News that the US Congress is going to hold hearings on corporate involvement in Chinese censorship has prompted some great essays from this side of the Pacific. Two of the best, as can be expected, are from Imagethief and ESWN. AP recommends reading each in full.

For starters, Will at Imagethief seems to have spent his entire weekend writing a thorough essay on what hearings could mean, and how they could be counterproductive.:

We westerners seem to be conflicted in how we feel about China. We have an idealistic conviction that the simple flow of our ideas and culture and the relentless march of technology will somehow precipitate change, yet we can’t resist an interventionist desire to actively impose our values. At the same time we mythologize China into something unknowable and impenetrable. The result is that no matter what we do we risk patronizing the Chinese Internet users we want to help, and driving them further away.

Imposing foreign activism on China has a pretty dismal record of failure. In a country where nationalist sentiment runs high and is easily provoked, it is liable to backfire. Imagine for a moment that American Internet firms are drummed out of China by legislation or activism. My guess is that Chinese youth would not swell with admiration for courageous, highly-principled foreign companies. Rather, they would likely seethe with nationalist contempt for companies that don’t "get" China and for foreign governments that are trying to dictate what is good for China. That won’t do wonders for dialogue. I can tell you who would be happy though: Bokee (who launched a devastatingly self-interested attack on MSN prior to Anti’s removal, as reported here by ESWN) and other Chinese blogging engines who would be pleased to see off foreign competition.

Not that they need to at the moment. Most Western Internet companies in China are not doing very well. In the grand scheme of forces affecting China, the inclination of American (as opposed to Chinese) Internet companies to toe the censorship line is so far down the list as to be nearly beneath concern. The free operation of China’s domestic mainstream media ranks substantially higher. Although the two issues are tangentially connected via the Shi Tao case, US Internet companies and American interventionism are probably not the key to freeing Chinese media.

Roland at ESWN also argues that legislation could be a mistake, a key passage is his translation of a post by Michael Anti (the blogger who was shut down by MSN):

As for what the US Congress Representatives want to legislate, this is totally the business of the American people.  I don’t feel that the freedom of speech of the Chinese people can be protected by the US Congress.  If the freedom of speech of the citizens of a great country has to be protected by the legislature of another country, this shows how distant the country is from the greatness that we longed for.  Opposing the shutting down of my blog and my defense of my freedom of speech should not be based upon relevant legislation by the US Congress.

To state it more clearly, we want legislation from China’s Congress.  We want the Chinese to defend the freedom of speech by the Chinese.  Maybe not today, but it will be possible tomorrow.  This is the only glory and dream for continuing to live on. …

Furthermore, at a time when globalization and politics are mixed up, I do not think that we can treat everything in black-and-white terms as being for or against the improvement of freedom and rights for the people of China.  On one hand, Microsoft shut down a blog to interfere with the freedom of speech in China.  On the other hand, MSN Spaces has truly improved the ability and will of the Chinese people to use blogs to speak out and MSN Messenger also affected the communication method over the Internet.  This is two sides of the practical consequences when capital pursues the market.  How the Americans judge this problem and mete out punishment is a problem for the Americans.  If they totally prevent any compromised company from entering the Chinese market, then the Chinese netizens will not be freer at least in the short term.  Besides, we must distinguish between the sellout by Yahoo and the compromise by Microsoft, because they are completely different matters.

Roland concludes: "it will be a net loss for freedom and democracy if MSN Spaces were to depart from China.  In fact, given the circumstances, the best thing is to allow MSN Spaces to grow as rapidly as possible in China.  For example, if they can get 50 million users, who is going to block them?"

It’s regrettable, but these are much better defenses of the actions of US corporates in China than the companies have  themselves offered.

That’s part of the reason AsiaPundit is welcoming hearings. AP hopes that they will force the companies involved to provide more information on their activities. Microsoft, Yahoo!, and other firms stonewall the press when asked for information on their China activities - they are less likely to do that to requests from Congress. AP’s hope is that the additional pressure would encourage those involved to adopt a code of conduct and to state - bluntly - what they consider acceptable or unacceptable.

That said, AP questions the desirability of legislation. Partly, that’s because AP swings libertarian and always questions the need for legislation. but on top of that Congress tends to go overboard on issues related to China. This was shown with the proposed 27.5 percent tariffs for alleged currency manipulation and the bipartisan intervention in the Unocal/CNOOC matter.

One of AP’s first reactions to news of the hearings - after thinking "good" - was to envision a McCarthy-esque spectacle. This is an issue that will almost certainly lead to overblown rhetoric and could lead to legislative overreach. Quite simply, there’s lots of room for both the left and right to engage in the populist bashing of both China and evil corporations. Plus, Congressmen would surely welcome a chance to paint themselves as defenders of free speech.

As for the RSF petition, again AP welcomes the fact that groups like RSF and CPJ see this as an issue - not only because of the awareness of the issue, but also because the organizations are considering issues affecting their unpaid brethren in the blogosphere.

That said, AsiaPundit is a bit ticked that the Paris-based RSF decided to focus on US corporates and ignore those from the Continent. While Cisco has faced scrutiny for its business in China many of its main competitors here are European. Whatever questions are put to Cisco could also be directed at Alcatel, Siemens, Ericsson and others.

Also see Danwei, Rebecca and Howard French.

UPDATE: Roland has adjusted his position:

The responses on the US Congressional Hearings seemed to be far too homogeneous around here: RConversation, ESWN, Imagethief, Danwei, AsiaPundit.  This is the whole problem about Group
Polarization on the Blogosphere
in which like-minded people in a group talk to each other in the same
way.  So it will do here to bring up a dissenting opinion: "I
absolutely support the action taken by American congresses and senates.
Those opposed to these such measure are dirty, unethical and ummoral
liberal who want to support the communist regime under the name of
mulitculturalism."  Take that!

