When the riot (I have to pay specially attention to my wording, although I don’t know what is the best word to describe it) in Xinjiang happened, I was in US. But I don’t think I missed any news than being in China.
Every time, when I don’t write about an important event, it is because I don’t feel I have known enough about the fact. That was the reason Why I Didn’t Cover About Tibet. That is the same reason I kept silence about what is happening in Xinjiang.
I cannot say anything about it, just because I am still not sure what happened there. What I can confirm is, immediately after the event, censorship on Internet reached the highest level, and it seems Internet in Xinjiang is completely shutdown – I cannot visit most of the Xinjiang site I know – like Xinjiang University.
Interestingly, no matter whose fault the event is, the first thing government thinks is to block all possible news channel, and shutdown whatever site they can shutdown, so everyone just use the standard news release.
I read many comments about the event in Google Reader, but it is just comments with the absence of facts.
So, here is what I plan to do. I just bring up this topic, so my readers can start to discuss about it, and giving me some education. Please, facts are welcome!
yeah… because of that Facebook is blocked now… sigh…
Why the powers that be in China feel to menaced that they find themselves obliged to block all source of information when a conflict arises?
Food for thought.
Sometimes censorship cries louder and tell far more than total freedom of information.
coz one of majaor means that organize this riot is by means of Internet,and rumor said that time,place,communication etc were all transfered via web.Gov cant find all and the only “efficient” way is to block them!
Sure there are more “efficient” ways to prevent the riots to arise in the first place.
But I am afraid that is beyond the powers that be today and in the foreseeable future.
I think the authority still tries to figure out how to deal with the media. In the mean time, it’s probably the right approach the information highway when they are thinking hard on this. Two recent events pop up in mind regarding new media’s role:
1) The precursor of Xinjian riot, is the Guangdong Shaoguan incident, the story was spread widely on web, and it appears some outside forces put some fire on this story, to stir the violence;
2) Iran and Twitter: the US state dept. called Twitter to ask them delay a scheduled maintence so that people in Iran can use that to communicate (and organize).
I don’t have any problem people expressing their ideas/opinions on web, but using it as an organizing tool to stir the violence is another thing.
This is just about the new media’s role. On the broader ethnic issue, I think all the sides need to calm down, and let the rational minds/ideas prevail. Violence/emotions don’t solve any problem, on the contrary, they make things worse (in long term).
Rather than blaming some other people for ‘inciting’ violence whenever there are riots, the government should take a serious look at their own policies and think why the conflicts are there at the first place. If there weren’t existing tensions among ethnic groups, I don’t think anyone would be able to ‘orchestrate’ or ‘incite’ violence of such level in Xinjiang, be it the Americans or Al-Qaeda. Likewise in Iran, if the election result wasn’t rigged in the first place, nobody would be able to manipulate the very angry Iranians.
Expect more riots if the governments keep ostriching the underlying problems and don’t smarten up their acts.
you are smart and very stupid, you knew that anyone getting involved in the China’s politics will be blocked in everywhere, and you will get troubles.
Please don’t bring up the topics which you actually did not want talk about and left it to the following readers. No Politics related information would be better.
Senator Li
how much do u wanna know?coz i’m from there,and living in shanghai now.Fortunately,all my family members are safe!And actually ,u r kind of blind coz u were in US when it happened,the common sense tell me that the government did what they should do,but just a little bit slow,slow response , if u know what i mean!They cut down the telecommunication system jus for practical use,to cut down the connection between the local blind riots(actually they r not riots,but just blind ,non-educated teenagers,also with hooligans, thieves, extremists, terrorists, independence supporters together) and the evil leader,who’s hiding herself in US.the political purpose is quite simple,aiming at being independent,the best way is to evoke sabotage,to establish conflicts between different nations,Han nation,Uygur nation and other nations.That’s the main brain’s thought,so with money’s stimulus,those bad guys without steady income or even no income found that it’s a very good opportunity to assemble together to release their own vicious mind toward people whose have a better living condition!Meanwhile,they also believe that the government cant prove them guilty coz the number is not that small,Then they did the brutal event,99% of the victims are innocent folks,jus on their way home or in the shuttle bus,they caught them off guard,with iron and wooden stick ,after several strike ,people were dead for being knocked on the head and other crucial parts.Besides,the main business district was blocked by burnt cars and all the shops along the street were burnt and robbed!The death toll is high than the government annouced, about 400 people died ,now in Urumuqi, anti-violence and anti-terrorist polices are scattered in the urban area for safety’s concern,and the security council is doing a thorough investigation about the leaders or sub-leaders in that events.Teenagers have been released from the court,but with appropriate penalty—-education under parents’ supervision… jus stop by ,
The collective consciousness of these controlling freaks are primitive animals exhibiting the classic “fight-or-flight response”; cuz “it” really feels insecure about its existence and its grip on power
Sadly, most people get their ‘common sense’ from the state-dominated media such as CCTV, People’s Daily and the likes. It’s the kind of ‘common sense’ the party wants you to have and it’s the ‘common sense’ that only lives in the one-party-controlled China.
How they reported Rabiya Kadeer ‘sneaked’ (the actual word that appeared in Chinese papers) to Melbourne film festival and the emotional and propaganda rhetoric that they use when reporting about Dalai Lama shows what kind of professional journalism they have.
Made me RLMAO when I read how China’s Consulate in Melbourne demanded Melbourne Film Festival to justify their decision to include the documentary about Rabiya Kadeer. These people at the consulate must have thought the world revolves around them and everybody is used to a control-freak government like what they have back home. The film festival won’t even need to justify their decisions to the Australian government, what chance do the consulate think they have in getting these people to justify their decision to a foreign government?
I won’t go through this again.
It seems to be a replay of the problems in Tibet.
Like everyone going stupid together.
The overly sensitive insider,
the overly insensitive outsider,
and the overly obtuse overlord.