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China’s Web Censors Go into Overdrive as President Xi Jinping Consolidates Power

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:39PM   
from the the-truth-is-what-we-say-it-is dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes in with information on how China is controlling the internet internally:

TechCrunch:

"China's web scrubbers have been busy banning a collection of terms and dropping the hammer on user accounts after the Xi Jinping, the country's premier, got the all-clear to become 'President For Life' after the Communist Party moved to amend the constitution to remove an article that limits Presidential terms to two five-year terms."

BBC:

"The comments remaining on the popular Sina Weibo microblog are mostly monosyllabic statements from users simply say they "like" or "approve" the amendments.

They are likely to be from China's "50 Cent Party" - a nickname coined for internet commentators who are paid small amounts to post messages supporting the government's position.

Some posts have attracted thousands of comments - but only a few are available to view. This is traditionally indicative of online censorship by government administrators. "

China Digital Times:

"Following state media's announcement, censorship authorities began work to limit online discussion. CDT Chinese editors found the following terms blocked from being posted on Weibo: [...]"

Sources:

• China's web censors go into overdrive as President Xi Jinping consolidates power

• China censorship after Xi Jinping presidency extension proposal

• Sensitive Words: Emperor Xi Jinping to Ascend His Throne

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Original Submission

• Vague memories of Chinese history coming back... (Score: 3, Informative) by Hartree on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:29PM

  by Hartree (195) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:29PM (#644866)

  I recall that it was at least partly a political battle between the eunuchs and the Confucian scholars. The emperor who had supported the voyages died, then the next emperor restricted the voyages for a short time His successor authorized a seventh one.
  Then Admiral Zheng He's (a eunuch) seventh exploration fleet got destroyed by a storm off the coast of Africa and that helped tilt the balance from exploration (expensive) to internal civil works projects (also expensive).
  The winning side tried to minimize the memory of Zheng He. He was born a muslim and became a eunuch which were both great ways to be unpopular with the Confucians. (Seeing a recurring pattern of how to handle the opposition? ;) )
  This likely kept the Chinese from becoming a much broader empire. Whether they would have reached Europe is speculation.

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