Chinese bloggers react to registration deadline and censorship issues

(Originally posted at Global Voices Online, with a few more personal comments added here.)

Laohumiao (老虎庙) at 24HoursOnline describes his frustrating efforts to figure out whether and how he should register, given that his blog is hosted on Blogbus, which is registered as his blog's host domain. (Laohumiao's blog is thus a subdomain, at http://24hour.blogbus.com.) According to my recent interview with Isaac Mao, who is an investor in Blogbus, Laohumiao doesn't need to register because the blog hosting service is registered and is also required to comply with government filtering and censorship requirements anyway. (So in other words, if the government asks Blogbus to take down Laohumiao's blog, Blobus must comply.)

But Laohumiao says that when he made inquiries with the relevant departments in the Shanghai city government and the Ministry of Information Industry, which issued the registration requirements and which is administering the applications, he got a range of contradictory answers. At the end he was told by one young woman he reached on the phone at the MII in Beijing that blog hosting services as well as all their sub-blogs must ALL register. Then he called the person who runs the Shanghai office in charge of registering Shanghai-based sites. The person said: "信产部热线是怎么搞的？为什么这样解释呢？我要去电话，子域名登什么记呀！" (Loose translation since the colloquialisms don't translate: "What's the deal with the MII? Why are they giving that explanation? I'm going to call them. Sub-domains don't have to register!")

Gotta love Chinese bureaucratic disconnects. I've heard from some Chinese bloggers who hope to slip through the cracks of bureaucratic confusion.

As we pointed out in Friday's Global Voices roundup, Wang Jianshuo has applied for a registration number for his blog, but is still awaiting a response from the authorities.

For what it's worth, when surfing Chinese blogs over the past week, I've been running across a lot of blogs with registration numbers on them.

Blogging in China is certainly not dead. In fact, according to this report, the blog hosting company BlogChina plans to list on the Nasdaq.

In response to my questions to Chinese bloggers about how internet filtering affects them and other Chinese internet users, I got a variety of answers.

People guess that somewhere between 1-5% of Chinese internet users know how to use proxies. Some think that those who know how to use them are likely to do so, while others think that even those who know how to use proxies don't bother very much because it's such a nuisance and time-consuming.

At CNblog, calon points out that the real problem has less to do with people's ability to access information; the bigger issue is their ability to share the filtered information with other people.

MadeinJune points us to a  PDF paper written in Chinese on "China's superficial online democracy". I haven't read the whole thing yet but it sounds like a great translation project for somebody to take on. 

There is a good comment on the importance of bulletin boards and how censorship impacts them.

Williamlong, who has run websites himself, says that when a site's IP address is blocked in China it loses 99% of its traffic and when its domain name is filtered it loses 100% of its traffic.

Ken says that when a site gets blocked that can often create buzz and interest about the site, causing people to learn how to use proxies. But he also thinks that government filtering policies do result in an information imbalance.

Blogger ZhiZhaiTianKong (止斋天空) (blog legally registered in Jiangsu) says my questions are well meaning but show condescension and lack of understanding of the Chinese people. He recommends I should have more contact with people who live in China. He says "we can't and don't need to access all information" and he doesn't feel that he is prevented from saying what he wants.
(I guess the fact that I lived for more than 11 years in China total, spent 2 of those years in a Beijing primary school, and 9 of them working as a journalist, dated a Chinese national for a long time and maintain close friendships with Chinese friends does not count as sufficient "contact with people who live in China." Oh well. Can't win.)

Comments

[Matthew Sheffield]

Thanks for keeping on this story, Rebecca. BTW, did you see this LA Times piece on Hong Kong media?

[丁慕醍]

Blogger ZhiZhaiTianKong (止斋天空) ..... says "we can't and don't need to access all information"

This is just like all the people in america who think they only need to watch fox news to be informed.

I guess the fact that I lived for more than 11 years in China total.....

Then you're probably also not suprised by ZhiZhaiTianKong's reaction. Their system tells them about the greatness of their people... if you don't have the genes you're always an outsider. Does this kind of thinking ever discourage you about actually achieving a global conversation?

I just wish my chinese was as good as yours.

[Stratification Watch]

First, ZhiZhaiTianKong may not express true thoughts within the realm of censorship.

Second, the Chinese Underworld has got to get the MSG (and the sugar) out of the food in these restaurants! It's driving the uninformed customers crazy and sick!

This can be done by making MSG, in Chinese restaurants, a seemingly ridiculous and silly national movement with multiple Websites. This will garner Media attention. Perhaps a "Million MSG Victims March" could be organized. A Boycott of Chinese goods and services would be a powerful attention getting move.

Now the focus is on China.

This would be the time to focus on censorship in China. A group of people would then post comments and topics at DemocraticUnderground and DailyKos. Each post must begin with condemnation of the War On Terror (WOT) or something to the effect of lost freedoms/take back the US from fascists. Once these "truth terrorists" get hold of the idea they'll go to work like unleashed locusts! Just remind them that China buys alot of US debt.

At this point the topic of anonymous proxies is repeatedly raised at DU and DKos. Detailed instructions on Proxy use must be repeatedly included. Once again these little marxists will disseminate.

You're now focusing on Anonymous Proxies AND China. People will talk.

By using a twofold attack on the Chinese Gov't they'll be embarrassed and off balance. People will talk. The conversations in China will shift to Anonymous Proxies thus raising the knowledge base.

Soon the Internet will be filled with Chinese catblogs!