Technorati Tags: anti, asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, media, MSN Spaces, northeast asia

Via Rebecca, the Boston Globe reports that Congress has taken an interest in US companies aiding Cninese censorship:

One of the most aggressive human rights activists in Congress has found a new cause: stamping out Internet censorship in China.
Representative Christopher H. Smith, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of a House subcommittee on human rights, plans to hold hearings next month on reports that US Internet companies, including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., aid efforts by the government of China to suppress free speech

Using the AP time machine (beta version), we have managed to grab a preview of the hearings:

MR. SMITH: Will you please state your name?
MR. GATES: William Henry Gates III. . . .
MR. SMITH: Mr. Gates, I will ask you, are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
MR. GATES I am not a member of the Communist Party, but I have done business with the Communist Party.
MR. SMITH: When did you start to associate with the Communist Party?
MR. GATES: We opened a Beijing representative office in 1992.
MR. SMITH: Mr. Gates, Have you or have any of your associates ever censored or deleted a weblog on behalf of the Communist Party?

Fons noted, correctly, that it is odd that it is only US companies that get flack for aiding China’s censorship. With that, Businessweek reports that Hong Kong’s Tom.com and the Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies (now owned by eBay) agreed to censor Skype’s instant messaging service.:

Skype had a dilemma. The Internet telephony and messaging service wanted to enter China with TOM Online (TOMO), a Beijing company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Li’s people told their Skype Technologies (EBAY) partners that, to avoid problems with the Chinese leadership, they needed filters to screen out words in text messages deemed offensive by Beijing. No filtering, no service.

At first Skype executives resisted, says a source familiar with the venture. But after it became clear that Skype had no choice, the company relented: TOM and Skype now filter phrases such as “Falun Gong” and “Dalai Lama.” Neither company would comment on the record.

Gordon noted at Rebecca’s groundbreaking post, that the MSN messenger service also seems to filter messages. AsiaPundit has not seen anything to indicate that Skype has implemented any means for state authorities to listen in to voice-over-internet calls. Although there is also no information to the contrary.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia, skype

Via Brand New Malaysian, Centre for Independant Journalism (CIJ) has started a blog (in Bahasa) tracking how Black metal is covered by the Malaysian media.:

For more on Black Metal, and in English, visit Boing Boing and Jeff Ooi.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, malaysia, black metal, southeast asia

Via the Committee to Protect Bloggers:

Spirit of America has launched the BlogSafer wiki, available at http://www.blogsafer.org. BlogSafer contains a series of guides on how to blog under difficult conditions in countries that discourage free speech.

LOS ANGELES, California - January 7, 2006 – Spirit of America’s BlogSafer wiki hosts a series of targeted guides to anonymous blogging, each of which outline steps a blogger in a repressive regime can take, and tools to use, to avoid identification and arrest. These range from common sense actions such as not providing identifying details on a blog to the technical, such as the use of proxy servers.

“A repressive regime trying to still free speech first goes after and shuts down independent print and broadcast media,” said Curt Hopkins, project director of Spirit of America’s Anonymous Blogging Campaign. “Once that is done, it turns its attentions to online news sites. As these outlets disappear, dissent migrates to blogs, which are increasing geometrically in number and are simple to set up and operate.”

In past several years at least 30 people have been arrested, many of whom have been tortured, for criticizing their governments. This trend is likely to increase in the coming year.

The five guides that are currently on the wiki serve bloggers in the following countries:

* Iran (in Persian)

* China (Chinese)

* Saudi Arabia (in Arabic—also useful for other Arabic-speaking regimes such as Bahrain, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia)

* Malaysia (in English—also applicable to neighboring Indonesia and Singapore)

* Zimbabwe (in English—applicable to English-speaking Africans as well as aid workers)

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, malaysia, northeast asia, singappore, southeast asia

While blogging is taking off in China, it still isn’t making money. Unsurprisingly then, Wang Jianshuo notes that top independent blog service provider Bokee has cut one-third of its staff.:

As a blog service provider, I believe 20 - 30 people at most is the reasonable number. Later, they added a lot of content editors and then technical people. Maybe many of the people are neccessary to support the business. However, when the number exceeded 50, I was worried about the company. Later, during a meetup in Shanghai, Fang told us they have 200+ employees. I was so shocked, and asked how could you support so many people? At that time, there was no clear business model yet.

Later, the number raise to 300. I know something must be wrong. Either Fang or me, one must be completely wrong about the staffing plan….

It was said (please note: This information is based on what I heard, and may be misleading, or different from the fact), that more than 100 people was informed to be laid off on the Thusday afternoon around X’mas. The order was effective immediately, which meant the employee need to leave the company the same time they received the information. The life of more than 100 people were affected.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, northeast asia

It’s blog award season, with the Asia Blog of the Year (ABOTY) to be decided today. ABOTY is a strange site that claims to have received 9,000 nominations but has only one Technorati link - but if the $100 prize money is real, AP is pleased to be nominated.

As well, the Indibloggies are open - venture onward to discover new India blogs.

Plus, the 2006 Bloggies are accepting nominations.

While AsiaPundit would appreciate nominations, and thanks Lonnie for offering one without solicitation, there is something more important than AP’s own status in the blogosphere.

For far too long international blog awards have been pigeonholing Asian blog into a single category, limiting them from showing their true stature in the global blogosphere. One Asian blogger in particular has suffered because of this huge injustice.

XiaXue received 14,716 votes for Best Asian Blog, while the winner of the best blog received a mere 7,373 for the main category. That’s less than half of Wendy’s total and it is an outrage that the hosts of these awards have not yet allowed Wendy to compete for the top prize.

With that, AsiaPundit endorses XiaXue for Blog of the Year. He has already nominated Wendy and suggests all readers do so as well.

