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
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There's got to be something terribly wrong when PRC welcomes W to the olympics--and, they ban HP.
What's this world coming to?
Could it be that the post here isout of mainstream step?
Mainstream step of whom, the PRC?
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
Don't take it personally; it's just SMOG control. . . . too much hot air.
Hee hee, good one!
As much as the right wingers keep calling us all communists I would have expected China to welcome us.
Good point. They are communists in the sense that Stalin was a communist. They have molded the so-called communist revolution into something totally unrelated to and unrecognizable by the Marx and Engels.
They will. Right after you ban right wing news outlets, order Martial Law and then begin to loot people for the redistribution of the wealth.
That should do it.
I get to do all that? Cool!
I doubt we'd find much wealth to redistribute from your Mom's basement. Just a bunch of empty Cheetos bags and your well-worn keyboard.
Like the Republicans have looted the treasury, deregulated and cut taxes to spread more weath on the wealthy.
So the Wealthy do not fall behind on the wolrds stage and can buy those Jets to take all their money to offshore accounts.
Desert Light - right wing news outlets already provide a very limited world view just like in China - and resent any fairness doctrine of airing opposing views just like in China. Wealth is already being redistributed to the wealthy friends of the party - just like in China, and the current prez already has legislation on the books making it easy to invoke martial law.
So much in common - who would have thunk.
There is already a looting going on.
Richest tenth own 85% of world's assets
http://www
Keep contributing to it. Buch Dich!
Late breaking news bulletin from the Chinese capital of Beijing:
"The President of the United States of America has just announced that in keeping with his campaign to bring democracy to the whole world, he is asking the dictatorship of China to allow a free press during the 2008 Olympic Games. The Chinese dictators declared that they have gladly embraced the ideas of the American leader of the free world, and are therefore using rendition and torture on any journalists who dare to report anything about the Olympic Games other than the official government press releases."
just like freedom! big mistake allowing something that sprung from the heart of democracy 2500 years ago to be used as a tool for totalitarianism.
The ban on Huffpo isnt a big surprise . Either is the fact that most of the "hits" I get from hackers on my computer , can be traced back to china .
If we as progressiv
Should we list the things that Dems have tried to ban?
- Rap & Rock music . . . Tipper Gore
- Talk Radio . . . Every Dem that Can't Compete in the Market
- Light Bulbs . . . Dems
- Plastic Bags . . . Dems
What is the difference?
What the hell are you talking about. No Dem has tried to "ban" any of those things, although I think you'll find conservatives were the ones mad at "race" music (and worse words) back in the 50's.
BiasView, try thinking instead of spewing talking points.
Pretty pathetic list there, especially considering that you're lying about the first 2 being about bans. The third one is about requiring newly made light bulbs being the efficient kind, and I hadn't heard about a ban on plastic bags. Big whoop.
Now do you really want us to list all the things Republicans want to of have banned?
China sounds like a conservative paradise to me:
Tough prisons
Death penalty for pretty much everything (eat your heart out Texas!)
No rules against police brutality (none of that namby pamby ACLU stuff here!)
Plenty of government spying
None of those wacky environmentalists
Lots of sweet, sweet coal-burning power plants baby!
Unions are kept in their place
Plenty of military spending
A preemptive foreign policy
Plenty of cheap, cheap labor
And they run over protesters with tanks! Every right wingers wet dream!
Most of the futile attempts to ban rock and roll - and rap music have actually been by the "family values" republicans - For homework gimme a list of GOP senator fans of "Fiddy" Cent - it'll be short.
Although some of the talk radio is pretty vile stuff - I don't recall any prominent democrats proposing a ban on talk radio - a list & details would be welcome.
Light bulbs - the current Edison type light bulb turns 90% of the energy consumed into heat - why would you be opposed to requiring better efficiency - are conservatives - wasteful?
Plastic bags are made from petroleum products which are becoming scarcer - why would you be opposed to conservation ( conservation - conserve - conservative get it? - nah probably not!)
great britain bans www.prison
myspace and youtube censor politically aimed material.
googl in cahoots with chinese censorship
...ah, new world order here we come.
www.campai
www.rallyf
prison planet is banned in Great Britain?
While I can't confirm that, I'd not be entirely surprised. Of course I think Prison Planet are nuts but they should be able to have their say.
Britain doesn't have the USA 1st ammendment freedom of speech. Regular majority laws can close down speech. They routinely blocked the speech of IRA supporters. Their Official Secrets act would not have allowed something like the Pentagon Papers we had here. Then there's the libel laws which is a double edged sword sometimes protecting private individuals, sometimes allowing real SOBs to keep their public persona clean.
Get used to it, HuffPo. Banning is coming to a "democratic" country near you!
I am sure Schrub had something to do with it. Lets count the days they are gone.
Get used to it? They're actively participating.
The last thing we need, is the overly moderated HuffPost being moderated even more in China.
Ha!
They might do a better job (or at least follow their own rules).
Don't worry, Arianaand HuffPo! More than half the world is banned from China and we're doing just fine!
Badge of Honor, anyone??
Actually, how fun it is to say that the Communist Government loves our right wingers' blog sites.
Chairman Drudge???
LOL. Who knew?!?
Definitiely. Its when they suggest you as a source you should reconsider your actions.
Well, at least David got his piece posted, right ? By the way, how did he do it in China ?
I don't think most people realize that China is a country with 1.3 billion people ( 4 x the U.S. populatoin ) and, a large number of them are farmers and under-educated. Many of them are still dirt poor and hungry and unemployed. To govern such a country the American way is not only impossible but asking for trouble. If the government allowed freedom of speech and demonstration, it would lead to chaos and anarchy in no time. When people are hungry and uneducated, they don't reason with their authorities. They want to topple them and get whatever they could get their hands on. We saw that when Iraq fell.
Live and let live. If they want freedom and democracy, perhaps it will come when the people are fed and clothed and preferably, educated. It will never happen overnight.
If the government allowed expression of contrary thought it might result in a loss of power for the current elite - and their replacement. Dangerous stuff - might even happen here.
First, you can't tell me that this is an actual surprise. Just goes to show that Arianna has power everywhere :)!
But more importantly, here's one thing that NOBODY is talking about. Last time I checked, China is a sovereign country. Yes a dictatorship (the U.S. isn't that far behind). But still a sovereign state. Which means that if people want to deal with/operate/live in China, you play by their rules. Why has Wallechinsky's pal lived there for 13 years? Work, he/she has a Chinese spouse, it could be many reasons. But obviously they play by the rules to be able to continue to renew their visa.
The Chinese spy on their citizens, foreigners and torture as well. We now do the same thing. Therefore, who the hell are we to criticize them? That's one fact you'll NEVER see on the Today Show.
sf101, these same folks who are mad at China are the same people who praise Cuba and Fidel. An even more ruthless government
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