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How China Controls the Internet
BussinesWeek ^ | JANUARY 13, 2006 | Bruce Einhorn

Posted on 01/15/2006 1:18:29 PM PST by nickcarraway

Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong explains, and he says U.S. companies need to take a stand against Beijing

The news that Microsoft (MSFT ) shut down a Chinese blogger's site at the request of Beijing officials is bringing a renewed focus on the role U.S. companies play in helping China control the Internet. It's no secret that Western businesses that want to enter the Internet market in China have to do some unsavory things. The Chinese government, determined to prevent dissidents from using the Net to promote taboo subjects such as the Falun Gong religious movement, formal independence for Taiwan, or an end to Communist Party rule, pressures providers to play by Chinese rules and control the content that's available for local Net surfers (see BW Online, 1/12/06, "The Great Firewall of China").

When companies do restrict what their Chinese users send or read on the Net, however, they face howls of criticism from activists, bloggers, and ordinary folks abroad who think that multinationals should not be helping Beijing police the Net. Nicholas Bequelin, the China research director for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, recently spoke with Bruce Einhorn of BusinessWeek's Hong Kong bureau about censorship and the Net in China. Edited excerpts follow:

How big a role do foreign companies play in helping China control the Net? China would not have succeeded in censoring the Net without the support and cooperation of foreign IT companies. This is the inescapable truth. This is the problem that has to be addressed.

Yahoo! (YHOO ) got slammed last year for cooperating with a Chinese government investigation that led to the imprisonment of a journalist. Do you think Yahoo acted irresponsibly?

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: china; communism; freedom; google; humanright; internet; microsoft; yahoo

1 posted on 01/15/2006 1:18:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Does Al Gore know about this?


2 posted on 01/15/2006 1:18:55 PM PST by pcottraux (It's pronounced "P. Coe-troe.")
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To: nickcarraway


WTF?

What a piece of creative writing.


3 posted on 01/15/2006 1:18:59 PM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: nickcarraway


I will concede that it seems China does control GOOGLE.


4 posted on 01/15/2006 1:22:05 PM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: nickcarraway

Or: "How BusinessWeek Pulls Headlines Out Of Its A$$"


5 posted on 01/15/2006 1:29:10 PM PST by billybudd
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To: pcottraux
Does Al Gore know about this?

Does Al Gore know about anything?

6 posted on 01/15/2006 1:37:32 PM PST by jigsaw (God Bless Our Troops!)
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To: in hoc signo vinces
What a piece of creative writing.


7 posted on 01/15/2006 1:37:52 PM PST by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: nickcarraway

BTTT


8 posted on 01/15/2006 1:43:34 PM PST by Fiddlstix (Tagline Repair Service. Let us fix those broken Taglines. Inquire within(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: inquest


How do you define control? Seriously?

It seems to me, I am allowed to post every Chicomm bash opninion I want rather openly on the net. Seems to me, the US still maintains control over the "system critical" servers in regard to the net...remember those were the ones that the UN wanted to ursurp control of.

China's a threat to peace, stability, and freedom within their region...but they hardly "control" the internet.

In Hoc.


9 posted on 01/15/2006 2:06:59 PM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: in hoc signo vinces
How do you define control?

By exerting a very significant effect on what goes on, as the article describes. I'll concede that the headline stretches the limit of semantic accuracy at little, because the Chinese aren't exerting complete control, or even majority control. So that can just be chalked up to a magazine being a little overzealous in coming up with an eye-grabbing headline. But it appears to tell the truth in that China does exert a considerable amount of control, by making big companies engage in self-censorship as the price of admission to the Chinese market.

Anyway, I recommend looking the article over. Newspaper and magazine articles usually pay closer attention to accuracy in the main bodies of their articles than in their headlines.

10 posted on 01/15/2006 4:12:41 PM PST by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: in hoc signo vinces

dontcha mean googer

i'm solly... so solly...

teeman


11 posted on 01/15/2006 5:24:00 PM PST by teeman8r
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To: nickcarraway

I was chatting with a friend in Shanghai, I guess I mentioned a sore subject because I was cut off and can no longer chat with him. When he came home for Christmas, he asked me what happened to me!!! He has had a few of his friends here in the states cutoff from chatting with him. He said they even monitor his cell phone and his land line phones.


12 posted on 01/15/2006 7:06:26 PM PST by dirtydanusa (100% American, no Jap cars, no Chinese shoes.)
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To: nickcarraway
My comment on their web site:

1) Profit is not worth human death, imprisonment or torture. People in companies like Yahoo are obligated to resist. 2) Using cellphone and the internet, the Chinese can circumvent controls within their borders.

Their commentator Einhorn seems to be amoral. People in companies like Yahoo and Google must think what the consequences of turning over people's names will be. This is exactly like the companies that cooperated with Nazi Germany. You must resist early and encourage it to spread. Make the Chinese duplicate the technology behind Yahoo and Google. don't give it to them.

I think China is one of the most inherently unstable societies in the world, for three reasons: 1) They have opened their society to commerce and information. This is like th USSR after Glasnost. People will get the idea of freedom and the technology for resistance. 2) There is a tremendous demographic imbalance between men and women due to their one child policy. The men will go outside the country to find women. The best, most ambitious and intelligent will go. They will come back changed or they will work outside the country for change. 3) There is a powerful underground Church movement in China. They cannot stamp it out. Christianity cannot be stamped out; witness the USSR; after 70 years of atheism, the Church continued. Witness the Roman Empire; at its most powerful, and at Christianity's weakness point, they could not stomp it out--and they tried to, very hard. China will become a Christian majority nation in time. The government will not survive.
13 posted on 01/15/2006 8:35:48 PM PST by Forgiven_Sinner (God is offering you eternal life right now. Freep mail me if you want to know how to receive it.)
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To: dirtydanusa
He said they even monitor his cell phone and his land line phones.

Don't those commies know they can be impeached for that?

I suggest they better get some friends in congress.

Well, never mind...I think they already have friends in congress.

14 posted on 01/15/2006 11:20:00 PM PST by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
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To: nickcarraway

15 posted on 01/15/2006 11:22:30 PM PST by presidio9 (Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.)
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To: nickcarraway
How China Controls the Internet

Through spam. 90% of the spam I receive apparently originates from China, according to the Spamcop method.

16 posted on 01/15/2006 11:36:09 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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