Just, please, please, please keep her out of the Best Asian Blog category. She doesn’t just have a fan base, it’s a cult!

And remember, just because you nominate XiaXue doesn’t mean you have to drink the Kool Aid. When AP nominated her, he was enjoying a fine shiraz.

Simon’s Asia Blog Awards are still under preparation.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, xiaxue

China’s constitution assures us that the country does have free speech. To maintain this illusion, the Party believe it essential to make the ad-hoc edicts that ban particular issues from discussion a ’state secret.’ Because of this twisted logic, AsiaPundit does not expect to hear much more from Microsoft on the reasons Michael Anti’s blog was shut down.

Microsoft is likely not just acting as a proxy for the ministry of propaganda by shutting Anti, by not saying why it shut Anti it is keeping ’state secrets’ of behalf of China.

AsiaPundit has been bothered by the shutdown of Michael Anti’s site, plus the complicity of Yahoo! in the jailing of Shi Tao, not just because these are large technology companies aiding in the shuttering of free speech online. More disturbing is how these self-proclaimed ‘new media’ companies have helped undermine China’s emerging critical press.

Shi Tao was arrested because he provided details on what Chinese media were ordered not to report, Anti was likely shut down because he was offering moral support to journalists and editors at the Beijing News tabloid.

As ESWN’s Roland noted, and as AsiaPundit has heard from well-placed staff at the company, Yahoo! did not likely know what data it was providing the state when it handed over details on Shi Tao. But Microsoft knew exactly what it was doing.

Working backward, from information in the press and on ‘the Internet,’ a likely chain-of-events that led to the censoring of Anti begins to form.

The New York Times reported that Microsoft spokeswoman Brooke Richardson gave the paper considerably more detail than the one-paragragh waste of bandwidth that it e-mailed other reporters:

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company had blocked "many sites" in China. The MSN Spaces sites are maintained on computer servers in the United States.

Ms. Richardson of Microsoft said Mr. Zhou’s site was taken down after Chinese authorities made a request through a Shanghai-based affiliate of the company.

The company did not give details on what the contents on the request were. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is almost certainly a ’state secret’. Roland cited on Thursday:

"…according to a Bejing News editor, the Beijing City Government News Office issued this notice on December 30, 2005: "1. Effectively immediately, all websites shall treat the words ‘Bejing News’ as a keyword to filter at all forums, news comments and blogs.

The NYT notes that Anti’s blog was the first to report on the purge at the Beijing News (having the story days before the actual sackings). But Anti’s blog was not the first one to be silenced on this, as noted at Danwei, leading portal Sina had shut the blog of an editor at Beijing news two days earlier.:

An editor at The Beijing News named Wang Xiaoshan responded to the hostile takeover on his blog with a post in large highlighted characters:

    There’s no way to retreat, so we won’t retreat. The butcher’s knife is already raised… We’re going to die so let’s make it a beautiful death.

The post was copied as an image by Massage Milk (reproduced above, links to Massage Milk below). But Wang Xiaoshan’s blog is hosted on Sina.com’s blogging service; less than 24 hours after he published his battle cry, Sina’s censors deleted it from his blog, together with all comments that readers had made to the post.

As mentioned in this Salon article reproduced by Howard French, Sina is also a portal and news provider. Because of this the company - along with Yahoo! - is privy to direct briefings from the Beijing’s Information Office, which passes on information on what to cannot be reported and what must be censored. MSN Spaces is just a blog host, one of more than 600, so it possibly didn’t get the memo until a bit later than Sina.

Still, Microsoft’s Shanghai joint-venture did eventually receive either a direct order to shut Anti’s blog specifically or a more general order to shut all blogs discussing Beijing News. As disclosing the content of such orders is revealing a ’state secret,’ I expect no comment from Microsoft on the matter at this end.

There are a couple of things to consider on this. As all MSN Spaces blogs are hosted in the US, would the company be obliged by Chinese law to shut down a site discussing the Beijing News walkout were it put on MSN Spaces by a blogger outside of China? Hypothetically, If the Dalai Lama were a blogger, would MSN shut his site upon receiving a request from Beijing? Or if MSN’s Tehran office received a request from the government, would it shut Salman Rushdie’s blog? (and would it issue a statement: "MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and fatwas"). 

As a test, AsiaPundit has set up an MSN Spaces site with a collection of Anti’s posts taken from ESWN and Google’s cache of the now deleted site, 

This was done using a Singapore-registered MSN account and was not done through a Chinese IP address. The site is currently available within China. If MSN deletes it, then it should be assumed that Microsoft will accept the CCP’s orders in regards to sites that are neither hosted in or registered in China.

Like all Chinese blog service providers, Microsoft’s MSN Spaces have been shutting sites on behalf of the state since it established a presence in the country. What happened to Anti isn’t new - although it most certainly is of a higher profile.

AsiaPundit has been accused of making too much of a fuss of China’s censorship. There are bigger concerns to worry about, such as the elimination of poverty and corruption, critics say. That’s certainly true, but in AP’s view the censorship of papers like the Beijing News and bloggers like Anti allows the state to cover up corruption and the problems of rural peoples (including beatings by government authorities).

Again, while it may be only a handful of residents who are affected by a block on a single website, the control of information in China promotes ignorance, retards democratic and economic development and prevents the building of an educated civil society.

Further on the Beijing News and journalism in China, Running Dog offers his invaluable insights:

Being a journalist in China is never simple. Some westerners dismiss all Chinese reporters as Xinhua lackeys and lickspittles, as cynical hacks in the pay of the Party, and the only time they are given any praise at all is usually after they have been arrested by the government and sanctified by Reporters sans frontieres. Such critics rarely take time to question how they would behave under similar working conditions. The prison system is littered with reporters who strayed too far from the Party line, and Running Dog is often astonished by the talent, tenacity and courage shown by many of our Chinese counterparts. Since last week’s sackings, several journalists were still submitting coruscating accounts of the fiasco to the Xici journalist forum, and even as the moderators were deleting the threads, the reporters continued to defy them and post their pieces anew.

