It’s soothing to say to oneself that Chinese bloggers don’t care about Microsoft’s censorship of its blogging tool Microsoft Spaces. It’s convenient to say the only ones who care are over-reactive Westerners who get on their high horse everytime the issue of CCP censorship arises. Doing this allows one to be content knowing that things are actually okay over there, and the people are delighted with what they’ve got. It reinforces one’s attitude that Westerners “don’t understand China,” and it makes it a bit easier when one has to do business with the devil. They’re not really so bad, only in the eyes of naive Westerners imposing their standards and values on the misunderstood Chinese.
It’s true that Chinese bloggers have made relatively little noise about Microsoft’s accommodation of government censorship. But can you blame them? If I were a mainlander living in Shanghai or Beijing, I’d be extremely reluctant to put up a post on my blog criticizing the CCP for its paranoia over “democracy” and “freedom.” Never forget, many, many others have paid a high price for discussing these topics. And there’s really little reason the Chinese would blog about it — it’s simply more of the same, with absolutely nothing new for them. But it’s big news for America, when one of its premier companies acquieces to the whims of the Party. It was big news for Cisco and Symantec in the past, and now it’s Microsoft’s turn to share the spotlight. So the media noise was predictable and justified.
And all that was simply my way of leading up to the news, which is that Chinese blogger Isaac Mao has a stronger take on the topic than some commenters who shrug it off.
Twenty-eight floors above the traffic-choked streets of China’s most wired city, blogger and tech entrepreneur Isaac Mao sums up his opinion of Microsoft and its treatment of the Chinese bloggers with one word. “Evil,” says Mao. “Internet users know what’s evil and what’s not evil, and MSN Spaces is an evil thing to Chinese bloggers.”
Mao, 33, knows something about the topic. In 2002, he was one of China’s first bloggers, and since then his ideas on harnessing blogs, peer-to-peer and grass-roots technologies to empower the Chinese people have made him a respected voice in the global blogosphere….
In a statement, lead MSN product manager Brooke Richardson said, “MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates. The content posted on member spaces is the responsibility of individuals who are required to abide by MSN’s code of conduct.”
Mao dismisses that statement as disingenuous. The company, he says, is going above and beyond official censorship practices, which deal decisively with speech critical of the ruling communist government, but don’t outright ban words like “freedom.”
“They could try to reach a balance, so the users will understand, but the government won’t try to make trouble for the business,” says Mao. “Instead, they’re just trying to flatter the government.”
Existing Chinese blog-hosting companies strike that balance by policing their members’ blogs for postings that might get the company and its users in trouble: The phrase “China needs democracy,” for example, would set off a red flag. But “democracy” itself is not a dirty word, says Mao. Likewise, text about human rights abuses outside of China is not banned.
The article also includes a look at the Great Firewall and what’s it’s up to nowadays (though that changes from minute to minute).
The firewall was in evidence last week during a late-afternoon visit to a sprawling, smoke-filled internet bar in the Xi Jia Hui district, where an after-school crowd of fashionably dressed young people streamed in to nearly fill the nearly 200-plus PC stations.
Major news sites like CNN.com, MSNBC and Wired.com were freely accessible from the PCs. Google could be reached at first, but the caches were blocked, as was Google News. The BBC’s front page was accessible, but individual stories were not. Anonymizer.com was blocked.
Amnesty International’s website was blocked, suggesting that the Chinese government holds the international human rights group in the same regard as the Bush administration. Human Rights Watch was blocked, along with nine of the top 10 results from a Google search on “China” and “human rights.” After running that search, Google was blocked from the PC for about 10 minutes.
Whatever its effect, the Great Firewall was not a great hindrance to the youthful netizens resting in wide, comfortable chairs, drinking soft drinks and smoking cigarettes. They were all playing video games, ranging from online poker to World of Warcraft, with nary a web browser or RSS reader in sight.
The last paragraph leads me to one last thought – the argument that people in China don’t care about politics and use the Internet mainly to play video games. Anyone who’s been to an Internet cafe in China knows there’s a lot of truth to that. But there are more than 80 million bloggers in China, and according to Isaac Mao they don’t all feel happy about what Microsoft is doing. And obviously many in China care a lot about politics and do want to discuss democracy — in fact, a lot of them comment to this site and do just that.
