East meets west. Mutantfrog reviews the top-10 blogs in Japan and the United States.:

..what do other East Asian blogs look like? What about, just for example, the highest ranked Japanese blogs on Technorati?

(Note about Technorati from their About section: “Technorati displays what’s important in the blogosphere — which bloggers are commanding attention, what ideas are rising in prominence, and the speed at which these conversations are taking place.” Hence, these rankings are a measure of what people with blogs are linking to, not the number of page views, influence, revenue, or any other factor (as far as I can tell))

For starters, let’s see what’s out there. Here’s a quick rundown of the top ten blogs in Japan and the US/English-speaking world (for comparison)….

(Japan Number 5) Kaori Manabe is a popular (not to mention beautiful) model/actress/all-around talent, perhaps best known outside Japan for her role in the 2001 film Waterboys. Her blog has gained fame for its frequent updates, endless blathering on trivial topics, and plentiful photos of Manabe-chan.

Latest post: A Friendly Fire Festival

Inanity abounds:

There’s a very strange person called Mr. A that I see all the time on location. 

Is he an airhead? Well, he’s more of a socially inept ‘go my own way’ type of guy. H

His special feature is to make statements that surprise people without meaning to at all.

His hobbies are playing the horses and movies (mostly thrillers).

His private life is shrouded in mystery (but he absolutely does not have a girlfriend).

[snip]

After that, we started talking about taking baths that only come up to one’s lower chest, something that he has been into recently, and he once again started in on his particulars regarding half-body-bathingI am also quite particular about my bathing habits, and have bath powders, candles, germanium, a bathroom television, plenty of bath goods, but Mr. A said “First I buy bath powders at a convenience store…”

“they sell them, you know? Something water, some such thing…”I see…… （￣～￣)

Mr. A: “And then, I fill the bathtub all the way with hot water…”Ooohhhhhh… (ー∇ー;)

Mr. A: “Then I put in the bath powder that I bought, and mix it in with my hands….”

Yes, yes? （＿´ω｀）

Mr. A: “And then….”

And then?!?？？？？？？(’▽‘;;） (heart pounding)

Mr. A: “Then I get in”

………？？？？？？？？？？？
….

I was stupid for listening with anticipation…

No more!

Looks like Mr. A might be an airhead after all…

And people read this! Reminds me a lot of Xia Xue

After the sudden of burst of activity last week, when every second post here was about internet companies in China, AsiaPundit was not going to touch the topic today. However, Tom Zeller Jr today said something in the New York Times that struck a nerve.:

What if Chinese law required Internet companies to reveal the identities of all users who forwarded really bad e-mail jokes, lame chain letters or any messages containing the terms “free speech,” “Tiananmen Square” or “Super Freak,” because such activities carried a 10-year prison term?

“With all due respect to the memory of Rick James, the king of funk,” an executive might say, “we must abide by the laws of the countries in which we operate.”

And what if — as a mark of good faith for being permitted to do business in what any rational observer has to admit is now the most tantalizing Internet and technology market on the planet — an executive from each company were required to assist, mano a mano, in the beating of an imprisoned blogger?

While Tom makes a few interesting points, AsiaPundit is going to be “irrational” and suggest that China’s internet market is far from the most tantalizing on the planet. Off the top of the head, AsiaPundit would suggest that the most-tantalizing internet markets are — in descending order — the wealthy and tech-savvy United States, followed by the EU, e-commerce friendly Japan and possibly then the well-wired South Korea. China would certainly be in the top-10, and maybe even the top five, but it’s not the most tantalizing by a longshot.

Here’s a note from a MarketWatch item on Google’s prospects in China, issued after the China censorship issue was announced but ahead of the company’s earnings announcement. ():

One Wall Street analyst wrote in a report that Google’s China decision could cost more than it’s worth in the short term.

“We do not see meaningful revenue” in China for Google in the near term, UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter told clients Wednesday.

“We are concerned that the inevitable negative PR will damage Google’s brand,” wrote Schachter, who has a buy rating on Google shares.

Schachter downgraded Google to neutral after the earnings announcement, via Dow Jones:

UBS cut Google Inc. (GOOG) to neutral from buy, due to concerns over international revenue growth and the rising investment needed to potentially improve performance in key international markets.

The analysts said that while it agrees with Google that these markets provide important potential opportunities, it may take “longer than expected to effectively monetize them.”

