• Geremie R. Barmé: The Harmonious Evolution of Information in China

  

  For China Beat, Geremie R. Barmé puts Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks about Internet freedom in a historical context:

  Hillary Clinton’s recent speech on freedom of information and the Internet is a clear enunciation of the long-term rhetorical and ideological divide between various authoritarian states and the liberal democracies. One such state, China, was in 1959 in the grip of a new phase of ideological and nationalistic fervour that would play out with tragic consequences in the 1960s and ’70s. Again, in 1989, the old Maoist strategic response to US policies espousing various basic freedoms served both a familiar, and a new purpose. The effect since—carefully honed patriotic education, the increasingly sophisticated use of the semi-independent media, the guided commentariat on TV and radio—have melded together both as a result of careful planning and sheer happenstance to form a continued response to “Western” efforts and hopes to see China evolve into a more pluralistic society. Since 2005, the Hu-Wen leadership of the Communist Party has pursued a policy underpinned by a strategy to create and maintain a “harmonious society.” It is a kind of harmony that is policed with overt rigour. So much is “harmonized” (和谐掉 hexie diao) in the process of creating a quiescent socio-economic environment in which authoritarianism and plutocracy hold sway, that “to harmonise” has become a common verb in colloquial Chinese meaning “to censor,” “elide” or “expunge.” Under the Party China eschews the old strategy of peaceful evolution and its recent upgrades in favour of what I would call “harmonious evolution” (hexie yanbian 和谐演变).

  » Read more
  • January 29, 2010 7:11 PM

• Qian Gang: How Much Internet Freedom Do Chinese Citizens Have?

  

  For China Media Project, Qian Gang argues that the Internet in China cannot simply be judged as “free” or “not free,” and that the real situation is much ore complex:

  So, can we say that China’s Internet is controlled, or not? What sort of control are we talking about?

  Internet controls, in fact, are something every Internet user in China experiences and understands on a very intimate level. And the statement on Internet freedoms issued by the Information Office can itself be taken as an example of how control works.

  What we call the “long tail phenomenon” (长尾现象) can be seen as one of the defining characteristics of China’s Internet. The “long tail” refers to the chain of Web user comments and discussion that trails after online news stories. These can be exceptionally long tails. In fact, some news stories on major Internet portals can draw hundreds of thousands of comments, the plainest illustration of how enthusiastic Chinese feel about the right and the opportunity to speak their minds.

  Obviously, the recent statement from the Information Office on the topic of Internet freedom, an online story that was billed at the top of most major news portals in China for two straight days earlier this week, was guaranteed to draw the attention of Chinese Internet users. And this is also a topic we can expect to generate strong feelings and opinions.

  But when I searched through ten of China’s most high-traffic news portals on January 28, I discovered that four sites had no comments posted whatsoever.

  » Read more
  • January 28, 2010 11:37 AM

• The Chinese Internet Century

  

  An article in Foreign Policy looks at the future of a “permanently fractured web,” split between “two competing visions of the Internet: one open and global, the other highly controlled and often used for repression”:

  Clinton’s speech was not utopian. Her remarks were fairly measured about the potential political impact of network technologies. Eschewing the exuberant optimism that has characterized so much past thinking about the Internet, Clinton recognized that “modern information networks and the technologies they support can be harnessed for good or for ill.” Still, she held out hope that the United States could strategically use Internet technology to advance freedom and human rights around the world. To tip the balance to the good, she said, the United States plans to develop and distribute technologies to help people avoid censors, foster international norms against cyberattacks, cooperate across national borders to identify and prosecute cybercriminals, and exploit public-private partnerships to build a robust cyberdefense at home.

  These are noble aspirations, but they will have a very limited impact on China. Censorship, hacking, and economic warfare as practiced in China are rooted in a political and economic calculus that is unlikely to change. From the first introduction of modern information technologies, the Chinese have viewed them as a double-edged sword: essential to economic growth, but a threat to regime stability. Using a combination of old-school intimidation and high-tech surveillance, Beijing has managed to keep most materials it deems harmful off most computer screens in China and still promote economic growth.

