China Blocks RSS

I hate to sound like a broken record but this is getting ridiculous – in further efforts to “create a harmonious and prosperous society” China has begun to block RSS feeds in addition to their other draconian internet censorship measures [via]. From the communist party’s perspective, this makes perfect sense as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a great way to stay up to date with the latest news and up till now has flown under the radar.

At the beginning of the year, you could read and subscribe to my blog in China with no problems at all. Now both images and feeds are blocked. I wonder how long before the whole thing’s out-of-bounds? It really makes me mad to see the internet being abused like this, after all, its founding principles were to create a platform for free information exchange without borders or controls.

Along with blocking other major sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, & Flickr this just marks another blow to the government’s credibility, especially in the run-up to the Olympics.

How about a nice propaganda video to round it all off:

United States Population: 298,444,215
Chinese Womens’ Army: 324,701,244

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David avatar
Originally from the UK, David is product manager and wanderer currently based in Munich. Prior to this, he lived in Japan and China for over 15 years. He started Randomwire in 2003 to chronicle his travels and occasional musings. Feel free to drop him a line.

2 responses

  1. Adeel avatar
    Adeel

    Well, nice work with the flag, but I think you have been lucky enough for not getting arrested after publishing such posts back in Beijing. It was bound to happen at least with your blog :). But honestly, you think the locals care, I mean I never got that impression, so should we?

    Reply
  2. David avatar
    David

    The point here is that the people should have the freedom of expression to say what they like about the government without the fear of imprisonment/harassment.

    The majority of the the young people I have spoken to in China don't have much interest in politics and are quite prepared to accept the status quo as long as it does not impact on their standard of living. Hence they don't speak out against the atrocities the government commit in the name of creating a “harmonious” society. I'd love someone to prove me wrong on this but I've seen no evidence to the contrary.

    Reply

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