Huffington Post: Still Banned in Beijing

You may have followed the ongoing controversy about the Chinese government blocking foreign journalists' access to certain Internet sites during the Beijing Olympics. Most of the attention has centered on the censoring of the sites of Amnesty International, BBC News and the Falun Gong religious group. Under pressure, the Chinese Communist Party has lifted the bans on Amnesty and BBC News, but one site has continued to be totally blocked: Huffingtonpost.com.

In Beijing, we can get Drudge; we can get Common Dreams; we can get Raw Story and Truthout. But Huffington Post: censored completely.

I am working in Beijing as a radio commentator. Since I arrived in Beijing, I have made repeated attempts to access Huffington Post from the International Broadcast Center, from the Main Press Center and from my apartment. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Every time, all I get is a message that says "Connection Interrupted."

I suspect that I am at least partially responsible for the Chinese censorship of Huffington Post because of a piece I posted back in March entitled "How to Protest the Beijing Olympics." If this is true, I apologize to my fellow HuffPo bloggers for preventing their posts from being read in China. However, I still stand by what I said back then.

In the piece, I urged people not to protest against the Chinese people or against China as a nation -- a nation that I first visited in 1978 and am now visiting for the ninth time. Rather, I suggested that people concentrate their protests against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose membership includes only 5% of the Chinese population.

So far, the Chinese citizens I have encountered have been completely friendly. However, there are some unsettling developments. An American friend of mine, who has lived in Beijing for 13 years and speaks fluent Chinese, told me that the rise in nationalist propaganda has been so intense the last couple months that he has stopped watching Chinese television. Even some of his Chinese friends are embarrassed by the overt government hostility towards foreigners.

On the other hand, what the government really fears is not human rights protests by foreign activists, but demonstrations by their own citizens. Although it has received little attention in the West, there have been thousands of demonstrations around the country against land seizures by the government and against widespread corruption, highlighted by protests by victims of the Sichuan earthquake, who watched their children die because of shoddy school construction, while schools built for the children of Communist Party members did not collapse. For this reason, the government has all but closed Beijing to Chinese citizens from other parts of the country until the Olympics are over.

Every time I hear talk of the blocking of the Amnesty International web site, I think back to an incident from 1979. I was visiting the Chinese city of Guilin at a time when foreigners were so rare that when we walked on the street, we were surrounded by gawkers and by students wanting to practice speaking English. One evening, a French member of our group approached me and said, "David, I think you had better deal with this one." He led me to a Chinese student, who asked me, "What is Amnesty International?" I explained to him that Amnesty was an organization that called attention to human rights violations around the world. "In fact," I added, "they just released a report about human rights abuses in China." The student never let the expression on his face change, but he said, "Perhaps we should speak of other subjects. One never knows who is listening."

Twenty-nine years later, in terms of human rights, I don't think that too much has changed. I still have a great affection for the Chinese people, but even today, one never knows who is listening.

Read more HuffPost coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Comments

[PurplePhase]

David Wallechinky,

I doubt it was your article that caused HuffPo to be censored. I am an avid Charlie Rose viewer and he was censored by the Chinese as of last year. I don't know if he still is or not.

It's safe to say the Chinese government is paranoid about its image domestically and internationally.

I am surprised you didn't even mention the Tiananmen Square uprising. According to Frontline, that incident isn't taught in history classes in Chinese schools. If you go back to China, that will be an interesting topic for you to report on.

[Leosun]

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm having a heck of a time accessing the HP from my home ISP COX.net in Phoenix, AZ. When I go to work I don't have a problem. I work for a law firm. Is anyone else having a problem with COX as their ISP? This just started happening on Monday morning. I called COX tonight about, just to report. Would love to hear from you.

[n2frot]

In the past month I've been in several cities throughout China (although not Beijing). Never had a problem reading the Huffpo.

[shanghaislim]

I get Huffington Post in Shanghai. It is a little slow but it eventually loads fine. I do not know what all the fuss is about in Beijing. I have been there twice in the past 3 months and did have trouble accessing Huffington Post a short while ago. Maybe they are being extra cautious for the Olympics?

............HuffPo looking for salacious headlines?

[realityczech4u]

Just wondering if Dave was in China when he wrote the article, how did he get it uploaded on here if he can't access Huffpo? Fax it out? Aren't they censoring that? Fedex a hard copy?

[nonagendaeyes]

I'm assuming he emailed it to a third party and they posted it for him.

[omahkohkiaayo]

Show me one society on the face of the earth, especially this one, that does not practice censorship as a matter of national security. Try getting a scholar from Cuba or Iran to speak at your conference here even on human rights issues. And when it comes to historical revisionism, no one can match the U.S. for cartoon versions of history and reality; I say this as a Blackfoot Indian who has read--and taught from--a lot of books full of pure lies. and a cartoon version of America and its history.

