1984

People have more freedom to express themselves than they have ever had before. They have got every kind of toy imaginable, and the end result is that they end up using all their junk to conform like a bunch of cretinous dolts.

That’s their choice. What do I care? Give me a harmonica and a pencil and paper and I’m happy, though nobody else even can stand me at all boo-hoo!

But in People’s Republic of China you don’t have the right to decide to be an idiotic conformist twit. The government gets to decide that for you. In a public relations blunder that makes even Dick Cheney look like a freakin genius by comparison, the Chinese government, on exactly the twentieth anniversary of the Tienanmen massacre, has issued a directive that mandates that all personal computers sold in that country must be fitted with software that can be controlled by the central authorities to block any internet content that it deems to be “harmful”.

Not only that. This software, which is euphemistically labeled “Green Dam – Youth Escort”, can monitor all computer use and transmit anything useful back to Control Central. Basically, this marks the end of freedom of expression in China, if it ever existed, which it never has. Going back to the ancient royal dynasties, it used to be common practice to bury writers alive if they wrote anything “harmful”.

Naturally, computers manufacturers Hewlett Packard and Dell Computer, who respectively enjoy China market shares of 13.7% and 8.1%, have raised no objections. It’s this process of sucking outside interests into complicity with police state tactics if they want to continue to do business in the Chinese market that makes the arrangement all the more insidious. People want to make money, and rightfully so, but if you end up helping the authorities turn the population into a mindless herd of subservient barnyard creatures reminiscent of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, what is the price of your soul?

Forget about industrial espionage. In today’s China, where there is no distinction between the bureaucracy and business interests, your competitors have only to monitor your emails to know everything you’re up to. I daresay, it doesn’t exactly require a Great Leap Forward to figure out that there is not one foreign company doing business in China that is not being spied upon by its own Chinese employees, who were implanted there for the express purpose of learning its industrial processes.

Chinese business practices do not travel well. Taiwan recently refused permission for an attempt by Chinese mobile operator China Mobile to get its hooks into FarEasTone. The Australian government and stockholders rebelled against an agreement that would have allowed Chinalco to double its stake in Rio Tinto, even though Rio Tinto is desperate for money. Who can blame these countries? Nobody wants to do business with a country that combines police state repression with mafia business ethics.

I doubt that China will ever grant me a visa to travel there. I guess I can forget my ambition to swim in the world’s biggest polluted mess!

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Posted on 6/8/2009 ( Permanent Link )
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