They are acutely aware of the risks. The 21st Century Global Herald was forced to close in 2003 after an interview with Mao Zedong’s secretary, Li Rui, who called for free elections. The Worker’s Daily spin-off, Beijing New Times, was also shut down in the same year after printing a provocative article that included the National People’s Congress in a list of the country’s ’seven disgusting things’. Since then, the authorities have decapitated the Southern Metropolis Daily and sentenced its chief editor to prison, while the ostensibly well-protected China Youth Daily was also subject to regime change last year.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, media, MSN Spaces, northeast asia, corruption

Ouch.

By Sheepdog (via Rebecca)

UPDATE: AsiaPundit is pleased that the Anti-Microsoft story is gaining legs, being picked up today in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the UK’s Daily Telegraph and the Red Herring. Hopefully the attention will prompt the company to issue a more substantial explanation than it’s earlier one-paragraph “making the Internet safe” statement.

UPDATE 2: Further reading from the Blogosphere:

Imagethief talks about Microsoft’s public relations problem and its corporate social responsibility.

ESWN argues that Microsoft’s censoring of Michael Anti is worse than Yahoo!’s complicity in the jailing of Shi Tao, plus more.

Rebecca, who really should be credited for bringing this to the world’s attention, offers a post on Isaac Mao’s anti MSN Spaces protest, translations from the Chinese blogosphere and her opinion on why this matters outside of China.

Jeremy at Danwei, who usually is quite tolerant of companies ‘lapses’ in China, says: Cherish Freedom: Stay far away from MSN Spaces.

Bingfeng argues that this should be expected of Microsoft, and the critics are naive.

From Internet Censorship Explorer, an argument that MSN should have fought this legally.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, MSN Spaces, northeast asia

Apologies to Will for the post title. But Richard asked in the comments whether AP was being sarcastic in his evaluation of Microsoft’s statement on the shutting of blogs in China. The official MS response to journalists was.:

As a multi-national business, Microsoft operates in countries around the world. In line with Microsoft practices in global markets, MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices. Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements.

AsiaPundit does not believe that this was a proper response. This is, as Fons describes, "an excellent example of corporate bullshit." How does shutting a blog that was protesting a purge of editorial staff at a noted anti-corruption newspaper "make the Internet safe for local users."? That makes it seem that Microsoft was suggesting that Anti was a danger akin to child porn distributors.

How should Microsoft have handled this? Shutting down a pro-free press blogger in China is pretty much impossible to spin positively. Instead MS should have issued something that defends its position and adds to the debate on whether or not it is the correct one. Basically, show some thought leadership.

As a publicly-listed business with billions of dollars invested in China, Microsoft first and foremost has a responsibility to its shareholders. While the company regrets the shutting of Michael Anti’s blog, the terms of service on the MSN Spaces China site clearly states: “We may cancel or suspend your Service at any time. Our cancellation or suspension may be without cause and/or without notice.” We can therefore assure shareholders that no liability was incurred.

Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to restrict Internet usage for local users - whether it is laws restricting child pornography or, as in Germany and France, restricting access to sites that promote Nazism. Nevertheless, Microsoft believes that the company’s services, even in strict regulatory environments, enables users of our services to build upon social and professional networks and enrich themselves and build civil society. At its core MSN Spaces believes in helping young people learn independent and critical thinking and fostering a culture in which people tolerate and benefit from different voices. And as Michael Anti himself stated, within China new Internet technologies are giving hope and inspiration people to people who feel they have lost their voices. Microsoft is proud to be within China in to help the country advance, give its people and their voices a place in a global dialogue and build a harmonious global society.

And besides, it’s not like we’re Yahoo! or anything. Those pricks got Shi Tao thrown in jail! All that happened to Anti was that he had to move back to blog-city. So bugger off and leave Bill alone. He’s busy trying to cure malaria and doesn’t have time for your petty bourgeois whining. Don’t you wankers care at all about Africa? Get your priorities straight, piss off and go pick on Jerry Wang.

Likely the final paragraph in the Chinese version of the press statement would have included a lot more references to "building a harmonious society" and none to Shi Tao.

Technorati Tags: anti, asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia

As noted here earlier, MSN has taken down Michael Anti’s blog. Rebecca McKinnon, in a now widely linked post, has a more detailed look at what Microsoft and other blog-service providers are doing in China.:

Microsoft’s MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN’s censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti. Now all you get when you attempt to visit his blog at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/mranti/ is the error message pictured above. (.)

Note, his blog was TAKEN DOWN by MSN people. Not blocked by the Chinese government. (emphasis added)

Rebecca also recalls posting a trial blog in mid-December, confirming that the censoring is being done by Microsoft and not Chinese authorities:

Now, It is VERY important to note that the inaccessible blog was moved or removed at the server level and that the blog remains inaccessible from the United States as well as from China. This means that the action was taken NOT by Chinese authorities responsible for filtering and censoring the internet for Chinese viewers, but by MSN staff at the level of the MSN servers.

This is not to give the authorities a pass on censorship - China blocks and censors everything from print to satellite broadcasts - but MSN has again gone well beyond what is required of them by the Chinese government. Microsoft doesn’t just follow orders, it goes out of its way to flatter and kowtow to Communist Party authorities.

Microsoft Geek blogger Robert Scoble has asked MSN for more details on the shutdown of Anti.

A further roundup on China internet censorship is here.

