Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

With my head in the Google cloud[s] this past week it was nice to be brought back down to Earth China with a friend’s visit from Xinjiang and another’s return from overseas. One of my girlfriend’s hometown friends passed through from Xinjiang, where he works as a doctor, and another friend returned from 2 years studying in the UK and by the sounds of it some much enjoyed travels around Europe. Their visits and the beginning of my holiday meant this was a good week.

Secretary Clinton’s speech on “Internet Freedom” did, however, give me a slight sense of foreboding, while the somewhat ironic same day announcement by The New York Times that they are going to start charging for access to online content was certainly food for thought. It was not simply the issues surrounding direct political censorship of information that came sharply into view this week but that indirect censorship may increasingly be part of our western world, due to the cost of access being too much for many. (more…)