Wikipedia unblocked in China!
Friday, August 1st by Ben YatesFoundation board member Ting Chen reports that the Chinese-language Wikipedia is now unblocked in all of China.
Andrew Lih has more. It looks like this was part of a broader opening up — mainlanders now have access to a lot of sites.
This is actually quite remarkable for folks living in China. The “Big Three” NGOs that have been unrelenting critics of China have been reliably blocked for years. YZZK (Yazhou Zhoukan) and Apple Daily, both in Hong Kong, have done some of the most critical journalism regarding China.
There’s an interesting thing happening here.
In the west, China’s bid for the games was framed as “an authoritarian regime wants to enhance its power”. But I think the Chinese gov. sees the games as a public works project, like the dams and factories being built everywhere — it’s one step on the road towards modernity and being treated as an international equal.
Basically, the whole reason China wanted the Games was to make the world like it. So china is taking certain steps to enhance its reputation — including socially expensive steps, like unblocking these sites.
But at the same time it’s doing things that are wildly unpopular in the west, like calling the Dalai Lama a terrorist.
Anyway, this is great news, and I’ll have a much longer story in a couple days. Update: Here it is.