Technorati Tags: anti, asia, blogs, censorship, china, northeast asia

AsiaPundit has been on a break for New Year’s holiday, which stretches to include the second and third in China, but others have not been so remiss in updating their blogs.:

Letters from China, in spite of saying there would be no posts until the fifth, offers a great update of the purge at Beijing News, and the shutdown of blogs by Sina.:

Photos: Tears (Originally uploaded by Wang Xiaoshan, a Beijing News editor, on his Sina blog;Taken on December 29 in Beijing)

Among the links worth following are translations of blogs posts by ESWN and a short rant by Michael Anti prior to the shutdown of his MSN blogs reproduced on the Shanghaiist.:

Chinese blogger Mr. Anti, who had run a number of posts on this issue and called for a boycott of the newspaper (he’d already subscribed for the year of 2006 but wanted to cancel it and get a refund), has had … his Chinese MSN spaces blog … nuked … We guess Anti doesn’t matter much to one of the persons of the year … before Anti was forced to "sign out", he left a couple of angry posts about this issue that Shanghaiist copied down. Here’s our favorite one: 说实话,我宁愿去吃屎我也不要订什麼《光明日报》和它的什麼变种. Translation: Truth be told, I would rather eat shit than subscribe to Guangming Daily or any of its ilk.

The website of Michael Anti, one of China’s most provocative bloggers, have apparently been shut by MSN Spaces, following posts on a series of posts on the walkout by reporters at Beijing News and after Chinese blog service provider Bokee ran a column suggesting that authorities pay attention to Anti. Via ESWN.:

The Anti Blog Is Gone Upon information and belief, the Anti blog has been removed by MSN Spaces. For much of today, the message is that: “Space not available. This space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.” I have tried other MSN Spaces, but this is the only one not available. Similarly, Anti’s English blog is not available either.

I see two precipitating factors. The first relates to the three most recent posts at the blog. The oldest one was an announcement of the removal of the three senior editorial members of Beijing News. The next one urges Beijing News subscribers to call in and cancel their subscriptions (see copy in Chinese). The latest one tells current Beijing News workers to walk out of their jobs as a moral imperative (see copy in Chinese). At this time, the name Beijing News (=Xinjingbao) is banned from Chinese forums (i.e. you cannot bring up the subject and you cannot comment on it).

The second precipitating factor is most unfortunate, and it is described in detail in this post Good And Bad Things Happened To Mr. Anti. The Bokee columnist wrote that the government’s Internet supervisory department should be paying attention to Anti’s blog as well as MSN Spaces. Well, they did. Whether this is the true reason or not (and we will never know for sure), Bokee is going to go down in Internet history as calling in the Internet police to crack down on a blogger for exercising his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and the police did just that, and the motivation of Bokee was commercial in nature (that is, they want to use the government’s security apparatus to damage MSN Spaces as a competitor). I know that this is one columnist’s opinion, but Bokee had better make it very clear that they did not support that opinion AND also they do not support the disappearance of the Anti blog.

Andrea notes that Anti’s English blog has also vanished.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, anti, censorship

ESWN’s Roland Soong is profiled by Andres Gentry, who has resurrected his blogger profiles after an extended hiatus.:

17. Zhao Ziyang recently died. Non-Chinese seemed to have much greater interest in this story than Chinese. Is this observation correct? Whether true or false, why?

How many Americans or Europeans know who Zhao Ziyang is? You must be joking!!! Like 0.00001%! This question must refer not to general populations, but only to those who actually speak up. I once published an academic paper on the theory of the “Spiral of Silence” of Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann about the common fallacy to take the distribution of opinions of those who speak out as the same for the general population. This is a dangerous, because it was exactly how the Nazis created the impression that they represented the majority in Germany. On the matter of Zhao Ziyang, the distribution of opinions should not be based upon only those who are willing to speak out at this time.

Inside China, I would have liked to run an anonymous public opinion survey to ascertain how people feel, but that won’t happen, of course. So all is left to speculation. I would say that it is a function of one’s age and personal history. For the younger Chinese, it is likely that they have no idea who this person was. After all, they were 5 or 10 years old in 1989 and the subjects of Zhao Ziyang and the June 4 ‘incident’ have been excluded from the public discourse. As for those who were old enough in 1989 to know what went on, I can’t get a reading. For the majority of the country who are mostly rural peasants, they did not hear about Zhao Ziyang or the June 4 ‘incident’ back then, and it would have no material effect on them now. For those who were involved or paid attention at the time, I have no way to gauge the preponderance of opinions — a very tiny fraction have gone into exile and written a voluminous amount of protest materials; perhaps some are still despondent and angry; perhaps some have settled down in middle-class comfort; or perhaps others have even accept that what happened was necessary. I have no evidence about the distribution of these opinions.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, china, hong kong, northeast asia

One year ago today roughly a quarter of a million lives were washed away:

Sculptures are displayed on Patong beach during a ceremony to mark the one year anniversary of the tsunami in Phuket southern of Thailand. (AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Photo and text via Thai Blogs:

DesiPundit notes the role blogs played in putting out information and aiding in fundraising and relief and requests that the effort be repeated:

The blogosphere played an important part in disseminating information, collating resources, and offering avenues for fund raising. The team that brought you the SEA-EAT blog has now joined forces and rebanded to form the World Wide Help blog [disclaimer: I am also one of the contributors]. On the dark anniversary of the tsunami tragedy, we refocus the need to keep the relief work going and keeping hope alive for those who are still waiting for our help.

