Stupid China
I am sick and tired of reading news stories about American websites bending to the will of the Chinese government and voluntarily censoring themselves so that they can make money in the Chinese markets. Google has done it, and who knows who else; I’m too lazy to research this right now. I recently read that Wikipedia will not censor themselves, but that’s not a big deal as Wikipedia is opensource and non-profit.
China is bound to become a big powerhouse of a nation. They’ve got a robust capitalist economy all controlled by their communist government. That means you get the worst of both worlds. A greedy government looking to make lots of money by controlling industry, and the uncaring, money-grubbing nature of capitalism. Everybody gets screwed over. And China is becoming more and more powerful. I’ve heard numerous speculations that China could become the world’s superpower in a number of years, and I don’t doubt that this is possible.
But with China trying to control everything that their people come in contact with, there is one way that the world can beat this nation. We can control the information by REFUSING TO CONTROL THE INFORMATION! If China has no access to search engines because the government won’t allow the people access, then the web is dead to all of China (except whoever the government grants access to). If China cannot get access to that information, they are not part of the rest of the world. And if the government decides they must have the information, then the people can gain access to the wealth of information the internet contains, and in theory, learn something from it.
It makes me sick to think that American companies (and companies worldwide, for that matter) would be so interested in making money that they would actively seek to mislead over a billion people in one country alone to believe the lies of their government. It’s the sweatshop of the future. People forced to toil in ignorance.
Now I’m not suggesting that giving the Chinese people access to all the information on the web would change anything about how they chose to let their country be run. It might not. But it would level the playing field, and it might push China to open up even more on their economic controls both in and out of the country. And it might help them loosen their hold on the minds of their people. It has greater possibilities for bringing about positive change than anything the United States can do on its own.
And I’m not suggesting that the US should pass a law restricting companies from bending to the will of the Chinese government. That sounds like too much government interference to me. Plus, if the government says US companies can’t restrict data for the Chinese, then how can they say that schools and libraries should be required to restrict data? Come to think of it, maybe passing such a law would be a good way to free information in the US. Still, though, the government shouldn’t manipulate enterprise at home in order to potentially affect the future of a country abroad. Too much speculation involved.
All I’m saying is that US companies should take a look at what they are doing and stop supporting the enslaving of Chinese minds all in the name of profits. Props to wikipedia and anyone else who refuses the Chinese government requests. And now, in honor of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, I’ll end with an irritating chant. USA! USA! USA! Ugg.
Related posts (automatically generated):