Chinese people know their country’s internet is different.
There is no Google, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. They use euphemisms online to communicate the things they are not supposed to mention. When their posts and accounts are censored, they accept it with resignation.
They live in a parallel online universe. They know it and even joke about it.
Now they are discovering that, beneath a facade bustling with short videos, livestreaming and e-commerce, their internet — and collective online memory — is disappearing in chunks.
The number of Chinese language websites is now only slightly higher than those in Indonesian and Vietnamese, and smaller than those in Polish and Persian. It’s half the number of Italian language sites and just over a quarter of those in Japanese.
One reason for the decline is that it is technically difficult and costly for websites to archive older content, and not just in China.
But in China, the other reason is political.
.Here are the top political news stories for today.
@BisonLarryConstitution2yrs2Y
It's fascinating to me that the CCP fails to see that it's response to economic woes follows the exact same pattern of behavior that caused them in the first place. At an an individual or at a national level, burying one's head in the sand and ignoring unflattering or worrying information is a recipe for disaster.
China's economic boom was a credit to its hard working and intellectually vigorous citizens. It's rapidly materializing stagnation falls squarely on the shoulders of its staid and intellectually lazy leadership.
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, the lot of them, should be a warning to all of us in the West that we must not give in to the temptation to ignore reality or silence debate.
This is why I believe the United States and the West will prevail in the battle with tyranny and dictatorship. Free markets are superior to closed markets. Free speech is better than government control. History has taught us these facts. Chinese success in the recent decades was a product of open markets, not government interference. Closing them will be the economic ruin of the country. Xi's approach will join other dictators on the ash heap of history.
@VoterIDGeorgeRepublican2yrs2Y
It's strange that China recently sent a large delegation to Davos to try and attract foreign investors while at the same time they're doing everything possible to make it more difficult for foreign investors to obtain the information they need to make informed decisions about doing so.
A country that knows it has its peoples' support doesn't need to worry about suppressing their voices.
Dictatorships like to promote this idea of strength, but they're always founded on fear of their people - and an understanding, though they'd never admit it, that they don't truly have that support. Say what you will about democracy, but it at least theoretically forces governments to win that support - and that makes them stronger than a government that pushes people down.
At some point, that resentment will have nowhere to go but into the streets. At some point, people will get pushed too far.
May not happen in my lifetime, but it'll happen. That's how dictatorships always go.
Totalitarian economies tend to fail. Look at the old USSR. Only when China opened up did they start doing well. Now the reverse is happening. They are killing Hong Kong and all the money is fleeing to Singapore. Well done Xi.
Chinese leaders have been re-writing history since they've had a written language. And we're not talking about a little bit of re-writing, where the major facts are mostly there, just with a more complimentary spin or a different focus - it's sometimes manufacturing from whole cloth a completely made-up fantasy of what the warlord-of-the-moment wanted everyone to think.
@PollingAnteaterDemocrat2yrs2Y
China has a population of about 1.4 billion people, of which 946 million earn only $280 a month. That's about 67% of Chinese citizens living in extreme poverty. And we're supposed to be afraid of China? Xi and the "Communist" Party is running the country into the ground right before our eyes. And just think, this is what Donald J. Trump wants to do to the United States, because he considers Xi very smart!
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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