Blocked for good

It seems that I cannot see/read my own blogs as it really looks for readers. The blogspot.com and all its subdomains seem to be blocked here. I have no idea why. This blocking seems weird. Some sites simply time out (such as blogspot), while others are definitely blocked by a fake TCP close message. According to some people living here for longer time, and having more internet technical knowledge than I do, the sites that time out seem to disappear in an Internet black hole. Now this may prove the existence of the Great Firewall, however there is a fly in the ointment: the black hole appears to be in South Korea! I have not checked that with blogspot, but a friend has checked it with Wikipedia.

Speaking of Wikipedia: the English version has been available for access for few days now. I have also heard that BBC has been accessible from normal internet connections all over China.

There are facts that seem to suggest there is an intelligence working behind these "blackouts". Try to read the English Wikipedia, and it may work. It works for me now. Try the main page, and even that works. However, if you try to click on the Chinese language link on the main page, you will get blocked. Try the zh.wikpedia.org, and you get blocked. Then try the English Wikipedia again and, TADA, it is blocked now! And it will remain blocked for quite some time. It seems that your IP address is registered as "someone looking for forbidden material" and so your options for choice are severely limited. Same thing happens in Google Picture search, which is quite annoying when you are looking for free images that you could use in a sideshow.

I fail to see the purpose of these blockings (if they are blockings after all). People of China travel all over the world, they meet "outsiders" frequently, as a result of the economic boom and the stronger relationships it brings. There are many companies operating here in Shanghai, Ericsson is one of them with many foreigners employed locally, also GM, Volkswagen etc. So people here are in contact with them, and the "foreign" ideas and behavior they may represent.

Many Chinese people do not speak or read good enough English to understand the sites that do not show up. There are sites that are blocked which can hardly be justified, since they contain no content political in nature.

These problems of accessing web content hinder the ability of the Chinese people to learn all that is there to learn (like technical information), so in my humble opinion it hurts more than helps. I have found that people in China are happy. Happy. And they love their country. So I fail to see any danger in letting them to see the world. In fact, I think that by not being able to see the what the world thinks or speak of China these people lack the opportunity (and therefore China lacks the opportunity) to react to those view and explain the Chinese viewpoint. Not as an the official statement, but - like it is so common now on the Internet - as the voice of the people. And that could and would be a powerful statement: when the Chinese people explain their way and their feelings and why they are happy and why they love their country so much.

China is another world. And so it will remain, independent of what its people can access on the internet. Just as Japan remained Japan, India remained India. But the rest of the world misses out greatly on the opportunity to listen to and to understand the people of China, its several millenia of culture and the healthy diversity its influence could inflict upon our view of humanity. And I do believe that this world that exists in China, and its people have a lot to offer.

Perhaps the most said result of the difficulties of accessing certain parts of the internet from China is that "outsiders" can chose to see it as a sign of weakness. It may be (mis?)interpreted as if the people of China would think or behave differently have they had access to those information. I beg to differ. I have found Chinese people not only to love their country, but they are also pragmatic and very patient. They know about the issues the fast growing China faces. They are aware of the negative views. And yet, they stand firm in their love and patience towards their community.


Well, of course these are only my naive thoughts, based on a limited exposure to this "other world". There may be motivations or cultural differences that I fail to see. China is its own world, and it has been that for millenia. Opening up to accept other cultures, viewpoints and sets of values is just as hard for these billions of people as it is proven to be hard for many other civilizations to recognize the values of other cultures.

It is interesting to watch Star Trek here, in Shanghai, and see how much of these misconceptions, preconceptions, misunderstandings and stirred emotions show up when two civilizations meet. And how it tests their abilities to understand that why the differences may be fundamental, they can and are to be learning from each other. And the toughest "test" of all: to realize that when two civilizations/cultures differ in their axioms, unproven fundamental beliefs (we believe it to be true) there is no way to prove which belief is the "true one". And to understand that as we had a choice to believe in our axioms, so do others.