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China's Great Firewall is a barrier to trade
CHINA'S GREAT FIREWALL should be seen as a trade barrier and the country should be dragged before the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a European Commission official has agreed.
Bringing China to heel should be easy for Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission. After all she took down both Microsoft and Intel and imposed tough sanctions, so China should be no problem.
Kroes, who is also in charge of Europe's digital agenda, said the firewall is a trade barrier as long as it blocks communication for Internet users, preventing the free flow of information. She said this is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO.
According to Reuters, she happened to be visiting the China headquarters of video sharing company Tudou, a rival of Google's Youtube that is blocked in China because its government requires Internet companies to block or remove objectionable content, including pornography and any information that is "deemed sensitive" by the glorous Communist Party.
Kroes said that she is pushing wherever she can just to get European enterprises a level playing field in China and the other way around.
The US has thought about taking China's Internet restrictions to the WTO. However the WTO has upheld China's right to censor printed material and audiovisual content.
Kroes said it is significant that companies such as Tudou, which uploads user videos, show that China's younger generation is taking an active role in tackling censorship.
However Tudou officials pointed out that it adheres to government censorship regulations, and said it deletes 100,000 videos every month for content that involves pornography or politics. µ
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Blocking politics is a great idea. If only it could be liberally applied in the form of duct tape to the mouths of politicians everywhere.
I knew Duncan Idaho, and you sir, are no Duncan Idaho.
The real Idaho had a rebellious streak that survived even death. The imposter is actually O'Brien, and the Party got him a long time ago.
2+2=5
Hey Duncan Idaho, since has it become your government's duty to be your child's parent? *You* are supposed to be the parent here, not the suits in Beijing. Even without porn, "politics", or anti-communist rhetoric, the Internet is not a nice place, and questionable material will fall through the gaps before the Ministry of Truth can analyze it. So, where does that leave you, and where does it leave your child? With a false sense of security? With a limited world-view? It's not just porn and politics the Chinese are filtering out.
And it's great that China is investing in infrastructure. If they didn't, there'd be unrest in the streets. It's great that they buy Western debt--at a loss no less--to keep the exports and their factories humming, and the people employed, placated. What good is democracy if you have a fine job making jeans in a factory? Why issue someone a card allowing them to work in cities when they *should* just stay in the rural zones? They should be happy with the choices made for them.
Lucky you too! If you were living in China now, you'd get to keep your two children since you had a girl first!
Duncan may favor the censorship and murderous policies of the totalitarian Chinese government, but those of us that are still sane value our freedom to peruse any media we'd like without the threat of jail or execution. Giving up freedom to keep "the children" from seeing a boob is a poor trade off. I would rather not live in a country that slaughters its citizens in the streets for pro-democracy protests, thank you.
The main reason China has been able to invest in its infrastructure, as you describe, is because billions of dollars a second are pouring into the country from the West. This is because industry in China has a massive advantage: it can manufacture goods without any regard at all for the environment or employee quality of life. This results in absolutely horrendous levels of pollution (I've seen it first hand - a continuous pall of smog and grey sludge from Hong Kong to Nanning), and a highly impoverished workforce.
Also, when developing the country's infrastructure, the Govt does not need to pay attention to local considerations. So if they want to build the world's biggest dam? No problem, just evict 100 million people and job done.
To be fair, the Govt has begun to realise the problems above and is starting to try to improve the situation. But this has more to do with the fact that environmental and social damage is beginning to hurt economic growth and cause social unrest.
One problem the 'omnipotent' Govt has though: more often than not, the local provincial authorities just ignore them when told to clean things up.
All that said, if the Chinese Govt was to become a benevolent and progressive force, it would certainly get things done quicker than it ever could be here!
My wife is Chinese and her family is midle, midle up in the government.
Scrubbing the porn off the internet is great. I have a four years old daughter, and a two years old son. Where do you think I'll feel more at ease with them and the internet in 10 years?
You guys blabber like dim witted parrot freedom freedom and you don't think.
China spent over 100 billions in the last five years revamping the entire infrastructure of the country, from roads to hospitals, etc. That's not on CNN of course, as how the hell do they do that and we can't even repair the roof let alone pay our debts? Kinda makes us looks like idiots.
Their centralized government gives them this kind of horsepower that we don't have. Here it would never happen, it would be drowned in sub committees etc.
And of course, lets not forget we don't have that kind of dough anymore loll.
Yes, they have a tough stance on politics. Its our way or the highway. Yes they scrub the internet of politics and porn.
What's so bad about that?
You guys never lived there, you don't know what you're talking about. Life is harder there, but its getting better, and that's thanks to their lack of democracy.