China: Shutdowns and Sexual Frustrations

In the wake of many Press Freedom agencies releasing their first batch of 2009 country reports, China once again finds itself on the naughty list of internet-abusing nations, to put it lightly. In fact, an unknown militant group called Reporters Without Borders has placed China front an center in it's list of "Internet Enemies" nations.

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, 2009 marks many "sensitive" anniversaries of political events in China, and that has made the Chinese government and censors jumpy. Recently, a new wave of censorship and intimidation has occurred, including but not limited to:

-a nationwide blocking of YouTube because of a posted video showing a Tibetan monk being beaten to death
-a retired professor was beaten by thugs for going to the gravesite of a politically-shamed leader, while police looked on
- a social commentator's website is shut down after posting articles moderately critical of arbitrary detentions.

But now a new threat from China has emerged: due to the infamous "one-child policy" of China which encourages the birth of boys and the abortion of girls, experts predict that the Chinese male population will outnumber females by 32 million by the next generation. The Business Insider states that "a nation full of single males is bound to be dangerous and volatile, with a voracious desire to sublimate sexual frustration into bigger and bigger toys: guns and missiles."

Food for thought.

-Steve Kwan

YouTube blocked in China

China has blocked the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube but did not offer a reason for the ban.

March 25, 2009--The Chinese government should disclose the legal basis for the sudden, widespread inaccessibility of the video-sharing Web site YouTube, or it should restore access to the site immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Google said it did not know why the site had been blocked, but a report by the official Xinhua news agency of China on Tuesday said that supporters of the Dalai Lama had fabricated a video that appeared to show Chinese police officers brutally beating Tibetans after riots last year in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

China routinely filters Internet content and blocks material that is critical of its policies. It also frequently blocks individual videos on YouTube. YouTube was not blocked Tuesday or Wednesday in Hong Kong, the largely autonomous region of China. Beijing has not interfered with Internet sites there. The government did not directly address whether YouTube had been blocked.

Even as China steps up its censorship efforts, the country’s Internet participation is booming. Often, critics often find a way to avoid censors and debate controversial topics.


china ( Min-Suk kim)

All Blame on the "Tibetan Government in Exile"

Last week, Tibetan exiled groups voiced outrage at a video that has surface on youtube recently that shows Chinese militarized policemen beating detained Tibetans during an ethnic unrest a year ago in China. At a March 26 briefing, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Qin Gang, was dismissive of the video.

"I have also seen the video. The contents are obviously edited and doctored. Maybe the Dalai clique got some tips of image-editing from certain western media. What I want to point out is that the March 14 incident is a grievous violent crime involving beating, smashing, looting and burning premeditated, organized and instigated by the Dalai clique, and perpetrated by the separatist forces for "Tibetan Independence" both in and outside China acting in collusion," Qin said, adding that during the riot "armed police force had all along maintained the utmost restraint and performed their duties according to law and in a civilized manner."

Within a day after the briefing, the Chinese government had decided to block access to youtube from within China. According to Tim Johnson's article "as of today, YouTube once again appears available in China. But if you try to see the video, you get a banner that says, 'This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.'"

-Van Hoang
Group China