The Worldwide Help Blog has sent out a call for observing the Tsunami Remembrance Week from December 26th-January 1st. Write about it on your blogs. List your favorite charities or better still, make that last year-end donation. Use the Technorati tag - Disaster Remembrance Week [HTML code:
rel=”tag” rel=”tag”>Disaster Remembrance Week]

More at IndianWriting, Jakartass, Brand New Malaysian,

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, india, indonesia, malaysia, puppy, singapore, south asia, southeast asia, sri lanka, thailand

(UPDATE: Wordpress China is not affiliated with Wordpress.)
Whether this is because of state-mandated censorship or incredibly bad customer service remains to be seen, but blog service provider Wordpress.com.cn has been deleting blogs without giving advanced notice to their owners.:

Many registered users of wordpress.com.cn found that their accounts have been deleted by the site without any notices. The deleted user name is available for re-registration. In blog of Zhuo Zuran, the domain name holder, he explained that inactive accounts will be deleted by system. But many users complaint that even for those who publish posts, the accounts have been deleted too. And an anomynous user said he got email from wordpress.com.cn, it is said that the site was set up by overseas Chinese in WordPress development team(is it true?) to target overseas Chinese, so they delete the registered users from mainland China.

I have no idea whether wordpress.com.cn has any relationship with Wordpress.com and don’t know the exact resons to delete the accounts, but to delete users accounts in such a short time after registration without any notice or reasonable explanation is really irresponsible and unacceptable.

Fons writes:

The relations between the Chinese edition and Wordpress.com remains unclear as are the reason to delete weblogs without any notification.

Fons also notes the shutdown of  the site of one of the first English-language native Shanghai bloggers, Wang Jianshuo, which currently remains inaccessible in Shanghai. AsiaPundit offers his wishes that the site will be restored quickly.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, east asia, internet, northeast asia

At one of the Pacific Epoch blogs, which are an invaluable resource on internet and technology businesses in China, Elias reports that Chinese site Xiaonei has produced a blatant rip-off of US social-networking site facebook.:

I said in the previous post that Xiaonei is an almost exact copy of the Facebook site. I included some screenshots below comparing the sites. This is the original Facebook website:

This is Xiaonei’s site, taken Monday:

The site has undergone a slight modification since the theft.

(Via the Stalwart, who has more to add.)

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, internet

European Commission Vice President Margot Wallström has a blog and has joined in the criticism of US companies that assist in Chinese internet censorship.:

…I was very disappointed to learn that Microsoft has agreed to block Chinese blog entries that use words like “democracy“, “freedom“, “human rights“ and “demonstration.”

Margot Wallström taking part in an online chat

It seems like Microsoft is not alone in “bad company“. Google has agreed to exclude publications that the Chinese government finds objectionable. And Yahoo has even gone further. They collaborated with the Chinese government and gave up the name of a writer who sent an e-mail that commented on a party decision. Based on this information, the man received a ten-year prison sentence.

According to the organisation Human Rights Watch these companies are hiding behind statements claiming that they “have to ensure that they operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the countries they are based in”.

Words like ethics and corporate social responsibility seems to be deleted from their corporate code of conducts – or they have flexible ethical standards depending on where they operate… I can only recommend these companies to visit the website of the UN Global Compact at www.unglobalcompact.org. And, hope that these companies one day will understand that to endorse democracy and corporate responsibility is a prerequisite for “smart” growth. From now on, this issue is also on my political agenda.

AsiaPundit commends Wallström, EU officials criticizing China is something that is far too rare.

Two points though: first, as a European politician Wallström could have directed her attention somewhere where it would be more effective. As well as Cisco, which is lambasted here daily on the left-hand sidebar, France’s Alactel and Sweden’s Ericsson also provide China with the infrastructure necessary to build the internet. It should be revealed how much the companies modify their products to provide them with Chinese characteristics (specifically the ability to block websites and conduct surveillance on dissidents). The attack on US companies, which are not in EU jurisdiction, reeks of PR and does not show a real commitment to the issue.

A further point is Wallström’s noting of the Global Compact.  AsiaPundit generally has a warm spot for the Global Compact. Although I am a touch skeptical, it is very well intentioned and the participants seem sincere. That said, the UN-sponsored group has no opinion on internet censorship or free-speech issues in relation to technology companies.

Georg Kell, head of the initiative, was recently in China, and I asked him wether the group had any stand on free speech issues (specifically relating to Yahoo!’s complicity in the arrest of journalist Shi Tao and the Boston Common shareholder action on Cisco - both of which he said he was familiar with).

Kell said the UN Global Compact had not yet adopted any principles in regards to behavior of technology companies and how their business affects freedom of information and speech issues, and specifically on US companies such as Cisco Systems and Yahoo! Inc which are facing criticism due to some of their activities in China.

"No (we have no view), we are newcomers in China and we are very careful and we are learning together with foreign and Chinese corporations," Kell said.

That said, Kudos to Wallström for raising the topic and for blogging, especially as she hasn’t - as most politicians’ ‘blogs’ do -disabled comments and trackbacks.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia

Salon reports on internet censorship in China and the complicity of US companies. There’s not a lot of new information in it, but it’s nice to see that the topic is still interesting to Western media. Reproduced in full by Howard French.:

About once a month executives from China’s Internet news sites gather in a small meeting room on the first floor of Beijing’s Information Office, where a government official tells them what not to report. China’s Internet giants all send representatives, as does the China branch of one of America’s best-known icons: Yahoo. The visitors take notes and ask few questions.

On especially sensitive days, the speaker is the office’s director, Wang Hui, a woman whom an attendee of the meetings describes as pleasant and informal, with her hair cut short in the classic style of a Chinese bureaucrat. "Her demeanor is friendly," says the attendee, who requested anonymity because describing the meetings could lead to arrest. "We have known each other for a long time, and our companies are very cooperative."

The meetings are part of a system of Internet censorship that combines technological filters, human monitors and threats of detention to systematically suppress political speech. With more than 100 million regular Internet users, China is second only to the United States in terms of potential customers. But the Chinese government holds Web sites responsible for the content they and their users provide. Although much of the censorship gets carried out by the state, the authorities also rely heavily on the private sector.