So I’m not letting Microsoft off the hook yet, and I’m not giving in to the argument that only Westerners care about things like this. As several other have noted here, it’s not like people in China have a place to go to complain if they don’t like their government’s attitude toward democracy and freedom. Let me correct myself; there is a place they can go. It’s called jail.
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By Tom - Daai Tou Laam
There court room antics led me to believe they were evil. This is a corporation that falsified a video and entered it in to evidence and issued only a meek mea culpa when they were caught.
Microsoft has one and only goal. They have rationalised their own illegal behaviour for decades, explaining it away as “just competing hard”. A company whose SOP is to rationalise illegal behaviour will have no qualms with censorship in pursuit of their goal.
June 20, 2005 @ 6:16 pm | Comment
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By Other Lisa
besides, how can microsoft claim in all seriousness that a word is “illegal”? You can certainly use “freedom” and “democracy” in ways that have nothing to do with free expression and democratic systems of government. It’s like the web nannies that block “breast” and then you can’t get information about “breast cancer.” Absurd.
June 20, 2005 @ 7:24 pm | Comment
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By Jeremy
Good on Isaac Mao. Now if Wired News could find another blogger or two, or maybe three, to say the same thing, we might be getting somewhere!
June 20, 2005 @ 10:19 pm | Comment
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By The Walrus
On the other hand, you know, for every person who is “concerned” about democracy and freedom of speech, there are ten ultranationalists who would light his ass up given the chance.
“according to Isaac Mao they don’t all feel happy about what Microsoft is doing.”
— Article
I can restate that as “Not all people think two plus two equals four.” Perfectly valid statement, but without statistics as back-up, person to person observations are forerunners of innumeracy.
June 21, 2005 @ 1:19 am | Comment
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By bellevue
oops, Issac somehow skipped one word: empire.
June 21, 2005 @ 2:55 am | Comment
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By bingfeng
Chinese Blogger Praises Microsoft
SHANGHAI, China — Twenty-nine floors above the traffic-choked streets of China’s most wired city, blogger and media entrepreneur Bingfeng sums up his opinion of Microsoft and its treatment of the Chinese bloggers with two words. “Very good.”
Bingfeng knows something about the topic. In 2002, he was one of the most active users of MSN Groups and in 2004 he established his own blog – blog.bchinese.net/bingfeng, and since then his ideas on media brainwashing, balanced reporting, Friday girl blogging, and his continued contribution in Peking Duck have made him a well-known name in the English-written China blogosphere.
……
Firstly, Bingfeng asked us to review the Microsoft case alone and raised a question as “What is the ultimate goal for a business entity?” and Bingfeng says, “without doubt, it’s survival and profit that should guide a business entity where to go and where not to go” For Microsoft, Bingfeng says, the disappearance of Microsoft Groups over night gives Microsoft more than enough reasons to take a prudent approach to introduce its Spaces service in China market.
Being asked whether Microsoft trades something important to Americans for its own business interests, Bingfeng shruged his shoulders and asked in reply, “Are you suggesting Microsoft Spaces to give up China market for those “important things to Americans” and who do you think have the right to ask Microsoft to make such a sacrifice?” Bingfeng further explains that the bottom-line is “those “nice to haves” must not put a business into life-or-death risks”
Further more, Bingfeng dismissed the accusation that Microsoft’s behavior harms Chinese bloggers as simplistic and naive. Bingfeng told us his story with the Microsoft Groups, in which he was actively involoved into a movie fan club and later the fan club evolved into a virtual self-governing organization, with club chairman, CTO, CFO (for off-line activities), etc. are all elected by club members. This story, Bingfeng says, shows how important to offer such places to young people in China instead of chanting for several nice words to appear on the web. On-line communities offer the Chinese youngsters a golden opportunity to learn the skills that are critical to building a civil society in China. Given the current circumstances and constraints, Microsoft did something good to Chinese bloggers, not the opposite.
“In China, the line between business and many other things is usually blurred,” Bingfeng says, “In addition to making profits, large firms are expected to do a lot of things and in many cases they are crunched by these “nice to haves”, and the net result it comes out is both a money-losing company and its inability to contribute to the society.”