UBS’ China analyst was bearish on the company’s prospects here ahead of the formal launch of the China portal:

Eric Wen, the UBS Internet analyst based in Asia, sums up what he believes are some of the prevailing issues in China for Google in a research report published this month.

Mr. Wen believes that Google is still testing the waters, and does not yet have a clear China strategy. Google has partnered with NetEase and Sina uses Google for some of its technology, but Google.com is facing a dilemma in China. The company recently began conforming to Chinese censorship standards, but Mr. Wen believes that Chinese users chose Google precisely because it was not censored. By conforming to the government standards, Google is trying to enable itself to enter the market in terms of attracting local businesses to advertise. However, by conforming, Google loses its differentiator. This is a dilemma for Google and the reason Mr. Wen believes that Google will not dominate the Chinese search market.

As Bill Bishop noted, China is not an essential market for Google to be in financially:

I am guessing that Google will be happy if they can generate $30M in revenue in China in 2006. Baidu, the market leader, is projected to generate somewhere between $65-70M in revenue in 2006. I believe Google is expected to generate over $8B in revenue worldwide in 2006. If my math is anywhere in the ballpark, China will account for LESS THAN 2 DAYS of Google’s 2006 revenue. And given the economics of the keyword value chain in China, that revenue should be significantly lower margin revenue than is US revenue. So if the China business went away, would investors care?

Perry Wu, in an exceptionally bearish item, says bluntly that Google will have about as much success as its Western rivals who are also getting lambasted on blogs, in the press and Congress. Basically, very little.:

Yahoo (YHOO) tried many times to adapt. As far back as 1998 (or Web 0.98 Beta) when its then-VP, Heather Killen, made high-profile visits to China, the Western Internet company tried to sit at the Chinese banquet table. But Yahoo finally gave up last year when it bought a billion dollar stake in China’s Alibaba.com and then gave Alibaba the rights to run Yahoo! China. There was not even a whimper from the company as its Chinese portal was torn down and replaced with a simple search engine. Sohu (SOHU), Sina (SINA), and Netease (NTES) had finally beaten the foreign interloper.

Lycos tried too. It bought firms like Myrice.com. Netscape tried, via AOL. MSN has also been bobbling along with a few victories here and a few setbacks there–nothing much to be proud of.

All of these companies have one thing in common: they entered China to win, but left only remnants of their power after a few years’ struggle. Chinese history is filled with tales of foreigners coming to the Middle Kingdom with money, but leaving the country poor, confused and embarrassed. Ask Chris Patten.

While the UBS boys, Wu, Bishop and others may be a touch , none are irrational. China’s internet penetration rate is still growing at an impressive pace, but the rate is slowing and the average user is still not deep-pocketed.

There’s a great deal of cash to be made in providing infrastructure for the build out of third-generation networks and broadband capacity, but there’s not a lot yet there for search- or advertising-based business models; certainly not when compared to Western markets.

Zeller is not the first pundit to hype the China market, most commentary seems to assume that the companies that are active here are putting principle at risk over in order to get massive returns. That’s far from true.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, cisco, east asia, economy, , japan, korea, media, microsoft, northeast asia, yahoo

AsiaPundit is enjoying the holiday today and was not going to blog. However, – pointed out by Rebecca — is really fun to play with. You can search Google.cn and Google.com at the same time. From it, AsiaPundit discovered that Google.cn does not censor search results for ""

Click on the image for larger size. The search in both portals turn up 395 sites. AP was not too surprised that Google.cn hasn’t set its filters for British slang but he was a bit shocked that Michael Turton’s site showed up as the second-highest ranked result. Blogspot is blocked in China, so according to Google’s statement that it will remove ‘dead’ links, Michael’s site should not exist.
Could Google be fallible? Or does the party approve of the View from Taiwan? Is Michael actually a pro-CCP stooge?
We report, you decide!

(Updated below, click on "continue reading" )

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

(more…)

AsiaPundit’s initial take on Google’s foray into China was not that the company was committing a grave sin, nor that it was doing a good thing for Chinese users (see and ). Establishing the China portal was neither good nor evil, but it may yet prove to have been profoundly stupid. AsiaPundit believes that Google has diminished its brand to enter a market that is simply not (yet) lucrative.

That theme has now been picked up and argued elsewhere.

A Tech Central Station column by Instapundit Glenn Reynolds argues that Google has lost something that made it special.:

In taking this approach, Google doesn’t distinguish itself much from other big American companies — Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!, etc. — that have cooperated with the Chinese. (Arguably, its behavior here is “less evil.”) It’s a big market, offering over a billion customers, and the Chinese government itself is a big purchaser. Why make them mad? How many people, besides a few human-rights types, will care that according to the Chinese Google, that And how much money do they spend on IT?

