Tibet News (6.12.09)
by Danny Fisher
“In this Feb. 1, 2009 file photo, a man uses a computer at an Internet cafe in Fuyang, central China’s Anhui province. China wants all personal computers sold domestically to come with software that blocks access to online pornography, which it has banned, the main developer of the software said Monday, June 8, 2009.” Photo by the Associated Press.
Two major Tibet-related items today:
- The bill makes several improvements to an already existing Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 and directs the US government to encourage the Tibetan-Chinese dialogue by coordinating with other governments in multilateral efforts in order to reach a negotiated agreement on Tibet.
The bill further directs the US government to require the National Security Council (NSC) to ensure that U.S. policy on Tibet is coordinated with all executive agencies in contact with the Chinese government.
It also authorizes the establishment of a Tibet Section within the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, until such time as a U.S. consulate in Tibet is established. It further directs the government to seek to establish a U.S. consulate in Tibet’s Capital Lhasa.
The Bill requires the US Consulate in Lhasa to “provide services to United States citizens traveling to Tibet and to monitor political, economic, and cultural developments in Tibet, including Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces.”
- In any country, such vague terms would be a frightening license for government intrusion. China’s government, which fears the free flow of ideas, already vigorously restricts Internet content, including blocking access to Web sites on Tibet, human rights and other politically sensitive subjects.
Chinese bloggers, dissidents and even some state news media outlets are right to worry that the new software could be used even more nefariously: to collect personal data and spy on consumer Web habits.
I lived a while in China and you could basically buy tons of porn out of the streets, from the little vendor stands (where you could get tons of bootlegged U.S. flicks as well.) Mixed in with all the DVDs was porn from all over, Europe, the U.S. and China. Not sure why it needs to be blocked on a PC when you can get it in about 2 seconds out on the street. I mean, every male who treated us as a guest offered to take us to prostitutes for crying out loud, including gov't officials we met. Sex is just for sale everywhere over there. I got propositioned by a prostitute while I was standing in line at a Starbucks in Beijing for cryin' out loud!