冷知识 Cool Knowledge

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/asia/18china.html

China Imposes New Internet Controls

By SHARON LAFRANIERE

Published: December 17, 2009

China’s government censors have taken fresh aim at the Internet, rolling out new measures that limit ordinary citizens’ ability to set up personal Web sites and to view hundreds of other Web sites offering films, video games and other forms of entertainment.

The authorities say that the stricter controls are intended to protect children from pornography, to limit the piracy of films, music, and television shows, and to make it hard to perpetuate Internet scams. But the measures also appear designed to enhance the government’s already strict control of any organized political opposition.

In various pronouncements, top propaganda and security officials have stressed anew the need to police the Internet on ideological and security grounds.

The “Internet has become an important avenue through which anti-China forces infiltrate, sabotage and magnify their capabilities for destruction,” wrote the public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, in the Dec. 1 issue of Qiushi, a magazine published by the Communist Party’s Central Committee.

“Therefore it represents a new challenge to the public security authority in maintaining national security and social stability,” he said.

The newly announced restrictions are the government’s broadest effort to control the Internet since last June, when it tried to require manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers, experts said. Officials scaled back that program, known as the Green Dam-Youth Escort, after an outcry by both ordinary Internet users and corporations.

Under the new initiative, unveiled piecemeal over the past month, more than 700 Web sites have been shut down, including many that offered free movie, television dramas and music downloads. Included was BT China, which recorded at least 250,000 visits daily. China’s largest file-sharing site, Very CD, must obtain a new license or face possible shutdown as well, according to media reports.

Individuals have also been banned from registering Web sites ending in .cn, China’s country code domain name. That domain is now limited to registered businesses. Although individuals can still register Web sites in other domains, such as .com and .net, the new rule “will have a negative impact on the vibrancy of the Chinese Internet,” Kenneth Jarrett, vice chairman of the communications firm APCO Worldwide’s China region, said in an e-mail message.

“Local e-mail e-commerce startups and individuals will find it difficult to apply,” he wrote.

Huang Xiwei, the founder of BT China, criticized the move in an interview posted on Sina.com, a popular Chinese Internet portal. “Not just film and video sites are affected,” Mr. Huang said in the interview. “All websites owned by individuals will gradually exit the arena. All paths leading to a future have been blocked.”

The government has also intensified pressure on cellphone companies to prevent transmissions on online pornography. In response, China Mobile, the nation’s largest cellphone operator, has suspended its practice of paying third party providers for content downloaded over its cellular network, according to the Chinese media. Industry specialists said the disruption has dealt a blow to an industry that serves an estimated nearly 200 million mobile Internet users.

Experts say the latest measures are a continuation of the state’s increasingly sophisticated effort to control the Internet’s influence on more than 300 million Chinese users. Earlier this year, China blocked Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and thousands of other Web sites.

Some analysts predicted those restrictions were temporary and would be lifted after a spate of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. But they have remained in place.

“The trend in China is toward tighter and tighter control,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in Chinese Internet issues. “They are basically improving their censorship mechanisms.”

Reaction to the government’s latest crackdown runs the gamut from enthusiastic support from Chinese parents who want to shield their children from pornography to harsh criticism from those who view the Internet as the best antidote to government propaganda and state-controlled media.

As in other countries, Ms. MacKinnon said, “there is a segment of Chinese society that is very freaked out about what is going on the Internet and want the government to do something.”

On the other end of the spectrum are college students who are accustomed to downloading music, films and other material easily and cheaply. “The government’s actions have affected their lifestyles,” said Professor Hu Yong at Peking University in Beijing. “So it is likely they would react in a big way.”

In interviews, students at Beijing universities described the new measures as unnecessary and bound to be ineffective. They noted that pirated CDs were ubiquitous in Beijing and predicted that Internet users would find ways around the new online obstacles.

