Google to Resume Search Service in China: A Win-Win Solution?

The Chinese government renewed Google's Internet service license recently, the Associated Press reported today.

The catch? Google ought to stop automatically directing mainland users to its Hong Kong-based search site, which is not cencored by the Chinese government. Meanwhile, to continue to operate within China, Google is very likely to filter information as required  by the government.

This seems to be a win-win solution for both Google and the Chinese authorities.

Google got what it wanted: the chance to expand business and exploit profit potentials in China's growing Internet industry. The Chinese government, on the other hand, eased its tension with Google and perhaps other Western businesses, while at the same time managed to remain its control over information flow.

But what about Chinese web users? While a top American Internet company celebrating its commercial gains and the Chinese authorities chuckling at their political victory, millions of Chinese people hunger for more information are set to be the loser.

Even when Chinese netizens were directed to Google's Hong Kong site, certain information was still blocked to them, according to NPR. Baidu, China's biggest Internet search service, is never interested in challenging the authorities. Now with Google resuming its China-based, i.e. filtered, service, everything is simply same old, same old.

As is Chinese web users' effort to surpass the Great Firewall.  Fortunately for many, access to more information is only a software away.

Related stories:

AP report

NPR blog

Chinese Netizens "Tomb Digging" to Comment on Urumqi Riot

Not surprisingly, online comments regarding Sunday's violence in Urumqi, Xinjiang, have been closely watched by China's Internet censors.  As a result, no open public discussion is currently seen on China-based websites. Baidu.com, China's No.1 online search provider, has closed down its BBS, or "bar," for Xinjiang and Urumqi. "We're very sorry, based on relevant laws and regulations, this bar is temporarily closed," a note on baidu.com reads. 

But Chinese netizens have their way of going around the censorship. Numerous posts could still be found in other "bars" on baidu.com. On other popular public discussion websites such as tianya.com, netizens are using a practise called "tomb digging," in which they dig up posts about Xinjiang or Urumqi originally posted in the past--back to as far as 2006--and add comments about the July 5 incident. 

On tianya.com, for instance, there are several posts regarding Xinjiang, but their headlines shown on the main list contain no words relating to the latest violence. If one bothers to click on those posts and view the last page of comments, however, one could see newly added comments about the incident on Sunday. These "tomb digging" posts are changing rapidly, as online censors keep deleting them while netizens keep digging up new ones. 

Nonetheless, those who seek truth about the incident might be disappointed by the posts, since most of them, as of the time of this blog post, are comments from outsiders instead of first-hand accounts of what has happened. These comments express concerns, anger and sadness regarding the violence, as well as condemn Internet censorship. 

Some of the comments (in Chinese) could be found at: 

baidu tieba 1

baidu tieba 2

Cat898

tianya BBS 1

tianya BBS 2

Xinhua News Agency's version of the story

CNN's version of the story

Chinese Bloggers on Obama Victory: Admiring American Dream, Concerned about Sino-US Relations

One Chinese blogger blogs about Obama's election win







Obama’s victory in yesterday’s presidential election taught a great lesson about American dream and democracy to many Chinese bloggers, whose enthusiasm in blogging about this historical moment is manifest in the thousands of blogs appearing in the past less than 24 hours.

They recognized the power of American dream and ideas, America’s achievement in overcoming racial conflicts, and the value of democracy. Some bloggers expressed admiration for these American values, exclaiming “dreams will come true!” and calling such a success story an example of a “positive culture.” Obama's victory even inspired one blogger to imagine the possibility of a Chinese American president of the US.

Blogger Yao Xiaoyuan writes that because of this election, Chinese people will like the United States more and more, out of their admiration for the “universal human values represented by the United States.” However, not many bloggers used Obama’s case to advocate applying American values to China. The American dream stays American.

To some Chinese bloggers, the outcome was a surprise. Yang Hengjun, for instance, thought it was more possible to have a white woman than an African-American man as American president.

Meanwhile, many bloggers discussed the implication of Obama’s presidency to China’s interests. In this regard, the picture is not as rosy at all.

“Once the [American] economy turns better, I believe the Democratic Party will talk with us about trade protection,” one blogger writes. Another blogger concurs, concluding that China will face more pressure in energy security and decline in export due to Obama’s energy and economic policies.

These bloggers, however, failed to notice Obama's close tie with Hawaii, a state heavily populated by ethnic Chinese, which may influence the new president's approach to China.

Chinese Netizen not Big Fans of Obama

Comments left on Baidu.com chat room, one of the most popular BBS in China, offer both good and bad words about the two American presidential candidates, who are battling their final days of the election campaign. But it is clear that, for many Chinese people, Barack Obama is not the ideal new president of the United States. Here are some of reasons that Chinese netizen say why they don’t favor Obama.

Perhaps the most important reason is that to some Chinese people, Obama is good at shouting slogans and talking empty but lack of real competence. As put by one comment: “History tells us Chinese not to trust an eloquent but inexperienced man with anything important.”