Bingfeng even compared the Levi case with Microsoft case and told us why he believed Microsoft was much smarter and more responsiable for its shareholders, Chinese bloggers and Chinese firms, “By taking a pragmatic strategy, Microsoft fulfills its unshirkable duty, helps Chinese bloggers to have fun and prepare the abilities for future civil society and set up a role model for many Chinese firms. What else can you expect from Microsoft’s decision?”
June 21, 2005 @ 8:07 am | Comment
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By Don Singleton
Chinese Blogger Slams Microsoft
Hopefully the bloggers there can come up with other words which people will know mean those things, but which will get past Microsoft’s software censorship
June 21, 2005 @ 8:09 am | Comment
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By richard
Very funny, Bingfeng! Am I surprised that you’d congratulate Microsoft for acquiescing to the CCP’s whim? No, not at all. I think the way people react to this censorship breaks down pretty clearly along ideological lines. Those who support the CCP think it’s fine, those who don’t think it sucks. We know where each other stands. You argue, too, that the FLG needs to be destroyed like a “tumor.” I can’t fault you for inconsistency.
June 21, 2005 @ 8:21 am | Comment
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By richard
Perfectly valid statement, but without statistics as back-up, person to person observations are forerunners of innumeracy.
Chinese newspapers run polls all the time. That would be a great way to measure how people in China really feel about this issue. But then, we have to consider that these polls are hopelessly manipulated and rigged, which goes right to the heart of the issue at hand.
June 21, 2005 @ 8:23 am | Comment
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By bingfeng
“I think the way people react to this censorship breaks down pretty clearly along ideological lines.”
black-and-white, yes, that’s the way you think how the world operates.
you always complains that many chinese take ccp as the same thing of china, sometimes you make the same mistake i think.
June 21, 2005 @ 8:32 am | Comment
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By bingfeng
let me ask you this question, IF MS doesn’t comply with the norms and Spaces blocked, then what can we (MS shareholders, stakeholders like Chinese bloggers, firms) get?
don’t tell me that we should condemn ccp and ask for uncensored Space launched in china
June 21, 2005 @ 8:34 am | Comment
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By richard
you always complains that many chinese take ccp as the same thing of china,
Where have I ever said this? I think what I’ve said is that attacking the CCP is not the same as attacking China. They are not the same thing.
In response to your second comment, yes, we should condemn the CCP’s censorship and ask for an uncensored Space launched in China. Doesn’t hurt to ask, does it? Then they could have negotiated. Maybe MS would have had to give in, but the way they did it leaves them wide open to worldwide criticism, as they are learning now. This is not just me complaining — it’s pretty much a worldwide outcry. For more perspective, go here.
June 21, 2005 @ 8:52 am | Comment
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By Allan
Fair play to bingfeng, agree with his views or not, I think he makes a massive contribution to this site.
It’s good to have an articulate and intelligent Chinese voice among the Peking Duck readership.
Keep it up bingfeng!
Bing and Henry also make good contributions from what I’ve read.
June 21, 2005 @ 9:04 am | Comment
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By richard
I always welcome Bingfeng’s comments and linked to his site way back. Too bad he’s always wrong. (Just joking!!)
June 21, 2005 @ 9:38 am | Comment
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By Allan
Bingfeng has a site?
June 21, 2005 @ 9:42 am | Comment
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By richard
He links to his site in his comment above. Bingfeng Teahouse – it’s high up on my blogroll.
June 21, 2005 @ 9:44 am | Comment
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By Jeremy
Richard: “I think the way people react to this censorship breaks down pretty clearly along ideological lines. Those who support the CCP think it’s fine, those who don’t think it sucks.”
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. There is a lack of perspective evident in much of the Western commentary about this issue. Two points:
1: No Microsoft, no Internet
I remember China before the Internet, i.e. before Microsoft, Cisco et al. started “colluding” with the CCP. You had to have guanxi or be a foreigner just to get hold of such subversive stuff as a Led Zeppelin record, never mind read the kind of thing that you can now find on Peking Duck on a daily basis.
Now any savvy Chinese web surfer can find any information out there on the Internet. For that, we have to thank IT and telecom companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Nortel.
2: When Chinese people demand free speech, they might get it
When the time comes that a significant number of Chinese people see free speech as a priority, they will start demanding it. That hasn’t happened yet.
