Tibet - Commack Schools



32385006286500Cracking the “Great Firewall” of China’s Web CenshorhipSource: Paul Wiseman, USA TodayIf an Internet user in China searches for the word "persecution," he or she is likely to come up with a link to a blank screen that says "page cannot be displayed."The same is true of searches for "Tibetan independence," "democracy movements" or stranger sounding terms such as "oriental red space time" — code for an anti-censorship video made secretly by reporters at China's state TV station.It's a reflection of the stifling, bizarre and sometimes dangerous world of Internet censorship in China. The communist government in Beijing is intensifying its efforts to control what its citizens can read and discuss online as political tensions rise.Fighting the censors every step of the way is an army of self-described "hacktivists" such as Bill Xia, a Chinese-born software engineer who lives in North Carolina. Xia and others are engaged in a kind of technological arms race, inventing software and using other tactics to allow ordinary Chinese to beat the "Great Firewall of China" and access information on sensitive subjects such as Chinese human rights and Tibet, the province where pro-independence sentiment has boiled over in recent months.To Americans and other Westerners, it might seem odd that Internet censorship is still possible at a time when YouTube, smart-phones produce an overwhelming flow of real-time news and data. Yet authoritarian regimes from Cuba to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan rely on a mix of sophisticated technology and old-fashioned intimidation to ensure that dissent can be repressed, even in the Information Age.No one does it quite like China, which has proved that old-school communist apparatchiks could tame something as wild as the Web. China has the world's "most sophisticated" Internet filtering system, according to the OpenNet Initiative, an academic cooperative that tracks censorship issues.At the heart of China's censorship efforts is a delicate balancing act.Unlike communist North Korea, which bans online access to its general population, China is encouraging Internet usage as it rushes to construct a modern economy. The number of Internet users in China surpassed the USA for the first time in 2008, hitting 233 million. However, China's government does not tolerate opposition and is wary of the variety of views and information the Web brings.Last month's pro-independence riots in Tibet, and the accompanying furor that followed the international relay of the Olympic torch, have led Chinese officials to step up their Web censorship. News articles and video clips concerning Tibet were banned for several days. There are a range of other methods China has used to suppress information. Among them:Creating bottlenecks. In The Atlantic magazine last month, journalist James Fallows noted that Internet traffic to China is channeled through three computer centers — near Beijing, Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou.In the USA, by contrast, the Internet is designed to avoid traffic jams by allowing information to flow from as many sources as possible. By building in chokepoints, Fallows wrote, "Chinese authorities can easily do something that would be harder in most developed countries: physically monitor all traffic into or out of the country." China's one-child policy - success or failure? By Weiliang Nie BBC Chinese Service three decades, the drawbacks of the one-child policy are more and more apparent. During the period that I grew up in China in the 1960s and 70s, Chinese families could have as many children as they liked. Many had four or five children. Some even had six or seven. My parents had four children. After the government started enforcing the rule of one child per family - often forcibly - my parents would sometimes jokingly remind me that I was an "exceeded quota person", meaning that under the one-child policy I would not have existed. Chairman Mao, who led China from 1949 until his death in 1976, regarded a fast-growing population as a productive force necessary for China to become a great power. He treated brutally those who dared to question. His successor Deng Xiaoping started to reverse the trend. He felt the tremendous drag China's huge population had on its fragile economic recovery after years of political turmoil.On 25 September 1980, the Communist Party issued an "open letter" to all members of the party and the Communist youth league, urging them to take the lead in having only one child. This is widely seen as the beginning of the controversial one-child policy. The government claims that the policy has helped the country achieve 400 million fewer births during the past 30 years. But this has come at a painful cost - keenly felt by my generation and those after us. One of my childhood friends, who didn't want to reveal his name, has had to let his daughter, his second child, call him uncle in order to escape punishment for breaking the rule. He says it breaks his heart every time he talks about his daughter, who is officially registered as someone else's child. A female friend, like countless other young couples in China, had to pay large fines for having a second child. But she believed the money was worth it.Officials have repeatedly stressed that this "fundamental policy of the