This article raises an interesting point — that perhaps the uproar over Liu Di, arrested for questioning the CCP’s policies of stifling free speech on the Chinese Internet, has made China’s battle to censor the Net more difficult.

When the state blocks popular search engines such as Google, the ether buzzes openly with criticism. When a government official told a forum on Hainan island in November that the Internet was freer than ever, online bulletin boards blasted him — arguably proving his point.

And when Beijing hauls in people, particularly the growing numbers who are not extremists and don’t know they’re doing anything wrong, officials often hear about it. After Liu’s arrest, thousands of students, journalists and free-expression advocates signed three online petitions — an unthinkable challenge in the past.

“When dissidents disappear, most people think, ‘I’m not one of them,’ ” said Sophie Beach, senior Asia researcher with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “But when they see someone like Liu Di, they identify and think, ‘That could be me.’ “

The article makes two key points (that are actually kind of contradictory): 1.) The arrest of “cyber-dissidents” and expansion of the censorship bureaucracy have had a chilling effect on Internet users throughout China, many of whom are frightened of writing anything reflecting their personal opinions online. 2.) Nevertheless, the sheer size of the Internet means the CCP’s censorship initiative will ultimately fail.

Despite all its efforts to funnel expression into areas it considers appropriate, however, most experts say China is slowly losing the battle. Online bulletin boards and Web logs are opening vast new areas that further tax the state’s ability to control it all.

Good news. Now if only the government would acknowledge it and stop arresting people for criticizing them online.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill holds up a rusty old document marked “Secret” (as all government documents are marked) and the Bush administration rushes to launch an investigation.

Some Bush insider, on the other hand, releases some really secret information that outs an undercover CIA operative, and the administration drags its feet for eons until media pressure finally forces it to investigate. Go figure.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall puts it way more eloquently than I do:

Number of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.

Number of days between O’Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.

Having the administration reveal itself as a gaggle of hypocritcal goons … priceless.

I decided to wait until after the weekend before handing in my resignation. Experience has taught me it’s always best to wait a few days before making big decisions. I want to leave on good terms, and that may force me to stay until early March, giving them time to replace me. It’s only 7 weeks away.

(Click to enlarge.)

Check out the article about them. Utterly gross. (Pork tidbits “floating in yellow water….”)

A great article from the BBC indicates that gays are making dramatic strides in China, where only a few years ago they officially did not exist.

It appears that soon there will be a true “gay community” in the major coastal cities, where gays are setting up telephone support lines and using the Internet to create a much needed social network.

In November 2001, gay webmasters held a secret meeting in Beijing. There are now hundreds of gay websites in China and the number is growing all the time.

Gay culture maybe gathering strength in China but despite the influences from the West and other Chinese communities in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Er Yan predicted any developing movement would have distinctly Chinese characteristics.

He said it would be quieter, and without the open activism that is common in other countries.

“The US has a strong influence across the world,” he said, “and the gay rights cause in the US has been at many times considered a model for other countries to follow, which some folks here really don’t agree with because Chinese people are much more passive.

“If you asked them in a contemporary political environment to go onto the streets and launch a demonstration, I don’t think anyone would.”

But while there may be a quiet revolution going on amongst gay communities in China’s cities, both Er Yan and Steven stressed gays in China’s vast countryside had yet to feel the benefits.

Gay rights in China have come a long way, they said, but there is a lot further to go.

A lot of gays, even in the cities, are still wary of the Internet; some see it as something “naughty” where guys go for anonymous encounters or paid sex. Shifting the mentality so that they think of it in terms of a community in which there is a safety net and friends who care — that’s going to be a big hurdle for a group that has for so long been so marginalized. But it’s happening, ands it’s a thrilling thing to watch. It’s like an ever-expanding beam of light suddenly shining into a tunnel, slowly spreading everywhere.

Related Post: Gays in China

Shocking! Like Andrew Sullivan, Conrad finds Bush’s fiscal imprudence exasperating and unjustifiable, and says the plan for an utterly useless $200 billion space station is the last straw. It looks like he may actually boycott the 2004 presidential election.