To conduct business in China, popular Internet companies Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have had to accommodate a regime that forbids free speech, bars political parties and jails journalists. This means filtering searches on their sites, censoring news and providing evidence in the trials of political dissidents — or risk having their sites blocked in China. Forced to choose between ignoring the world’s hottest market or implicitly endorsing a system of censorship that a recent Harvard study called "the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world," the companies have decided to cooperate.

"Business is business," Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba.com, which controls Yahoo China, told the Financial Times. "It’s not politics."

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, north korea

Kudos to Cobrapost for its sense of humor. As part of a sting operation to nab corrupt politicians in a bribe-for-parliamentary questions scandal, Chandra Pratap Singh from Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi constituency was paid to ask the following in Parliament:

Is it true that while NRI firms such as India Uncut of USA, Sepia Mutiny of Britain and AnarCap Lib of Netherlands have been allowed to invest in Indian SSIs, the reputed German investment firm Desipundit has been denied permission? If so, the reasons thereof? Is the Union Government of India planning to make automatic the long procedure of permission for SSIs to import new technologies such as Trackbacks, Pingbacks, Blogrolls, Splogs and Hitcounters?



While nearly all the questions had a public interest element in them, some, like the one above, were passed on to the MPs with the intention of showing how easy it was for amateur teams to infiltrate the system and get bogus questions submitted in the balloting process. While, in this case, these were harmless, humour inducing efforts, in the hands of powerful lobbies this power acquires a sinister dimension. It is important to note some MPs like Kushwaha, Ram Pal and Gandhi even promised to put in questions “to harass” NISMA’s enemies.

This is not a joke. See page three of Cobrapost report here.

AsiaPundit is now considering which People’s Congress member he can buy some sponsorship from in the next session.

(Via Amit Varma’s India Uncut, and congrats to Amit on the mention in Parliament.)

UPDATE: More at Sepia Mutiny:

What the F%ck?? As Ennis blurted out loudly in our North Dakota HQ earlier this morning, “Sweet! We’re famous! Dude(ette) - this is so much cooler than I thought the blog would ever get.”….

Now for the part I don’t understand. Why the hell were we labeled as a “British” blog entity? Desipundit is similarly pissed that his “firm” was denied permission to invest in Indian SSIs. Something very Syriana-like is going on here if you ask me. The powers that be are trying to manipulate the playing field.

My parents who are in India right now are going to get a kick out of this. They always thought that we’d get in trouble with the U.S. government but never thought that this blog would play a minor part in taking down Indian politicians all the way from North Dakota.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, corruption, india, south asia

An outrageous burst of cheating has hit the Best Asian Blog category at the Weblog Awards, leading to heavy deductions of votes from frontrunners XiaXue and mr brown.:

The total votes for Xiaxue have been reduced by 5048 votes for cheating committed from the following the 220.255 subnet. Nine individual IP addresses have been banned.

The total votes for Mr. Brown have been reduced by 9944 votes for cheating committed from the following the 218.186 subnet. Three individual IP addresses have been banned.

AsiaPundit has had several beers with mr brown and can assure readers that mr brown would not engage in mass cheating. As a father of three, plus an xbox junkie and blogger, there’s no way he could find the time to rig a contest. Plus, like AP, mr brown is so technically clueless that he is completely reliant on TypePad to run his blog. Essentially, mr brown does not have the smarts to pull such a stunt.

Seriously, just look at him:

I can’t speak as strongly on XiaXue’s behalf, having only met Wendy once, but she also seems pretty clueless. Even more so than mr brown, in fact. To anyone who has read her blog, it should be obvious that she can barely type.

Obviously this is all a plot by Mr Miyagi (AKA the silencer) to get the front runners disqualified. Unlike mr brown and XiaXue, Miyagi is very smart… plus, he’s evil (as evidenced by the fact that he still owes us beer).

Kevin at Wizbang has banned the IP addresses of the cheaters. Unfortunately, based on comments at mr brown, this may have shut out all users of Starhub cable broadband ISP Maxonline, one of the city state’s main providers. AP hopes that this is not the case or, if so, that it can be rectified quickly. If not, tens of thousands of Singaporeans will be effectively disenfranchised.

Of course, given that the People’s Action Party has effectively intimidated the opposition to such a degree that many ridings are uncontested in parliamentary elections, as well as the presidential ‘vote’, being disenfranchised is something that Singaporeans are pretty used to.

Still, it’s not very nice.

(Full disclosure: mr brown bought the beer the last time AP was at a S’poreblogger meetup (has it been mentioned that Miyagi still owes both AP and mr brown a round?).

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, east asia, singapore, southeast asia, weblog awards

Roland of ESWN, who’s name AsiaPundit has never mentioned, has come out in the open with an interview in Hong Kong’s Next magazine. Letters from China provides a selection of money quotes.:

Quotations from Mr Soong’s interview which may reflect his philosophy of blogging (after reading my “translation” (so to speak), you will sorely miss ESWN):

“I do not make comment. I put everything on the internet. Who is right and who is wrong, you decide.” (我不下評論，全放上網讓你看，對對錯錯，由你判斷。)

“Countries in the world are divided into the South and the North. The South is developing countries. The North is developed countries. I came from the West to the East. So [the blog] is titled East South West North.” (世界上的國家，分南、北。南是發展中國家，北是已發展國家。我由西方來到東方，所以叫東南西北。)

“If I think English media coverage is sufficient, I don’t translate it. Lots of people talked about Bush’s visit to China. You could guess the way the New York Times reported the visit. And it is even more pointless to translate the People’s Daily. (如果我認為英文已經足夠，就不理它。像布殊訪問中國，大把人講。《紐約時報》的報導形式，你猜到。《人民日報》，更加無謂翻譯。)