Still, Wang Shuang, a 20-year-old student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, complained, “Since the BT was closed, I cannot find all the American television series that I have been watching, like ‘The Mentalist.’ ”

Zeng Li, a third-year architecture student at Tsinghua University, said his studies were suffering. “I often use BT Web sites to download foreign resources which are rarely available in China, like architectural design materials,” he said.

He is also deprived of one way to relax, he said, because he can no longer go to the BT sites to download movies banned in China. “The shutdown has had a great influence on me,” he said.

Research was contributed by Li Bibo, Jonathan Ansfield, Sun Huan and Zhao Nan.

07.12.2009

China: Hope in dialogue

Isaac Mao is a Chinese Internet pioneer of the first hour and the founder of the first Chinese bloggers’ conference in Shanghai. He talks about the state of blogging in China.

http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,4964653,00.html

When Hu Yong, an Internet pioneer and professor at Beijing University’s School of Journalism and Communication, published his translation of Nicholas Negroponte’s “Being Digital“ 12 years ago, he inspired many young people to go and discover the Internet for themselves.

Nevertheless, when the Web site cnblog.org published an article entitled “Attract More Bloggers – There Should be Thousands of Bloggers in China” in October 2002, it hardly seemed likely that this call would be answered.

In 2002, there were less than 1,000 bloggers in China. In 2003, that number rose to 100,000 and then to 300,000 in 2004. By 2005, China had around a million bloggers.

The first Chinese Bloggers’ Conference was held in Shanghai under the groundbreaking slogan “Everybody Is Somebody.” Since then, the annual conference has become increasingly symbolic of a movement that grows from the roots up.

Business Angels’ investment in young start-ups has given the sector an important impetus and encouraged newcomers. Following the appearance of several large Internet portals on the scene (Sina, Sohu, Netease etc.), blogs have lost their insider’s mystique and become accessible to all. Today, millions of Chinese are updating their blogs on a daily basis.

Blogging in bulk

As the popularity of blogs has increased, so too has their effect upon society. This simple publication method has given Internet users new awareness about the possibilities of the Internet and its potential as a platform for freedom of expression.

Before 2004, blogs were the exclusive terrain of Internet culture pioneers. That all began to change, however, when Muzi Mei and other authors of popular literature started blogging and the word “blog” entered into everyday vocabulary as a description of an Internet diary.

In many sectors, bloggers sprang up as trendsetters with their own distinctive voices. In the IT sector, for example, Keso’s clear-eyed analysis of industry developments earned him a large following.

Celebrities like the actress Xu Jinglei also found that they could use their blogs to win themselves more fans. Celebrity blog postings enable fans to get to know a different, personal side of their favorite star. That’s why Xu Jinglei’s blog quickly became the most popular personal blog in the Internet.

The journalist Wang Xiaofeng was one of the first Chinese bloggers. His provoking postings have attracted a large following, and he has been able to win himself more influence than he could have done in the traditional media.

Room for discussion

Many fans took their cue from the celebrities and began to use the Internet to share their own personal experience and opinions.

Back in 2002, this newfound spontaneity represented a huge cultural shift. Up until this point, discussion had only been possible through forums and Web portals. Comment on mainstream media reports could only be made in accordance with the Web portal’s conditions of use.

Nowadays, blogs have become news sources in their own right. The reports are written by so called “citizen journalists.”

Since 2006, bloggers like Zhou Shuguang (BOBs Chinese Jury member in 2008) and Laohumiao have awakened public attention. They report as independent writers on important events across the country.

Although citizen journalists are often criticized and the medium is in its infancy, they have already been able to bring attention to weaknesses in the state of mainstream reporting in China.

New medium – new self-invention

The majority of Chinese still have a strong sense of collective consciousnesses when it comes to expressing their opinions. Many individuals, for example, will join groups which profess similar opinions to their own.

This crowd-following culture is also prominent amongst blog writers. Nevertheless, blogs remain a good outlet for the process of individualization since, in comparison to the collective consciousness of society in general, the collective consciousness of small groups is more likely to increase diversity.

