BANNED: WALL STREET JOURNAL

www.wsj.com

www.wsj.com/asia

M.A's commentary:
A lot of financial news on these sites. I work at a university and some of my students are learning English to work in international business or financial sectors. How can you prepare to enter these careers without current ideas? 

Indigo's commentary:
The Wall Street Journal is free to critique businesses and/or report on companies that are failing or doing well. I'm guessing these sites are blocked because the government doesn't want the general public to be aware of the status of some Chinese companies. If one of the top employers in a region is in financial trouble and an employee observes this on The Wall Street Journal, it could cause unrest, further economic trouble and possibly even protests. 

It is unfortunate that my mother is unable to gain access to financial news and pass it on to her students. In some ways the general population of China could greatly benefit from becoming more aware of national and global financial markets. China is a country full of entrepreneurs, family restaurants and people trying to work for themselves. The more information they have access to, to help them build their small companies, the better these businesses will do and the better the Chinese market will do. 

Obviously I see the wisdom in allowing citizens to read about the stock markets, companies and financial news. However, I can also see why it might be in the Chinese governments best interest to regulate what news the population sees. The best way to prevent civil unrest and rebellion is to paint a happy picture of the Chinese economy. It has been proven that in times of economic prosperity and high growth, the people are less likely to care about human rights violations or more strict laws, simply because they are able to be prosperous in such a regime. Singapore is a prime example of this. So, I think the Chinese government is merely trying to protect their image, as is their right.

Bye Bye BBC

BANNED BBC Broadcasting News Channel

M.A's commentary:

image taken from commons.wikipedia.org from BBC

BBC is available online but was removed from tv. I miss BBC TV because I liked the voices in English although I didn't care particularly for their newscasts. I miss hearing things said that are new or unscripted. I can watch movies or sometimes newsbits online. But it is segments, not a full debate or actual conversations. I like the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. I live in a foreign country where my native language is spoken in carefully filtered slow speed by the foreigners living here as well as the Chinese. You get used to talking that way at work and it carries over. Newstalk is fast and furious. I miss having the news fed to me, even if it was nothing important. Maybe I am lazy and living behind firewall is a way to keep me sharp.

Indigo's commentary:
I can't say why the BBC News Channel is blocked but not BBC online....My best guess is that the government is unable to censor the news or programming as it is live broadcasted compared to having the ability to block certain stories published on the online content of BBC. I'm going to assume that the BBC version of news my mother is able to access is probably significantly more limited than the news I access on my Ipad living in England. But at least she is able to get some information from the website.

 In addition, I know from experience that BBC does occasionally discuss what could be deemed controversial ideas, and no doubt the Chinese government would like to keep those ideas away from its citizens. However, I know that BBC wasn't a widely accessed news channel in China. If I recall correctly it is mostly foreigners living in China that would watch it, so the need to censor or remove it should be minimal.

As an added note, I know that I would suffer greatly from the loss of BBC news. It is my go to for the most up to date information, and I like it so much that I have even applied for jobs within the company. So I'm taking a moment to appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to access the full content of BBC on TV, online and in general. This goes for all news service, I don't doubt that I can easily access multiple articles on any piece of news that I want. While my mother and those living in China might be limited to one edited version of a story. 

Faceless on Facebook

image taken from commons.wikipedia.com from Facebook

www.facebook.com

M.A's commentary:
Facebook, I ironically first joined when I was in China in the fall of 2007. It was blocked sometime after the Olympics. I debated installing a proxy before I left the USA to get Facebook. I thought I wouldn't want it because it makes me feel homesick. But Skype is barely functional anymore, so I decided with everything blocked, I better have a proxy. Facebook is how you keep in touch with anyone. How do you know if you send your email to someone and you never hear back if they are still alive?

My neighbors that watch my house's kids are always on Facebook. If I need to have something checked on, that will be the fastest way to get a message. But at the same time because Facebook is so slow I am not addicted to it, I don't spend all my time watching what everyone else is doing or comparing myself to them, and I think that is healthy. But it is odd to me that the Chinese consulate in San Francisco has a Facebook page. And online China Daily in English has Facebook share buttons on all its news stories.

Indigo's commentary:
I think we all know why Facebook was banned. I think it was the summer or winter of 2009, and a group of activists planned their protest on Facebook. The Chinese government found out and suddenly Facebook was blocked. I remember it very clearly because I had only been using Facebook for a few months, and then poof! It was gone. It became a very big gulf in my life because it had been my only avenue of communication with friends, my counterparts never bothered with emails so I became distinctly cut off. At the time, using proxys to get to Facebook wasn't very difficult. But from what I have heard, even accessing proxy's is a challenge because they are continually shut down. But there will be a later post about this.

I can't fault the communist logic in understanding that by banning Facebook, they were able to quickly cut off mass amounts of people from connecting and communicating with one another. The Chinese were no longer able to have foreign friends and see the differences between the freedoms allowed elsewhere and allowed in China. Something like that could easily plant discontent with the Chinese situation. People were no longer able to join "groups" that were about Free Tibet or Anti-Censorship. If you are a government that has the legal ability to censor whatever you want as long as you deem it a danger, then wouldn't you probably block Facebook too?  So while it is unfortunate
, I understand why it is blocked. And I feel the need to point out that in China people are able to utilize other social media avenues.

