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

[Zentrails]

Nothing like getting banned in China to know you have finally arrived!

Congrats, fellow Huffingtonpost members as well as the founder, we strike fear in the Chinese Government's hearts!

If they have any, that is. LOL

[Wills46er]

Communists can dress it up in any doublespeak they want, but their ultimate aim is control; of what is being said, written, and perceived. Modernization, trade and development are the veneer that covers the whole apparatus.

[thegirlnextdoor]

not communists, totalitarians. I hate it when people use the wrong word because it is the easy one.
there are also right wing totalitarian states where Huff Post is probably banned.
And, China is not communist any more. it is most definitely a capitalist state where money is the name of the prize!

[thehand]

They are still Communist. They just engage in capitalism because they know communism does not work. You still have to be a member of the communist party to move up or engage in capitalism. We will soon be fascist totalitarian country if the sheeple dont wake up to the NOW to what's really going on in this country

[milo9]

We need another word for totalitarian.

[LITU]

Shortly after its birth, communism in china gave way to authoritarianism, one of those isms associated with avarice - as old as mankind.

[imusintheevening]

Sounds exactly like the Bush Administration!

[11907281]

ya. but they didn't have a choice in the matter, Americas do.

[MostlyMagic]

Huffington Post is also banned in London, see:

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/pub/messages/9890987.html

So maybe while everyone is ranting about China, maybe we should be *more* concerned when Western companies start blocking progressive or alternative news sites.

[AzRealProgressive]

It is banned because of the lunatic fringe

[MostlyMagic]

Huh? Huffington Post is banned in London because of the lunatic fringe?

[RTIII]

Now _that's a real laugh!
.

[andyg]

I am in the UK, are your nuts.

[loveobama]

I am in Johannesburg, South Africa. For the past three weeks I can only view the first page of the comments section of each story. I am beginning to suspect intereference.

[preemptivelove]

the only reason that china is hosting the olympics is that they manufacture all the running shoes and athletic clothing used in the games. otherwise, WHY IN HELL would we honor a nation with such an abysmal record on human rights with the high honor of hosting the olympic games???? it's disgusting. i won't watch a moment of these olympics. never mind that the athletes competing in outdoor sports are going to suffer the consequences of no environmental regulation.

the best way to boycott china is to stop buying all their cheap crap. made in china means that by buying the product, we are supporting the government of china. the olympics, for china, is only a huge propaganda tool.

[springsm]

ya gotta know that the american companies are making a haul with this "chinese capitalism". We are everywhere with great big neon signage.

[SgtLucifer]

Censoring the censors... priceless.

[ohiomark]

Isn't karma grand?

[Guynemer]

"Since I arrived in Beijing, I have made repeated attempts to access Huffington Post ... Every time, all I get is a message that says "Connection Interrupted.""


Now you know how I feel when I try to post a comment.

[Cynth]

So true...especially the ones that aren't at all offensive. (Simply baffling....)

[ohiomark]

It's not about free speech here, it's about free "liberal" speech.

Everything else is up for scrutiny.

[BillCarson]

Yeah...

[Dog is My Co-Pilot]

I agree. Apparently "offensive" has begun to be defined very narrowly.

[imusintheevening]

I go there frequently and I use Wikipedia as I home page - it is always blocked but I have had little problem with Huffpo in the past.

[shanghaislim]

Wikipedia has been banned for a long time now in China. (Why? Because it peddles a "truth" that is stretched or manufactured -or can be?) Misinformation is uncontrollable on Wiki and the Chinese now that.

I had never had a problem with HuffPo in Beijing and Shanghai and I was just there 2 days ago?????

[GeorgeKaplan]

Red China... remember? Not a sanctuary of human rights.

[Tulu]

If it was not for Huffingtonpost and the bloggers like it, I would not have hopes for any change of the statusquo be it in America or else where in the world. Now, citizen driven journalism is the beauty of 21st century freedom ride.

China survives by blocking such information and will continue to do so until the MSM can actual start reporting truth in general.

[PAposter]

This is not really a laughing matter, considering our relationship with China. They pretty much call the shots right now.

[Phylmom]

Boycott the Olympics. Don't watch a minute.

