China's Internet: Sex, drugs, gambling

Even as China's crackdown on Internet free speech continues to make headlines, the Beijing government is facing one online opponent that it simply cannot stop: money. As the New York Times reported from Shanghai today, Chinese censors have banned words like Tiananmen Square but have been unable to keep up with the proliferation of sites that offer drugs, gambling, pornography and other lucrative underground businesses.

As evidenced by the successful return of Hong Kong to the mainland, China's leaders are well aware that Western-style capitalism is crucial to the country's future--and that serious attempts to stifle entrepreneurial development could very well backfire, both politically and economically. Moreover, tolerance and even encouragement of black-market ventures have been reported for years in the wide-scale pirating of movies and software.

In this light, the political controversy that prompted for cooperation with Beijing may eventually be recorded as little more than a fleeting historical footnote. Regardless of what terminology is prohibited, social and political reforms may be inevitable byproducts of China's own economic engine.

Blog community response:

"The Chinese leadership has drawn a line in an attempt to separate economic reform from political debates. That line is an illusion. Interfering with the free-flow of ideas over the Internet does not break the resolve of political dissidents. Instead, it limits China's economic potential at a time when, as the PRC claims, it wants to foster indigenous innovation fueled by increased foreign investment."
--Democratic Peace

"Does increased personal wealth plus burgeoning technology (Internet), which leads to freer dissemination of information (dissent, protest etc) equal the eventuality of democratic process, even if 20 years or more away? Or are there other cultural factors that may negate a desire to change the status quo?"
--Lifes Windows

"Computer users in China are using secure, underground networks to browse the real internet, circumventing the "official" internet that is available to them. The government shuts these proxies down as quickly as they discover them but new ones are being set up at a faster rate than they can shut them down."
--America Under Attack