Since smaller groups can offer their members better protection and support, they make it easier for individual expression to develop. In China this is crucial since groups are, to a certain extent, able to support individual members who fall foul of the authorities.

The most important function of blogging in China is connecting people with the same interests. Blogs make it much easier to find people who share the same hopes and ideas.

Censorship from above

The Chinese authorities have never stopped trying to control public opinion. Instead of recognizing the social importance of diversity of opinion, the authorities have refined their methods of control in order to restrict the activities of Internet companies and the Internet infrastructure in general.

As well as the installment of the “Great Firewall of China,” the Chinese authorities have expended great energy on developing a system for monitoring Internet companies. In 2006, a measure was introduced under the pretext of fighting crime that forces all Web sites to register with the Ministry for Information. Only after registration is the Web site activated. Instead of limiting criminality, this move has restricted freedom of expression.

The authorities have also introduced measures to encourage self-censorship in Internet companies. Users often accuse Web sites such as tianya and douban of self-censorship, even thought they do not have a political focus. Well-known international firms such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have had similar experiences.

Internet users are faced with a tricky dilemma: on the one hand they are reluctant to support the companies’ self-censorship, but on the other hand they do not want to be forced to lose the companies’ services altogether.

According to an investigation carried out by China expert and former CNN correspondent Rebecca MacKinnon, all Chinese blog hosts practice self-censorship.

Some hosts automatically replace certain keywords with asterisks (for example Hu Jintao becomes Hu **). Others automatically delete blog entries with certain keywords or even lock the blog completely.

Wikipedia has been locked for two years because it refused to compromise. Shi Zhao, the head of Wikipedia China has his hands tied. Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, however, is clear: “When the Chinese finally scrap this control system, Internet users will know how to judge Wikipedia’s stance. Companies like Google will not win the recognition of the Chinese people.” However, for the moment, compromise remains just about the only way for Internet companies to survive and keep their market share in China.

Beating censors with soya sauce and mitten crabs

Censorship and avoiding censorship has become a regular cat-and-mouse game. The authorities claim that their surveillance of the Internet and intimidation of companies and individuals is done on a legal basis. In reality, they are acting outside the law.

Web users are left with only two options: either they censor themselves and restrict their own freedom of thought or they change their terminology.

More and more people are starting to choose the latter method. They have invented many new words in order to avoid persecution by the authorities.

Some examples: “to fetch soya sauce” means to ignore current events – or at least to appear to. “Sit-up” means an unnatural death. The best-known examples are “mitten crab” and “lama,” both of which sound similar to other Chinese words.

“Mitten crab” has come to mean the censorship system, “lama” denotes strategies for getting around it.

From exchange of ideas to targeted action

The Internet’s spontaneous publication of opinion is increasingly translating into action – both in the Internet and on the street.

In July 2009, for example, Bei Feng started a campaign calling for people to send postcards to the remand center in which blogger Guo Baofeng was being held. This initiative led to the release of Guo Baofeng, just two weeks after his arrest.

Many lawyers, amongst them Liu Xiaoyuan (winner of the 2009 BOBs Jury Award for Best Chinese Weblog), are publishing legal analyses which risk getting their practices black-listed.

Not long ago, the publication of Professor Hu Yong’s translation of Clay Shirky’s book “Here Comes Everybody” attracted much attention in China. In contrast to the publication of  “Being Digital,” Hu Yong used social networking to publicize the book. The translation was received with great enthusiasm, but Internet users also made criticisms and suggested improvements, to which Hu Yong responded in his blog.

Now, 12 years on from the publication of “Being Digital,” the professor can enter into contact with his users and readers. Nowadays, Internet activity is a dialogue in which the public can also take part. Therein perhaps, lies China’s hope.

