From Time:
After he was listed on this year’s TIME 100 poll of the world’s most influential people, Chinese author Han Han wrote a blog post announcing, “Other Chinese nominees include sensitive word, sensitive word and sensitive word.” It was something of an inside joke, but one that Han Han’s huge fan base would immediately get. “Sensitive word” was a jab at China’s web censors’ habit of sometimes blocking even commonplace names from blog posts and web searches. Within days his post had generated more than 20,000 comments, most in support of the writer, a few in opposition, and many grumbling about the state of online freedom in China.
Critics of China’s censorship regime have often predicted that information will inevitably circumvent efforts to restrict it. But so far China has managed, through a variety of means, to restrict the discussion of topics the government finds objectionable, such as independence drives in the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang and the banned religious movement Falun Gong.
