(Not) Blocked in the Mainland

Much as I suspected, I strung together just the right words where my write up on the situation in west China — despite being in the middle ground and condemning foreign media — was locked out when the government stepped up its content filtering efforts Tuesday, Beijing time.

I’m sorry the post is no longer available here, because it was pretty thorough. I will restore it when the current crisis calms down and the government relaxes the current “Code Red” content filtering.

If anyone would like to mirror the text and does not mind his site being inaccessible to 1.2 billion people, please e-mail me.

Edit: I have determined the block was not triggered by my write up, but by when I complained bitterly about the Dalai clique flooding Google Ads with propaganda straight out of the Dharamsala machine. Go figure …

About this entry

You’re currently reading “(Not) Blocked in the Mainland,” an entry on CinnamonPirate.com

Published:: Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

Author:: Derrick Sobodash

Category:: China

Info

My name is Derrick Sobodash.

I live in Beijing, China, where I work as a professional copy editor and freelance journalist. My articles have appeared in The Oakland Press, Beijing Today and PiQ.

You may contact me for any reason at derrick＠cinnamonpirate.com or find me on Facebook and Flickr. Further contact information is on the Colophon page.

Talbain

March 18th, 2008
19:37 EDT

Hey D, if you want, I’d be glad to mirror your article at my blog. Toss me an email.

March 18th, 2008
19:39 EDT

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, but did you see this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7302021.stm

Derrick Sobodash

March 19th, 2008
0:01 EDT

Thanks. Yes, seen it. We watched the live broadcast on the news today. The broadcast that ran at night removed some of the pauses while Wen Jiaobao figured out what to say.

I have to say the BBC’s coverage is fairly unbiased, and it’s a shame they are blocked here while sites like The New York Times are not. I would even agree with the last statement in their article. As I said before, the Qing government wanted tribute, not to improve the condition of the Tibetan people.

So yeah, hats off to the BBC on an excellent job. They present both sides of the issue, but I think readers need to know the history of China and Tibet to put some of those details into better perspective.

Dave Shadoff

March 19th, 2008
2:50 EDT

I’m always impressed by the BBC’s impartiality in covering news. I found American news to be completely manipulated starting with the Gulf War - the original, 1991 one - so I can’t bear to watch even American news anymore.

March 19th, 2008
15:19 EDT

Definitely true. I can’t even claim to have a fraction of an idea about what’s really going on. But I do know that I trust the BBC more than just about any other news source. My only hope really is that the two sides quibble over something that’s a little more substantive. China keeps claiming that this is an attack on the Olympics, the Dalai Lama threatens to step down, and in the middle of the chaos are the monks and the soldiers who end up killing each other because they both have strings attached to their thinking.

March 25th, 2008
14:38 EDT

Hard to say. I don’t want to see the Dalai Lama step down from his religious position. He has as much a right to be in that position as the pope of the Catholic Church has to be in his. But I do agree that the people he surrounds himself with do not necessarily follow the message of peace that he preaches.