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The writing on China’s FireWall



It’s Sunday morning in Beijing and too early to wake up local friends. But I know my friend in New Delhi is up early, sipping chai and posting a status message I want to read. We would catch up for a few minutes on Facebook before starting the day’s work — until the Chinese censors began poking it.

The Great Firewall won’t let me write on your Wall. It has also cut me off from birthdays and dozens of email ids I never stored elsewhere. During the last week when Beijing released economic growth figures that indicated China is currently the best-performing major economy, another telling statistic made news. Chinese netizens numbered 338 million by June, including over 50 million Chinese bloggers. I live in a nation with the world’s biggest online community that now surpasses the population of the US, but there’s not much that we can actually surf online.

Last month, Beijing’s IT Ministry mandated the installation of anti-porn software on all computers sold in China before July 1. Netizens complained that the confused software would even block pictures of pigs — and Garfield — for resemblance to human skin. So the order was stalled after an online outcry and debates that the software was spyware.

But since China’s worst ethnic riots that killed 192 in northwest Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi on July 5, the Internet lockdown tightened. Officials alleged that overseas separatists instigated rioters through the Internet, so just as we had got used to living without downloading YouTube videos, social networking sites Twitter and Facebook also vanished.

During routine news searches before I wrote this blog, Google was blocked several times for a few moments each. The shutdown may continue until the politically sensitive 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China is safely over on October 1.

China’s online population is increasingly influencing the outcome of anti-corruption cases and tracking accountability in governance. The leadership monitors online views daily, for signs of stability, discontent and dissidence. But I need my Facebook friends now more than ever as I countdown the number of expats still in Beijing. My friends and my friends’ friends are all going away, partly due to recession relocations. A local magazine cover for July asked if Beijing’s Homo Expaticus is heading for extinction.

I want to read what Internet analyst and journalist Rebecca MacKinnon at the Hong Kong University has to say about the latest censorship. But her website and blog is blocked.

I try the China Beat where international writers track Chinese media coverage. Blocked.

Okay, keep looking. What is the Time magazine blogging from China? Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.

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Posted by Reshma Patil on Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 6:13 pm 
Filed under China · Tagged , , , , ,

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  • http://bambooexpressions.blogspot.com Peter

    Five years ago the most commonly blocked sites were CNN, BBC, New York Times. Then wikipedia. Now those are all accessible, but more and more social-networking type stuff is getting blocked. Lots of personal blogs blocked too. If you wanna party in China, better be the Communist Party.

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  • TDS

    ‘Netizens’ don’t go to Facebook or Youtube or CNN or BBC or NYT. The majority of them get news from Taiwan/HK, get videos from Yukou/Tudou/56.com and network on Fanfou/Xiaonei(Chinese version of Facebook). The blockages of english websites is more of an inconvenience for expats then your average netizen.

    One interesting thing I’ve noted though seems to be as more english social networking sites get blocked, sites from Taiwan/HK and overseas Chinese websites become unblocked; even Apple Daily was unblocked in June though now reblocked but nonetheless kind of a reverse 180 on the censors part that seems truly bizzare.

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    Jay Reply:
    July 20th, 2009 at 3:38 am

    I live in Toronto where there is a sizeable Chinese expat community. They tell me that even Canadian-Chinese sites cannot be viewed in China. I have been to China only once and have vowed never to go again.
    I really applaud you for the courage that you have shown in staying there all this while.

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    Inst Reply:
    August 30th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    I’d be amused if at some point in time it turned out that Chinese internet business were involved in bribery schemes to get their international rivals blocked, or to have their local rivals shut down by the government. I suppose it creates a second motivation for their complicity with government censorship; they’d be complicit in producing their own competitive advantage.

    Re: Mz. Patil:

    If you’ve checked, James Fallows, an Atlantic editor who spent time in China (I bet he got bored and left) bought a VPN service to get past the GFW. It was $35 or so and reasonably fast. He also explained why the VPN service isn’t blocked by the government; the government isn’t interested in censoring the people who use the VPN service since the people who can afford the $35 can’t be kept under their information control regime.

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  • vikram

    I am sure the like of Mayawati, Shiv Sena and most of the Indian castiest and regionalist (if that is a word) parties would love to implement a blocker like that if (god forbid) they come anywhere near to power in India. And of course if they can make any head to tail of this internet/ facebook thingie.

    but anyway our online community should be quite small and comparatively inconsequntial as voter base for these parties since even if the keyboard patriots are quite active with their bums glued to their seats making the effort to get voter registered and actually vote on the D day will be too much of a ask. sssaaaaadddd

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    Anil Reply:
    August 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Go easy ith hatred for non congress parties… Last tiem I checked only party which has flirted with emergency happend to be congress to save skin fo Indira Gandhi… It has become a fashion to castigate Maywati and likes even when it has hardly anything to do with them..

    Trust me arrogant congressi would be the one to indulge in those forays if and when the furture of first family is in danger like it happend in past.. rest are very humble people and know thier limitataion and have no fixation with power..

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    Rajeev Reply:
    August 12th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

    Who can forget emergency declared by Indira Gandhi?

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  • http://www.sellcar-uk.com/ Fredhixton

    I understand now how Bollywood help in selling cars. Basing the fact that it was risky for drivers on their cars to load and travel in such a rocky place. It wasn’t helpful for the drivers but helpful for the marketers . Thanks for sharing.

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  • arun

    The dilution is because of ‘Bureaucratic Control’ a la “Yes Minister”. Bold decisions, require political will which is conspicuous by its absence due to “coalition dharma”.

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  • Ramesh Talwani

    CONGRESS IS STILL LIVING IN FOOLS PARADISE..THE APPROACH IS SAME AS NEHRU HAD. NEHRU DAMAGED THE PSYCHE OF THE NATION.CORRUPTION BECAME WAY OF LIFE.UNDER KAMRAJ PLAN WHEN RAILWAY MINISTER SKPATIL WAS REMOVED ,HE GAVE A SPEECH IN BOMBAY,WHICH MEANT ,PEOPLE TALK OF CORRUPTION,WHAT CORRUPTION,IF YOU WANT TO SEE CORRUPTION SEE IN CENTRE,HE WAS REINDUCTED IN AS CABINET MINISTER.
    NO WONDER CONGRESS HAS PROGRESSED IN CORRUPTION.
    NOW TALKING OF NCTC,SEE THE INCIDENCES HAPPENING IN DELHI ITSELF UNDER DIRECT CHARGE OF HOME MINISTER .
    CAN NATION BE EVER SAFE UNDER SUCH LEADERSHIP.
    GOD BLESS OUR COUNTRY.

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  • Abu Ahmed

    We have built-in some safeguards while allowing FDI in retail in, let us build some more in order to make sure that there will be more of beneficial and less or adversarial effects on our economy and people.

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  • ssraja

    Sir let the FDI come .Because these middle men r looting the farmers for centuries in this country .what farmer earns in farming for the work for a year
    a broker makes in a minute.the sad part is that a farmer dosn’t have proper dhoti ,where as a middle man moves in a mercedes .the country’s middle men have made lot of money and they r dictating terms.let the farmer see good days.

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