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The Great Chinese Censorship Hoax

Like my fellow bloggers worldwide, I must admit an errata on an entry in Screenshots dated March 9, tiled: China gags outspoken blogs.

China is now laughing at us, blingually in English and Chinese, because it has been a hoax and we have been had.

Yes, a hoax. The two prominent Chinese bloggers behind Massage Cream and Milk Pig had staged a censorship hoax, making it look like they had been shut down. And the Chinese people and western media actually took the bait.

But it's also the Chinese bloggers, Dan Wei and Roland Soong of ESWN, who first saw through the hoax.

Quote from Wall Street Journal:

"In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think."

"Reporters Without Borders issued a correction to its statement on March 9, calling the incident a "joke." But Julien Pain, who runs the organization's Internet Freedom Desk, says he doesn't think Mr. Wang understands the consequences of the incident.

"If some bloggers start crying wolf this way," Mr. Pain says, "nobody will listen to us when we try to support those who really need help. Censorship exists, as well as repression against Internet writers."

Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices Online has given it a context.

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Comments

A most stupid and childish stunt on the part of Wang Xiaofeng and the other idiot who carried out the hoax.

Is it all that funny? Have they forgotten the iron fist of those who rule in China against dissidents and certain reporters?

"I just wanted to make fun of Western journalists" Wang Xiaofeng was reported to have said.

So said the boy who cried wolf too.

I wonder how much fun it will be if some real clampdown occurred in China, and cries for help are then written of as "yet another hoax..."

Or is this also a stage scene.

The boy now probably has his "pain leg" gnawed by the "wolf". The wolf said to him to tell the world that the bitting was staged.

I was just reading a Western media article about China today. It had an anti China stance.

Instead of the usual, I believe everything that they print, thanks to the experiment conducted by these bloggers, I am now more critical about what I read from the Western media when they write about China.

Their experiment had propelled me to question critically the articles written by Western media instead of passively absorbing their writings.

This is clearly a step forward for me and a step forward for all readers around the world.

We need to congratulate these bloggers on their experiment that successfully exposed the journalistic integrity of the Western media.

China bashing is always on the western media agenda. It serves them right that they were taken in on this occasion.

The rise of China has caused uneasiness in the West. Remember, China is no longer the sickman of Asia. China has its own histroical and cultural tradition. It has never built its power by conquering other peoples's country. This is a vast difference from the history of the West!

Today, we see the US and in particular, you have this lady Secrretary of State going around to create the fear of an emerging China. In short, working out an alliance in Asia with Japan and Australia to do their bidding as part of the encircleing of China.

China has a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs. The West will always try their utmost to belittle the progress of Asian countries. There is always this whiteman burden and without their system we cannot progress!

Look what has the US done to Iraq and what it intends to do to Iran? Innocent lives are being killed in Iraq everyday and it is on the verge of civil war.

Its bullying tactics are obvious as can been seen in the lastest threat of imposing heavy duty on Chinese goods going into USA if China does not revalue its currency! It has forgotten that the problem of the US is the failure to understand its own problem created by itself. Look at the huge sum of money pouring into Iraq to have a regime change! Look at the loss in value of some 30% of the value of the US bonds bought by China. Who is to bear the difference?

The US must look at itself to see why it has created so many problems in the world. Might is not right, and this is this that they must learn! China bashing cannot help to solve their problem!

It is good that the bloggers have taught the western media a lesson so that they will have to learn quickly that they must check first before publishing!

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