There’s also a not-entirely-bogus counterargument, that Chinese citizens with access to a censored Google are still more powerful, relative to their government, than Chinese citizens with no Google at all. Though this claim seems a bit, er, convenient, it may still have a grain of truth to it. The experience of empowerment that the Internet provides seems to affect people in ways that go beyond specific issues, and make them less tolerant of bossiness elsewhere; the more Chinese surf the Web, the more will have that experience. Maybe. It’s possible. After all, plenty of people made similar arguments in favor of “constructive engagement” with the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and against sanctions designed to force an end to its racist policies.

But it’s kind of odd to find Google in the position of making those sorts of arguments. There was always the sense — despite its ruffling a lot of feathers over what sources were included in Google News, or various complaints about the limited privacy afforded by Gmail — that Google was something different: Not just another big corporation.

A Wall Street Journal column by Andy Kessler argues that Google is no longer cool.:

Americans have a long history of selling out - think Warren Beatty and “Ishtar” or politicians and Indian casinos. The public is trusting until proven otherwise, then turns on icons like rats on garbage. Never more so with culture: Being “cool,” “tight” or “wicked excellent” is a hard image to keep and one boneheaded move can send you to tomorrow’s cut-out bin. Ask Michael Jackson. Or Madonna.

Which brings us to Google. As a company, even more so than Ian Schrager’s hotels, it reeks of cool—Google Maps and Google Earth and gmail bring a kind of geek chic to the dull old media world. Plus, there are those lofty ideals like “organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It’s why we all use them. Google should do everything to stay cool. GM is spending millions on ads that say “Just Google Pontiac” to get in on the zeitgeist.

And now, poof.

a billion soon-to-be-online Chinese will forever associate Google with lame and censored search results

One of the ways urbandictionary.com defines “sellout” is to alienate core fans by changing one’s style to appeal to a broader audience—and becoming what one’s fans were rebelling against in the first place. The U.S. government wanted search history to help fight child porn and Google said no way, to cheers from their Big Brother-hating constituency. But for its search service in China, Google caved to the communists, removing offending results for “Human Rights” and “Things that are Democratic.”

And Nicholas Carr writes that Google simply did something stupid.:

I think the reason Google is getting its feet held to the fire is simple: It asked for it. As soon as the company broadcast its “Don’t Be Evil” pledge, it guaranteed that any time it stepped into ethically ambiguous territory it was going to touch off a firestorm in the press - and, in turn, draw the attention of the public and the public’s media-hungry elected representatives. It’s the old Gary Hart effect. Plenty of Senators get a little on the side without finding their dalliances on Page One, but as soon as Hart claimed to be pure, he guaranteed that reporters and cameramen would come knocking on the door of his lovenest. Whether it was hubris or just naivete that led Google to proclaim its moral purity can be debated, but from a business standpoint it was a surpassingly dumb thing to do - and the consequences were entirely predictable.

Support Bloggers’ Rights!

Among its many activities, EFF promotes one of the best proxy server packages available - allowing users in China to access any number of blocked sites. In lieu of a donation, users in the West can volunteer time or bandwidth to help improve the service.

AP picked EFF for support because of it’s blogging focus, because of its proxy tool and because he gets a really cool t-shirt.

As EFF may not be to everyone’s liking, there are other organizations that can be supported, either financially, through volunteering or by aiding publicity. They may or may not have cool shirts.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, cisco, east asia, EFF, , media, microsoft, northeast asia, yahoo

Ouch.

(Via CDT)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, , media, northeast asia, yahoo

Oranckay says the South Korean president has three blogs:

It’ll probably be in the English press by morning but president Roh Moo Hyun has got his own blog.

Or two.

Or three.

One at Naver, one at Daum, and one at Paran.

Some have said one of Roh’s biggest problems is that he’s got his head buried in the internet. You know, instead of just governing without constantly trying to be best buddies with The Netizens all the time. I wonder if he is going to be able to sleep at night without wondering what kind of comments he’s been getting. (He’s been known to leave a few himself here and there.)