  The fact is that the majority of Chinese simply don’t care, giving the government even less incentive to change its ways.

  Also related, David Bandurski of the China Media Project analyzes a statement by the State Council Information Office rejected Clinton’s criticism of Internet control. He also translates a People’s Daily editorial which states, “The Internet has no need for coercive captaining by “American-style freedoms.”

  » Read more
  • January 26, 2010 8:46 PM

• People’s Daily Published an Open Letter to U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

  

  While many netizens have expressed their outrage at the recent anti-vulgarity campaign, tightening controls over online gaming, and the Great Firewall in general, People’s Daily published an open letter to Hillary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet freedom which presented another perspective (translated by ChinaHush):

  First of all, Chinese government does not restrict internet users to use and access the Internet. I am a commentary writer; I spend most of my free time on the internet, looking for news, looking for different angles, writing reviews, expressing my views and opinions, and sometimes giving my personal comments and suggestions to the Government. So far, I have published thousands of articles, millions of words on uncountable websites like People’s daily, Xinhua and China Net etc. The government never give me any warnings and notices to tell me not go get on the internet or not to express my personal views.

  Secondly, I do not find information on the network unable to flow freely. 9 Am this morning, I turned on my computer, and went on People’s Daily, Xinhua, China News, Sina, Sohu, Netease, IFeng and other major websites. I can open and view information about politics, economic, military, sports, entertainment and current affairs. I sent an email to my friend “Yixiao”and Netizen “Yixiao” got my email quickly. I also chat with my friends on QQ group and never was affected by anything or noticed any information not able to flow.

  All the comments on the People’s Daily site showed support for the author. But ChinaHush also found the article reposted on other Chinese forums, where all the comments mocked the writer or said s/he must be a member of the Fifty Cent Party. From one comment on Netease:

  Did not want to post, but I saw this news really made me angry, When the authors talks about the internet situation here why do I feel like I am dreaming?

  » Read more
  • January 26, 2010 11:08 AM

• China Hits Back at Clinton on Net Freedom

  

  The Chinese government has responded quickly and strongly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom yesterday. From Information Week:

  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu called remarks Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “harmful to Sino-American relations.”

  Clinton called on the Chinese to conduct a “thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions” that hit Google and other Western companies in recent weeks that are believed to have emanated from China.

  “We also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent,” Clinton said, during a speech in which Clinton called on world governments to establish policies toward a more open Internet.

  But Zhaoxu said Clinton’s singling out of China was inappropriate and misguided, and constituted an inappropriate meddling in Chinese affairs. “The Chinese Internet is open,” Zhaoxu said in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site.

  The Wall Street Journal looks at reactions from Chinese bloggers and other supporters of free expression:

  Mrs. Clinton’s speech was closely watched by opponents of government censorship in China, which U.S. diplomats promoted in discussion sessions with Chinese bloggers Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and at consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Wen Yunchao, a Guangzhou-based blogger, on Twitter called the speech “a declaration of war from a free nation to an autarchy,” and compared it to Winston Churchill’s anti-Soviet speech decrying the Iron Curtain.

  Chinese blogger Zhou Shuguang said in an interview, “The Clinton speech is for sure to have positive effect. It’s welcomed by China’s Internet users, especially the active ones on Twitter, regarding the censorship situation in China.”

  Others were less impressed. Novelist and blogger Yang Hengjun said on Twitter the speech was positive but that Chinese Web users should not expect too much from it. “The U.S. government has been talking about supporting world-wide Internet freedom for ages, but it hasn’t done much yet.”

  The English edition of the official Global Times issued an especially harsh editorial:

  The US campaign for uncensored and free flow of information on an unrestricted Internet is a disguised attempt to impose its values on other cultures in the name of democracy.

