I hope all of you have visited Showcase, a collection of some of the blogosphere’s best, started by our very own ambitious Hong Kong blogger, Simon. Even though I disagree with a lot of the bloggers over there, I’m having fun going through the posts. Be sure to have a look. (It got cited by the Puppy himself yesterday, but I’m enjoying it anyway.)

Joseph Kahn of the NY Times comes right out in his very first sentence and says it’s all about stopping people from using mobile phones to send text messages that might “undermine one-party rule.” As we all know, it’s not about pornography; it’s about power and stability.

The campaign, announced on Friday by the official New China News Agency, comes after text messages sent between China’s nearly 300 million mobile phone users helped to expose the national cover-up of the SARS epidemic last year. Text messages have also generated popular outrage about corruption and abuse cases that had received little attention in the state-controlled media.

It is a sign that while China has embraced Internet and mobile phone technology, the government has also substantially increased its surveillance of digital communications and adopted new methods of preventing people from getting unauthorized information about sensitive subjects.

This week, government officials began making daily inspections of short-message service providers, including Web sites and the leading mobile phone companies. They had already fined 10 providers and forced 20 others to shut down for not properly policing messages passing through their communication systems, the news agency said.

The dispatch said the purpose was to stop the spread of pornographic messages and false or deceptive advertising as well as to block illicit news and information.

We in the US have virtually no idea as to how prevalent text messaging is in Asia. In Beijing, we used it throughout the day as a work tool, making sure, for example, that off-site events were going smoothly. Sending text messages is cheaper than talking on the phone, and many young people in China, Hong Kong and Singapore seem to spend the better part of the day SMS-ing their friends. It’s a social phenomenon the likes of which we have never seen in America.

So censoring SMS messages in China is equivalent to censoring our phone conversations here. SMS is how people “talk” to one another there.

Kahn tells of one young fellow whose message to a friend never got through because it had a 6 and a 4 too close together, and the system apparently watches out for any reference to Tiananmen Square.

People have argued with me that the government doesn’t have time to worry about human rights and unfairness to migrant workers because they are so busy simply trying to keep the world’s most populous country functional. And yet they have the time and resources to read and censor people’s phone messages. I find their priorities strange, but they didn’t ask me.

It appears the only ones who are going to benefit as China continues its great leap backwards is the Chinese company that makes the filtering software, Venus Info Tech. They put out a rather breathless press release yesterday and are anticipating huge demand. Good for them.

UPDATE: China Herald has a very differrent take on the situation. I don’t know who’s right.

Bush fiddles, reading My Pet Goat, as America burns

No matter how much Mickey Kaus and Andrew Sullivan and Roger Simon and James Taranto loathe Paul Krugman and try at every turn to slander the “former Enron adviser,” it’s fairly obvious why he commands such a huge audience and always makes it to the most-linked-to lists of the blogosphere: He knows how to pack an incredible punch using simple language and old-fashioned common sense. His write-up of Fahrenheit 9/11 todayis a great example.

Since it opened, “Fahrenheit 9/11” has been a hit in both blue and red America, even at theaters close to military bases. Last Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took his Nascar crew to see it. The film’s appeal to working-class Americans, who are the true victims of George Bush’s policies, should give pause to its critics, especially the nervous liberals rushing to disassociate themselves from Michael Moore.

There has been much tut-tutting by pundits who complain that the movie, though it has yet to be caught in any major factual errors, uses association and innuendo to create false impressions. Many of these same pundits consider it bad form to make a big fuss about the Bush administration’s use of association and innuendo to link the Iraq war to 9/11. Why hold a self-proclaimed polemicist to a higher standard than you hold the president of the United States?

And for all its flaws, “Fahrenheit 9/11” performs an essential service. It would be a better movie if it didn’t promote a few unproven conspiracy theories, but those theories aren’t the reason why millions of people who aren’t die-hard Bush-haters are flocking to see it. These people see the film to learn true stories they should have heard elsewhere, but didn’t. Mr. Moore may not be considered respectable, but his film is a hit because the respectable media haven’t been doing their job.

Krugman hits the nail on the head. The overwhelming quetion that consumes the viewer after seeing F9/11 is, “Why didn’t the media tell us this? How come I am seeing this footage for the very first time?” Forget the conspiracy theories, which I think are a net negative. What blew me away is the footage of our leaders, and of our political system at work, that I never saw before.

