China Law Blog

Shhh~~ Quiet
They've got 1,300,000,000 people to look good, responsible, and harmonious. And they are becoming international...
You are being too negative. They'll improve.

Haha...that's hilarious. The Chinese government is so stupid. They block some sites like the BBC but leave others such as NYT and Washington Post freely available although the NYT is just as critical of China as the BBC.

The Chinese government accomplishes nothing except hitting itself in the foot with the c*nsorship non-sense.

But on the other hand, be careful what you wish for. Once 1.3 billion people have full access to everything, they will probably be angry at their government, but they will likely be even more angry at the NYT, the BBC, etc.

You are even stupider jim for believing in everything the media and your government say bad about China. Use a little of your brain to determine what is right and wrong.

I don’t know what exactly the post is supposed to prove about censorship in China. So a news piece was translated into another language and then edited for length and flow, big deal. All I can take away from this post is that Beijing Evening News had a decent editor. I’m sure as part of his/her job description is to make sure the article was ‘politically correct’ from a Chinese point of view, but so what? That’s often a requirement editors in Western nations are expected to follow as well. There are much starker and more meaningful examples of media censorship in China, an “example” like this dilutes real debate, as spinning the news like this is such a time honored tradition in the self proclaimed “free media” of America’s corporate news providers (not that the West does not have free media, but it certainly has a abundance of media that I would not classify as “free” that tends to overshadow what free media there is).

supersaint & Jiaben,

I stand corrected, the BBC is currently not blocked in China, but it was not so when I was there maybe a year or two ago.

You two missed my point. I would consider myself a so-called "panda hugger." On this site, I mostly defend China's position because I think it's been unfairly treated on some issues.

But ultimately, we are our own worst enemy. I was in China maybe two years ago, we were in a very nice hotel having breakfast, CNN was on, then suddenly it blacked out. Of course, most of us realized it was censorship and not a cable malfunctioned. People all laughed. It was pointless since all we needed to do was take the elevator down to our rooms, open our internet connection and check what happened. If the Chinese government hadn't blacked out the coverage, I probably would not have paid any attention at all. If that's not stupid, I don't know what to call it.

And for a long time the BBC was blocked in China. I found that stupid too. I actually found the NYT and Washington Post to be even more critical of China than the BBC, and yet they were not blocked.

I guess if the Chinese government is going to censor, then might well do a good job at it rather than this half-assed silliness. Perhaps they should relieve those censor bureaucrats of their duty and re-allocate their brain power to more important departments such as welfare for the disabled (when I was in Beijing, I saw kids with physical deformities lying on the street, begging near the Forbidden City), how to provide healthcare to the poor, how to maintain sustainable growth.

Anyway, my two cents.

Chinese media are pathetic because they translate/doctor and publish articles from foreign media. Who else does such a stupid thing? Why they need foreigners to make them feel better about themselves is beyond me. I say forget about what foreigners say about you, good or bad, publish your own stuff, print something original!