state", which has been credited with helping reduce the pressure of population growth on society and economic development, will continue. But the government has already been challenged over whether the 400 million fewer births were entirely due to the implementation of this policy. China faces the looming problem of a rapidly ageing society with not enough young care-givers After three decades, the drawbacks of the one-child policy are more and more apparent. Even though China still has the largest population in the world, a report last month by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading government think tank, said officials were seriously overestimating the fertility rate. Instead of suppressing it, the report said the government should try to lift it. More and more people in China, largely in urban areas, prefer to have fewer children. It is unclear when Beijing might end the one-child policy. Clearly, the situation is becoming urgent. Already the country's population is ageing fast. The children born under the one-child policy face the prospect of caring for an ever-increasing number of pensioners. China also faces the daunting prospect of many men who can't find wives as many female fetuses have been aborted, resulting in a huge gender imbalance. Women’s reproductive rights remain severely restricted under China’s family planning regulations. Administrative sanctions, fines, and forced abortions continue to be imposed, if somewhat erratically, and are increasingly extended to ethnic minority areas. These policies contribute to an increasing gender-imbalance (118.08 males for every 100 females according to the 2010 census), which in turn fuels human trafficking and prostitution.China recently announced the end of the controversial one-child policy and said it was instead encouraging all couples to have two children. This new policy will came into effect on January 1, 2016. All second babies born on this date and after are considered to be "legal," according to state media.Freedom of Religion40005009525000The government continues to heavily restrict religious activities in the name of security in ethnic minority areas. The Chinese government limits religious practices to officially-approved temples, monasteries, churches, and mosques despite a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. Religious institutions must submit data—including financial records, activities, and employee details—for periodic official checks. TibetSource: Human Rights Watch Organization, 2012 365760034925000Tibet is a plateau region in southern China, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. The region declared its independence in 1913, however was forcefully incorporated into the People’s Republic of China in 1951. Religion is extremely important to Tibetans, and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives. In fact, Tibet is the traditional homeland of the Dalai Lama. During China’s Cultural Revolution, nearly all of Tibet’s monasteries were ransacked and destroyed by the Red Guards. Chinese rule deposed of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India and set up a government in exile. A few monasteries have begun to rebuild since the 1980s, although Tibetan Buddhism it still limited. This has led to continual tensions regarding Tibet’s politcal status. The situation in the Tibet Region remains tense following the 2011 massive crackdown on popular protests that swept the plateau in 2008. Chinese security forces maintain a heavy presence in the region, and the authorities continue to tightly restrict access and travel to Tibetan areas, particularly for journalists and foreign visitors. Tibetans suspected of being critical of Chinese political, religious, cultural, or economic state policies are targeted on charges of “separatism.”The government continues to build a “new socialist countryside” by relocating and rehousing up to 80 percent of the Tibetan population, including farmers and nomads.The Chinese government has given no indication it would accommodate the aspirations of Tibetan people for independence. China has rejected holding negotiations with the new elected leader of the Tibetan community in exile, Lobsang Sangay, and warned that it would designate the next Dalai Lama itself.In August Chinese authorities imposed heavy prison sentences on three ethnic Tibetan monks from the Kirti monastery for assisting another monk who self-immolated (set himself on fire) in protest in March. Ten more Tibetan monks and one nun had self-immolated through mid-November, all expressing their desperation over the lack of religious freedom.4572000571500005715000Human Rights IssueNotesFreedom of ExpressionWhat actions are being taken by the Chinese government?Why is the Chinese government doing this?Why is this considered to be a violation of human rights?Do you think this is a relevant issue? Women and the One Child PolicyWhat actions are being taken by the Chinese government?Why is the Chinese government doing this?Why is this considered to be a violation of human rights?Do you think this is a relevant issue? TibetWhat actions are being taken by the Chinese government?Why is the Chinese government doing this?Why is this considered to be a violation of human rights?Do you think this is a relevant issue? ................
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