December 01, 2003

China releases cyber dissident. Liu Di, aka the "stainless steel mouse," has been released just over a week ahead of a visit to the United States by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. She had been detained for more than a year for criticising the government. [Via /.]

Here's a recent MeFi thread on online dissent in China.

posted by homunculus 20 years ago
  • If the Chinese government puts that much effort into tracking down three people online, I wonder how long it will be before every single Chinese citizen is afraid to speak up. [This from someone who is very uninformed about Chinese politics.]
  • I remember when the 10 year anniversary of Tianamen Square came upon us, I watched documentaries and read a bunch of articles and I was shocked by how much I didn't know about what happened. As a result, this kind of thing doesn't surprise me at all. After the clear message the Chinese government sent in 1989, I'm surprise that we hear about any of this at all.
  • A friend of mine was living in Shanghai when the shit went down in Tienanmen Square. He didn't hear a single word about it.
  • If you can't be arsed going through NYT registration, read that last story here.
  • She also said the controversy had cramped her social life: she has, she said, been celibate for two weeks. Two weeks! The poor thing! Seriously, it seems to show just how much people are crying out for something that's open and honest and uncensored, just for a change. Even the people who claim to despise her are reading her blog.
  • And now I'm just kind of lonely.
  • Glad to see you've snapped out of the mania, anyway. This is important work. Ought to be dignified about it.
  • Stiff upper lip and all that. Unless you're not British of from Washington DC and rightly don't give a @#$% about that sort of thing.