NY Times updates

Mysteriously, without any explanation the NY Times website appeared in my firefox window. Of course there was an article in the NY Times announcing their reappearance in China. The Times could not get any explanation as to why the site was blocked in the first place.

The NY Times are constantly running articles about China - positively and negatively but did not suffer any censorship in my two years in China. I don't even want to surmise as to what happened. As things always are in China, there is no explanation for anything.

Anyway, I am just happy to have access to the Times again.

NY Times web site blocked

Agrrrrahhh! Probably the website that I get most of my news these days is now blocked in China.

I heard recently that the Chinese government have resumed their tight censorship over internet access recently after a period of relaxed control around the time of the Olympics. It seems that the NY Times website is one of the casualties. Its funny that for a couple of years now I have not experienced any censorship of the NY Times. Anyway, the funny thing is that the global version of the NY Times, International Herald Tribune is still up and running. I think if you try to figure out China, all you will do is come up with questions with no answers.

Good Bye, China!

Well, that rise in readership was short lived. Looks like blogspot is blocked again. Wondered if the computer programmer in charge of blocking blogger realized his mistake last week and made an emergency migration (programmer talk for making changes to a program) today.

China Giveth, China Taketh Away

Well, I guess the other shoe has dropped. As mentioned in my previous post, I just realized that Google blogger or blogspot is no longer blocked in China. But guess what? I realized yesterday that youtube is now blocked in China. I can't even maintain my account in youtube anymore which differed with the partial block previously with blogspot. At least I could still maintain this blog even though I could not see the home page.

Based on what I am reading, it seems that youtube recently expanded into China and I guess this is just another measure to keep the natives rested. I guess the Chinese government knows what they are doing. Keep the natives happy with a sizzling economy, soaring property values and a skyrocketing stock market. Right now I get the feeling some people in China thinks money grows on trees and they are reveling in it. I guess there is another shoe ready to be dropped...

Welcome, China!

China works in mysterious ways. For whatever reason, my blog is now viewable in China. Once I realized it I e-mailed the url to some friends outside of Shanghai and they also confirmed that my blog is not blocked.

I also discovered that all blogs hosted by blogger (google) are now viewable here in Shanghai. I don't know what happened and how long this will last but I guess I will enjoy my wider reader ship while I can until the other shoe drops.

I don't know if it is a coincidence, but this past Monday 10/15 marked the beginning of the 17 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. There has been daily sessions for the whole week where the leaders of the China give sort of a "State of the Communist Party" speeches. Also on the agenda will be future plans of the Party along with reshuffling of positions within the party. Don't know if the new political year marked a loosening of the media. Perhaps the fact that blogger.com is now viewable might be an indication. Then again let's wait and see what happens. I will be sure to give an update on this if things change.

Censorship in China

This is going to sound bizarre, but I cannot view the homepage of my own blog at least not at home. This is because all blogs hosted by blogspot (aka google blogger) is banned in China. I am not entirely sure of the criteria necessary for a website to be blocked here in China but it would be safe to say that any criticism of the government through opinions or mention of notorious events in their history would fall under the censorship. Other reasons seems pretty random. For instance, I can view New York Times articles and yet cannot view BBC articles. I don't know what the BBC covers that gets them censored over the NY Times. Also why every blog hosted by blogspot would be censored is strange. Not all blogs on blogspot is about China; but perhaps it is such a popular host of blogs that they decided to give it blanket coverage. Other things seems pretty odd as well, for instance I have a friend who runs a website of his store that sells Japanese animation products in NY and for the longest time I could not view it here in Shanghai. However, at last check I was able to view his website. The products he sells seem innocuous to me, so the secret formula of the Great Digital Wall of China as mystifying as ever.

Now for this blog on blogspot, I am not blocked from my administrative page. This means that I am allowed to maintain the blog in every way - composing the blog, upload pictures, select/edit the look and feel of the blog, etc. - but I just cannot see the blog on its homepage. So is the Chinese government allowing people to let the story out to the rest of the world but feels the need to conceal it from its own people to prevent mutinous feelings at home? Who knows but this is very typical of the ways that China works. Their way of doing things sometimes seem contradicting and are always fluid. There will be many more stories based on this theme in future blogs.

Fortunately, I cannot view my blog only at home. This is because at home my internet access is via a Chinese internet provider so all content flowing through them are subject to censorship. However, at work my internet access is via servers in the US therefore I am able to view the blog with all of your wonderful feedback during work hours.