A special message from The Horse’s Mouth to the Chinese Internet Police.

August 19, 2005 @ 12:48 pm | Comment

AM, Richard banned you because you repeatedly violated his very liberal and reasonable rules. I’m going to follow his policies until he tells me otherwise. You can email Richard if you wish and take this up with him. It’s not up to me.

August 19, 2005 @ 1:06 pm | Comment

Nice, Gordon; Hey take a look and see if you can get shenzhenren. I can’t access my site, though it’s sometimes just a connection problem.

August 19, 2005 @ 1:17 pm | Comment

Oh, how strange. I just accessed it, and the whole thing displayed for about 15 seconds and then it got knocked out. I think our little group troll has been at work, since my blog is totally mild about China.

August 19, 2005 @ 1:20 pm | Comment

Yeah Sam. Some “china lover,” eh?

August 19, 2005 @ 1:24 pm | Comment

Sam,

Did you get the email I sent you about the “go around” ?

August 19, 2005 @ 7:47 pm | Comment

Yeah, Gordon, thanks. I was going to try it this weekend. I can access my blog today….maybe just connection problems last night.

August 19, 2005 @ 8:13 pm | Comment

Sam

I can access Shenzhen Ren no problem. It downloads in a flash.

August 19, 2005 @ 8:26 pm | Comment

get a taste of North Korean’s progaganda wrath.

http://www.nk-news.net

the site collected articles published by KCNA, the only official news source of NK.

for laughs, try out the “random insult generator.”

August 20, 2005 @ 1:25 pm | Comment

I was going to take a long trip two days ago, had to postpone it, but now I’m on my way. I’ll be absent from TPD for a while.
Lisa, when you told me (in a thread below) that I’d got you humming the tune of “Nanny and the Professor” – it cheered me up and made me smile all day! 🙂 I want to talk with you more, later, after my travels are done.
Richard, now I’m on my way to the train. See you here on TPD in another week or two.
Anyway, I’ll be away for a week or two, so, bye for now, and love and loyalty to you all on TPD until we meet again in a few weeks,

… from Ivan the effusive and obnoxiously histrionic and emotional Russian-American, who makes no rational sense.
🙂
(A clue to anyone here who is still confused by my weird mix of comments, alternating between logic and emotion: Go and get, or rent, the movie by Mikhalkov, “Barber of Siberia” (1998), titled “Siberskii Tsiryulnik” in Russian. By the way I have a personal connection with Mikhalkov: I had a fistfight with a filmmaker who studied under Mikhalkov – I won although the other guy put up a good fight – but I have another connection which I will not tell here. By the way I later made friends with the guy I fought with…
🙂 – that’s the Russian way…
The advertised theme of his movie, “Barber of Siberia”, says:

“He’s Russian. That explains a lot.”

….Don’t ever expect pure logic from a Russian, or even from a half Russian such as I…. 🙂 (And I was a Siberiak for some years, a Siberian – actually Siberia is very beautiful, but that’s a topic for another time….)
Well I don’t expect many of you to go and get that movie just for my sake – but I think, and I hope, maybe Richard or Lisa might? 🙂

PS, to Gordon, your “f-yu” finger to the Chinese internet police has now been blocked. I saw it before it was blocked, and I was very impressed by what beautiful tits you have!!!….
🙂 Carry on Gordon and keep it up with your honorable warrior ways, until we talk again later.
And now I’m cringing a bit before I send this comment – I know it’s fuel for all cynics to make fun of – but I believe my true friends here will not make fun of it. So, I’ll chat with you in a few weeks, my friends.
Richard has said, that this is a Love site, so, I will not be embarassed by showing my emotions here. And I know Richard is partly Russian too, so I trust that I can call some of you my friends with warmth and some hugs, until we chat later in a few weeks when I return from my travels.
Love to you all from
Ivan Ivanovich

August 20, 2005 @ 3:05 pm | Comment

Ivan, friendship and affection back atcha, and have a great trip!

August 20, 2005 @ 4:52 pm | Comment

The “Superpowers Needs Friends” post is generating a lot of comments – check it out below…

August 20, 2005 @ 8:08 pm | Comment

Lisa, what are you going to do with your blog-city mirror site now that, it too, is blocked in China? Now you’ve got two China blogs inaccessable within China without proxies.

Unfortunately, some don’t know or care about proxies, people are also lazy and others are nervous of using proxies in their offices. Therefore the blog-city blogs have pretty much been wiped off the radar screen of many China residents.

