Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
reports on China's human rights abuses, as does Freedom House, a
nonpartisan group founded in 1941 that monitors the states of democ-
racy, human rights, and political freedoms throughout the world.
(According to its own website, Freedom House “has been a vigorous
proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictator-
ships of the far left and the far right.”) FreedomHouse has consistently
ranked mainland China as “not free” and noted in 2009 that, “Despite
expectations that it would enact at least symbolic human rights
improvements during its year as host of the Olympic Games, the
Chinese government in 2008 increased restrictions on online writers,
human rights lawyers, democracy activists, migrant workers, and
individuals seeking to petition the central government on abuses by
local officials.” In 2009 Freedom House also awarded China its lowest
rating for political rights and its second lowest rating for civil liberties.
Interestingly enough, that same year Taiwan achieved Freedom
House's highest score for its political rights and the second highest
score for its civil liberties.
E. The Free Flow of Information
Gone forever are the days when strict government control over tele-
phones, radios, radio transceivers, newspapers, books, and magazines
could accomplish the obscurantist purposes of the state. Information
technology has now exploded beyond the ability of any government
or state on earth to control it. The Chinese Communists fear the unim-
peded free flow of information because it will lead, among other
things, to public discovery of their own party's past and present mis-
deeds and misgovernment.
The “Great Firewall of China,” which the Chinese Communists
attempt to use in restricting their subjects' access to information, is
something of a problem for Chinese Internet users today. But resource-
ful and computer-savvy people in China always find a way around it.
Proxy servers outside China do help, as does software that can circum-
vent Great Firewall restrictions. The Chinese Communists periodically
block major world news sites such as BBC, CNN, and the New York
Times.
In 2010 the Internet search engine giant Google announced that it
was growing weary of the Chinese Communists' insistence on censor-
ing all search results within China. Google also went public with com-
plaints about the constant barrage of cyber-attacks originating within
China against its computer facilities. Google even floated the possibil-
ity of withdrawing from the China market entirely rather than
