China's Holistic Censorship Regime
http://www.feer.com/essays/2008/may/chinas-holistic-censorship-regime

Description:

After the events in Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned public views of the riots, discussions of the conflict between ethnic groups. Instead, they choose to compare the violence between Tibet and China to the Chinese’s history of oppression by foreign powers – as the CCP came to power through its heroic fight against the Japanese.

This is an attempt to distract the Chinese from the failures of government and depicts the CCP in a very positive position.

Censorship in China is not only making undesired message defined by the CCP inaccessible to the Chinese. Rather, the Chinese has decided to combine facts and values with censorship. Residents are rewarded for supporting the “brand values” defined by the CCP, punished for taking a contrary stance.

In demanding this sort of fealty from its residents, China insists that both individuals and organizations conflate their social, economic and political roles, creating significant inefficiencies and distortions for businesses.

Such censorships make it almost impossible to understand what the average Chinese person might “really” think.

Ironically, the key principle that makes the whole system works is the citizens’ uncertainty about what is or is not aligned with the “feelings” of the people.

Assumptions:

The writer assumed that

i. The CCP is only trying to cover their bad deeds – Censoring comments on the Tibet violence and relating the incident to past events, portraying China as a victim of foreign oppression.

ii. The CCP came out with those “brand values” only for their own interest – Residents are rewarded and punished for obeying the values and going against it respectively.

iii. The CCP’s policy on the fusion of social, economic and political roles by the individuals and organizations only brings about negative side-effects.

Comments are very much appreciated.