Chinese Internet essayist Du Daobin has been formally charged with subversion, for writing what he thinks. An ongoing problem, not getting any better. Or is it?

This lengthy piece in the Asia Times stresses there are really two digital Chinas. One is rife with censorship of political thought; another is supposedly booming with online commerce and ever-so-useful public information from the government. Some observers say Beijing's Net censorship is becoming more subtle, and cannot be sustained, over time.

So what gets censored?

...material cutting across substantive categories, but with special emphasis on regional political issues (Taiwan, Tibet, etc), on religion, on tourism to other countries, on health, and other topics........Today, China's technologies not only block forbidden information....but they also give the state the power to investigate, prosecute, and sanction those who seek and/or receive forbidden information.

Yet a pair of Harvard researchers quoted in the article say Internet censorship in China could be a lot worse - as in Cuba, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates or Iran.

One observes that:

The Chinese experiment now revolves around 'blocking out individual pages rather than whole sites, automatically blocking web searches containing certain search terms, or simply encouraging the use of Internet cafes rather than individualized connections, so usage can be monitored by passersby.'

The more Chinese bloggers, the better. Trojan bloggers, too. Perhaps the censors just won't be able to keep up with them all.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 17, 2004 10:20 AM

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