MSN and Yahoo Facilitate Chinese Tyranny

From Breitbart.com:

"US Internet giants Yahoo and MSN confirmed Friday they had signed a code of conduct for their blogging operations in China that committed them to protecting the interests of the Chinese state.
Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and other blog providers in China this week signed the "self-discipline" pact, under which they pledged to "safeguard state and public interests," according to a statement from the China Internet Society.

The pact "encourages" the Internet firms to register the real names, addresses and other personal details of the bloggers, and then keep this information.

The firms also committed to delete any "illegal or bad messages", according to a copy of the pact posted on the society's website.

Along with sex and violence, China's communist rulers have also deemed that opinions critical of it or the spreading of democratic ideology are not allowed."

The Bill T Blog Response

In honor of this decision, I will post a few fun facts about China.

First, almost any discussion of China these days (at least in the democratic world) will involve a mention of Tiananmen Square. This is an important place in China.

You can find a tourist's oververview of Tiananmen Square by clicking here. In China, this is about all one "needs" to know about Tiananmen Square. At least, that's the Chinese Government's view of it.

In the United States, we have a document called the Constitution, which includes a Bill of Rights. Tyrannical regimes view this document as an arogant usurpation of a tyrant's power by a bunch of "common people." At any rate, the First Amendment contained in the Bill of Rights is quoted below:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

This small paragraph ensures that citizens of the United States may say what they wish about a variety of subjects, including tyrants and tyranny. So, whereas a Chinese citizen may only discuss how beautiful Tiananmen Square is in the Spring, or other related propaganda, a citizen of the United States may take in the complete cultural history of the space and discuss it in detail.

We could, for instance, take a look at the history of Tiananmen Square, focusing on the beginnings of Beijing, or we could have a look at recent history in Tiananmen Square:

"The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals, and labor activists in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between April 15, 1989 and June 4, 1989. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced complaints ranging from minor criticisms to calls for full-fledged democracy and the establishment of broader freedoms. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The toll ranges from 200–300 (PRC government figures), to 400–800 by The New York Times, and to 2,000–3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross).

Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protestors and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.[1]" - You can find the footnotes by following the link above to the Wikipedia article.

You can find another perspective (from a Chinese artist with great skill) on Tiananmen Square by clicking here.

Next, we can have a look at how China has been a Revolutionary force in cultural evolution. After all, 9th Century Chinese Alchemists are credited with inventing Gunpowder. This was a radical step forward in the democratization of warfare. From this point forward, any peasant with a boomstick was the equal of a heavily armored noble.

But China has given the world so much more. Consider Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, which led to great personal struggles for "common people" and a nearly complete destruction of ancient Chinese traditions and philosophical advances.

Aside from being megalomaniacal, Chairman Mao lacked a great deal of the requisite intelligence necessary to fuse Chinese culture with the ideologies he held. Either that or communism is just so backward and socially retarded that it isn't compatible with any real intellectual advance and solely thrives in the authoritarian impulse of the bullying and cowardly small-minded thugs who use it to get what they want. Either way, China gave the world the "Cultural Revolution" and we're worse for the trouble.

Finally, China is a nation in a state of retrograde at best, or the death throws of a Communist last second power grab at worst. They are exporting poisons, counterfeit health supplies and a little violence and bloodshed on the side, in an effort to suck the last life out of the few poor souls who cannot resist.

Bear in mind that MSN and Yahoo will swear that they are only trying to make a buck and live in peace with their friends in the Chinese halls of power. They'll assure us that all they are doing is trying to follow the law.

Funny, many in the Gestapo said the same thing at Nuremburg.