August 10, 2007: Online Media in the Nanny State

For all the glittering new prosperity and head-spinning social progress, sadly, China continues to be governed by a totalitarian regime that doesn't trust people to think for themselves. The "nanny state" attitude is especially obvious in the realm of media.

Before you even enter the country, you notice a special sensitivity toward the media profession. On the visa application, only seven occupations are called out, including "member of Parliament," "teacher," "government official," "clergy," and "staff of media." At first I was flattered that they cared. Then I thought twice and checked the next most relevant choice, "businessman."

The Chinese government tightly controls the internet, preventing those within the country from accessing sites that don't conform to official policies and viewpoints, particularly on sensitive topics such as Taiwan and the democracy movement. Therefore, when you try to view, for example, the University of California Berkeley's China Digital Times, your browser returns a "site not found" error. Interestingly, though, it seems the gatekeepers either overlooked or can't block RSS feeds. I was able to see headlines and summaries of banned content via my feed reader, but couldn't click through to the full text. Tip to travelers: spend some time configuring your RSS reader before you leave home!

I didn't test extensively, but was able to connect to deep pages in the New York Times. As far as local media sites here in the Bay Area, some worked but others didn't. There wasn't a lot of logic behind what did and didn't penetrate the government filters.

Web search is also constrained in China. When you enter www.google.com or www.yahoo.com you don't go to the familiar US site, but to a Chinese look-alike, in English, where the search engine's index doesn't include web pages the government doesn't like. You know you're on these special China-only portals because the main search box offers the options of searching "the web" (minus banned content, of course) or "China only" (just sites based in China--even safer!). Major search engines accept this constraint as a price of doing business in China.

The print world is easier to control than the web. Every morning, my hotel delivered an outwardly upbeat and inwardly sinister piece of propaganda, China Daily, to my door. Conveniently published in English, this newspaper contains everything the Chinese government wants foreigners to know about the country…and nothing more. Many years ago, in our final conversation, a cheating boyfriend protested, "I never lied to you, I just omitted some things!" China Daily operates with the same ethos. Not surprising for a propaganda rag, the editors seem blithely oblivious to hypocrisy. One day the banner headline trumpeted a top government official's assertion that "China isn't a threat to anyone." Directly under that story, below the fold, a top military official was saber-rattling at Taiwan, warning that any thought of Taiwanese independence is "completely unacceptable." Hmmm.

I had a fantastic trip to China but soon missed the freedom of information we take for granted here in the US. It's good to be back in a country where I can visit any web page my favorite search engine's unfettered web crawler can find. Until online media in China is completely free, open, and transparent, the country can't fulfill its ambition to be a respected top-tier world leader.