Rebecca MacKinnon wrote an excellent commentary on her RConversation blog:
“Don’t expect the Chinese blogosphere to bring down the Chinese Communist Party any time soon. The Great Chinese Firewall and China’s internet police will see to that – and they have plenty of help from major U.S. tech companies , including Cisco. Shame on them.
Don’t assume that the expansion of freedom of speech in Chinese cyberspace will necessarily strengthen international peace and brotherly love between China and other countries – the opposite is also possible. In fact, the bulk of voices in Chinese cyberspace today are more anti-American, more anti-Japanese, and more inclined to go to war against Taiwan than the Chinese government is. This is made more acute by the skewed mix of information Chinese internet-users are exposed to thanks to the Great Chinese Firewall – and it’s also why U.S. corporate assistance in building that firewall is especially heinous. But there are other factors – like good old-fashioned Chinese nationalism – at work as well. ”