Even Isaac Mao, the only Chinese blogger I have thus far seen to thoroughly denounce Microsoft for its recent censorship actions (and let’s note that he only did it in English), did not denouce the authority that has intimidated Microsoft into self-censorship. (Note: there’s nothing wrong with this, and I fully support Mao’s decision to denouce Microsoft and not the CCP, but until people like him are willing to go down to the barricades, there’s not going to be much change.)
Microsoft is an easy target: dissing on Microsoft carries no weight; anyone can do it with no consequences. When Chinese people decide that it is worth fighting the restrictions on free speech imposed by their own government, that is when we will know that they actually care about such restrictions.
Until then, all this hullabaloo about Microsoft censorship is just symbolism with a lot of appeal to Americans but of no relevance at all to anything going on in China.
And let’s face it, MSN Spaces sucks anyway.
June 21, 2005 @ 9:54 am | Comment
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By richard
Jeremy, we are actually in agreement about this story’s effect on the Chinese. Please refer to my post where I say:
This story has almost no effect on the Chinese people. There is nothing new. It’s a story for Americans (and a few vocal Chinese bloggers like Isaac Mao) to get upset about — maybe unfairly, but as you say, Microsoft is an easy target and this is how American journalism always operates, knocking on Cisco last year the same way. It is, as you say, symbolism. We want to believe our companies retain their ethical standards wherever they go. If more Americans had even the vaguest idea what our companies do to do business in China, their hair would stand on end.
About Chinese bloggers, Isaac included, not condemning the government’s censorship — if you were a Chinese blogger in China, would you speak out against it? I know I probably wouldn’t, at least not alone. I’ve already seen how the Chinese police operate first-hand.
When Chinese people demand free speech, they might get it.
When the time comes that a significant number of Chinese people see free speech as a priority, they will start demanding it. That hasn’t happened yet.
A significant number of people in China once made similar demands on the CCP, not for free speech per se but for an end to corruption. Their plea fell upon deaf ears, I’m afraid. Which is why so few speak out today (and those who do are often persecuted, with at least 42 Internet dissidents spending the best years of their lives in Chinese prisons today).
I really believe that many in China wish they had free speech and an uncensored media. Is it worth risking their lives for? Probably not. It’s very hard to say when you know that whoever raises the issue risks being whisked away in the night.
June 21, 2005 @ 10:29 am | Comment
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By richard
Last word: there really is a reason people are dissing Microsoft. Tech reporter Hiawatha Bray explains:
June 21, 2005 @ 11:00 am | Comment
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By KLS
“I really believe that many in China wish they had free speech and an uncensored media. Is it worth risking their lives for? Probably not.”
is it worth shaking up their lives for?
what about the attitude that “the government doesn’t really stop me doing what I want to do, so the things it doesn’t want me to do, I don’t do”
June 21, 2005 @ 1:45 pm | Comment
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By richard
Sorry, KLS, I don’t understand the question.
June 21, 2005 @ 1:50 pm | Comment
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By KLS
sorry: I mean I agree it’s understable many people wouldn’t want to protest for free speech if that meant they risked being arrested and imprisoned.
but what if they saw the status quo as responsible for their (relative) job security, earnings, prospects? would we expect them to protest for free speech if the shakeup that large scale protests might cause could jeopardise their job security, earnings, prospects?
perhaps one reason why not that many people seem too bothered about using the internet to foster liberal democracy in china is because they’re really not after such big changes?
June 21, 2005 @ 1:59 pm | Comment
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By KLS
specifically regarding microsoft, despite the fact that the US has a long history of exporting tyranny to the world, it is right and proper that its citizens complain vehemently when it does so, and similarly when its corporations aid and abet either the US government or other governments (in this case the Chinese) in enforcing tyranny.
but I think bingfeng makes a persuasive case for looking at the Spaces thing in terms of pragmatism: is it possible that there is an “either – or” situation here:
either you have a flawed (bluntly censored) forum to discuss, debate, organise (organise in an apolitical sense) OR you have no space at all.
if that was the choice put before Microsoft, to include the censorship or to pull out, surely the company should be applauded for staying put.
the real question is if this was a likely scenario — no idea on that one, Bill Gates and chums never seem averse to cynically cashing in on every opportunity … which brings me full circle to applauding the vigilence of US and other westerners for spotting this whole business about the MS censorship and criticising it.
June 21, 2005 @ 2:14 pm | Comment