And because of their history, and the U.S. Neocons own openly-stated objectives of system/regime change in China, through "soft" power (missionaries, culture, media, edcuational exchanges, slanted textbooks etc) as well as through hard power like critical technology embargoes, China bashing, protectionism, threats of nuclar annihilation, destabilization campaigns through proxies, etc why wold they not be sensitive? How about if they start lecturing the U.S. as perhaps the number one source of state-sponsored terrorism in the world today? How about human rights of Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, Disabled People in the Americas?

How many of those screaming about human rights in China (where many protesting have never been and/or do not speak the languages to speak directly to the people) have nothing to say about human rights violations going on daily and routinely in America?

[veracity]

Well said. The Neo-Cons who are so quick to remind us and scold us about repression in Germany in the 1930s, have, amazingly enough, adapted every fear-mongering and opposition-sliming tactic of the Brown-shirts! Alan Dershowitz built an entire career on the rights of defendants. Like most other neo-cons, he has adopted a post-9-11 Jekyll & Hyde metamorphosis - in the name of state security, the government should, Mr. Dershowitz et al maintain, be able to round up you, your family, your neighbors, and anyone they deem "a terrorist suspect" and whisk them off to an "undisclosed location", where you can be starved, denied sleep, tortured, or even killed, at the sole discretion of the furher, er, executive branch.
Not only is the neo-con war-lobby the most vociferous supporters of the Republican Party's quest for wider wars and expanded police-state powers, but they also have a LOCK on the "Democratic" "opposition" party. What we effectively have, through the co-opting of "Democrtic" "leaders", is one-party rule, i.e. the suspension of a genuine democracy, at the behest of the foreign-government neo-cons.

[emerywood]

Sad but true. History never changes. Human nature never changes.
Exploitation and oppression of the weaker races or nations by the stronger ones wil continue forever. Only the methods and pretexts used changed.

[Topo]

BIG DEAL huh...What about Bush & Co. censors against showing US soldiers dead body.

[joebiz]

Congrats HuffPost. We've been kicked out of better places and insulted by worse people. According to the previous post by Mr. Wallenchinsky only 15% of the Chinese population uses the Internet meaning that those that use the net are actually in their political infancy. The end user probably would not understand the sophistication of the arguments, the openess of debate, and the exchange of ideas. On the flip-side there may be Chinese companies willing to buy ads on the HuffPost but just don't know we exist.

[UnbiasView]

I'm so glad this censorship argument has turned into a political debate on what side is doing it the USA and how evil Bush is . . .

Who led the charge against rap music and rock music? Tipper Gore

Who is leading the charge on the fairness doctrine? Democrats

Who leads the charge in the right of people to access child porn in libraries? ACLU

Who bans light bulbs, plastic bags, transfats, etc.? Democrats

China is just the nanny state Democrats on steroids.

[realityczech4u]

Who leads the charge in the right of people to access child porn in libraries? ACLU

--------------------------------
I was unaware of this one. If it is true, it is out of character for the ACLU. You would expect them to be defending the "right" of libraries to disseminate child porn to the public,

[spartacus275]

Are you serious? Republicans ie Neo-Cons have done more to destroy the very ideals this country was founded on than any other political party in the history of the US. Imagine an America with Dick Cheney as President. Get real!!!!!!!!

[milo9]

Huffpo banned in Red China. Another link in the connection between Red China and the modern Republican party.

[UnbiasView]

Link to where the Republicans banned HuffPost?

[TovSquirrel]

Oy!

[BaltimoreSteve]

Maybe we're not left enough.

[chinationreport]

I have a friend who was a student leader in 1989. He led large groups of protests and held talks with high ranking government officials. He was jailed for a year. After his graduation from college, he started his own business together with some other once-jailed students. Now he is a super rich man. We used to talk on the phone or meet in person to talk about how bad CCP was. He used to tell me on the phone that his phone was tapped but it did not stop him from complaining. He said his limits were not to organize anything to harm the government. As far as complaining goes, he was able to say anything he wanted.
This man was offered many chance to come to America. In fact, his ex-wife and son are here. But he refused to leave, as he truly believes in the future of China. It has taken a long time and may take many more years. But average Chinese have never had as much political & economical freedom as today. It sounds unbelievable but is true.
I dare say that if China would have an election between Mr. Hu from CCP and Mr. Ma from Taiwan (leader of Nationalists), Mr. Hu would win. I know many Chinese people, as much as they complain about the government, they are happy about the direction the country is going in.
There is a recent survey to prove this!
www.chinationreport.com - balanced news about China

[shanghaislim]

The majority of Chinese people are happy with their country and government.

Nice Post.

[thehand]

They block a lot of sites in China. Looks like the US maybe doing the same here with internet 2. The mainstream government run media has lost all credibilty here. The I heard the UK blocks infowars.com and other sites they think are unsafe for the dumbed down public

[beckperson]

I was in China recently and could get to all the general liberal blogs (TPM, Dailykos, Americablog, etc), but the only one I couldn't access was HuffPo. Surprised me no end, considering those I COULD get to. Weird.

[UnbiasView]

Huff Post is much more respectable than the Daily Kos.

[DontSpinMeBro]

Ironic.