There is an epic myth that Bush showed his great resolve and determination and leadership on America’s blackest day. It’s the very foundation of his re-election campaign. Why did we need to wait nearly three years before we saw what he really did in the face of our greatest crisis? Why didn’t the media show us how for seven looooooong minutes he sat there like a child, even after hearing the words “The nation is under attack,” until he was finally forced out by his aides?

And then there’s Iraq. We all remember the slick presentation on TV, the $250,000 stage they erected for the press conferences, the video-game-like displays of our high-tech weaponry zapping the enemy, the pin-point accuracy of it all, almost as though it were a “sanitary” war.

Why didn’t we ever see the other side, the side Moore shows us? Moore didn’t make this footage up — where has it been? For these things alone the movie has to be seen. There’s the usual Michael Moore crap and the boyish antics; they’re his signature. But, as Krugman says, he has done us all a service in assembling this montage, disjointed, imperfect and opinionated as it may be.

Krugman closes:

Viewers may come away from Mr. Moore’s movie believing some things that probably aren’t true. For example, the film talks a lot about Unocal’s plans for a pipeline across Afghanistan, which I doubt had much impact on the course of the Afghan war. Someday, when the crisis of American democracy is over, I’ll probably find myself berating Mr. Moore, who supported Ralph Nader in 2000, for his simplistic antiglobalization views.

But not now. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a tendentious, flawed movie, but it tells essential truths about leaders who exploited a national tragedy for political gain, and the ordinary Americans who paid the price.

And if you see the film, it’ll be hard for you to disagree with that.

Update: I just wanted to get this relevant quote from Mathew Yglesias on the record. Krugman and others standing up for Fahrenheit 9/11 are taking a heavy pounding from the right, which clearly misunderestimated the impact this film would have. These pithy bullets provide a good antidote to the rampant, near-hysterical Moore bashing.

* It is very strange that the media is more concerned with Michael Moore’s invalid argumentative techniques than with the extremely similar techniques employed by the president of the United States.

* It is very strange that the media is more concerned with the fact that Michael Moore is a polemicist rather than a journalist presenting a balanced view of events than with the fact that the Fox News network and a small army of conservative radio hosts are doing the same thing.

* It is a very strange thing indeed that the media does not provide outlets for stridently liberal commentary in lieu of the fact that Fahrenheit 9-11 clearly demonstrates that there is a large audience for such things.

* What liberal media?

That is all. It’s also noteworthy that while Moore has done us all a great service by bringing to light the footage of the president not reacting to the second WTC attack, he fails to make what I think is the most important point here: The President’s own aides have such a low opinion of Bush’s leadership capabilities that they didn’t think it was immediately necessary — or, perhaps, desirable — for him to take charge of the situation right away. [Emphasis added.]

I look at Yglesias’ first bullet, and it strikes me that nothing is more one-sided and riddled with lies and innuendo than a Bush campaign commercial. And yet, despite the ubiquity of these fantasy-advertisements, I don’t hear the Roger Simons of this world, or those who live to hump his leg, crying out against them. But Moore comes along and they are downright apoplectic. How odd.

This doesn’t sound good.

China is expanding its censorship controls to cover text messages sent using mobile phones.

New regulations have been issued to allow mobile phone service providers to police and filter messages for pornographic or fraudulent content.

But analysts fear the real targets are political dissidents.

China’s authorities are gradually tightening control over the spread of electronic information, particularly on the internet.

A Paris-based group, Reporters Without Borders, says the Chinese authorities are increasingly using new technology to control information.

It says one Chinese company marketing a system to monitor mobile phone text messages has announced it is watching for “false political rumours” and “reactionary remarks”.

Venus Info Tech Ltd said in a press release that its surveillance system worked by filtering algorithms based on key words and combinations of key words.

China’s plans to censor SMS messages was alluded to last year and now it seems ready to put into place. China Mobile, which controls 65 percent of the PRC’s mobile phone market, is the first to adopt the new filtering system, and you’d think it’s only a matter of time before China Unicom follows suit.

Of course, SMS text messages played a prominent role in spreading both truth and rumors during the SARS fiasco, and it probably drove the CCP ballistic that there was a medium over which they could exercise no control. Luckily for all, those days are over.

