Steve, you're a much bigger person than I am. I would be so incredibly incensed if one of my fundamental rights happened to be curtailed in any manner at all. It would really make me question why a particular group of assholes in the government somehow decided that they were uniquely wise and that their opinion was the only one that was valid. And it would also make me question how these same assholes then had the audacity to deny me and everyone else to right to voice any dissenting opinion. I think it would really fill me with an intense hatred and a desire to see the perpetrators of such a gross crime against humanity brought to justice. To be honest, I don't think that the death penalty is necessarily an unreasonable punishment against people who have abused their right to governance above and beyond any reasonable norms.
I really applaud how you can visit China and put up for days at a time with the government harassment. Personally, I think I would go crazy after a few hours. It just fills me with utter disgust knowing that inept politicians without the least bit of intellectual sophistication on issues involving political freedoms somehow are trying to tell me what information I can and can't view. For that kind of unforgivable transgression, I really am inclined to argue that maybe the death penalty would be a proper punishment befitting such a heinously atrocious crime.
Steve: Love the blog. I was in China in August last year and had no trouble with the Great Fire Wall. I used a simple, free web proxy. I used zendlife.com, but I am sure that many others would work as well.
I hope the people who are forcing you to scale the Great Firewall in such an undignified fashion Steve, receive their just deserts. It's a real shame how certain people in this world aren't held accountable for their actions. As a matter of principle such a gross abuse of power is utterly untenable. I hope that more people in China learn to stand up against these cowardly punks.
Not sure what you have planned, but using a VPN worked well for me when I was in China. I used purevpn.com My son claims that it actually speeds up the Internet; the Great Firewall, on top of everything else, slows traffic down to a crawl.
China needs to stop the firewall nonsense. I couldn't even got on Facebook there. That's annoying.
I wish China would use their control of the internet to disseminate great propaganda. For example, they need to inform everyone that the 1989 Tiananmen massacres were necessary for the development of the nation.
Or maybe the culture of China should foster the cultivation of individual differences in opinion, rather than attempting to create a monolithic mindset.
In somewhat related news, Google is now redirecting Google China users to Google Hong Kong, which is uncensored. I wonder how long it'll be before the mainland government blocks access to Google Hong Kong in mainland China.
I'm glad to see someone having the balls to stick it to the Chinese government. I think the Chinese government has been incredibly arrogant in assuming that every foreign company would bend over backwards to comply with its Draconian regulations and would put up with an inordinate amount of shit, simply because quote unquote the Chinese market was too financially lucrative to give up. While Google only had something like 1/3 of the Chinese search engine market share and derived only 2 percent of their total global revenue from the Chinese market, they seemed to be on the up and up. And it's hard to argue that they would've willingly abandoned that market unless they had other shit they were forced to put up with. I'm just glad they gave the Chinese government the middle finger.
Perhaps I'll live long enough to see a China without the Great Firewall.
ReplyDeleteSteve, you're a much bigger person than I am. I would be so incredibly incensed if one of my fundamental rights happened to be curtailed in any manner at all. It would really make me question why a particular group of assholes in the government somehow decided that they were uniquely wise and that their opinion was the only one that was valid. And it would also make me question how these same assholes then had the audacity to deny me and everyone else to right to voice any dissenting opinion. I think it would really fill me with an intense hatred and a desire to see the perpetrators of such a gross crime against humanity brought to justice. To be honest, I don't think that the death penalty is necessarily an unreasonable punishment against people who have abused their right to governance above and beyond any reasonable norms.
ReplyDeleteI really applaud how you can visit China and put up for days at a time with the government harassment. Personally, I think I would go crazy after a few hours. It just fills me with utter disgust knowing that inept politicians without the least bit of intellectual sophistication on issues involving political freedoms somehow are trying to tell me what information I can and can't view. For that kind of unforgivable transgression, I really am inclined to argue that maybe the death penalty would be a proper punishment befitting such a heinously atrocious crime.
Steve: Love the blog. I was in China in August last year and had no trouble with the Great Fire Wall. I used a simple, free web proxy. I used zendlife.com, but I am sure that many others would work as well.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you headed?
MC
I'm headed to Hangzhou, Alibaba headquarters and home of Zhejiang University :-)
ReplyDeleteI have more heavy duty stuff ready to go -- ssh tunneling, etc. Let's see if it works...
I hope the people who are forcing you to scale the Great Firewall in such an undignified fashion Steve, receive their just deserts. It's a real shame how certain people in this world aren't held accountable for their actions. As a matter of principle such a gross abuse of power is utterly untenable. I hope that more people in China learn to stand up against these cowardly punks.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you have planned, but using a VPN worked well for me when I was in China. I used purevpn.com My son claims that it actually speeds up the Internet; the Great Firewall, on top of everything else, slows traffic down to a crawl.
China needs to stop the firewall nonsense. I couldn't even got on Facebook there. That's annoying.
ReplyDeleteI wish China would use their control of the internet to disseminate great propaganda. For example, they need to inform everyone that the 1989 Tiananmen massacres were necessary for the development of the nation.
Or maybe the culture of China should foster the cultivation of individual differences in opinion, rather than attempting to create a monolithic mindset.
ReplyDeleteIn somewhat related news, Google is now redirecting Google China users to Google Hong Kong, which is uncensored. I wonder how long it'll be before the mainland government blocks access to Google Hong Kong in mainland China.
I'm glad to see someone having the balls to stick it to the Chinese government. I think the Chinese government has been incredibly arrogant in assuming that every foreign company would bend over backwards to comply with its Draconian regulations and would put up with an inordinate amount of shit, simply because quote unquote the Chinese market was too financially lucrative to give up.
ReplyDeleteWhile Google only had something like 1/3 of the Chinese search engine market share and derived only 2 percent of their total global revenue from the Chinese market, they seemed to be on the up and up. And it's hard to argue that they would've willingly abandoned that market unless they had other shit they were forced to put up with. I'm just glad they gave the Chinese government the middle finger.