China restricts online video after YouTube police beating The Chinese government has issued strict rules on "harmful" internet videos, after blocking access to YouTube over a clip purportedly showing police beating Tibetan independence protesters. China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV posted revised restrictions banning online videos that "oppose the basic principles of …
Meanwhile, the American, Australian and British governments are salivating at the thought of being able to do the same in their countries, all in the name of "security". Hence the continued complete lack of reaction on their part, and China's continued treatment as "favoured partner" regardless of their actual behaviour.
...that is to say; censorship varies depending on which area you connect to the internet. In Beijing, censorship is present, youtube is now blocked, amongst other websites deemed inappropriate by the government. This includes some western porn sites, and the pirate bay. So its consistency is in fact its inconsistency.
Outside of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong you'll have difficulty even accessing hotmail, never mind many western websites, including theregister. Due to the way in which TCP resets are used you'll never quite know what link in the chain is down when attempting to access a website, unlike in Saudi Arabia, where a default DNS page explains why you can't reach the page you're after.
People here really don't realise the news they're missing out on. A Chinese friend here commented on the G20 protests: "Why are so many people protesting, what difference can that make? The government allow this?" - a ridiculous display of the ambivalence you're Chinese person on the street has to the current government.
Mind you, as is the case with the UK, even if they had democracy, it's not guaranteed it would actually provide a better alternative.
I suspect when the economy begins to seriously affect the major cities, and not just rural locations, and jobs disappear, the government will have a really hard time justifying their Big Brother operation they've got going.
They do take it a tad too far sometimes. Sorry, did I say "somtimes"? I mean ALL the time!
A good example is their treatment of the World of Warcraft expansion "Wrath of the Litch King". They famously wanted any skeletons removed and any creatures that showed bones. For an expansion which features undead quite strongly, this seems a bit harsh.
It has stopped a lot of the powerlevelling going on in China though. They can still only take you to level 70. You'll have to get the Vietnamese involved if you want to get to 80!
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