Whoever’s going to do the censoring is going to be very busy. Many in China spend a good part of the day SMSing their friends, so that’s a lot of messages to filter and police. This should open up new doors for citizens who want to join China’s army of Internet censors, already estimated to include about 30,000 foot soldiers. Your tax dollars at work.

Keep those reforms coming, Mr. Hu.

Finally, after reading and posting about the book Red-color News Soldier by Li Zhengsheng for nearly a year, I have my very own copy. And it’s exquisite.

The photojournalist Li was charged with taking pictures throughout the Cultural Revolution, and in his black and white images he somehow managed to capture the essence of Mao’s insanity in all of its brute horror.

Li’s photos, kept hidden for 40 years, seem to put you right there, whether it’s a struggle session, a public execution, a beaming crowd greeting the Great Helmsman, or an open-air denunciation. And while I’ve just started to read the text, it looks like he is a sharp observer and a good storyteller.

There are certain historical phenomena that I constantly wonder at, like the inanities of the first world war, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, Vietnam, the Holocaust, the death of JFK and what it meant, and the difference in American life since 9/11. But the Cultural Revoution may take the prize for sheer inexplicableness on all levels. Meaning, there’s no way to rationally comprehend what was in the minds of the leaders and the followers. You can study it and talk to people who lived through it, but there doesn’t seem to ever come that moment when you can say, “Oh yes, now I get it.”

I can tell from what I’ve seen already that Red-color News Soldier will help, at least in terms of making me a more intimate witness to the tragedy. But nothing, I suspect, will ever really give me an understanding of how and why it could have been allowed to happen.

I’ll report back on the book as I make my way through it. To the friend who sent it to me, Thank you. It’s wonderful.

Earlier posts on Red-color News Soldier can be found here and here.

You have to visit ZonaEuropa for its wonderful photos and descriptions of the march. Sadly, he fails to tie the huge turnout to my birthday, but he does a fine job explaining why you can’t always believe the crowd estimates broadcast by the media. Superb post.

Update: Also some nice photos over at Daai Tou Lam.

July 1st — Canada Day, Lady Diana’s birthday, the day for massive marches in Hong Kong, and if I remember right, my own birthday as well. (Don’t ask how old I am; I stopped counting.) My first birthday at home in America in years. Posts may be sparse as I have to spend time with the family, but I’ll try to slip off and blog whenever I get the chance. To my friends in HK, have a great time at the march.

To my friends in the US, remember, friends don’t let friends vote Republican. That’s what you can get me for my birthday — talk someone you love into voting for Kerry. Thanks.

Talk about a bombshell. Of course, it’s a Drudge “exclusive,” which usually means it’s fabricated and meant to cause trouble. But sometimes he’s right, and since he has such a huge audience this is surely going to get a lot of play.

Official Washington and the entire press corps will be rocked when Hillary Rodham Clinton is picked as Kerry’s VP and a massive love fest will begin!

So predicts a top Washington insider, who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT on condition he not be named.

“All the signs point in her direction,” said the insider, one of the most influential and well-placed in the nation’s capital. “It is the solution to every Kerry problem.”

The whole long “exclusive” is an interview with this anonymous source, who could well be Drudge’s dry cleaner. All I’ll say is that Kerry could make worse choices, like Gephardt. But not much worse. If things aren’t polarized enough already, just imagine what bringing a Clinton onto the ticket will do. I don’t even want to think about it. To the wingnuts, Hillary’s nothing less than the Antichrist, even more sinister and evil than Kofi Annan.

UPDATE: In fine form, Wonkette counters that the GOP is considering bumping Dick Cheney for Santa Claus.

Official Washington has fallen in love with the idea, says a well-placed elementary school student. And while some claim to have spotted Kris Kringle leaving the Clarendon headquarters of BC04 early this morning, the campaign continues to deny that they will bump Cheney to pursue what one analyst calls a “very Northern strategy,” and another simply dismissed as “polarizing.”

St. Nick’s connections to the birthday of Bush mentor Jesus Christ would seem to put Claus on good footing with evangelical groups, yet some close to the campaign worry that when it comes to politics, he wobbles like a bowl full of jelly. (“Like he really holds people to this naughty/nice thing. When’s the last time someone actually got a lump of coal in their stocking?” snipes a consultant.) Others say his party affiliations are dubious. Kringle campaigned vigorously to eliminate the estate tax and has given generously to GOP causes; still, a White House insider says that deep down, “I always figured he was a lib — with his giving ways, his environmentally sound transportation, his hippy beard, and bright red clothing.” But, as another source said, “It still makes more sense than McCain.”

