Oliver August submitted a great article to Wired on the Chinese state’s imprudent attempts to monitor and filter domestic Internet content. The impractical task continues to disconcert the central government as millions of new users chip away at the “Golden Shield” on a daily basis. Still, nothing can stem the burgeoning flow of digital traffic and desire for unadulterated information access. Adaptive technologies such as proxy servers and encryption constantly spoil attempts to seal outside media from online denizens. The problem will only expand as a younger, tech-savvy generation comes to age. Restricting the Internet only seems to create a stronger urge amongst adolescents to devour the forbidden fruits beyond the “Golden Shield.”

Although this does not mark the eminent demise of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) iron grip on the Chinese state, the CCP is scrambling to revamp their ministry of disinformation (aka The Central Propaganda Department - 中共中央宣传部) and methods of pacifying perturbed social groups. Puppet strings amongst the masses are growing taut and sometimes snapping as the Chinese state loses ground in an increasingly influential online world. Bloggers and journalists now regularly flout bans on reporting events blacklisted by the Chinese state. As the masses continue to grow wary of the Chinese state’s official mouthpieces, they actively seek out alternative media outlets both at home and abroad. Even though only a tenth of China’s massive 1.3 billion population consistently access the Internet, these numbers are rising just as fast as China’s breakneck GDP growth.

The greatest hope for this information revolution subsists in the Chinese state’s reliance on new communication technologies to drive economic expansion. They cannot simply unplug the masses. While Burma cut the Internet with ease during recent pro-democracy protests, the Chinese State would bring untold ruin to markets that increasingly depend on the Internet to drive business and communication. It would also represent a massive step backward in desperate attempts to present a polished facade for the world during the Olympics. In any case, the future political battlefield will certainly take place online where everyone can have an equal stake much to the CCP’s dismay.

Link: The Great Firewall: China’s Misguided — and Futile — Attempt to Control What Happens Online

A host of unpleasant situations potentially face the Chinese State while it prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Political activists in China and around the planet see the event as an important opportunity to air their many grievances. Groups like Students for a Free Tibet have already taken advantage of the situation and garnered international attention by staging a protest on the Great Wall concerning the military presence and lack of political autonomy in Tibet. Disenfranchised domestic social groups and prohibited religious movements like Falun Gong are all likely to make some sort of appearance next summer and the world will be watching. For many, granting Beijing the Olympics slights the humanitarian ideals the event is supposed to represent.

The Olympic Charter’s second Fundamental Principle of Olympism:
“The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view of promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

Much can be said about the Chinese state’s lack of commitment to such standards but now an even larger blemish has appeared on the face of the forthcoming Olympics: the Chinese state’s refusal to take action against the Burmese military junta’s brutal oppression of recent nonviolent protests staged by Buddhist monks. Such tactics have been employed in the past by the Chinese state and their unwillingness to put pressure on the Burmese military may foreshadow events to come.

Fred Hiatt at the Washington Post has taken an excellent stand on the issue: What We Owe the Burmese

The New York Times recently started a very important series of articles on China’s “epic pollution crisis.” Although the rhetoric might appear a bit alarmist there is no doubt that the Chinese state needs to implement immediate measures to curtail the adverse effects of their developmental explosion. It is an issue that will soon affect the whole planet. One of the most unnerving announcements is the International Energy Agency’s finding that China is surpassing America in emissions, about ten years ahead of schedule. Such a staggering rise in pollution levels are only going to be compounded as the Chinese state grapples with the recent development upsurge in the interior of the country – most provincial metropolises have renewed investment in and expansion of their urban infrastructure in an attempt to catch up with boom cities like Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Everyone is looking to cash in while low construction costs persist and environmental regulations go unenforced. Moreover, many construction projects look to only cash in on short-term payoffs and will have to be eventually replaced. It is detrimental to China’s future that pollution-adjusted GDP growth rates factor into urban planning and national legislation. This economic juggernaut must be transformed in the coming decade. The rest of the world can no longer ignore how 1.3 billion people chose to live on this side of the planet. As easy as it is to point the finger at the Chinese state, the US government is just as guilty for promoting and investing in the industrial explosion across China’s eastern seaboard. We have done nothing to set new criterion for clean energy and waste management and can thank our own consumptive practices for the current mess. The US government has consistently ignored the situation and now the Chinese feel just as entitled to engage in similar excesses. The whole country is going to have to swallow a bitter pill sooner rather than later. The Chinese state must start setting new and innovative precedents for urban living as the country takes up a specious banner of modernity and progress.

Link: Choking on Growth - As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

Chongqing, one of the fastest growing municipalities in China, garnered the attention of an Economist article this week. Like other western metropolises, Chongqing is flush in government subsidies as the Chinese state attempts to rectify the wealth imbalance currently favoring coastal cities. Mass urbanization projects in China unfortunately are often poorly planned and executed. Shoddy housing, poor roads, and faulty electrical grids are endemic in areas where city legislatures are more concerned with reaching statistical goals than providing sustainable living environments. The drive for profits married to a lack of a genuine oversight also leads to rampant corruption.

As the Chongqing leadership attempts to “urbanize” 6,000,000 rural constituents over the next twelve years they need to establish innovative approaches to development that promote a higher quality of life. The municipal population otherwise faces a bleak future already experienced by many cities that are prosperous on paper but live in cramped and polluted conurbations. China and the planet can only handle so many mega-cities like Beijing and Guangzhou that don’t take sustainable development and alternative energy resources into full consideration. To the detriment of the environment and the health of residents, a lack of foresight still pervades some of the largest urban planning strategies ever implemented in human history.

Link: Urbanisation in China - China’s Chicago

A very interesting article appeared in this week’s Economist concerning developing communication technologies and their impact on social resistance in China. Anonymous text messages helped fuel and organize a protest against the construction of a massive chemical plant in Xiamen, a coastal city already feeling the burden of increasing urban pollution. The ability to quickly disseminate messages and assemble demonstrations without a distinguishable culprit for the Central state to detain will continue to plague the CCP as increasing numbers of people become more savvy with mobile and Internet technologies. Wider access to variegated news sources and information technologies are expanding at an unprecedented pace. China’s online Internet population is soon set to eclipse that of the United States. It seems only a matter of time before larger social movements fueled by digital communication forums unfettered by censorship begin sweeping the country - they have become for many the only medium to voice grievances against corruption and other vices perpetuated by rapid and often unchecked economic development.

Link: Protest in China - Mobilised by mobile