This week marks the 20 year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, or as we say here in the West, massacre. I have seen reports Twitter was shut down here in China. I don’t Twitter so I can’t say on that. I have noticed Windows Live is sporadic. I can get to mail sometimes and things like profile page, photos page, My Live, and My MSN, but can’t get to Live Spaces or Groups. My Blogger account is also not accessible but Google News and my Google account pages all are.
China is very sensitive about mass protests and sensitive anniversaries. In YunNan this spring I saw heavy police presence everywhere and was warned to not take any pictures of police or military units anywhere. You could not go to any city in the area without seeing at least 2 police units and 1 armed military unit, a little harry but to be expected seeing what happened the year prior. China has the world’s largest population, nuclear weapons, and a sizable army so if mass riots erupted and the whole thing came down it would cause a destabilizing event that would impact all of Asia for decades to come.
Since electronic messaging became popular the government has kept a close watch on things, all SMS messaging is reviewed, phone conversations monitored, chat sessions logged, etc. and if a riot breaks out they find any people they can and comb through their communications records to find out how and who else were involved, very Orwellian and scary but to be expected in a communists country. This year is really special as it marks 50 years since the Tibetan uprising was squashed sending their government into exile, and 20 years since the Tiananmen Square events broadcast world wide. The government is taking notice of this and modern communications channels and making sure to keep a lid on things.
Luckily I set up email blogging to my spaces site with adequate security measures. Until Live is back at 100%, from its 75% currently, I will be blogging via email as long as Live Mail is working. One special note on all this. The book by the leader who spoke out against the governments actions detailing the events leading up to and following the student protests has sold out of its first Chinese printing in just a couple of days, people are eager to learn what happened and that is a good thing. Obama should take notes, to keep our country form having to resort to similar measures. Having the DHS label us right wing extremists as domestic potential terrorists and ridiculing our gatherings with gay sex slanders is not the way to engage the opposition and change the views and transparencies of the government. An open government has nothing to fear from its citizens, its the shadow realm and back door dealing governments that have to fear, keep things on the up and up and show us you are doing that and it can be worked out as it should. Blogging from China is always an adventure.
China is very sensitive about mass protests and sensitive anniversaries. In YunNan this spring I saw heavy police presence everywhere and was warned to not take any pictures of police or military units anywhere. You could not go to any city in the area without seeing at least 2 police units and 1 armed military unit, a little harry but to be expected seeing what happened the year prior. China has the world’s largest population, nuclear weapons, and a sizable army so if mass riots erupted and the whole thing came down it would cause a destabilizing event that would impact all of Asia for decades to come.
Since electronic messaging became popular the government has kept a close watch on things, all SMS messaging is reviewed, phone conversations monitored, chat sessions logged, etc. and if a riot breaks out they find any people they can and comb through their communications records to find out how and who else were involved, very Orwellian and scary but to be expected in a communists country. This year is really special as it marks 50 years since the Tibetan uprising was squashed sending their government into exile, and 20 years since the Tiananmen Square events broadcast world wide. The government is taking notice of this and modern communications channels and making sure to keep a lid on things.
Luckily I set up email blogging to my spaces site with adequate security measures. Until Live is back at 100%, from its 75% currently, I will be blogging via email as long as Live Mail is working. One special note on all this. The book by the leader who spoke out against the governments actions detailing the events leading up to and following the student protests has sold out of its first Chinese printing in just a couple of days, people are eager to learn what happened and that is a good thing. Obama should take notes, to keep our country form having to resort to similar measures. Having the DHS label us right wing extremists as domestic potential terrorists and ridiculing our gatherings with gay sex slanders is not the way to engage the opposition and change the views and transparencies of the government. An open government has nothing to fear from its citizens, its the shadow realm and back door dealing governments that have to fear, keep things on the up and up and show us you are doing that and it can be worked out as it should. Blogging from China is always an adventure.
The Bravo Blog 
"Youtube website" is not accessible here in China since April of 2009.