China man sues state firm over Google block

[webfact]

China man sues state firm over Google block

BEIJING - A Chinese man threw a rare official spotlight on the country's Internet controls when he sued a state-owned telecom operator for denying him access to US search engine Google, documents and reports showed Friday.

Authorities in China impose strict limits on the Internet, censoring domestic content and blocking foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube using a system known as the "Great Firewall".

Google partially withdrew from mainland China in 2010 and moved its servers to Hong Kong after a fallout with Chinese officialdom. Access to its services has been blocked or disrupted since shortly before June’s 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Wang Long, who describes himself as a "law worker", sued China Unicom over his lack of access to Google at the Futian People’s Court in the southern boom town of Shenzhen, which neighbours Hong Kong.

The hearing took place on Thursday, a document on the city’s official litigation service website showed.

On his account on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo, Wang said that China Unicom’s lawyer hesitated to answer when the judge asked whether Google’s websites can normally be accessed.

Eventually, the advocate said that he was "not sure whether he can tell (the court) or not", sparking laughter from the gallery, Wang said.

He added that the judge ordered the clerk to record that the websites were not accessible, but it had nothing to do with China Unicom.

Court officials were not available to comment when contacted by AFP on Friday.
AFP

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/China-man-sues-state-firm-over-Google-block-30242592.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-05

[Chang_paarp]

Now there is a recipe for a long and fruitful life and career in China.

[Briandajew]

You have to give it to the guy, he has big balls! Good luck to him, he will probably need it.

[car720]

You have to give it to the guy, he has big balls! Good luck to him, he will probably need it.

No, everyone including the judge knows that he is being paid by google to test the waters. They just think...."good luck to him".

[USNret]

You have to give it to the guy, he has big balls! Good luck to him, he will probably need it.

No, everyone including the judge knows that he is being paid by google to test the waters. They just think...."good luck to him".

Nevertheless, it takes some guts to go up against the entrenched powers in a country where you have basically no rights. More power to him!

[Publicus]

From the OP......

"He added that the judge ordered the clerk to record that the websites were not accessible, but it had nothing to do with China Unicom."

The suit was filed in a district court in the city of Shenzhen, which is adjacent to Hong Kong and is the most politically liberal city of the mainland PRChina. The Shenzhen City CCP and the Guangdong provincial CCP are the most liberal CCP organizations in the PRC. There are significant numbers of democrats in each and they're always head ramming with the CCP Boyz in Beijing.

Which is why the judge did not do what he knows Xi Jinping would want him to do, which is to dismiss the suit and throw the guy in jail. And it's why the judge "ordered" the clerk to record the websites were not accessible. We're talking Google, Facebook, Twitter among a thousand other blocked websites on the mainland to include Bloomberg News, the NYT and any site that decides to do a story on Xi Jinping's astonishing wealth or the CCP's censorship of speech and thought throughout the PRC.

Indeed, were Beijing to appoint a strict CCP party line mayor or governor, or their superiors, the city or provincial CCP party secretary, there would be continuing serious unrest in the province, the major cities especially and in particular. With Guangdong's $1 trillion GDP led by Shenzhen and the also liberal capital city of Guangzhou, Beijing has to tread carefully concerning the province and in SZ in particular.

So it is also significant that the judge specifically absolved China Unicom per se, although CU is owned and operated by the CCP/central government. CU implements the CCP's massive and endemic censorship policies which under Xi are at their absolute worst and most severe. Although the judge didn't say so, his absolution of CU squarely puts the censorship in Beijing with the CCP there, which the judge can do because the fact is not news to the populations of SZ or GD.

The Boyz in Beijing flat out don't like getting the collar put on them in such ways. This is because the CCP Boyz actually try to hide their censoring of Google, FB, Twitter and other social websites. They don't like being accused of censoring such globally popular and accessed websites because these websites are essentially non political (despite some prominent running political commentary at each and which are rarely related to the PRChina). PRChinese long to access these websites.

The Beijing Boyz thus lightly censor these websites to include Google. This is demonstrated by the fact any time a PRChinese tries to access any of the sites they get an innocent seeming "This page cannot be displayed" standard problem notice. In other instances, where harshly enforced censorship is practiced, such as with any Bloomberg article about the wealth of CCP officials, the word PROHIBITED appears at the top of the screen in capitals and in bold face. In other words, forget it or else. When you see the PROHIBITED notice you know the CCP Boyz want you to know you're putting yourself at risk or even in danger.

The "This Page Cannot Be Displayed" notice reflects Beijing's squeamishness over censoring Google and the other popular and much desired websites. The many democrats of Shenzhen and also the CCP liberal judge in SZ as well as the plaintiff well know this. So it will be interesting to see if or how this case progresses from here. It's clear the SZ district court judge fully intends and wants to pursue it.