The issue of the internet and China is – naturally! – a hot topic in the blogosphere. Bob has been hoping to tackle this for some time, and so was pleased to see the IOC raise the issue this week (via BBC):
“Inspectors from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said China was obliged under its Games contract to provide journalists with web access.
The IOC’s Kevan Gosper said there was concern that the web had been blocked during recent unrest in Tibet. He said this could not happen during the Games.
IOC inspectors are on a final visit to Beijing before the August Games begin.”
The Great Firewall
The Chinese government have a very effective system of blocking websites, censoring content and enforcing self-censorship by internet companies. These methods allow the CCP to effectively road-block the information superhighway. This is the Great Firewall.
Many sites that have had long-term blocks (Wikipedia has a list) include the BBC (any URL with BBC.news), Wikipedia (Chinese version) and almost any human rights sites you care to mention (in fact an editor at the New Internationalist, an outspoken publication campaigning on issues including human rights, once confessed to Bob that they were a little offended not to be blocked in the PRC).
Meanwhile internet firms (read: Google or Yahoo) desperate for a slice of the huge (and rapidly growing) have been only too happy to self-censor, or even provide sensitive personal information to the Chinese authorities, in exchange for access to trade in China. The high-profile case where Yahoo helped put Shi Tao in prison for 10 years by revealing his private emails to the CCP (and then lying about it) is well covered by Andrew Li – this is his special subject, so read up more about the GFW here too.
The IOC hope that the Olympics will herald change in China, but surely taking on the Great Firewall is too much?
Promising signs
There have been reports this year of previously blocked sites being opened up, including; the BBC News, blogspot, and Wikipedia. However access seems to fluctuate, and since the recent protests in/about Tibet sites like youtube have been offline or highly regulated.
Athletes blogs
The IOC’s stance is backed up by their commitment to allow athletes to blog, for the first time, about the Olympics. As Imagethief points out: “That’ll be a lot of blogs to police, and one person’s “personal opinion or reflection” is another’s political agitprop”.
Will the Great Firewall stand up to this pressure, or will it soon be an historic relic, like it’s name sake?
Japan’s Emperor Akihito and other members of the royal family are unlikely to attend the Beijing Olympics amid concerns here about China’s crackdown in Tibet and other issues, a report said Wednesday.
The Japanese government thinks it is not a good time for a rare royal visit because of the unrest in Tibet, a recent health scare over Chinese-made “gyoza” dumplings and a spat over disputed gas fields, the Sankei daily said.
“We were planning not to ask royals to go even before the gyoza incident (surfaced in January). It is all the more true now that the Tibetan unrest occurred,” it quoted an unnamed government official as saying.
Japanese authorities have confirmed at least 10 people suffered pesticide poisoning after eating tainted dumplings imported from China.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao invited Emperor Akihito and other royals to the opening ceremony of the August Olympics when he visited Japan last year.
The emperor told Wen then that the government decides on the royal family’s foreign trips, a palace spokesman said.
The foreign ministry said no formal decision had been made.
“Nothing has been decided regarding the attendance of dignitaries,” a ministry official said.
The last trip to China by members of Japan’s imperial household was a landmark visit by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in 1992.
China remains deeply resentful over Japan’s brutal occupation from 1931 to 1945, an era in which the Japanese revered Akihito’s father Hirohito as a demigod.
The two countries have recently worked to mend ties, which were strained by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visits to a war shrine in Tokyo, which Beijing regards as a symbol of Japan’s militarist past.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to visit Japan in the coming months.
http://www.france24.com/en/20080402-japans-royals-likely-skip-olympics-report
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