A blog by China nationals studying in Australia has voluntary shut itself down after Australian Senator Andrew Bartlett criticized commentary on the site calling for the murder of Chinese defector Chen Yonglin. He became aware of the site via the Peking Duck.

Bartlett has his reactions here.  Mine are below.

I had once jokingly referred to the Patriot China (Canberra) site as a
Chinese government-promoted blog. It toed CPC party line, although with
more explicit and often violent language. I found it particularly
offensive during recent tensions between Japan and China, during which
the Japanese were regularly described on the site in exceptionally dehumanizing
terms.

It was a a reservoir of hate and ultra nationalism, but I’m not
happy that it’s gone. Most of the vile nationalist and racist comments that are on
the internet occur in single-language chatrooms, or on websites where
people of like minds congregate.

While Patriot China was an offensive site, it was also one where the
authors had left open a channel to engage people who thought
differently and who spoke a different tongue. That is a brave and welcome thing to do.

It provided an insight into opinions that are held by many within China but are unpalatable to the West. Though offensive, it’s much better to have these opinions expressed through an open forum than through violent protest.

I doubt that the authors’ minds will be changed through debate, but they certainly wouldn’t be changed if they left their opinions unspoken and unchallenged.

With that, I hope the site soon resumes.