Developing. . .

Now that is one funny lady, and she has the Matt Drudge style down to the letter.

A WaPo editorial mulls over Hong Kong’s evolution since the handover seven years ago and concludes there’s good reason for HK’s citizens — and the Bush administration — to protest.

Beijing officials seek to balance their bad-cop tactics with a good-cop strategy of boosting the territory’s economy with aid. But Hong Kong is not, as sometimes caricatured, a city of businessmen who don’t care about politics. Many residents resent Beijing’s hard-line tactics. That much has been shown in the democrats’ big win in local district elections in November, along with rising voter registration levels in advance of September’s election. Hundreds of thousands are expected to demonstrate tomorrow in favor of democratization.

That such protests are permitted shows that Hong Kong remains freer in many ways than the rest of China. But if voter intimidation and ballot rigging mar September’s election, it will lead to serious questions about the extent of Hong Kong’s autonomy. The Bush administration, which so far has made only mild statements encouraging Beijing to “be responsive” to the people of Hong Kong, ought to vigorously condemn the tactics of voter intimidation and make clear that U.S.-China relations will suffer if the democracy and autonomy of the territory are further eroded.

Don’t hold our breath.

At first I thought it was an Onion-type parody. But it’s not.

A bit off-topic, but not really: As i posted earlier, I changed to Firefox (yes, I still plan to try opera, though the idea of ads on the screen bugs me) and want to uninstall IE altogether — but I can’t. I find that when i go to certain sites, like my Asian bank where i still have a bit of $$, I cannot enter my user name and PIN with Firefox. When I switch to Explorer, it works fine.

This is extremely frustrating and it tells me that try as we might to wean ourselves off of Microsoft, it is still a Bill Gates world and we have no choice but to acquiece. This is exactly why monopolies are so scary — they leave us with no choice.

It’s especially upsetting when the one choice we are left with sucks. (Fascinating, that in the long discussion about browsers a few days ago, not a single person defended MS IE; everyone seems to hate it, and yet we are forced to use it, at least sometimes.)

UPDATE: Slate on Firefox:

You’ve probably been told to dump Internet Explorer for a Mozilla browser before, by the same propeller-head geek who wants you to delete Windows from your hard drive and install Linux. You’ve ignored him, and good for you. Microsoft wiped out Netscape in the Browser Wars of the late 1990s not only because the company’s management pushed the bounds of business ethics, but also because its engineers built a better browser. When Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale approved the Mozilla project—an open-source browser based on Netscape’s code—in 1998, it seemed like a futile act of desperation.

But six years later, the surviving members of the Mozilla insurgency are staging a comeback. The latest version of Firefox, released this Monday, has a more professional look, online help, and a tool that automatically imports your bookmarks, history, site passwords, and other settings from Explorer. Meanwhile, all-conquering Internet Explorer has been stuck in the mud for the past year, as Microsoft stopped delivering new versions. The company now rolls out only an occasional fix as part of its Windows updates. Gates and company won the browser war, so why keep fighting it?

The problem is that hackers continue to find and exploit security holes in Explorer. Many of them take advantage of Explorer’s ActiveX system, which lets Web sites download and install software onto visitors’ computers, sometimes without users’ knowledge. ActiveX was meant to make it easy to add the latest interactive multimedia and other features to sites, but instead it’s become a tool for sneaking spyware onto unsuspecting PCs. That’s why the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a partnership between the tech industry and Homeland Security, recently took the unusual step of advising people to consider switching browsers. Whether or not you do, US-CERT advises increasing your Internet Explorer security settings, per Microsoft’s instructions. (Alas, the higher setting disables parts of Slate’s interface.) Even if you stop using Explorer, other programs on your computer may still automatically launch it to connect to sites.

Firefox eschews ActiveX and other well-known infection paths. You can configure it to automatically download most files when you click on them, but not .exe files, which are runnable programs. I thought this was a bug before I realized Firefox was saving me from myself, since .exe files could be viruses or stealth installers.

There is much, much more to this article. If you’re still wondering about why you should make the switch, it’s pretty convincing.