China Forced To Partially Unblock Unwanted Websites. Will It Hurt Later?

Over this week we've been listening to the discussions about international media demanding that the Chinese government rethinks its position on blocking a number of websites that were (and most certainly still are) considered by the government as hazardous to their citizens and their states of mind. What we see now is that under this pressure China is simply forced to lift the restrictions to a certain extent - the extent that can be viewed as acceptable by the international community.

The list of unblocked websites includes a number of international news outlets in Chinese language (like Reuters and Wall Street Journal), some Taiwan and Hong Kong media outlets and sites of the major non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Sans Frontiers (with the latter only unblocked in the Olympic media center). What's more, even the everyone's darling Wikipedia has been unblocked as a result of the same decision. You can find the list of the unblocked sites here along with some additional details from an insider's point of view.

Unfortunately, this lifting of restrictions is only partial and any individual piece of content on any of the websites can still be blocked based on the keywords contained. So even if the website itself can be accessed, some parts of it may still be kept closed if they contain something that the government is not willing to grant access to.

The bigger question is: will this last at all? My impression is that China is trying to behave in a manner that is acceptable by the international community and only to the extent it is absolutely necessary. From what I've seen in my few visits there (and from what history lessons taught us), China is not the country to let foreigners dictate the rules when it comes to their domestic policy.

So expecting them to oblige when they will have no reason to once the Games are over is not actually realistic. I am sure that for the Chinese citizens this is nothing but a short break that everyone in China should use to edit some important entry in Wikipedia maybe or to consume coverage for as many events censored in China as possible. And no matter how depressing this politics may be, it is a question of sovereignty and everyone has already realized that China is powerful enough not to allow anyone to damage it.

Moreover, what troubles me is that I am pretty sure that in China all the ISPs will be made to report what users accessed these websites over the course of the Olympics and the people that venture to these now unblocked sites will have good chances of having a very unpleasant discussion with authorities after the Games.

I did live in the Soviet Union for a few years and I know that China has even stricter rules. Besides, with this population volume they have everything needed for blossoming espionage. So if I were not a press member, I would really have thought twice before taking advantage of this temporary (which I'm sure it is) availability of the otherwise unwanted websites.