A little over a year ago, 'hactivists' dedicated to ensuring the free flow of information on the internet were beginning to wonder if they weren't banging their heads against China's Great Firewall. The government had just made a leap forward in its ability to control the net, and some were even convinced that Beijing had already turned the technology to its own advantage as a tool of repression. But things change fast in cyberspace.
The hactivists kept pounding away at the wall and Chinese today have found holes to dart through. New software, such as Dynaweb's 'Dongtai' and Ultrareach's 'Roaming without Borders', can be easily downloaded in China, allowing users to surf freely. 'Everyone is using it,' says one writer, who believes Chinese are openly passing the programs around. 'And the government can't trace the internet provider's address.' She says the software is continuously getting better.
'I can get any information I want,' says a grinning Ren Wanding, a well-known political dissident who also uses one of the programs. A few months earlier, he had to rely on foreign friends to give him news of what was going on in his own country.
But there is a bigger problem for the government than people freely roaming the internet. The internet is fast becoming the tail that is wagging the communist dragon.
An example is the scandal surrounding Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which has rocked US authorities. Anthony Spires, a Yale University researcher, studied internet postings on the 'Strengthening the Country Discussion Forum', which is operated by the People's Daily internet website. He says that while 45 per cent of those commenting expressed clearly anti-American sentiments, one-fourth of the postings praised the US media for exposing the prison abuse. There also was criticism of the Chinese media for not doing the same at home. More than a third of those posting messages on the site praised America's democratic system, with many saying they were impressed by the public apologies by the US president and secretary of state.
It may just be a coincidence, but on May 12, just days after the first official Chinese reports of the incident in Iraq, the mainland announced that it was going to investigate human rights infringements, including allegations of prison abuse.
