The ‘Beijing Internet Police’ Make an Arrest
Posted on May 11, 2008 - Filed Under China |
A post yesterday on iConflict was quickly disseminated on several websites which ratcheted up our traffic significantly. The post showcased an image of the “Beijing Internet Police,” one male and one female dressed in uniform and saluting, that according to a British newspaper, appears every 30 minutes on the screens of computer users in China when on a major Internet portal.
The message behind the image is clear - in China you are watched while online.
Initially, I thought our users in China would be concerned about the potential violations to their privacy. However, to the contrary, they view police monitoring as something important for national security and even liken it to the US Patriot Act.
One user wrote, “the patriot act, passed into law in 2001, provides the American government with the legal go-ahead to spy on its own people. so which country doesn’t spy on its own people? Another posted, “to be frank, i am never aware that a web-police is monitoring what i am doing…and even if i know it does exist,it has little influence on my life….so , it is normal and nessary for the government to moniter the internet, just like we see police patrolling and securing the city all day….like all countries, china monitor for threats to the nation’s political and social stability. ”
And yet, despite these arguments, today an example comes out from China that suggests the government is not only using its online monitoring to crackdown on threats to political and social stability, but to eliminate dissident voices.
The AP is reporting, “A Chinese man was arrested for saying on the Internet that he planned to grab the Olympic torch during its relay through eastern China, police said Sunday. The 28-year-old man, identified only as Tang, was detained in Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province in eastern China for allegedly spreading rumors online and disturbing public order, said an official in the local public security bureau who would give only his surname, Zhang. Tang was detained on May 7 and will be held for 10 days, Zhang said. Tang is accused of writing in an Internet chat room that he wanted to organize a group to grab the torch when it arrives in Nanjing, near Zhenjiang, on May 24, state media and police said.”
Would anyone really consider Tang’s post a threat to national security or the stability of China? If anything, it represented a threat to the stability of the Olympic Torch, nothing more. Tang was not advocating the overthrow of the regime, he was not calling for violence, nor was he doing anything to disrupt the peace and prosperity of China. Yet, he was arrested for what he wrote in a chat room.
To the surprise and dismay of the western media, the youth of China are incredibly strong supporters of their government. They do not seek change or revolution like previous generations. In fact they are rather pleased with China and will tell you without hesitation that the 21st century will be the Chinese Century, in the same way that the 20th century belonged to America.
Yet the arrest of Tang should be troubling, not just to outsiders but to people living in China as well. Arrests for national security reasons are one thing, arrests for organizing a protest is a far different issue. China’s youth can still maintain their love and zeal for China, while at the same time questioning some decisions by its leaders. This should be one of them.
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2 Responses to “The ‘Beijing Internet Police’ Make an Arrest”
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i agree. i mean gimme a break. you dont arrest someone for a pr stunt. and if you do, then you cant compare this to the patriot act. chinas youth needs to stop drinking the kool aid.
I agree with the government to stop the stupid man’s plan to disturb the torch run. I hate these trouble makers. Police detain him and question the motive and he got released, so what is the big deal? China has a big population with limited resources, they can’t let everyone learned by mistake like in resource rich nation. You cry wolf in L.A. not much will be lost because not many will hear you. In china’s crowded cities that can cause stampede.
Only naive people with limited life experience believe everyone else should think and act like they do.