Hopefully these will be more active than the three blogs of his northern counterpart. Kim Jong-il has let two of them slide. Speaking of that, we should have all checked the infrequently updated Beloved Leader site for details of his China trip. It would have spared us a lot of speculation:

Screw those Beijing Clowns

I am going Shopping!
Damn! Is today a holiday? I had some of my Overseas Bureau lads put me ashore this morning so I could shop for some hard-to-get items. Are those little LG things the same as iPods?

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, korea, north korea, northeast asia, south korea

At the risk of developing a huge circular linkfest that will cause the blogosphere to implode, AsiaPundit is further consolidating the China internet censorship dialogue as Bingfeng, Angry Chinese Blogger and Tom Legg join in.

Tom rebuts several of Imagethief’s arguments and, like AP, is welcoming hearings, but with a lot more enthusiasm than was done here:

As long as decisions on who obtains access to the Chinese market is given a thumbs up or thumbs down by Chinese government bureaucrats, there is the possibility that US businesses could lose access to the Chinese market for extra-legal reasons. Given the vague and broad regulation of Internet Content Providers in China, which require responses to both judicial warrants {Shi Tao and Yahoo!} and extra-judicial requests from Media Control/Propaganda Officers {apparently, Anti and MSN Spaces}, and the wiggle room for arbitrary "rule of men", how will US corporations doing business in China react to extra-legal requests for action by Chinese authorities given the threat of loss of access to the market? {Should we argue for the repeal of US laws barring US corporations from bribing foreign officials to obtain business, if that is custom of that country? Is it a stretch to suggest that other extra-legal favours for foreign officials constitute an in-kind bribe? Would yanking a troublemaker’s blog, which hasn’t been officially censored, on behalf of an annoyed government official, who has the power to make the regular conduct of your business difficult, constitute an in-kind bribe?}

Shanghai-native blogger Bingfeng is opposing US meddling as unproductive:

…talking about internet censorship in china, suggestions like punishing MSN, yahoo or regulating foreign internet firms sound so stupid to me. it won’t contribute anything positive except increasing the already high level awareness of chinese internet censorship. and even worse, such regulatons might thwart the expansion of free thinkings in china which is hard to image without the involvement of foreign tech firms.

simply put it this way, chinese internet censorship can only be demolished by chinese people themselves. all the underlying reasons for internet censorship, the tradition of patriarch culture, the outdated ideology, the legitimate claim to protect kids, the difficulty of regulating internet in such a fast-developing market and immense country, are all hard to conceive to outsiders and such a system problem with so many intertwined elements requires wit to understand, strong desire to fight against, and patience to solve.

Angry Chinese Blogger takes a very analytical view bringing up, among other things, the long-passed out of discussion Internet Freedom Act:

In October 2002, Congressmen Christopher Cox and Thomas Lantos proposed legislation (The Global Internet Freedom Act) to create the ‘Office of Global Internet Freedom’. A body working under the auspices of the ‘Broadcasting Board of Governors’; the federal agency that maintains the ‘Voice of America’ and ‘Radio Free Asia’.

Under proposals, the Office of Global Internet Freedom would have the remit to "develop and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat state-sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming, and persecution of those who use the Internet."

  "The Chinese government, and sadly, too many other regimes around the world, have been aggressively blocking access to the Internet, monitoring Internet activity and punishing those who seek only to share information"

Christopher Cox, Congressman, US (speaking before the US-C ESRC, June 2003)

Initially, OGIF was proposed as having a budget of $US100 Million over two years, however, this was paired down to $US16 in July 2003.

AP has stated the views he currently holds - these may shift with circumstances, arguments and new developments - but all of the above are worth reading in full (including Bingfeng’s first two posts on the topic).

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

The Nanny has just received a facelift. And she’s kinda cute:

The internet nanny is cute, until she confiscates your computer and hauls you away and locks you up for a couple of years on trumped up charges relating to national security leaking national secrets — and then you realize she’s a hard ass. Inspired by the hideous and tacky mascots of the Beijing Olympics, the Shenzhen police devised a way of making their new internet police force (which started work on January 1 of this year) seem more cute and acceptable to the masses — using cartoon mascots of their own. One is named Jing Jing (the male), and the other Cha Cha (the female). ‘Jing’ and ‘cha’ are the characters that comprise the word for ‘police’ in Chinese. Shanghaiist is sure that some of you readers are no doubt Westerners that just don’t get China and Chinese values, which is why the po-lice have to spell it out for you:

网上的各种行为同样有网络警察维护“社会秩序”，网站、论坛等都是网络公共场所，网民要注意自己的言行。

This basically states that websites, including BBSs, discussion groups (and most definitely blogs) are public places, and so internet denizens must likewise watch what they say and do. Thus the two cartoon figures will appear on various Shenzhen sites from now on. Apparently, you can click on either one and then be brought to a page (here or here) where you can talk live with real cops

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

There’s a war going on in the local blogosphere between Team A (Xiaxue, Sillycelly and Sandra) and Team B (Blinkymummy and Xialanxue). Go read their blogs to find out what happened. Tomorrow has links to some blogs following the story. (Picture and words from IZ)

Young Asian girls, slander, a bikini photo shoot gone bad and catfights. This should be even bigger than the Dawn Yang plastic surgery controversy (if you don’t know, don’t ask).

As AsiaPundit understands, the story is that Asia’s ‘Best’ blogger XiaXue, along with friends Sillycelly and Sandra, were seemingly upset at Blinkymummy, possibly for posts related to a lad mag photo shoot that the three did.

At a restaurant encounter a somewhat drunk Blinkymummy had words with the girls.

Shortly after a Blinkymummy hate site appeared with the author baring the moniker "Xialanxue," the author of an anonymous anti-Xiaxue site.

Allegedly, bloglines screen grabs demonstrated that Xiaxue was impersonating Xialanxue in an effort to slander Blinkymummy. Ironically, one of the incriminating posts was one in which XiaXue was insulting anonymous hate-site owners and fast-food chain mascots,

This was followed a post on the ’scandal’ being put on aggregator site Tomorrow.sg, and then taken down - and then being replaced by a new post. Followed by a deletion of all trackbacks by a Tomorrow editor who may or may not have been XiaXue. Undermining the editorial stance of Tomorrow.

Got it? I didn’t think so.

Thankfully Shaolin Tiger has a generally readable review of the matter. Tomorrow has about 35 linked trackbacks to its post.

Funnily enough, in one of the gazillion comments on this in the S’poreblogosphere it was said that "Blinkymummy started it." That’s a classic schoolyard comment and, with it, AsiaPundit is willing to call this blogwar now.

The winner is… Steven. He wasn’t actually involved but no one else comes out of this looking very good and the whole incident adds immeasurable support for his controversial thesis.

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

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

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

In a response to ZDnet, Microsoft said it shut Chinese blogger Michael Anti’s site because it is committed to the safety of internet users:

“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,” the spokesperson said.

Questions still remain over why a site believed to be hosted in the US has to comply with Chinese law. Microsoft responded to requests for more information on this issue by claiming that “Microsoft is a multi-national business and as such need to manage the reality of operating in countries around the world”.

AsiaPundit uses TypePad, which is currently unblocked in China. AsiaPundit is concerned that TypePad owner Six Apart has not had the slightest bit of concern about keeping him safe.

This should be the end of the story. MSN did a good thing by shutting down Anti. It is clearly more concerned about its users safety than services like TypePad. This had nothing to do with the security of its own bottom line or helping to maintain the CCP’s near complete control on information.

Berks.

Technorati Tags: anti, asia, blogs, censorship, east asia, media, 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

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

One of the advantages of being an anonymous blogger is that it enables you to circulate rumors that would, if published without attribution, could get you in a world of trouble. From an anonymous journalist/blogger an update on the situation in Jiliin, the site where the Songhua river chemical spill originated.

The violence and reported deaths in Dongzhou have attracted many foreign media’s top priority southward. But the eerie silence of domestic media on the deputy mayor’s suicide in Jilin and the deeper, still evolving story behind it underscore the fact that the drama is far from over in the northeast.

The Beijing News had a story. 21st Century Business Herald had a story. Caijing Magazine had a story. None ran it. Word in town is, several of this country’s top leaders have contributed their share of opinion on this and put an abrupt end to all the buzz. The deputy mayor’s suicide seems to be the cause. An new, more powerful investigation taskforce put together by the central government that was scheduled to arrive in Jilin last week was put on hold after the suicide. Is Beijing afraid of more suicides?

Another, much more vicious piece of rumor has surfaced in Jilin, which, if verified, could easily explain all the weird developments. The 100-ton-or-so benzene and nitrobenzene in the Songhua, according to government sources there, was not accidently flushed down the sewer but DELIBERATELY LEAKED. Again, no guarantee for the authenticity of this information but in the absence of true, open news coverage rumor would have to do, for here and for now.

AsiaPundit as well does not guarantee the integrity of this information.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, harbin, jilin, northeast asia, media

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