Some foreign friend and my Chinese friends who studied in America informed me a breaking new.
New York Times was not just post a normal family tree. The whole article describe the Wen family empire in detail including each family member's wealth, which was a very sensitive issue in China. Premier Wen won with a clean image and promise to dealing with corruption, finance and the economy.
Live coverage on breaking news events has been a routine method in major world media like CNN and BBC, which however is a brand-new thing in China. Moreover, such news were exactly offend China center government's sensibilities.
The reasons why China blocked social medias like Twitter and Facebook are multifaceted. First, these media always could generate some so-called rumor in China. Second, these social median could spread news in very fast speed which is really difficult for government to censor them. Third, officially, the Chinese government permit watchdog journalism, known as "supervision by public opinion," but in practice new outlets are wary of offending local party official.
Here is an example:
China quake school critic receives one-year sentence-group
And all the social medias, which are not under control of Chinese government, will never get chance to get approved to enter China market.
Wow, what an interesting topic. As an American, I can't even imagine living in a place where news is censored and I could be punished and imprisoned for free speech. This certainly makes for one-sided accountability and provides the government too much power. The article about the middle school teacher was tragic - he was undoubtedly impacted by the devastation of a massive earthquake and was then imprisoned for a year for taking photographs to show how schools were poorly constructed. Wow...just wow! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat is only a tip of the iceberg. That's why so many Chinese don't believe anything our government said or claimed. It's pathetic and desperate that younger generation have no hope that high house price （In Beijing and Shanghai, a very small apartment usually will cost more than 1 million dollar), polluted environment, increasing tax revenue and unemployment are four major problems we need to face in the future.
DeleteThanks for sharing your post.We have a lot of freedom in the USA that at times we take for granted. However at any time we can exercise those freedom which often happens when scandals break out, tragedy happens, or if some major political blunder is made.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I shocked that the social media had such great power in USA and US citizens even could criticize your presidents which is unbelievable in China.
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