Another concern among the netizen, oddly enough, is that Obama seems to be anti-democracy and is likely to promote socialism. In order to distribute wealth around, some netizen say, “he has to have absolute power” and “control people’s ideas,” which will lead to “potential dictatorship.”

Some people think that the overwhelming support of Obama and harsh attitude toward McCain, as well as the scrutiny of Joe the plumber in American media is the work of the Obama campaign and thus reason that Obama is very intolerant and repressive. There are also people resenting him because he is “ugly,” or he is charming, but lack of ability.

On the other hand, quite a few posts in the chat room shout “go Obama!” One post claims that over 70 percent of Chinese support Obama. Some say that Obama will become the greatest African American in history, that his success is a great example of living the American dream.

These comments are only a fraction of tons of online comments regarding the candidates and should not be taken as representative of Chinese public opinion. There are also a lot of misunderstanding or simply ignorance of the politics of American presidential election in those comments. What is presented here is at best a glimpse of Chinese people’s opinion on Obama.

View online comments on baidu.com:
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?z=0&ct=318767104&lm=11&sc=0&rn=50&tn=baiduKeywordSearch&rs3=0&rs4=0&word=%B0%C2%B0%CD%C2%ED&pn=50
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=494618014
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=492258997
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=353166523
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=468990950

Chinese People Rally via the Internet to Help the Earthquake Relief

On its website, the National Development and Reform Commission asks for citizen's opinion on rebuilding earthquake affected areas

Many Chinese people from all round the country are posting messages on BBS, blogs or chatrooms calling for fellow citizens to join relief work and rebuilding efforts for the earthquake struck area in south west China.

On baidu.com, China’s NO.1 search engine, for example, a chat room has been set up exclusively for posting relief and rebuilding related messages. Some people said they were willing to organize citizen groups on their own and travel to the disaster area to help, or become volunteers.

People are also expressing support and hope for the rebuilding effort, as well as their concerns and suggestions. Several messages warned about official corruption such as embezzlement of relief funding. Some suggested that instead of trying to send relief to the most affected areas, the government should move people out and send them to other cities to be taken care of. After their homes are rebuilt, they can go back.

One college student suggested nearly one hundred colleges in Sichuan to take summer break early and let the campuses accommodate homeless people from the earthquake regions. These colleges could provide not only thousands of dorm rooms, but also shower and dinning facilities.

One notion stands out from people’s online comments, and that is the call for attention to mental care for earthquake victims, especially orphans. Anhui Normal University announced that its psychology department has opened counseling hot lines and posted on baidu.com the cell phone numbers of several psychological professors, promising that these cell phones will be on 24 hours a day.

The central government has set up a national office to guide the rebuilding efforts and opened a website where citizens can submit their advices and comments on the matter. However, as of June 4, there were only five entries on this site while there were hundreds posted on baidu.com,.


Earthquake relief chatroom on baidu.com
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=388241857

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ct=&tn=&rn=&pn=&lm=&sc=&kw=%D4%D6%BA%F3%D6%D8%BD%A8&rs2=0&myselectvalue=1&word=%D4%D6%BA%F3%D6%D8%BD%A8&submit=%B0%D9%B6%C8%D2%BB%CF%C2&tb=on

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=378729246

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=384654859

Control of Online Discussion Seems Tighter in China

Suspended bullog.cn with a notice on its homepage

There are signs that public discussions on the Internet in China have been put under tighter control lately, although the 17th Party Congress is over.

Bullog.cn, a blog site featuring intellectuals’ discussion over political, society and cultural topics, is suspended. Currently on its homepage is nothing but one notice that reads: “Bullog is going through additional procedures, and will reopen very soon. Please don’t worry.”

The website does not articulate what kind of “additional procedures” it is going through, but it’s not hard to imagine that they are likely related to government regulations on blog sites. Essentially, this note is suggesting that Bullog has been ordered by the authorities to stop operation and has to gain permission to reopen, probably after some adjustments to its content.

As already mentioned in the previous entry, Tianya public forum has banned political discussions. But that’s not it. Opening the Tianya site, one can now see two cartoon figures: one female and one male police officer , floating on the page. Clicking on the cartoon leads to the website of the Network Security Alarm System of Haikou police. Tianya forum was registered in Hainan Province, where Haikou is the capital city.

The cartoon officer is an encouragement for site viewers to report to the cyber police any “insecure” web information and conduct. According to the criteria provided by Haikou cyber police, such harmful information and conduct include spreading computer viruses, attacking other computer systems, and publishing information that “harm national security and social stability.”

These incidents might be an indication that the government is still nervous about online political discussions in the wake of the 17th Party Congress and the creation of a new politburo. Popular online public forums and blogs in China are now full of celebrity gossip, personal life drama, love and sex, money making tip as well as lots of nonsense, while criticism of China’s politics and society is scarce.

Bullog
http://www.bullog.cn/Portal.aspx
Sohu blog
http://blog.sohu.com/
Sina blog
http://blog.sina.com.cn/
Haikou cyber police
http://www.haikou.cyberpolice.cn/