[obamajusrocks]

Why protest aginst the communist party ? they have done a great job pulling this large and diverse country in one direction.

you people and your holier than thou attitude - and don't even start with human rights - just look closer to home and you will have enough to lament about.

quit b*tching and let's enjoy a fun filled olympics

[research]

The USA has lost the moral high ground from which to criticize China.

Heck of a Job Bush.

[GeorgeKaplan]

I do not like Bush... who does? But America -- even under Bush -- is NOT China. If McCain wins the election in another 8 years we may be in China's fix.

[GeorgeKaplan]

Oh. yeah... the Chinese communist party is just wonderful... they have done so much for their own people.

[Sahaquiel]

At risk of citing Godwin's law, do you hold the similar belief that the Nazi party did a great job of pulling its large and diverse country into one direction?

No one disputes that there's plenty of terrible things done here in the west. But all one has to do is take a brief look at the policies and history of the CPC to know that you don't know at all what you're talking about. At least the United States has freedom of speech, press and religion. We also don't remove potential Olympic gymnasts from their home at a young age to be trained for several years in a camp without their individual consent, so that their abilities can be exploited for the good of the state. What about the fact that they refuse to acknowledge that the events in Tiananmen Square in '89? The government refuses to admit the event occurred, let alone allow it to be freely discussed.

I don't even need to mention the recent Tibet debacle.

Either you're completely ignorant of everything that goes on in that country--and ours--or you aren't, and you're simply trying to excuse your own lack of integrity because you would rather ignore it all for the sake of your own entertainment.

[Amennyc]

8 yrs ago... couldn't agree with you more. Now, not so much... China can now be the one teaching USA a lesson. Their economy is booming, middle class is expanding, infrastructure is growing, and their not at war. They babysit Tibet and Taiwan, we baby sit Colombia, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Puerto Rico.... just to name a few. There is not a day we do not use multiple things made in China, not the other way around.
Bye bye USA hello China. Get used to it. USA you had your chance and you blew it. If the USA bases its president on who favors a "gas tax" or "drilling" and unable to look at the big picture, so be it. There is no way they will even begin to be able to see the red sea of China swallowing them up.

[Coyote2]

"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."

*
The inability for ordinary work-a-day Chinese to access justice.

[Thinks4Herself59]

Nope. The Olympic games are banned in my home.

[Kalima]

I would wear the banning as a badge to free speech and be proud to wear it too. They are
as paranoid about truth leaking out as your own government is. Well done, Huffington Post!

[AzRealProgressive]

Actually the Chinese have known about the HuffPo for a long time. They consider it radical fringe.

[BillN]

Well, thank God it's China that is censoring Huffpo. It could be Cuba, which would be much, much worse.

Yeah, right...

[Mr Grey]

I can think of no higher recommendation for reading the Huffington Post. It used to be totalitarian governments would ban and then burn books that spoke out against their ideaology. Now blocking internet sites is the new form for the repression of ideas. Hopefully the world wide web is bigger and more powerful than such tactics. Still we must be ever vigilant.

[Active]

The Chinese are better off not reading the SPIN on HuffPo. Good job China!

[BillN]

Well let's hope that the Chinese aren't staking it all in the right wing noise machine. Otherwise they are going to have one hell of a time dealing with the new Democratically-controlled government in this country after January.

[Mustang Sally]

Yep!

[JustinKase]

Hey Active.... why are YOU reading it? I guess in your world there is only side to everything. Cliche` of the day for you: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

[Cynth]

So you're against free speech and the Constitution? But I see you're enjoying your protected rights...and on HuffPo, no less. Spend some time in a country that doesn't afford you these rights and access, and you'll appreciate what sites/forums like HuffPo offer, even symbolically.

[steamboat]

Active did not say that. He said there better off not readingHuffPo. Just an observation. He said nothing about taking free speech away from the bloggers. So get it right. Besides, its the 'left that wanted to push through a censorship disguised under the name "Fairness Doctrine', inorder to knock popular conservative talkshow hosts off the air.

[Thinks4Herself59]

After the slaughter of half a million dogs, clubbed to death in front of their owners; their brutal crackdown of Tibet; and their legitimization and encouragment of Africa’s most repressive and violent regimes, this family will not watch even 1 minute of the Olympic games. Those are the cold hard facts, not spin. It seems almost everyone, including Bush, is just fine with forgetting the ugly and horrific truth and looking the other way. Well, this family will not be watching even 1 minute of the games in our own little protest, even if we're the only people who care.