No Email for You!

Don’t bother emailing me, because chances are I can’t read it. I can only view my Gmail and Hotmail accounts through a proxy server, and because I have Yahoo! set up to use Javascript, I cannot even access Yahoo! at all (Javascripts don’t work through the proxy server I use).

The audacity of the Chinese authorities never ceases to amaze me. As I sit here writing my third blog about the horrendous Great Firewall of China, I am still overawed by their ability to marginalize its citizens and create dissent where it never would have found refuge.

Thank-you Hu Jintao for keeping China safe from the security breach that is my mother’s email about her bridge club tournament. I know how damaging that was to national security and the harmony of the land, so I deeply thank you for cutting off all my access to nearly ever site with romanized characters.

I think from now on, we should all refer to Hu Jintao as “The Dear Leader, Chairman Hu”.

You Tubetan

I never expected that my second blog would also be about censorship and blocking, but life is full of little surprises. As I speak, security forces are patrolling Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the west of the People’s Republic of China. Again, they bring the issue to the common person. With the blocking of YouTube, those within China who use the service are automatically aware that they are doing so as part of their declared “people’s war” of security and propaganda (at least they’re calling a spade a spade) launched against the Dalai Lama.

Maybe they [the ruling Communist Party] are correctly banking on the people’s ignorance to back them, because they certainly aren’t trying to hide the reality from the Western world. They blatantly and defiantly declared that they will not heed international calls for restraint. Within the Chinese news, they are acknowledging the situation, but it is not front page news. It is second or third page at best and is shown as a group of criminals who are trying to upset the security of Lhasa; it is always noted that the government, the implicit heroes, have swiftly and successfully held the security of the region.

The average Chinese citizen seems oblivious to what is going on and why should they care? In their reality, Tibet is a part of China and belongs to China, end of story, full stop. The international propensity for a complete lack of understanding of China’s reasoning and rationale can be seen by their further calls that China somehow commence a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Someone needs to inform the global community that that dialogue will only begin the day after hell freezes over. Not only can they not begin, but China cannot even broach the subject as if it exists, because it doesn’t. To admit the avenue even exists is to admit that their hegemony over the region is anything less than 100% just and founded.

With America’s recent indebtedness to China through their bankrolling of the the Iraqi war, their [American] teeth are virtually non-existent. Indeed, with China emerging as ‘the place to be’ economically, no nation has stepped up to even suggest anything more than the rhetoric of “please be gentle” (which, as I said, has already been rebuked).

To all the Han Chinese in China, Tibet is a part of China, and that is the line they have been spoon fed since the occupation. In a country where current university students are oblivious to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, expecting anyone to remember a time when Tibet was anything other than 100% a part of the People’s Republic of China, is just lunacy. The only way to try to get an understanding is to suggest that they imagine now living under Japanese rule since World War Two. When put in those terms, and when they understand that the Tibetans, and indeed Uyghur, dislike Han as much as Han dislike the Japanese — and indeed view them as occupiers — can they understand the situation even in part.

Again, had they not blocked YouTube, I most likely would be watching some random cute Japanese girl saying something unintelligible and not posting this dissident blog. If their actions are just, they have nothing to fear. Only when you fear truth do you try to hide something. Indeed, all Chinese policy is based on ‘fear’. What a way to live; what a way to rule.

Do I Really Want to Talk Censorship?

The word ‘censorship’ often conjures up images of authority figures limiting the expression of those beneath them for the purpose of securing the former’s position. In its current form, however, the Great Firewall of China does not exactly do that, and instead it casts a net that at times seems more than a little arbitrary and illogical.

I can understand and accept that the topics that are most sensitive to Chinese politics are blocked (I am not nor have ever been a human rights advocate), but what is unfathomable is that they would incite dissention from those who are not predisposed to it, simply by bringing it to our daily lives. A case in point is Ace Comics in Australia. They sell comic books. That’s all. But their site remains blocked on this side of the Firewall. Why? What possible reason could there be to block such a random site? It would be interesting to hear the leadership’s rationale for this ostensibly capricious limitation; how would it be possible for them to spin it as a way of maintaining social harmony and protecting the sanctity of the pureness that is the Chinese Internet.

Not only is the subject matter not always systematically determined, but also there’s an imbalance of the methods in which the blockade is imposed. Some sites, such as YouTube, are open in a limited capacity. As long as you do not try to watch politically sensitive videos, for example the ‘89 ‘incident’, you are unfettered to view whatever you want. I’m not entirely certain how this is carried out, but perhaps it has something to do with the meta tags (the keywords imbedded in the HTML write up on each page that tells you [and search engines] about the page’s content). It would seem that this too could be done at other blocked sites with content that is not exclusively repugnant to the State. Wikipedia is the best and most obvious blockage. Surely there are many Wiki pages that are potentially damaging to the security (read, CCP’s grip on power) of China, yet, for every one article that is damning, there are a thousand more that are utterly irrelevant. Why not simply block the problematic pages in the same manner as YouTube is being barred?

The reality of living in China is choosing and getting to know your proxy server. You and your proxy server may end up being closer than you and your spouse as you navigate the turgid waters of the cracks in the Firewall as it attempts to stem the free flow of information. There a few problems with proxy servers, including speed, accessibility and effectiveness. Some are quite effective at getting to the sites you are trying to reach, but are so painfully slow that it isn’t worth the bother, whereas others are altogether blocked and inaccessible. Once you find one that suits you, it’s easy to become lulled into a false sense of security. More often than not, at least in my experience, proxies have a short shelf-life, and not only do you have to then seek a new proxy, but also you may have some housekeeping to do, such as cleaning up all those bookmarks that were to proxied sites.

There are some times when a proxy server is not enough to break through the Wall. Many in the West know of the religious group with the acronym FG (I won’t say it for fear of not being able to log onto this page), which if you try to access any page about, immediately comes up blocked even when using a proxy server. I can use a proxy to navigate Wiki quite easily, but as soon as I venture near the dreaded FG, a block comes up. At least that has been my experience so far (keeping in mind, I haven’t been tenaciously seeking out that info as my interest is quite low).

So what’s the point? Why this blog? What do I hope to accomplish? I suppose I would like to share with those of you who have never experienced the Great Firewall of China, the utter ridiculousness and capriciousness with which its implementation often takes the form. I am unable to post this blog without going through a proxy server. Talking about censorship or anything mildly political is not really my cup of tea, and had I not been forced to go through a proxy, I assuredly would have chosen another topic for my first blog entry. Thus, the State, through its random blockades of information and access, are fostering dissention where it previously had not existed, the precise opposite of their intent.