
Scaling China’s Great Firewall - danso
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/opinion/murong-xuecun-scaling-chinas-great-firewall.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
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ck2
_who doesn’t go over the wall, suffers from a moral deficiency_

I like that quote a lot.

Could apply it to many Americans too. If their only source of news is a three
letter TV broadcast, they are morally deficient.

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bussiere
Nice quote too : If their only source of news is a three letter TV broadcast,
they are morally deficient.

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DanielBMarkham
"It’s hard to imagine a government that opposes creativity can permanently
have the upper hand..."

As a libertarian and privacy advocate, over the past decade or two I've
consistently seen folks try to warn the public over surveillance and anonymity
problems.

Most of the times, such warnings were laughed at. We got the usual tinfoil hat
treatment.

I think the basic problem is this: it _is_ hard to imagine the internet
turning out to be the curse it is becoming. After all, as the author noted, we
are all free to make our hotel and restaurant reservations.

I don't think people are stupid. I think when historians look back on the
first years of the Internet explosion, the theme is going to be something like
_but nobody ever thought it could turn out like this_

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skatenerd
For a flavor of what everyday Chinese propaganda looks like, consider
following @PDChina and @XHNews on Twitter.

This doesn't give you the full picture, since the Twitter accounts are
intended to be consumed by foreigners. Nonetheless, it's really easy way to
get some idea of the typical tone/topics.

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squozzer
When the writer states, "This can't continue." I can only say, "who will stop
them and how will it be done?"

Two of my favorite nations, the USA and UK, seem to be heading in China's
direction. US citizens in particular do not seem well informed on
international events, nor much concerned about either government surveillance
or its opacity on certain matters.

China's history, of which I do not claim to have extensive knowledge, also
seems to support a tendency towards isolation, or maybe selective ignorance -
well-versed in subjects that go boom or cha-ching, not so well on the
subversive stuff.

That said, to rely too much on history leaves one vulnerable to the daring and
imaginative. After all, Corsicans were never considered "truly" French, yet
one of them became Emperor of France aand almost of Europe.

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wodenokoto
A long time ago I read that China's main weapon against uprising was to build
a middle class.

I always thought that was an interesting take and an ingenious idea. Why rebel
if you are doing fine?

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golergka
This link now takes me to the front page of NYT.

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gruez
The title confused me at first. I thought "scaling" meant "increasing in size"
and the article was about the engineering aspects of the GFW.

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gkop
Same here. Incidentally, the firewall _is_ increasing in size, sophistication,
and consequently in its interest to us on HN. This is a worthy article despite
the poor title.

