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

[robertlockwoodmills]

If the Olympics really meant anything, I'd be upset. As it is, who cares?

[Mustang Sally]

LMAO - that is perfect!!!

[proudloudlib]

Congrats! It's a badge of honor

[DevilAdvocate]

oh please, try to be a tall black 6.0 tall woman living in Japan (2002-04) and see how they look at you! LOL Oh, the memories..­.. it's no different if I was in a small town in American that hasn't see a black person or any one of color up close...it is what it is...

welcome to the world of the black man! LOL

[Amennyc]

The Japanese look at everyone. LOL. But I get your point. Love it there.

[steamboat]

Why are you complaining, most men over 6' tall love tall women.

[aicon]

Boykott the Olympics and chinese products, very simple.
I won't support that oppressive regime.

No Torch in Tibet...

Why so many people don't get it that every country that oppresses others is disgusting

[Active]

Boycott Chinese products?? Uhh thats about IMPOSSIBLE. Our economy is being assisted by the Chinese. They own you. Who do you think our trillion dollar debt is owed to?

[steamboat]

Just nosey, where you one of the protesters in Seattle when Clinton was making all these deals, treaties, and taking donations with and from the Chinese? .....I'm honest, I admit, I slept on it too, when it was happening. We're paying for it now, aren't we?

[daddydamon]

Another ignorant American, in denial about the Chinese.

[phoquemyope]

Would you have the rest of the world boycott ALL American products due to our various infractions (slavery, attempted genocide on Indians, ethnic-Japanese internment camps, death penalty, torture...­)? As heinous as some of the actions of the CCP are, we really need to get our own house in order before "lowering the boom" on China. They are a nation more than four times as crowded as the USA, and they have their own way of maintaining order -- no, I don't like many of these policies either, but we're dealing with a sovereign nation here. Continued good relations between the US and PRC will ultimately be the quickest way to easing the Beijing hardliners' policies.

[Witchitalineman]

A credit to the HP!

[SouthpawSass]

"How to Protest the Beijing Olympics." Really?

So while the Olympics will be going on, the politicians will keep a low profile... Hmmm, NOW I'll be forced to look at Brad and Angelina's baby pictures, read up on Paris, Brittney and Lindsey, and watch reruns... Yeah, sounds like a hoot. Thanks Dave.


lol - I really don't think you should get all the blame. There ain't no "I" in Democracy.­..

[Coyote2]

can we post?

[SouthpawSass]

I'm sure we can... We just won't be getting minute by minute run downs of the events.

[steamboat]

Want to protest the games? Then don't watch NBC and MSNBC. That network paid a record sum to China for the rights to televise the games.

[SouthpawSass]

Ooh, a protest! I like it....

[TovSquirrel]

Well, it is the People's Republic of China.

The Chinese understand that a free flow of information and ideas is an anathema to a totalitari­an/authori­tarian society.

Are they Communists? In name only.

[Amennyc]

Well, they got the censors, we got FOX.

[AzRealProgressive]

Then your remedy should be to change the channel if you feel that way.

[matthewhusseinsmith]

Fox is privately owned.
Censorship is state-run.
Think before you post.

[steamboat]

Just how tunnel-visioned are you? NBC paid a record amount to televise the Beijing Olympics, so instead your blaming FOX. Active is right, you folks 'spin' is incredible.

[SwingingFromCenter]

I'd ban this site too, given the way that it blows Chinese issues out of proportion and creates nothing but an extreme left-wing slant towards China, going so far as trying to politicize the Olympics (which is supposed to be neutral).

[AzRealProgressive]

You have a good point.

[Cynth]

I understand your point, but are we sure the Communist Party isn't using the Olympics for political purposes? Nothing the party does is apolitical­...

[genseric13]

China is like Bill O'Reilly, they believe in self-censorship. I just hope HuffPo ignores people like O'Reilly who keeps hammering her over what people post.

[Bolthead]

Now that we know they are not reading this, we can finally say what we want about them. Hooray!

[TrevorAlan]

HuffPost's Pick

Just remember, that's the nation (and authoritarian political party) who hold increasing power over our future due to the fact that we've exported most of our manufacturing there and their purchase of much of our debt. There could come a time when they ask an American government to muzzle HoffPo, or American Spectator for that matter, and the administration of the moment would have a difficult time saying no.

Agreed, nothing against the people, but we need to stop our slide to subservience.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

Boy you are so right.

[Ramirez]

The Chinese hold no special clout over the rights of US citizens just because they purchase almost as much in T-bills as the Japanese.

In fact, they are having enough problems trying to control the speech of their own people. They have a long way to go before they can even dream of controlling the speech of Americans.

[Manni]

Good! Nothig like the lefties fighting with other lefties!

[BrianMac]

So you're saying that Communist China is lefty? You really need to crack a book on political history and definitions.

[TrevorAlan]

First, its been a long time since China was Communist in anything but name. The only thing they have that Mao would remember is the single party organization and willingness to hurt any dissenter.

Second, I'd have to say Communists haven't been lefties since 1930. They took power and dispensed with any actual liberal beliefs, they became authoritiarian conservatives in the model of the czars and emporers (you know, the people right-wingers worship). They don't believe in individual rights, and I thought conservatives hated lefties because we're always talking about people's rights (that awful ACLU, etc.)

[AzRealProgressive]

Chairman Mao and the Communist party not leftists? That would be news to Fidel Castro too. That is is spin so far out of touch with reality that it borders on the ludicrous. This is why the Chinese ban this post. Lunatic fringe.

[stimpy]

Kinda darkly funny and telling that the commies are a-okay with right winger conservative propaganda websites. Shared values methinks. Both are out of touch, hypocritical to the point of delusional, hate and distrust citizens, fear truthful dissemination of informatio­n...the list goes on.

[AzRealProgressive]

Actually no. The Chinese view those sights much diiferently. This one has posters so out of whack with reality the Chinese believe they are lunatics. And remember they are Communists.

[Pragman]

And in Iraq we have righties fighting other righties.

[GeorgeKaplan]

Pure Rubbish!

[naturallight]

DEA uses Blackwater in California Med. MJ Bust:


http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Does_tshirt_show_Blackwater_along_on_0804.html

[AzRealProgressive]

That was a DEA agent wearing a tee shirt with the name. They also wear NFL tee shorts. That does not make them football players either. Insinuating the wearer of a tee short, one person at that, is somehow a mercenary employed by the DEA is utter nonsense.

[NoSandwiches]

I wonder if the Bush administration tipped China off to blocking Huffington Post...it would be sooooo like them!

[AzRealProgressive]

The chinese don't like anything they consider outer fringes of reason.

[Independent voter]

Boycott Communist Chinese products. Many are defective or poisonous - all cost American jobs.

[AzRealProgressive]

Good point.