Again, why does anyone actually think that this is a technical glitch or typographic error?*
As it is, I wouldn't be surprised if Beijing isn't also blocking environmental websites -- the PRC is tearing itself apart environmentally and socially and it's trying to take the world with it.
China's indigenous automotive industry (in which Jeep of China is one of the most popular brands) has emission standards that lag about 15 years behind the rest of the world (currently, Chinese auto makers must meet the obsolete "Euro 2" standard (Euro 4 kicks in next year in the EU), a regulation just enacted by the government). SUVs are becoming increasingly popular and it is expected that within 3-5 years, the Chinese SUV market will be larger than the American market. This, of course, is unusual, given that the average car sells for 10 times the average annual wage (vs. US figures where the average auto is priced at 70-85% of the target groups average annual income). This continues to expand the Chinese gap between the emerging upper-middle consumer class and the poor, uneducated, agrarian-environment majority.
As it is, China already burns more coal than any other nation and is the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. Furthermore, since the population is becoming increasingly urban and the ground in central and eastern China is particularly ill-suited to farming, the PRC has one of the highest rates of deforestation and is suffering severe topsoil loss and floods exacerbated by the use of mountainsides as farmland.
But Beijing's government is trying to put on a good face, not only for its population, but for the rest of the world - through such measures as rushing the 3 Gorges Dam, which some studies indicate will cause a great deal of long-term environmental damage on the rivers and newly-enacted fines intended to discourage the practice of public urination and defecation common not only in rural areas, but urban centers, as well. (They're concerned that the rest of the world would be aghast if such things happened while visitors were attending the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.)
Of course, the ugly truth is that the PRC is as corrupt and repressive as ever, even moreso since the power-hungry CPC has also found material wealth by embracing an open-market and laissez-faire economy (versus the doomed command economy which undermined the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s.)
About the only nation that could be considered more repressive and paranoid about outside influence is the DPRK (North Korea), which has about 100 approved internet users (entirely within the power elite) and manufactures specialized televisions and radios that only receive uncommon frequencies which Pyonyang uses to ensure that the TVs and radios are only receiving official broadcasts. (Most North Koreans are so disconnected from the outside world that they believe that Kim Il Sung, "Great Leader" invented electricity, the internal combustion engine, the airplane and television and that North Korea is so wonderful compared to the rest of the world, that everyone, especially Americans, would do anything to take over that little patch of heaven. They've also been led to believe that Kim Jong Il, "Dear Leader" was prophetically born atop Mount Paektu, rather than in a Soviet Gulag - which wouldn't have been such an emphatic portent of his "eventual" role as world leader and that the majority of the people who died in the recent train explosion died in valiant attempts at saving pictures of him.)
So, yeah, I guess the Mainland Chinese people do have it pretty good... compared to the wonderland that is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
* Note: A recent series of "typographic errors" found within official statements by the Government of Nigeria indicated that the Governments of Pakistan and North Korea were providing technical and material assistance in Nigeria's new effort at developing and manufacturing nuclear weapons. (The foreign and defense ministries both later retracted the statements, owing them to mis-typed information.)
As it is, I wouldn't be surprised if Beijing isn't also blocking environmental websites -- the PRC is tearing itself apart environmentally and socially and it's trying to take the world with it.
China's indigenous automotive industry (in which Jeep of China is one of the most popular brands) has emission standards that lag about 15 years behind the rest of the world (currently, Chinese auto makers must meet the obsolete "Euro 2" standard (Euro 4 kicks in next year in the EU), a regulation just enacted by the government). SUVs are becoming increasingly popular and it is expected that within 3-5 years, the Chinese SUV market will be larger than the American market. This, of course, is unusual, given that the average car sells for 10 times the average annual wage (vs. US figures where the average auto is priced at 70-85% of the target groups average annual income). This continues to expand the Chinese gap between the emerging upper-middle consumer class and the poor, uneducated, agrarian-environment majority.
As it is, China already burns more coal than any other nation and is the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. Furthermore, since the population is becoming increasingly urban and the ground in central and eastern China is particularly ill-suited to farming, the PRC has one of the highest rates of deforestation and is suffering severe topsoil loss and floods exacerbated by the use of mountainsides as farmland.
But Beijing's government is trying to put on a good face, not only for its population, but for the rest of the world - through such measures as rushing the 3 Gorges Dam, which some studies indicate will cause a great deal of long-term environmental damage on the rivers and newly-enacted fines intended to discourage the practice of public urination and defecation common not only in rural areas, but urban centers, as well. (They're concerned that the rest of the world would be aghast if such things happened while visitors were attending the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.)
Of course, the ugly truth is that the PRC is as corrupt and repressive as ever, even moreso since the power-hungry CPC has also found material wealth by embracing an open-market and laissez-faire economy (versus the doomed command economy which undermined the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s.)
About the only nation that could be considered more repressive and paranoid about outside influence is the DPRK (North Korea), which has about 100 approved internet users (entirely within the power elite) and manufactures specialized televisions and radios that only receive uncommon frequencies which Pyonyang uses to ensure that the TVs and radios are only receiving official broadcasts. (Most North Koreans are so disconnected from the outside world that they believe that Kim Il Sung, "Great Leader" invented electricity, the internal combustion engine, the airplane and television and that North Korea is so wonderful compared to the rest of the world, that everyone, especially Americans, would do anything to take over that little patch of heaven. They've also been led to believe that Kim Jong Il, "Dear Leader" was prophetically born atop Mount Paektu, rather than in a Soviet Gulag - which wouldn't have been such an emphatic portent of his "eventual" role as world leader and that the majority of the people who died in the recent train explosion died in valiant attempts at saving pictures of him.)
So, yeah, I guess the Mainland Chinese people do have it pretty good... compared to the wonderland that is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
* Note: A recent series of "typographic errors" found within official statements by the Government of Nigeria indicated that the Governments of Pakistan and North Korea were providing technical and material assistance in Nigeria's new effort at developing and manufacturing nuclear weapons. (The foreign and defense ministries both later retracted the statements, owing them to mis-typed information.)
