[WikiEN-l] Tearing down the Chinese Firewall

[Ray Saintonge]

Prasad J wrote:

>I agree with Timwi, encouraging Chinese citizens to break the laws of
>their country is probably not the right thing to do, even though such
>forms of censorship seem unfair. Also, what if the Chinese authorities
>manage to track down those who break their censorship laws? Let us not
>forget what the government does to  "dissidents" in China. And what is
>the press gets hold of this? The issue of Wikipedia and Chinese
>Government censorship has been in the news. If we start encouraging
>Chinese Wikipedians to break the law, it will only mean bad publicity
>for the Foundation.
>
Providing technical information is not the same as encouraging.

The press is often unpredictable.  It is also important to remember that 
China does not like to be embarassed, especially not in the period 
leading up to the 2008 Olympics.  After that event progress may be more 
difficult, and countries whose international debt is largely bankroled 
by the Chinese may want to limit their support of freedom to just enough 
isolated acts of lip service to prevent being accused of hypocrisy.

Ec