China‘s fairly notorious for the stranglehold they keep on their country’s ability to browse the Internet. Censorship, in general, is the name of the game, and they apply it liberally. It should come as no surprise then that China’s gone and blocked the New York Times over an article critical of Wen Jiabao, their prime minister, and his family. Seems that his relatives have become “mysteriously” wealthy since Mr. Wen’s rise to power, and China’s not a fan of anyone that points it out.
The New York Times explains:
By 7 a.m. Friday in China, access to both the English- and Chinese-language Web sites of The Times was blocked from all 31 cities in mainland China tested. The Times had posted the article in English at 4:34 p.m. on Thursday in New York (4:34 a.m. Friday in Beijing), and finished posting the article in Chinese three hours later after the translation of final edits to the English-language version.
It’s not exactly a comforting thought to realize that China’s has the ability to broadly block anything and everything from their citizens. It’s not a new thought, really, but it continues to irk whenever it reappears.
(The New York Times via Hacker News)
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