If it was me, I’d close up shop and set up elsewhere on a non-blocked host. After all, that’s probably exactly what the nanny doesn’t want to happen. However, I’ve a strong feeling that most blog-owners would disagree with this.

August 20, 2005 @ 9:39 pm | Comment

i dont know if china plans on playing nice for much longer. i read this disturbing bit of writing this morning. anyway you look at it, its a bit frightening.

http://www.halturnershow.com/ChineseDefenseMinisterTalksWarAgainstUS.html

if this guy really said that…yikes. if this is written by someone outside of china, in an attempt to sway public opinion, or direct policy…still insideous, and scary in its own right. i live in beijing, and the few people i talked to seem to think this is totally outlandish, but none of them are on the politburo.

August 20, 2005 @ 10:28 pm | Comment

i scrolled down the hal turner article to the chinese portion and the first thing is says is that it is sourced to Dajiyuan, the F*L*G newspaper. so unless there is a different source, it is as useless as the figure of four million communist party members who have resigned. truth is not their strongest point.

August 20, 2005 @ 11:00 pm | Comment

Not only is the source Daijiyuan (I personally NEVER read the site) but Lisa just kindly sent me the Wiki entry for Hal Turner:

“Harold “Hal” Turner is a former shortwave radio talk show host from North Bergen, New Jersey, USA known for his outspoken racism and anti-Semitism. His program, The Hal Turner Show, was carried on WBCQ from Monticello, Maine. The station’s owner, Allan Weiner, who is Jewish and a pacifist responded to widespread criticism by stating that he aired Turner’s show in the spirit of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

There’s more at Wiki, quite a lot more in fact, but I think that’s enough for our purposes.

Thanks Lisa.

August 20, 2005 @ 11:12 pm | Comment

My taxi driver on the way home last night told me about a bit of trouble in Panyu (a Guangzhou suburb) regarding the local offical there. Today, low and behold, there’s a story about it the SCMP:
————————————————–
Panyu villagers picket offices in corruption protest

Villagers in Guangdong’s Panyu district continued their protest at government offices yesterday after a clash with police on Tuesday that left dozens injured and at least seven in detention.

They claim that village chief Chen Jinsheng has usurped Taishi village funds, and are calling for provincial authorities to investigate.

A group of villagers staged a vigil outside the accounts office yesterday, fearing officials would destroy evidence by doctoring the village’s account books if they gained access to the offices.

Villagers will continue to guard the accounts office until the government is willing to open the accounts [to public scrutiny] and allow Communist Party investigators from Guangdong province to check the books.

“Chen Jinsheng has threatened us saying that they would release those detained and pay the medical bills of the injured only if villagers leave the account office,” he said.

On Tuesday, 1,500 villagers clashed with more than 500 armed police after the local government seized Feng Weinan – a leader of the villagers – who had called for the removal of Mr Chen over allegations of corruption.

Video sent to media showed police armed with batons and shields clashed with the villagers, and some protesters were battered.

August 21, 2005 @ 12:07 am | Comment

Martyn, I’m not sure what to do about it. Does anyone know any blogging hosts who aren’t blocked in China?

I kind of want to take the plunge that Richard has and do a blog that is its own URL and not associated with a blogging host. like thepapertiger.org, which I’ve already registered. But blogspot is sooo easy to use. I am doing posts here by going to blogspot and using their editor. Makes life simple.

August 21, 2005 @ 12:19 am | Comment

Don’t miss this great article from the IHT: “The shape of Asia, 60 years after the war”. Well worth a read, here…. A snippet:

“The 60th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in what is
known here as the Great Asian War marks as well the waning of a century of Japanese economic dominance of Asia.

Just 100 years ago, in 1905, Japan defeated Russia in another, smaller war, a victory that helped start it on its drive for regional leadership. Now China, with its surging economy and diplomatic forays in the region, has begun to stake a claim on the century ahead.”

August 21, 2005 @ 12:21 am | Comment

Martyn, thanks. I see Shenzhenren is fully accessible now. I have a periodially rotten connection at home, which tends to add to my periodic paranoia.

August 21, 2005 @ 12:30 am | Comment

Lisa,

I’m also looking for another site to mirror The Horse’s Mouth on because I don’t really like Xanga. The only reason I chose it for now is because I don’t know of any others and it’s not blocked.

If you find one, let me know.

