Life and Great Firewall of China

Google has recently threatened to pull out of China for ethical reasons and implicitly hinted that the government were behind many cyberattacks on its network.



China does not have the best human rights record, I mean, barely 20 years ago the largest pro-democracy protest in the country ended in a bloodbath. However, things are changing rapidly. Although I can't deny that the government will continue to resolutely crackdown on protests of any sort, it now does so with a different purpose - stability.

20 years the communist government was at odds with its founding doctrine, therefore could not legitimize its rule. The bloody crackdown on June 4th, 1989 was necessary to prevent the country from descending into chaos. 20 years later, the government has re-christened itself the steward of economic development, and the rallying cry has been changed from socialism to 'socialism with Chinese characteristics', an euphemism for market capitalism.

So let's get some facts clear:
YES China routinely censors web content deemed subversive or 'disturbing to social
stability'
YES China will arrest anyone who speaks out too bluntly against the government.
and YES it will invade the privacy of those deemed dangerous or subversive.

The following sites are inaccessible in China: Wikipedia.com, CNN.com, BBC.co.uk and dozens other less known websites.

However, the intention is not to control/restrict people's lives but to limit the the effect of the fallout of individual grievances on the general public. To be honest, all the average middle class Chinese have accepted this minor inconvenience in exchanged for continued prosperity and rising living standards.

China is not free in terms of speech; there is no democratic government to speak of. However, given the reality of things, this is possibly the best way for its people.

I know this sounds cynical, but look at the alternative: India, the largest democracy made up of starving villagers who are too hungry to care about voting.