  The hard fact that Clinton has failed to highlight in her speech is that bulk of the information flowing from the US and other Western countries is loaded with aggressive rhetoric against those countries that do not follow their lead.

  In contrast, in the global information order, countries that are disadvantaged could not produce the massive flow of information required, and could never rival the Western countries in terms of information control and dissemination.

  Keeping that in mind, it must be realized that when it comes to information content, quantity, direction and flow, there is absolutely no equality and fairness.

  Meanwhile, in Forbes, Beijing Bureau Chief Gady Epstein argues that Chinese propaganda linking Google’s actions with U.S. foreign policy may divert the debate to one over bilateral squabbling rather than one over freedom of expression. Yet, he continues:

  …The U.S. government and Google both have taken the right stand, and that counts for something in the long sweep of history. If Chinese critics lump Google and the U.S. together on Internet freedom, that is because they are onto something: The values that both Google and Clinton expressed this month are rooted in American, Bill of Rights principles.

  That’s the good news: The world’s leading superpower and the world’s leading Internet company have made a clear statement that fundamental freedoms–of expression, of assembly–must apply in cyberspace. They have taken note that, as Clinton said Thursday, these freedoms won’t flourish on their own, despite techno-Utopian predictions to the contrary.

  See also “The Internet Freedom Agenda” from Foreign Policy.

  And the New York Times writes:

  In an editorial, the English-language edition of a Chinese newspaper, Global Times, said that the demand for an unfettered Internet was a form of “information imperialism,” because less developed nations could not compete with Western countries in the arena of information flow.

  One big question is whether ordinary Chinese will, to any large degree, accept China’s arguments. Although urban, middle-class Chinese often support government policies on sovereignty issues such as Tibet or Taiwan, they generally deride media censorship.

  That feeling is especially pronounced among Chinese who refer to themselves as netizens. China has the most Internet users of any country, 384 million by official count, but also the most sophisticated system of Internet censorship, nicknamed the Great Firewall.

  » Read more
  • January 22, 2010 10:40 AM

• Hillary Clinton Calls on China to Probe Google Attack (Updated with Photo & Video)

  

  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered an address this morning on Internet freedom around the world, in which she called on Chinese authorities to launch an investigation into the cyber attacks on Google and other U.S. corporations. From BBC:

  In a wide-ranging speech at the Newseum journalism museum in Washington, Mrs Clinton said the internet had been a “source of tremendous progress” in China, but that Beijing should investigate the attacks on Google.

  “We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions,” she said.

  “We also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent.”

  Again in reference to China, she said that any country which restricted free access to information risked “walling themselves off from the progress of the next century”.

  The US intended to address issues of internet freedom within its relationship with Beijing, she added.

  The prepared text of Clinton’s remarks is here, or just read the highlights of the talk via Reuters. See reactions from Evgeny Morozov in Foreign Policy; Ethan Zuckerman; and James Fallows.

  Follow tweets about the speech @netfreedom.

  » Read more
  • January 21, 2010 10:45 AM

• Sentence for Dissident Signals Beijing’s Tougher Stance

  

  Financial Times’ Geoff Dyer reporting from Beijing:

  The trial also underlines Beijing’s increased efforts to control the internet. Mr Liu once predicted the internet would have a huge political impact in China. “The internet is God’s present to China,” he wrote in 2006. “It is the best tool for the Chinese people in their project to cast off slavery and strive for freedom.”

  Earlier this month, the Chinese government introduced measures to control the internet, including rules that limit the ability of individuals to set up a website and increase the scrutiny of companies with websites.

  This year China has blocked Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as well as hundreds of other websites in a drive the authorities say is aimed at limiting access to pornography and preventing internet scams.

