As Chinese students go online, Little Sister is watching

The Chinese government is mobilizing college students in a national effort to sanitize the Internet.
The New York Times

The story "As Chinese students go online, Little Sister is watching" published May 9, 2006 at 6:43 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[coconinoite]

Little Sister's watching you???

China's entrance into a market-based system over the last decade or so certainly hasn't changed their socially repressed society. The sad thing is, we're heading down the road to the point where there will be little difference between us and them, repression-wise. The moves to monitor and preserve internet customer and other communication information over the last five years have clearly set us on the path to having government control over most aspects of our lives. I hate to think of the future world my child will face.

[maxwis]

In The U.S., Done With No-bid Contracts

At least the Chinese are thrifty enough to do this with student labor. In the U.S. we hire companies like SAIC and Halliburton with no-bid, multi-million/billion dollar contacts. Makes you wonder who is really the more corrupt and immoral.

[bob blob]

it's the new Gestapo

was it just me, or does this sound like a thinly veiled attempt at thought-policing? it seems china is now brain-washing its youth to take pride in regulating free-thought and political discussions (not just dissent, but DISCUSSIONS!). the words "gestapo" and "nazi youth" popped into my head as i read the article, with some of the more disturbing parts highlighted below:

"Politics, even school politics, is banned on university bulletin boards like these."

"Part traffic cop, part informer, part discussion moderator--and all without the knowledge of her fellow students"

"it is part of a broader 'socialist morality' campaign...begun by the country's leadership to reinforce social and political control."

"Li Ximeng, deputy director of the school's propaganda department. 'Our system is not open for media, and we don't want to have it appear in the news or be publicized.'"

"For her part, Hu beams with pride over her contribution toward building a 'harmonious society.'"

"the government is facing perhaps its most serious challenge: how to direct and control young people's thoughts in a world of increasingly free and diverse information. And the answer relies heavily on stealth."

...scary stuff

[coconinoite]

It's really little different from ...

what it always has been, in some form or another. In both pre-market-based economy China and in the former USSR (amongst other nations), children were, essentially, brainwashed to both toe the party line and inform on others in their lives, including all their family members. What is the difference between that and this? And for an interesting parallel, what do we do in Western culture to our own children to discourage their own free thought?

[cathleen_44]

Harmonious Society??

Now it seems, China is not only censoring its society, it is flat-out brainwashing its citizens into believing censorship will help them in their quest to attain a "harmonious society." This whole article reads like a page out of 1984 or A Brave New World. Furthermore, there are very few people in the internationally community that are actually protesting China's actions. In fact, companies like Google and Yahoo encourage such behavior by actively engaging in business with the Chinese government, even aiding them in their quest to weed out those citizens who freely speak their mind. I applaud those citizens who are risking their lives and their livelihood to speak out against the injustices of the Chinese government. I also applaud companies like Anonymizer, who, at their own expense, provide anit-censorship solutions for free to the citizens of China. Anonymizer President, Lance Cottrell has been fighting for the people to uphold basic civil liberties in repressive regimes for more than a decade. Chinese citizens can access Anonymizer's anti-censorship solution that allows them to surf the net anonymously at www.xifuchun.com.