The Waste Land Blog » china

China protest ‘vanishes from web’

Wasted — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:30:00 +0000

China protest ‘vanishes from web’ via BBC

Instead, a message appears saying: “According to relevant law, regulations and policies, search results for Wukan cannot be displayed.”

In today’s interconnected world China is an anomaly.

Back…

Wasted — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:29:39 +0000

…to the grind…

Had a beautiful Vietnam trip – my first to a ‘communist’ country, my first with Western backpackers – they are a breed of their own! Will probably write about that with a few photos as soon as I can. But this week promises to be hectic – I am moving, again! Within Singapore of course, but it is still a lot of pain.

To resume writing, I have this New York Times article that caught my eye. It starts,

Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — “a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

According to the article, China has hugely reduced child malnutrition to 7 percent but in India it is still 42.5 percent. This should make you go out and vote, if nothing else will, even if you feel it does not count. That is the matter for another post that I have been planning – it will come in its own sweet time!

But seriously, I had a hard time on my trip defending India in front of a bunch of Westerners who have spent months there, some have even worked with our NGOs. Our hearts might be in the right place but our actions fall too far behind – and I am as guilty, as charged. But…

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;”

T.S.Eliot

My first good news of the day!

Wasted — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:45:07 +0000

“Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Olympic torch when it reaches New Delhi on April 17.”
Bhutia’s red card to China

When governments all over the world, including India stay mute for fear of losing out on the China bandwagon it is individuals who must stand up to tell the Tibetans that they are not alone. And it helps if the individual is famous!

Baichung joins an elite list which includes Steven Spielberg and Richard Gere. Way to go Bhaichung!

Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani

Wasted — Sun, 27 May 2007 02:20:09 +0000

Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani is a Hindi film released in 1946 directed by V. Shantaram (he also played the title role). The film is based on the true story of Dwarkanath Kotnis, one of five Indian physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938.

I saw an article on a Chinese website about him, which says-

“No single Indian has been more revered by ordinary Chinese than a doctor from a middle class family in northern India. On the day when the Chinese pay respect to their ancestors, the grave of this doctor on the plains of North China is covered with flowers donated by the local Chinese.”

This would be such a shining example of Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration.

300 missiles pointing at us!

Wasted — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:20:06 +0000

I am in Taiwan right now. To be more precise, in Kaohsiung, near the southern tip of the island. It is the second largest city of Taiwan after Taipei and a major port.

Nice friendly ‘country’! Nice friendly people, the only problem being the language divide – low percentage of English speakers and English sign-boards. But they more than make up for it through their genuine warmth.

Was taken to a small fishing community on the seashore, where we could walk down to the rocky beach. It is on the western coast of Taiwan facing the Fujian province of Mainland China and it suddenly occurred to me, 300 missiles were pointing at us right then from across the peaceful sea. We all laughed a nervous laugh!

Dwarfing of the Internet Giants

Wasted — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 23:53:33 +0000

I had written about how most Internet companies are bending over backwards in order to please the Chinese government in another post. They do not appear to be afraid of the negative publicity at all. I am sure if all of them refuse as a united front the Chinese government will have no alternative. (Or alternatively if all of us stand-up and boycott them. But I am not trying to be Utopian here!) They will surely not want to keep out the best technology companies from their country.

The article about Microsoft’s latest is here.
Also read this article on the ‘Reporters without Borders’ website which talks about blog censorship practised by Microsoft.
And this article titled “Do Internet companies need to be regulated to ensure they respect free expression ?”
And here is an article from Business Week titled “How China Controls the Internet?”

(Fortunately, the US governmental machinery has woken up to this. We need legislation probably.)

The Fall of Communist China

Wasted — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:20:03 +0000

Or rather, ‘The Imminent Fall…’.

China never ceases to amaze me – a great power since antiquity, a modern global factory, the darling of investors and yet a dark and murky world of arrests and detentions and state secrets, straight out of a Frederick Forsyth.

In Singapore, I have come to know quite a few Chinese including some Singaporean Chinese and what I have seen has served only to increase my respect and admiration for this great people. Growing up in India, it was difficult to escape the rhetoric and anger at China. It was the enemy number two, after Pakistan, having attacked us in 1962 and made friends with Pakistan. After all, an enemy’s ally is an enemy. But I discovered the strangest of facts, after a conversation with a Chinese friend here – that the common Chinese people are most likely to be unaware of the ’62 invasion. My friend was actually very embarrassed and apologetic about the whole thing when she heard it from me – it was like a personal affront that she had caused unknowingly!

My point in narrating the above incident is that in these days of information technology and the Internet, here is a society making amazing strides economically, leaving most countries (including mine) far far behind, where the government still controls what the people should know and what they shouldn’t. It is the most amazing paradox of our times!

China is where the modern icon of free speech, the greatest democratic invention – the Internet – falls on its face with an ignominious splat! After all there is commerce involved, there is money to be made.

To look for information you need search engines – and Microsoft bends over backwards to block words like ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’ from its portal at the request of the Chinese government! To be aware of the outside world you need news – and Google censors from its news search engine “news media considered ‘subversive’ by Beijing”! To let the outside world know, you need email – and Yahoo provides information to Chinese officials to help convict a journalist who sent to foreign websites a message from the Chinese government to journalists warning them of the dangers of commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre! (To know more, try this article and this one)

This brings me to the title of this post. It would appear that the Chinese government is winning its struggle to control the Internet. But it is only round one which has gone to them. The battle may have been lost but the war is far from over. It will be fought for years to come till China finally makes it into the 21st century. My only wish and prayer that the process be gradual and non-violent. A disparate nation held together by force tends to come apart violently when that force is suddenly removed as we have seen in the numerous communist regimes which came undone in the final decades of the last century. If China meets the same fate it will be a sad day for one of the oldest and greatest civilizations ever.

It will be a sad day for my Chinese friends too. Some of them are such outstanding and compassionate people…