Dystopia and censorship

Malcolm Moore of The Daily Telegraph asked me for a China Internet primer to accompany a series of China business stories their paper is running.

Here it is: China’s internet: the wild, wild East

The editors left out a line that I rather liked, so I take the liberty of publishing it, at the end of the second paragraph below, in bold:

Savvy Chinese Internet users know how to use proxy servers and other technologies to get around the Internet blocks: Chinese government Net censorship works not because it’s impossible to open websites the government does not like, but because it’s inconvenient to access those sites.

So most Chinese net users, who go online primarily for entertainment, don’t notice and don’t particularly care about censorship, as long as they can chat to their friends, play games, listen to music and watch videos. Their dystopia is more Brave New World than 1984.

The whole thing is here.

Some noteworthy pieces in the Telegraph‘s recent China business reporting:

Google China chief Kaifu Lee bets on mobile internet in battle to gain dominance

Baidu’s story is only just beginning, says finance chief Jennifer Li

• Whole series of profiles and commentary: Inside China

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