Censored Secrets

Our assignment this month was to read an article about the current situation between China and Google. The article helped me to realize how much information is kept secret to the Chinese citizens. There was a picture in the article that showed a Google search in the United States and one in China. The search was on Tiananmen Square. The U.S. search showed a picture of a democratic man protesting Communism by facing a tank in June 1989, whereas the China search showed a beautiful tourist destination at the center of Beijing. I find it rather scary how the leader of a nation can block this information from the public. The Chinese government doesn’t want its people to remember or learn about this awful time in its history. Instead of addressing the issue, they simply forget about it. This information took me off guard. I was shocked that a government would do something like this to its people. I was intrigued by the different searches the Chinese government would censor. In China, one would be redirected if they typed into a search engine things such as “anti-communist”, “dictatorship”, “democracy”, “human rights”, “Dalai Lama”, “Tiananmen Square Massacre” or “June 4^th”, “genocide”, “news blackout”, “brain wash”, “oppression” , “evil”, “exile”, “no-limit browser”, “independence”, or even the names of other world leaders. This is only a fraction of what I’m sure is a long list.

Not only is this lack of information through the use of the internet, it is also in the news given to the public. The comparison between an American newspaper article and a Chinese newspaper article reveals this same lack of information shown to the Chinese people.

Recently the Chinese President, Hu Jintao had decided to attend the nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12-13. The Chinese article is very positive. The article states “if China’s attitude toward global nuclear security was taken as unclear, the Thursday announcement that President Hu Jintao will attend the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit should dispel any lingering doubts” (China Daily 8). The article praises the idea China will be attending the summit, and is glad China will be “…send[ing] the message that the country is committed to global nuclear security” (China Daily 8). The article shows the positive cooperation between the countries meeting, and the agreement to cut the nuclear arms by 30% in the two countries, Washington and Moscow.

In the American article, besides giving information about the upcoming meeting, it also gives information about the recent disputes between China and the U.S. The U.S. hopes that the summit will mark “…a fresh start between the superpowers amid a chill in relations over Beijing’s unhappiness with U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and a meeting with the Dalai Lama” (CBS News 1). The United States has sold $6.4 billion in military hardware to Taiwan. The recent visit with the Dalai Lama has China accusing the U.S. of trying to separate Tibet from China. The article also addresses the cyberspying and censoring accusations from Google Inc. Toward the end of the article, the upcoming plans of Hu Jintao are included. After the summit, he plans to travel to South America from April 14-18^th. Stopping in Brazil, he will attend a meeting with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, and India. They will discuss seeking a greater say in the world economy.

Clearly being a longer and a more detailed report, the American article goes farther in depth about the situation, and what is to be discussed at the 2010 nuclear summit. The Chinese article only includes the positives about what is to happen at the summit. The article states that China’s attendance proves China wants to help the current nuclear situation, but it never fully explained China’s position on the matter. There aren’t any quotes from anyone in the article, whereas in the American article there are quotes from people such as a U.S. State Department spokesman and a professor with the School of International Studies at Peking University.

These two articles are very different and they give an interesting insight to the information shared and not shared with the Chinese public.

American Article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/01/ap/asia/main6352700.shtml

Chinese Article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-04/02/content_9679235.htm