China keeps to its repertoire and censors Obama’s speech on Internet censorship

 In his speech delivered during town hall meeting in Shanghai on Monday the US President Barack Obama encouraged China to abate the government censorship and strengthen free speech on the Internet. While we have already reported the news yesterday the interesting point about it is that the national authorities in the Celestial Empire unsurprisingly showed their commitment to the usual repertoire by again censoring the US leader’s words on their local media. Only one channel in China delivered the live speech without any cuts.

With over 250 million Internet users China applies some of the world's tightest controls to what these users will see online. Chinese authorities have been implementing "Great Firewall of China" technology designed to prevent unwanted traffic from entering or leaving a network.

"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said addressing the Chinese audience on Monday. "I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet - or unrestricted Internet access - is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged."

Obama may have been hoping to set a personal example for China's leaders when he said he believes that free discussion, including criticism that may be annoying to him, makes him "a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear."

One prolific blogger who goes by the name of Hecaitou said that a transcript of the exchange posted on the portal Netease was taken down by censors after just 27 minutes. A full Chinese-language transcript of the event was later posted on the official Xinhua News Agency Web site but required four clicks to locate the relevant section.

Only local Shanghai TV carried the event live. It was streamed on two popular Internet portals and on the White House's Web site, which is not censored, though both the video and audio feeds were choppy and delayed inside China.

The People's Daily online briefly summarized Obama as telling the crowd that the Internet has "enormous power in assisting information dissemination," but made no mention of his comments on censorship.

It is no wonder that Chinese government fears to provide more freedom to ordinary people in the country. There is one good folk saying on the subject which says: “We are now beaten by what we have fought for”. Yeah, once repressed and overwhelmed by tyrannical Emperors Chinese people arranged revolutions and established “free” and “people’s” kind of “Republic”. Still, in case of China, it is not Republic who works for the people, it is the people who work for the Republic of the high and mighty who realize that the way they have come to power is the way that can lead them out of it. Western nations have understood that the more you oppress people the more you should fear their wish for the freedom.