“Perhaps one would not know [a 78-year-old Hong Kong citizen placed advertisement in newspapers questioning when would there be universal suffrage] by reading the New York Times.” (看《紐約時報》大概不會知道有這種事。)

“I particularly want media people to read [my blog] so that they dare not distort the fact. For instance, when Chinese fleet visited Hong Kong, New York Times put it like that the mainland scared Hong Kong democracy. And that article was even published on the annual report of American congress. How can you say that? I showed you. Was your fleet visit an attempt to scare China?” (我特別在乎傳媒人看，等他們別亂來 …… 像中國海軍艦隊來香港，《紐約時報》說成是大陸恐嚇香港民主，那文章還在美國國會年報刊登。…… 你咁都講得出？我讓你看，你們艦隊來，算不算恐嚇中國？)

Roland also notes the LfC translation, and reveals more details on his nonpartisan leanings from a speech at an Internet conference in Hong Kong.:

I do this by becoming the single most hated blog in Hong Kong. When I write about something like the number of marchers on 12/4, the democrats are howling that I am a Communist Party shill. When I write about something like the new rules on avian flu reporting in China, the other boot falls. So I am hated by all sides.

But why is my political position so ambivalent? Because I have none. As an American citizen, my greatest sorrow is to watch how political partisanship has destroyed all sense of objectivity among the citizens. Take an event such as Hurricane Katrina and run a public opinion poll on satisfaction with the administration’s performance? Approval rates are 10% from Democrats, 15% from Independents and 90% from Republicans. People don’t look at the objective situation anymore — everything is about partisanship calculations. I do not talk politics in the United States anymore, because nobody is listening.

But when I write about something on my blog, I do not look at the party behind it. If something is wrong, then it is wrong. It is wrong to exaggerate the number of marchers just as it is wrong to order people to hide information about an epidemic outbreak. If there is a pro-Beijing rally in which their organizers claim 750,000, you can bet that I will review the evidence and condemn them for lying. If the Hong Kong government has the same orders about reporting avian flu, I would publish that information too. After living through Free China, Richard Nixon, the Cultural Revolution, Monica Lewinsky, the War in Iraq and all that, I am now insisting on a world of truth.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, china, east asia, hong kong, northeast asia, taiwan

AsiaPundit pretends to be a group blog. There are - supposedly - 15 other contributors as well as myself. In reality, there are usually two posts per week by authors other than me. Manuel and Rezwan have offered excellent roundups, but they are very occasional. Gordon and GI Korea drop by with excellent posts, but only around twice monthly. That said, I will not only consider ‘re-hiring’ them when we I relaunch in 2006, I will invite them.

Aside from occasional contributions, the ‘group blog’ concept has essentially been me posting in third-person and hoping that someone else will help with the ‘project,’ which (a fault on my part) is not only ill-defined but amorphous.

Right now, as AsiaPundit looks at the Weblogs Awards Tally, he realizes that after 24 hours, the voting tally for AP is below the number of people actually signed on to contribute to the site. Considering that AsiaPundit voted three times today (home, office and the wi-fi spot where I had lunch), that’s exceptionally sad.

So, to everyone on the author list: YOU ARE ALL FIRED!

This makes me feel young. I haven’t sacked a volunteer since I was running  a university radio station in 1999 1989, and 15 in one blow leaves AsiaPundit more than twice as strong as Tailor Mickey.

That was a very tactless way to sack everyone but, as I mentioned to Simon earlier when he didn’t name the one Asia blogger he wouldn’t vote for, I don’t find virtue in tact.

AsiaPundit is pleased to be on the 2005 Weblog Awards. However, he has decided to bow out. As my esteemed Singaporean colleague Mr Miyagi has done, AsiaPundit offers his endorsement to Simon World.
Simon should have taken the prize last year. However, the intelligent side of the English-language Asian blogosphere has been overwhelmed by the might of a self-centered young woman from Singapore with an unfortunately large number of underage and ‘dirty-old-man’ fans.

This year, I encourage all nominees who haven’t already done so to endorse either Simon or mr brown. ESWN, whom I nominated, already has our respect for his work and, as Simon once said, is in a completely different league.

This year, I hope the rest of us - that includes you Sassy and Robert - can unite around something intelligent. Should Asia be forever represented by XiaXue? Does this continent - Japan, Korea, China, India, Singapore, the Philippines and elsewhere - have nothing better to offer than a doe-eyed, photo-shopped enhanced, semi-illiterate adult who still behaves like a teenager as its blogosphere representative?

AsiaPundit hopes not.

VOTE SIMON WORLD

Blogging will be non-existent on Wednesday. I’ve sacked all the co-pundits and, should I escape the office on time, I plan to join Running Dog for trivia night at the pub. After that, AsiaPundit hopes to find time to read a book, have sex with his wife or both.

(Full Disclosure: Miyagi still owes Asiapundit a round of beer though we have not, at any point, discussed endorsing Simon.)

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs

Who says Chinese bloggers don’t complain about censorship.:

i wrote a post about the results of an activity in the chinese island located near Fujian province, but was unable to publish it. i tried more than 10 times to publish the post and everytime i received a note that my post “contains illicit word”, even if i made revisions on all those possible sensitive words like T***@****i****w***@****n, or e****1****e****c****t****!****O****n, or s***e***ss****i****O****n, at the end still unable to get it published.

you know the results of the activity in that island. basically my post says that chinese people are happy with the results, and the blue organization that won the activity will probably promote the relationship between that island and the rest of china, and the green organization that lost the activity, unlike many people think, might take a more provoking stance towards mainland china.

now, pls allow me comment on this stupid policy that makes my post unable to get published at my blog (i am not saying it’s the fault of bcchinese blog host) :

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, china, east asia, northeast asia, censorship