Gone GOOGLE

M.A's commentary:
The most frustrating thing is that Google's search engine is the best. Bing'ing just is lame. I know there are better search engines than Bing available but if they use your IP then the searches results are in Chinese and that is useless to me. 

Plus a lot of things run off of Google platforms so they don't work at all or hardly like they should. For example 
we have tablets that are almost all set up to run off of Google and Google Play Store. What really makes me mad is that I forgot to install Microsoft on a tablet before I left. So I actually can't get Microsoft (that I paid for) for my tablet because it is only in an Apple or Google app store. Microsoft has a site in Chinese but I don't want the Chinese version.

Indigo's commentary:
My heart kind of broke for my mother when she told me Google was blocked. I think I could handle not being able to use Google as a search engine, as she mentioned there are other searching sites available like Bing. But imagine not being able to use Google Chrome!!! I absolutely hate Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox because they run so slow, but if I was to be in China, those would be my only options. 

I can understand why the government blocks Google though, however unfortunate the situation is. Google is a one stop, total access to whatever information you want. So it is probably easier for the Chinese government to block Google rather than going through and blocking every little site for certain search words (they probably do that too). Restricting access of information from such an open site makes the internet control so much tighter in China through a single block.

The Washington Post claims that Google is censored because of the governments dissatisfaction with Gmail. Prior to my mother's move to China again, I had heard rumors that Google and China were at odds, but it shocks me that that Google went so far as to cease it operations in China and in retaliation the government blocked the whole site on principle. However I do give props to Google for standing up for its company wide belief in stopping censorship. Imagine how much business this has probably cost Google.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/12/29/not-satisfied-with-gmail-china-seems-to-be-blocking-google-search-too/

R2D2, BBQing, Pollution, and Cookies

http://www.supercoolrobots.com/make-a-star-wars-style-outdoor-stove/

http://www.instructables.com/id/R2D2-Style-Wood-Log-Burner/

M.A's commentary: 

Really? Well outdoor BBQ’s are banned so I guess the government doesn't want all the apartment dwellers rushing out creating these works of art and grilling in the local park. Or God forbid the poor venders who actually try to stay warm in the winter by using mini stoves next to their stands have this sacred knowledge. The fact that making this from scratch in China is unrealistic for most Chinese who can actually read the English on this site, should be reason enough not to censor. Or that this type of DYI is not even something most are interested in.

What makes me sad is that my university hosted a robotic competition last week. I see no reason for the blocking of the sight. Why? There is nothing bad about China said or linked there. All things robotics should be available to inspire students trade knowledge, etc.

Indigo's commentary:

The Chinese government has strict regulations on how all scrap metal should be used. My guess is that this was blocked because the government didn't want average people to go out and try to take metal to make minor modifications to a grill so it looks like a Star War's character.

The communist beliefs have often emphasized the importance of utility and functionality over the aesthetic appeal of something. These two sites suggest taking an everyday object, and adding extra bits to it not to improve function, but for cosmetic purposes. To do so would seem like a minor violation of the government's ideals. Additionally as my mother mentioned, outdoor BBQing is illegal, and these websites could be seen as promoting that.

http://wvw.igame.com/eye-test/

M.A's commentary:

Lets be color blind in China. Really.

Indigo's commentary:

The only reason I can think of for the government censoring this is inaccurate diagnosis, or the desire to have people actually visit eye doctors rather than trying to self diagnosis online. If a student took an online color blind test, got a result that said they were in fact color blind, the student might try to claim it in school and should get special treatment. But honestly, this being blocked surprises me a little. It could be that the site has other tests or aspects the government dislikes and it was mass censored.

http://aqicn.org/city/haerbin/

Note that this site was only temporarily unavailable during Dragon Boat Day, June 19-20th. 

M.A's commentary:

During dragon boat festival…people only wear 5 colored bracelets to protect them from the strongest poisons in the air on during this festival. Lets not confirm or repute these superstitions. (The bracelets are worn for protection only during this holiday)

Indigo's commentary:

I should think the reason this air pollution site was down during an predominantly outdoor festival is obvious. The government clearly wanted to ensure the festival was celebrated properly, and wanted to encourage people to go out, spend money on food, drinks and trinkets, and stimulate the cities economy. If the citizens of Harbin had seen that the air pollution was astronomical on that day, they would have stayed indoors, gotten upset about missing the holiday celebrations and possible it could have bred resentment towards the government. 

http://www.bettycrocker.com/

M.A's commentary
Ugh…I really wanted to bake some crinkle cookies. Watch out world betty crocker will take over.

Indigo's commentary:
Uhm....reason's for banning Betty Crocker.....anti-Western sentiment? Wanting to keep Western influences like cooking from becoming to dominant within the country? Perhaps a dislike of cookies?