I often (though certainly not always) disagree with Conrad on domestic politics, but I have to applaud him for doing his own thinking and not being a blind follower. There are many aspects of the Bush presidency with which I disagree, but none is more indefensible than its insistence on driving up the deficit while giving unprecedented breaks to those who need them least. I wonder how much this policy is going to come back to haunt him come November.

My company now has almost no business in Singapore. With every single client it is the same story: they have no money to spend on marketing in Singapore, and instead are focusing on China and Japan. Singapore, with its small population and ongoing depression, is simply not a priority. And they’re right; if I were a multinational seeking to expand in Asia, Singapore would not be high up on my list.

This is a tragedy for Singapore, and a personal tragedy for me as well. I am not angry at my company, it is not their fault, they did nothing wrong, but this is not the job they promised me. I was hired to do writing and media relations. Now, all they want me to do is keep the Singapore office from going under, a total waste of my background and skills and training.

I like my firm. They’ve been good to me, and when it comes to practicing PR they are unsurpassed. But PR now has nothing to do with my work. It’s only about scraping for business and keeping our head above the rising water.

I’ve decided to go back to the US. I have job offers in Shanghai and Beijing, and I could easily land a job in Hong Kong. But my family, my cats, my house, my SO of many years — all are back in Arizona. I’ve always been able to find a job in the past, so I am hoping I can find something when I get home.

(If those jobs in Shanghai and Beijing weren’t also agency jobs, I’d strongly consider them, at least for a year or two until I got back on my feet. But both involve agency management, and I don’t want to administer, I want to write and manage actual PR programs.)

It’s a scary gamble. I had paid off all my debts and was in the black when this shoulder crisis hit, and now I am several thousand dollars in the red. A terrible time to quit a stable job. But I had to face the sad fact today: I literally dread coming into the office. If I don’t give my notice soon, I’ll suffocate.

Yes, I really do regret leaving Beijing. I left because I was given a promise of what this new job would be. I’d be a writer. A presenter. A strategist. The head of client relations. None of that materialized. I know, I can’t blame them that Singapore’s economy collapsed, but do I really have to do things I hate doing? I decided today that the answer is No.

This has been building up for months, though I’ve kept it out of my blog. Now it’s too big, and it’s all I’m thinking about. I will be heartbroken to be so far from my friends in China and HK. And to those whom I’ve promised to support (morally and spiritually), I won’t just walk away from you. I will come back as often as I can, and in between I will stay in close touch.

I’m not gone yet. My notice time is one month, and I am hoping to hand it in by day’s end. It’s a dramatic and dangerous step, but every day I spend here is a waste of my time and talent. Sometimes we just have to make big decisions and chart our own course instead of being tossed along in the water.

Okay, I know that was whiny and self-pitying, but it was definitely useful for me to write it. I’ll keep you posted.

Carma Hinton, one of the makers of the documentary film Morning Sun, spoke at Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents Club a few days ago, and I sure wish I could have been there.

According to this article, she offered some keen insights into the topics that intrigue me the most, including the Mao cult as it exists today, the current regime’s refusal to examine or even discuss (meaningfully) the Cultural Revolution, future risk of a peasant uprising, how dificult it is to make a film in China (Morning Sun was mainly filmed in the US), and why separating the Cultural Revolution’s victims from the victimisers is such a tricky business.

This is one movie I have got to see.

Massive article in today’s NY Times Magazine on what blogging is to young people and teens, and how it’s changing their lives.

It looks that way.

BEIJING – Another suspected case of SARS emerged in southern China on Sunday as international medical investigators scoured an apartment block to determine if it played any role in the infection of a man who lived there — the season’s only confirmed case of the virus so far.

Dr. Thomas Tsang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Department of Health, told reporters that his agency received word of the latest suspected case from officials in Guangdong province, which abuts Hong Kong. Tsang said the 35-year-old patient has been isolated and hospitalized.
….

No further information was available, and a woman who answered the phone at the Guangdong SARS Prevention Office said she had no new reports of suspected cases. She gave only her surname, Zhou

Why do all local party officials do this — lie, deny, and refuse to give their name? We all know the drill by now. Tomorrow they’ll acknowledge it and offer more information. Why does it always have to be like pulling teeth?