  » Read more
  • December 27, 2009 9:39 PM

• PBS NewsHour: In China, a Struggle for Rights, but Hope for Future (Updated with Video)

  

  Jim Lehrer speaks with a human rights activist and a China expert about the state of the struggle for human rights in China. From PBS NewsHour Online:

  JIM LEHRER: That follows, from President Obama’s talk of human rights in China, a look at what rights the ordinary citizens of China actually do have.

  It comes from Xiao Qiang, a Chinese human rights activist who now edits China Digital Times, a bilingual Web site. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of California’s Graduate School of Journalism in Berkeley. And Winston Lord, a longtime China expert who was the U.S. ambassador to China in the late 1980s, and was most recently there in May.

  Here is the mp3 download. Full transcript and streaming video available here:

  » Read more
  • November 18, 2009 12:34 AM

• Ian Bremmer: In Cyberspace, China’s People Find Their Voice

  

  From realclearpolitics.com:

  In cyberspace, unrest in Tibet, an earthquake in China’s Sichuan province and the Cannes Film Festival can make for an explosive mix. Chinese bloggers have seized on a suggestion from actress Sharon Stone, who speculated to reporters manning the red carpet in Cannes that China’s devastating earthquake, which killed at least 68,000 people, may have been ordained by “karma.” Citing Beijing’s treatment of ethnic Tibetans, she suggested that “when you’re not nice . . . bad things happen to you.”

  The reaction across China was instantaneous. Legions of bloggers demanded a boycott of Stone’s films and the products she pitches. The actress has apologized, but luxury retailer Christian Dior, with whom Stone has a modeling contract, quickly removed her image from its Chinese stores.

  The story illustrates an important point about today’s China. Though state officials continue to carefully monitor Internet traffic for anything they fear might threaten their monopoly hold on China’s politics, the sheer speed and scale of the blowback to Stone’s comments reveals that an ever-growing number of China’s people are becoming more active in the public life of their country — in ways that are both encouraging and potentially destabilizing.

  » Read more
  • June 25, 2008 3:20 AM

• Panel Discussion on Press Freedom and the Internet in China – RFA

  

  From RFA Unplugged:

  …… over the last few years more and more Chinese have chosen to stay away from newspapers and magazines, and instead log on to the Internet for daily news. In our last program, we discussed how the Internet has helped Chinese citizens overcome information censorship imposed by the Chinese government and how Chinese citizens have extended their right to information. The citizens’ right to information is based on freedom of information. We know what the Chinese government’s attitude toward freedom of information is. The Chinese media is another major body which provides information to the public. To what extent has it met Chinese citizens’ quest for information? The topic we are going to discuss is the online media’s challenge to newspapers and magazines, especially on the credibility issue, and how the two have been competing for market share. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • June 22, 2007 12:19 PM

• Feedback from China on Internet Freedom – ESWN

  

  From ESWN:

  There are plenty of articles published in the west about the Internet and freedom of speech in China. So what is the influence of these articles back within China? What about any feedback? …

  The following is a translation of an article of the type that you will probably never get to read in English (except through China Daily). There is no evidence to say that this is representative either. This exercise is to show that an article appears in the New York Times and this is what comes back in mainstream media in China. Meanwhile, it is not known if who inside China read the original article, or this rebuttal; and if they did, it is not known what they really thought.

  » Read more
  • November 29, 2005 9:39 PM

• China’s Internet Media urged to help establish harmonious society – People’s Daily

  

  From People’s Daily:

  Officials and professionals attending the opening ceremony of the fifth Forum on the China Internet Media signed in Hangzhou Tuesday a joint proposal calling on China-based news websites to contribute towards establishing a harmonious society.

  Put forward by Zhou Xisheng, president of state-owned Xinhua Online, the proposal provides guidelines for China’s Internet news media industry, which has developed fast in recent years.

  The proposal notes that Internet news is becoming more influential over public opinion. It states that all Internet news media must abide by the Constitution and laws, publicize scientific theories and promote culture, carry forward the national character, and provide high quality services for Internet users.

  » Read more
  • November 15, 2005 7:45 PM

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