Isaac Mao is one of China’s best-known bloggers and the organizer of the Chinese Bloggers’ Conference, which first took place in Shanghai in 2005. Mao is also a software developer, a social learning researcher, director of the Social Brain Foundation and sits on the advisory board of Global Voices and several Web 2.0 businesses. He has often spoken out courageously about censorship in China and has written an open letter to Google, asking the company to take a stand against the Chinese government’s filtering methods.

Editor: Sean Sinicio

http://special.globaltimes.cn/2009-11/488006.html
The Bold and the Beautiful
• Source: Global Times
• [22:27 November 26 2009]

Ai Weiwei employs 9,000 school backpacks to form the message “She led a happy life in this world for seven years”, dedicated to the memory of Yang Xiaowan who died in the Sichuan earthquake last year. This artwork is exhibited in the “So Sorry” Exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany until January 17 next year. Photo: Courtesy of Ai Weiwei

By Jiang Xueqing
Reports of the death of blogging appear greatly exaggerated.
Like the loud-mouthed street hawker who kick-started China’s market economy in 1979, a new breed of blogger is employing all available means to pioneer freedom of speech to a ravenous mainland market in 2009.
The newly-published Bold Chinese Blog showcases public intellectuals who refuse to remain silent, dare to confront, are capable of clarifying their opinions to the public and opening up the frontiers of freedom by making comments and taking actions, according to Chan Yuen-Ying, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong.
As the Internet enjoys much broader freedom than newspapers and broadcast companies, the best blogging can often be found in the cracks between traditional and new media.
“Blogging is like making love without wearing a condom,” said magazine reporter Wang Xiaofeng, one of 17 named in the book.
Such bold characters as the writer Han Han, playwright Sha Yexin or architect Ai Weiwei assert that the Internet’s relative openness and freedom has helped the government maintain social stability.
“Some officials want to reinforce the dam rather than draining the water, but it’s not working,” Ai said. “Without proper actions, the quake lake will collapse sooner or later. Like drains, blogs helped the government resolve conflicts and relieved its pressure.”
Zhang Yiwu, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University, agreed with Ai that blogs have made a significant contribution to freedom of expression in China. However, he said, some Chinese web users including bloggers are “too free” to say whatever is on their mind.
“Without a broad view of the world and enough awareness of what democracy really is, they are not open-minded to social diversity and prejudiced against a lot of subjects, such as race and sex,” claimed Zhang. Lou Jing fell victim to this prejudice. During her participation in a talent show held by the Shanghai Eastern Cable TV, the media focused on her background: she was reportedly an illegitimate daughter of an African-American man. After divorce, her Shanghainese mother raised her alone. Hundreds of web users then racially abused Lou and her mother online.
“Lacking ethical and legal bindings, Chinese web users just use the Internet as a way to vent out subconsciously whatever can’t be said in public,” Zhang said.
“The Americans, on the contrary, pay much more attention to the political correctness of topics about race and sex, since they have formed a cultural atmosphere about these sensitive issues in their society.”

Chinese web users must therefore be held responsible for libel or spreading false information that might cause social panic, he insisted. For example, an angry ex-boyfriend posted an entirely false story in October that waitress Yan Deli was a prostitute infected with HIV/AIDS and listed all the phone numbers of her clients.

“Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to make things up,” he said. “We should strike a balance between protecting civil rights and maintaining social stability.”
The number of Chinese bloggers hit 181 million by June 30, according to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center.
As people find it difficult to have their opinions published on the traditional media, more Chinese are turning to the web to publish what they see and what they think, sparking a rise in citizen journalism, according to Chan. The public voice grows louder and more open, some observers have noted. Many formerly taboo issues barely seem to merit blocking at all today, Ai argued.
“Now there are more possibilities and a higher degree of freedom in Chinese society,” Ai said. “Ideological control no longer fits, nor can it convince any people anymore.”
The exact same restrictions and controls occur in other parts of the world, claimed an expert who requested anonymity. As an example, he cited the Guardian newspaper of England report this September that the British oil trader Trafigura had dumped toxic waste in waters off the Ivory Coast.
A high court injunction forbad reporting of this case by traditional media but within hours of the ban, both the case and the ban were revealed on Twitter.
Ai himself turned to Twitter after his blogs were closed and became a fan of brief, penetrating punchlines.
“Chairman Mao was the first in the world to use Twitter,” Ai said. “All his quotations are within 140 words.”
Tofu & Twitter
On November 3, Ai sent a Twitter that volunteers and staff members of his studio had sent a package of applications for the disclosure of government information on the Sichuan earthquake last year to the education department of Sichuan Province.
At the same time, they were busy sending similar applications to other provincial government branches, such as the department of civil affairs, the department of construction and earthquake administration. They had raised several hundred specific questions to each department in an attached document to the application, which was based on one year’s research and investigation by dozens of volunteers.
To write a blog, Ai often racks his brains and knows his words might reach maybe 10,000 readers. Twitter is different, he said. He never knows how many people will read his message as it is constantly reposted by other Twitterers, spreading fast like a virus.
Because of its high speed and unknown scope of distribution, Ai believes Twitter will replace the traditional blog.
“A bullet targeting nowhere and anywhere is the most dangerous,” he said.
Volunteers for his project were first recruited via a post on Ai’s blog last year. In that post, he called on people to travel to earthquake-stricken areas and collect names of students who died in the disaster, hoping to reveal the truth and identify responsibility for “tofu” collapsed buildings.
“When the government refused to disclose the names of the victims, the common people saw the possibility of participating in a major public activity,” he said. “Democracy is all about participation. It’s not based on the decision of a government, but the participation of all citizens with political conscience and responsibility.”
Blogging changed Ai’s view of the world, his relationship with society and even his lifestyle.
“I became a one-man media,” he said. “Before blogging, I was living in the Middle Ages. Now my feelings for time and space are entirely different.”
His Sina blog was the most frequently updated, averaging 2.5 posts a day over the last three years. He told Global Times he often thought the story he was writing might be the last.
Because of a sensitive date, all three of his blogs were closed simultaneously earlier this year. At time of closing, he had made more than 2,700 posts and had received 12,070,000 page views.
Wang Xiaofeng once did a survey with the China Sexology Association on whether Chinese women are satisfied with their sex life. After the results came out, he wanted to post them on his blog, but somehow failed no matter how hard he tried.
Wondering what went wrong, Wang tried posting the survey line by line.
Finally, he found the source of his trouble: a percentage in the survey coincided with a sensitive date. Later, he registered an independent domain name.
Attractive & addictive
Freedom of expression has entered a new phase, according to Hu Yong, a specialist in new media studies at the School of Journalism and Communication in Peking University.
Public intellectual bloggers, who used to play an insignificant role during the age of the Internet forum, are now taking center stage, he said.
There are three kinds of blog, he said:
• blogs by “angry youth”, young urban residents expressing indignation towards social, cultural and ethical issues in contemporary China;
• mainstream blogs, written by the middle class in big cities, mostly talking about lifestyle and fashion; and
• business-related.
For many Chinese, blogging is a new way to take part in politics. As people have limited channels of political participation, this new channel is helpful and effective as far as Hu is concerned.
“The negative side is many bloggers are keen to make naïve and extreme criticisms, which lack systematic thinking,” he said. “Without reasonable discussions, people cannot make sound judgments or find solutions to a problem.”
It’s only natural for Chinese bloggers to make irrational remarks, he said, as there was no such space for expression before and the Internet has become the only open outlet.
“As the flood from all over the country hits the same water gate, a violent eruption will definitely come up,” he said. “The officials can’t only blame web users for being irrational.”
If the government could encourage the traditional media to open up, encourage social interactions, enhance direct communication between officials and common people and provide effective channels for citizens to participate in national affairs, the wild uproar and noise coming from netizens would gradually diminish, he said.
Traditional media editors trove the web for information or inspiration from popular blogs looking for a sharp point of view. The recent Shanghai taxi entrapment cases, for example, only gained nationwide attention after the stories were re-posted by Han Han on his popular blog.
“The right of saying is decentralized,” Hu said. “Like a pyramid, it used to be controlled exclusively by people on the top, but now it is moving down to the bottom.”
As bloggers eye the government more critically than traditional media, it is possible to form a culture of political participation based on discussions of citizen values and rights while Chinese society is transforming slowly, Hu argued.
Some people and organizations are even employing blogs to organize events and call for action.
Zhang Shihe, whose blog “Tiger Temple” is well-known for its grass-roots reporting, in December 2007 by chance discovered dozens of homeless people in the Qianmen area in Beijing. At that time, Qianmen Avenue was under renovation and the homeless took shelter in temporary shelters.
Zhang decided to find them a better and safer place to live by renting rooms for them in Daxing District of Beijing. He posted a call for small donations on his blog and soon received enough money from web users. Now 15 homeless people – mostly seniors and disabled – live in five rooms at a rental of 160-180 yuan per month each room.
Zhang covered his own long trips by bike to a number of provinces for three consecutive years since 2007. During the latest trip starting in August, he kept sending photos and videos via mobile phone and computer to his blog and Twitter.
After first learning how to type, Ai Weiwei soon discovered the benefits of blogging, spending more than 10 hours a day uploading pictures, posting interviews with other modern artists and making comments on the latest hot public affairs.
“Expressing oneself is like a drug,” he said. “I’m so addicted to it.”
Whether or not a person can become a free individual totally depends on whether that person can obtain information independently and whether he has the opportunity to express his own voice, according to Ai.
This channel of communication did not exist in the past. Most people never made themselves heard from cradle to grave.
“Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what’s on his mind,” he said. “A fairy tale has come true.”
The elite always emphasize the grassroots channel to speak out, Wang Xiaofeng said.
“When the public want a voice, they will look hard for a channel, whether it’s blog, Internet forum or word of mouth.”