BTW, I wouldn’t take that plunge because if you put all that money into your own domain, it will have been a waist when the PRC bans it.

August 21, 2005 @ 1:23 am | Comment

blog.bcchinese.net is great, quick, english interface, with a lot of chinese readers in north america, …

i have a few spare site, anyone who want to have a try, pls email me and i will send the site name and password to you

August 21, 2005 @ 1:34 am | Comment

Bingfeng,

Doesn’t that host fall under the control of the Chinese government?

I mean, is it hosted in China?

BTW, I’ve noticed that my comments tend to mysteriously disappear from your site.

Strange.

August 21, 2005 @ 1:45 am | Comment

Doesn’t that host fall under the control of the Chinese government?

I mean, is it hosted in China?

————–

hte host is in canada

————–

BTW, I’ve noticed that my comments tend to mysteriously disappear from your site.

————-

impossible! i never delete your comments on my site

August 21, 2005 @ 1:55 am | Comment

That’s why I said it was strange.

I put a couple of comments on there the other day, but they never seemed to show up for some reason.

Beats the heck out of me.

If the host is in Canada, I’d be interested in giving it a try.

August 21, 2005 @ 2:09 am | Comment

Gordon, exactly the same has happened to my comments at the Teahouse on many occasions. When I tried to post, the page re-loaded as if the comment was sent as per normal but it never appeared on the site. Multiple attempts turned up the same result.

August 21, 2005 @ 2:17 am | Comment

Sorry bingfeng, perhaps I should have written to you about it at the time but I just assumed that my Lenovo or connection was to blame..

August 21, 2005 @ 2:18 am | Comment

No, I had that problem at the Teahouse – it’s just that Bingfeng’s blog restricts the length of comments. So if you have a particularly long comment, you have to break it up into multiple submissions.

August 21, 2005 @ 2:21 am | Comment

As well as that Lisa some of my short comments just…didn’t turn up. It happened lots of times.

August 21, 2005 @ 2:23 am | Comment

I just thought, what if the Teahouse should be receiving hundreds of comments but for this problem??!

August 21, 2005 @ 2:24 am | Comment

Oh, I had no idea about that…Bingfeng? Maybe some kind of hyper-active spam filter? What was that comment of yours that kept getting rejected, martyn? It was over something really odd…Tianxia I think!

August 21, 2005 @ 2:31 am | Comment

I’ve never had any problem with posting my comment at bingfeng’s blog so far. I’ve done it many times by now, but no problem at all, long comment or short one.

August 21, 2005 @ 4:40 am | Comment

There are Chinese Internet users complaining that Google is not accessible since this evening (Hong Kong Time GMT+8)!

August 21, 2005 @ 6:40 am | Comment

Google was down earlier today (China time) but it’s up and running again now.

August 21, 2005 @ 6:51 am | Comment

Re beating the nanny’s blog block and paying for your own domain, I don’t know about the US, but it’s about US$5 for one year for a “.co.uk” domain and about US$15 for a “.net/.org/.com”.

I’m sure the Chinese censors would love it if all the China-related blogs kept to blogspot and blog-city.

August 21, 2005 @ 10:20 am | Comment

Gordon writes:
“The only reason I chose it for now is because I don’t know of any others and it’s not blocked. If you find one, let me know.”

Here’s 100+:
http://www.lights.com/weblogs/hosting.html

August 21, 2005 @ 10:39 am | Comment

Who has visited http:www.cyberpolice.cn
recently?

August 21, 2005 @ 2:41 pm | Comment

Dylan, my Chinese sux too much to make sense of that in a brief visit – care to comment?

August 21, 2005 @ 6:43 pm | Comment

Well, one of the things CPC boosters always rush to say is “things are so much better in China now, you used to worry that your neighbour would rat on you to the secret police, none of that happens now”. I’d suggest you direct those people to this page and ask them whether they would like you to report them to the cyberpolice next time you catch them putting anything on the internet vaguely subversive.

Basically this page (and there are many others run by provincial and local party organisations) has a form you can fill out to rat on your (cyber) neighbour for subversive activities. It seems to be part of the campaign to clean all “unwelcome” influences from China’s internet. It is harnessing “volunteers” to take out naughty internet sites.

August 21, 2005 @ 9:38 pm | Comment

Dylan, I’m going to close this thread and paste your comment on the new thread above. Thanks!

August 21, 2005 @ 9:54 pm | Comment