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China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

nytimes.com

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Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#41

Post by zhoutong »

busyant wrote: post #24
Shenglong wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a completely illogical conclusion to make. Whether it is true or not, blocking a page does not imply admission of guilt. If the article was complete bullshit, they still would have blocked it. B (Admission of guilt) -> A (Truth) is not the same as A -> B.

It's not iron-clad proof that the contents of the article are truthful. However, if the contents were not truthful, I think you would also expect the Chinese government to forcefully deny them. There is no mention of a denial in the referenced Times article...at least as of yet. Therefore, I think the blocking of the Times can be taken as a reasonable indicator that the Chinese government wants to hide embarrassing i…

The Chinese government is unlikely to deny claims about sensitive personal issues like this. This is especially the case if the public sentiment (both inside and outside of China) is considered. When people expect something to be true, denials can be perceived as lies and they will make things worse (for the parties being accused). The worse part is, more people will know it and more people will believe in the article.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#42

Post by viviantan »

matthewrudy wrote: post #14
erynvorn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it is not blocked in Hong Kong! Still one country, two rules...

Many people here in Hong Kong don't regard themselves to be part of China. We have our own legal, visa, financial, and political system. Although Beijing occasionally steers the political system, censorship of any kind usually ends up in protest. I can't imagine what would happen if they tried to do censor the internet here.

Hong Kong's awesome. Love the food, love the people, love the incredible cityscape, love everything :)

I heard that Beijing's trying to phase out the Cantonese language in Hong Kong. Has it been enforced?

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#43

Post by codewright »

tokenizer wrote: post #38
wilfra wrote: post #37

The truly sad part of this is most Chinese people wouldn't really mind the site being blocked because of this, nor even be all that surprised to learn what the article said. They don't get offended and angered by their government hiding things from them or abusing their power in the same way people in Western countries do, nor do they have a strong desire to learn the truth. They just accept this as the way things ar…

Not just in China, I'm sure if this was AlJazeera being blocked in the US the majority of Americans wouldn't care as well.

That's not true at all. Not only are westerners rather proprietary about their freedoms, but most of the more politically engaged people I know read AlJazeera.

One of the most conservative people I know, a PoliSci major, gets a large portion of his news from AlJ. If you took that away from him he'd hoist the black flag and start slitting throats the next morning.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#44

Post by hollerith »

est wrote: post #20
danielweber wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberty is a private university, and its students choose to attend knowing full-well its policies. (And it blocks a lot more than WaPo.) FIRE and the Virginia ACLU both agree with Liberty's right to do so: http://thefire.org/article/10717.html You are, of course, free to criticize LU for its policies.

China is a private country, the whole fucking nation owns debt to the greate Communist Party.

Is that your sincere opinion or are you being sarcastic?

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#45

Post by greyboy »

jcromartie wrote: post #27
danielweber wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberty is a private university, and its students choose to attend knowing full-well its policies. (And it blocks a lot more than WaPo.) FIRE and the Virginia ACLU both agree with Liberty's right to do so: http://thefire.org/article/10717.html You are, of course, free to criticize LU for its policies.

The point is that they used their control over the information available to their "population" to retaliate against and block journalism that revealed information unfavorable to their internal narrative. I'd say that's the exact same tactic.

Then they could go down the road to the local coffee shop/home/mobile network and browse the internet, unblocked. No?

They have options. I'm not sure the Chinese population have (such an easy) option to get around it.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#46

Post by edwardw »

wilfra wrote: post #37

The truly sad part of this is most Chinese people wouldn't really mind the site being blocked because of this, nor even be all that surprised to learn what the article said. They don't get offended and angered by their government hiding things from them or abusing their power in the same way people in Western countries do, nor do they have a strong desire to learn the truth. They just accept this as the way things ar…

You are such an acute observer, sir. This is the most accurate description about the matter by someone not Chinese I ever read. For that you have my respect.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#47

Post by rhizome »

untog wrote: post #35
Shenglong wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a completely illogical conclusion to make. Whether it is true or not, blocking a page does not imply admission of guilt. If the article was complete bullshit, they still would have blocked it. B (Admission of guilt) -> A (Truth) is not the same as A -> B.

I will admit that my reply was a little snarky. But I will tend to presume bodies that engage in widespread censorship are guilty.

Of censorship, sure.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#48

Post by rhizome »

busyant wrote: post #24
Shenglong wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a completely illogical conclusion to make. Whether it is true or not, blocking a page does not imply admission of guilt. If the article was complete bullshit, they still would have blocked it. B (Admission of guilt) -> A (Truth) is not the same as A -> B.

It's not iron-clad proof that the contents of the article are truthful. However, if the contents were not truthful, I think you would also expect the Chinese government to forcefully deny them. There is no mention of a denial in the referenced Times article...at least as of yet. Therefore, I think the blocking of the Times can be taken as a reasonable indicator that the Chinese government wants to hide embarrassing i…

Yes, it is a stretch, and that stretch actually has a well-established name: strawman.

Re: China Blocks Web Access to The New York Times After Article

#50

Post by mdda »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #11
apaprocki wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even when they blocked Bloomberg, the articles could still be read by anyone in China with a Bloomberg terminal..

If you have a Bloomberg terminal an article about money accumulation isn't going to be the type of article that would bother you.

But I believe that most Bloomberg terminal subscribers would argue that capitalist-style money accumulation (free markets, etc) is a good thing for an overall population, and that corruption-style money accumulation (which is the implication of the article) is a huge negative for a country.
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