http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2009-11/488485.html
Beauty behind Obama creates a buzz online

* Source: Global Times
* [10:24 November 30 2009]

By Zhang Lei

A female graduate student who attended President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in Shanghai is now the talk of the Internet due to her movie star looks.

The girl, who was later identified as Wang Zifei, a graduate student at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University, downplayed talk about her beauty on a blog post on sina.com.cn Tuesday.

She said she tried to avoid the gossip.

“I was natural before the camera because I was well-trained on stage when I was little, and it was reasonable I sat straight to maintain my image on such a serious occasion,” she wrote.

Rumors started after a series of photos circulated online with the girl taking off her coat and others showing her sitting elegantly during the speech.

Attracted by her amazing beauty, some searched for her using the now popular “human flesh engine” and speculated she was Shanghai’s image ambassador, or a relative of a popular actress.

The girl, who wore a bright red coat, which she removed at one point, could be mistaken for a movie star. She wore her hair in a bun, had bright eyes and sat elegantly in her black outfit and stockings. She looked at Obama directly in the eyes when she shook his hands.

Some said she couldn’t be a student due to her professional appearance.

“The girl cannot be an ordinary person due to her good manner, you can never say if she was using the opportunity to get famous,” said Lü Zheng, a playwright.

Hu Yong, associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University, told the Global Times it was no longer new that certain people are made popular by “human flesh engine” in China, only that Obama made the matter special.

“The general public may not know about Obama’s China visit, but a pretty girl enabled them,” he said.

He also said netizens were naturally attracted to a pretty girl behind Obama, because there was hardly any other outlet for them to express their concerns on the president’s visit. “The media followed this because they are not capable of discussing serious stuff,” he added.

Meanwhile, netizens observed that several students who asked questions during the meeting were actually teachers and cadres from the Youth League Committee based at several local universities, a claim which could not be verified yesterday.

“Netizens showed concern about the selection of students who attended the meeting and whether the topics were varied and extensive,” Hu said.