An Inside Look at the Great Firewall of China 165
alphadogg writes "An interview with James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, who has experienced 'The Great Firewall of China' firsthand, an experience people from around the world will share this summer when the Olympics comes to that country. Based in Beijing, Fallows has researched the underlying technology that the Chinese use for Internet censorship. One good thing to know: With VPNs and proxies, you can get around it pretty easily." Will these Olympics lead to a more free China, or is it just corporate pandering?
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Informative)
Before we go crazy, it's worth reading the Pew Research Centre study into Chinese views of the internet [pewresearch.org].
80% of the population feels the internet *should* be controlled, and 85% of these believe gov.cn is the one to do it. If you follow the trends, it seems that the government's propaganda about the internet seems to be taking, in that less than a third of users said the net was a reliable source of information.
The Chinese also don't censor in the way the UAE or Singapore do either, in that you're going to get a Connection Reset error rather than a Stop! Bad Things! warning if you access something relating to the issue du jour, and they allow VPNs and proxies because 1) they know it's only a small percentage who use them and outside of this group there's little interest in bypassing the government 'safeties' and 2) most external business interests would be very very upset if their VPNs stopped working.
Re:Good luck (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A political trojan horse (Score:1, Informative)
A true Buddhist abhors violence; this is one of the five fundamental precepts of Buddhism.
Now imagine what it took to keep the slaves in Tibet from revolting. Also keep in mind that each monastery owned a lot of slaves, so the monks were directly involved. The temples ruled Tibet -- yes, it was a theocracy -- and a lot of very bloody wars were fought between the temples for supremacy. Does all this look like true, nonviolent Buddhism to you?
What is the Dalai Lama really saying when he preaches peace and harmony without renouncing his slave-keeping past? (He can't denounce slavery because he needs the support of his fellow exiles in Dharamsala, India -- and they are almost totally from the former ruling class of Tibet, which of course was also the former slave-holding class.)