Every year in China, Internet executives are officially rewarded for their 'patriotism.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The early idealists and companies and governments have all assumed that the Internet will bring freedom. Yet China proves that this is not the case.
The advantage of the internet is that it has taken away the charade of politics. China has heard of democracy and people know about certain concepts they wouldn't have previously.
It seems pretty clear that the Internet has an important economic role to play for China as it reaches out to the rest of the world.
China is building a model for how an authoritarian government can survive the Internet.
Whether or not the U.S. government funds circumvention tools, or who exactly it funds and with what amount, it is clear that Internet users in China and elsewhere are seeking out and creating their own ad hoc solutions to access the uncensored global Internet.
The Internet is truly God's gift to the Chinese people.
This is the real tragedy of America's 'Internet freedom agenda': It's going to be the dissidents in China and Iran who will pay for the hypocrisy that drove it from the very beginning.
China's Web has grown away from just duplicating services from the U.S.
There are a lot of people that think the Internet is going to bring information and democracy and pluralism in China just by existing.
So rather than face the bitter truth, China has placed severe restrictions on the Internet and enlisted America's high-tech companies as their Internet police.