The Dragon fears food poisoning…

China censored the word ‘Egypt’ from Chinese blogs and Chinese Internet sites yesterday.

This means that if you search for ‘Egypt’ on Sina.com, you will get ‘results not as per law’ and similar messages. 

What does this mean? 

The Big Chinese Dragon fears poisoning.

Over the years of extension dealings with China, I have become its biggest skeptic. Its a land built on  scams, supression, false promises and complete deceit. 

Let me narrate a real experience:

In 2003, I was making a fervent pitch to the Hong Kong Tourism board in Shanghai for mobile marketing campaigns while working for my start up Mobile2win China (we were based in Shanghai).

I was very excited since we had done lots of good work with Tourism boards of many countries in India and were successful in migrating those relationships to our office in China. 

While hearing me excitedly pitching, the lady director of Hong Kong Toursim smiled and said ‘Alok, allow me to interrupt you for a minute. Tell me, how do you go to Hong Kong from India’?

I didnt understand the question and she repeated it, asking me to describe the process.

‘Its simple’ I said. ‘I just book my seat, make sure I have a Visa, go to the airport, board the plane and land. Isn’t that the way anyone would travel to any new country or city’?

‘Nope’ she said. ‘Not in China. Here you need police permission to travel overseas – and thats despite Hong Kong belonging to China. Mostly permissions are denied and if they are granted, they force you to go in groups and come back together’.

I was shell shocked. 

Consider the human rights situation in China:

– You cannot move with cities freely in China. So if you live in a small province or village in China, you cannot come to Shanghai or Beijing without a police permit. When you try and apply for one, its almost always refused. (The logic is to prevent mass migration and chaos). 

– You cannot assemble beyond a few people in groups in China. This applies even to Multi Nationals who may have conferences and just group gatherings. Police permissions are requested and usually ‘unofficial spies’ are present to check what’s going on. 

– Media is STRICTLY controlled. Local Newspapers are full of propaganda material, and television stations mainly state controlled. Only in 5 stars and private apartment complexes can you see CNN etc. 

BEWARE THE CHINESE DRAGON. DONT BUY IT.

The current situation in Egypt is very worrisome for China.

Why?

– This is the first time citizens and army men in the streets are almost collaborating. Photos and videos show army men letting citizens take photographs and openly shout slogans against Mubarak in the presence of the army. I saw citizens passing packets of food to the guys working in a tank.

This is the FAIRY TALE version of Tiananmen Square. Protests without the blood shed.

If I were a senior Chinese Politician, I would be getting stomach cramps looking at this.  

– The army has realized that they are out to PROTECT its countrymen – NOT fight them! That’s a big shift in attitude and thinking and immediately weakens despotic governments who think that the Army will shoot and kill anything that moves. The army here is HELPING Citizens – not killing them.

By disallowing any news of Egypt from showing up on the Internet, China believes that not seeing is not knowing. And they also believe that not knowing leads to not doing.

How wrong the Chinese government is. In this connected and ‘hyperlinked’ world, everyone knows everything. Its just a matter of chance before action follows.

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