——ship in china

There has been a lot of talk lately about censorship in China. I thought I would touch on this issue from the perspective of a Westerner living in China. To provide you with a background of my initial views on China I recommend you read www.bigtroubleinlittlechina.org/2009/10/national-day-in-china-part-i .

Google has recently pulled out of China, or re-directed traffic through its Hong Kong site, over the hacking of some of its Gmail accounts and the censorship of its search engine in China. I will not be discussing the hacking of emails as this is beyond by knowledge and interest. What I will be discussing is internet access in China. First, the Web sites that cannot be accessed fall into three major categories: adult sites, sites that report on/discuss certain recent or historical events, and foreign social networking sites.

I will start with third category and work back. The reason I say foreign networking sites is that China has its own versions of Facebook, Myspace, etc.. which are not blocked. The blocking serves the dual purpose of censoring and of providing an opportunity for local companies to develop their own products. I do not own a Facebook account so the effect of not accessing it is not an issue for me. But I get the impression that the disruption is limited to mainly foreigners visiting China who want to chronicle their adventures here. Thus I don’t think a lack of Facebook is registering very high on the list of concerns of local Chinese. This leads to somewhat more interesting questions: 1. Is the content on these Chinese Social Networking sites censored? Yes, as every company, country or group use one form or another of censorship. 2. What is censored and how is it done? I do not know the answers. But I suspect the censoring involves limiting any discussion that involves immanent and mass “protest”.

There is a misconception about the censorship of sites that deal with certain recent or historical events. Not all sites that do or have ever mentioned these events are censored. Only sites that deal almost exclusively with these events are restricted. It is important to note that news sites such as the BBC, The New York Times, Al Jeezera, etc. are all accessible in China, thus information from outside China is plentiful. Many Chinese do not read English at a high enough level to make use of these sites, but they are available. I think that not dealing with some important issues from the past is problematic and very dangerous. China is hardly the only country that does this, but it is something that needs to be dealt with in the near future.

The third category is adult websites. Now the best argument I have heard for why they should not be blocked is “once you break the chain of freedom, we are all constrained by it”. While this does hold water, China has many more issues to deal with first. Freedom is not simply a word; just because someone decrees you are free, does not mean you are free. True freedom comes from the ability to make choices that affect your life. The ability to go to a good school, regardless of who your parents are, the ability to get a job because you have the talent and desire. These are the indications of freedom, and the things that need to be achieved before we worry about how many adult Web sites are available.

China has many issues, some of which risk derailing the giant, but as I look back on the history of the United States and its seemingly inevitable rise to power, I cannot help but think that China is on the same path. The climb will not go smoothly, but the Chinese don’t except it to. The question is: how bumpy will it get?