Wen Jiabao
Mighty China brings its powerful political and technical apparatus to bear to block access to Anggarrgoon, a site on Australian languages. Anggarrgoon’s sin? It runs a WordPress blog, and all WordPress blogs are blocked in China.
Since the Chinese government is interfering with the VPN service I am using, it is now impossible for me to get the latest “subversive information” on Australian Aboriginal languages.
No doubt this is just collateral damage in China’s never-ending battle to ensure that people don’t get information from unapproved sources – but seriously, where do these people get off?
Update: It appears that the problem was with my VPN service. But the question remains. Banning a harmless blog on Australian aboriginal languages while supporting a blatantly chauvinist news site that damages China’s image while inciting and inflaming attitudes in a way that could one day end in tears, is a pretty sad commentary on the moral values of the Chinese government. Of course the Chinese government doesn’t give a damn about some foreigner who wants to access a minority-interest English-language site (why should it?), but it is hard to understand why a group possessing such intelligence, political nous and technological expertise would want to persist in projecting an image of such arrogance and stupidity to the world. Yes, I know the answer, just like most young Chinese (apart from 愤青 fènqīng or ‘angry young nationalists’): just shrug it off with a 你懂得 nǐ dǒngde.
Clearly, the powers that be are afraid that you’ll use that information to go on a walkabout and follow a songline into the world of dreamtime, where you’ll establish a rival government and eventually overthrow the CCP from within. You can see why they’d block it.