As political turmoil continues to grip the Middle East, China is becoming increasingly wary of electronic modes of communication. Not surprisingly, the Chinese government has opted to crackdown on cellphone conversations, e-mail messages, and Internet usage. Most recently, the government has tightened censorship control over VPNs (internet proxies favored by students and expats that help detour firewalls) and Google. While the Chinese have not explicitly declared the censorship of Google, engineers have determined that there is no evidence of technical malfunctioning. The inference then, is that the Chinese government is most likely to blame provided that they have previously condemned social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even Google as tools of the United States. Moreover, the Chinese government has, on multiple accounts, claimed that such sites pose a threat to political stability and serve only to "manufacture social disorder." Given that China has always maintained a sense of notoriety for its censorship of the press, this article seems to cater to the already critical attitudes harbored by most Americans against China's human rights policies. The journalists in this particular news article notes how one English speaker’s cellphone conversation was cut short by casually recapitulating a famed Hamlet quote that coincidentally included the word “protest.” The article even invokes Shakespeare in the very opening line (and rather humorously at that), which immediately serves to the draw readers’ attention. By poking fun at the new lengths for which the Chinese will go to stifle basic civil rights, the article perpetuates the perception of extremity that is widely associated with the Chinese government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22china.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=china
- Grace
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