Say goodbye to downloading your favorite music or videos in seconds via high-speed cable or ADSL. There is no high speed broadband Internet in China. Since every website you access has to first pass through a government approved list, even the likes of Yahoo and Google lag and stumble onto your monitor, as if you're using dial-up.

If you don't live in a major city then expect your Internet connectivity to be degraded to a speed slower than dial-up.

The Communist Chinese government blocks any website that is mildly critical of the state and that even extends to mainstream foreign news outlets such as the BBC. Under the new format that Blair and others are proposing, the function of the Internet as a forum for political debate, protest and freedom of speech will simply cease to exist.

Say goodbye to video blogging - since popular personal video upload sites are notoriously hard to moderate, they too will disappear. Despite the best efforts of Google to cozy up to Red China, Google Video is blocked.

Say goodbye to e mail as a reliable form of communication. If the person you're writing to has an account with a mail service that the government doesn't like, the mail is simply returned to you and you're informed that the recipient is an "illegal user".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Internet leader in activist media - Prison Planet.tv. Get access to hundreds of special video reports, audio interviews, books and documentary films. Subscribers also get instant access to our hugely popular forum where you can network with like-minded people, meet up and get active! Click here to subscribe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keyword logging is also employed to block out individual words - if you include them in the e mail then you've just wasted your time in writing it because it doesn't get through.

"The Washington Post obtained a list of keywords used by a Chinese blog service provider to flag offensive material. Of 236 items on the list, 18 were obscenities. The rest were related to politics or current affairs," reported the Post in February 2006.

"Most words on this list can be posted on Chinese Web sites, but their presence quietly alerts editors to examine the messages that contain them and possibly take action. In tests, postings that included long sections of the list were allowed to remain on several sites, but quickly removed from others. One site also blocked the computer used to conduct the tests from posting anything else."

Say goodbye to Googling away to your heart's content. If you input too many sensitive words in one go, as I did with "Bush" and "Taiwan" - google.com ceases to be accessible at all and in some cases your Internet connection is instantly terminated.

In conclusion, the new Internet will be nothing more than an electronic police state, merely acting as a tool for the authorities to track down and incarcerate dissidents who dare question the government.

*********************************************

The Great Firewall of China

Keywords Used to Filter Web Content

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021800554.html

The Washington Post obtained a list of keywords used by a Chinese blog service provider to flag offensive material. Of 236 items on the list, 18 were obscenities. The rest were related to politics or current affairs.

Most words on this list can be posted on Chinese Web sites, but their presence quietly alerts editors to examine the messages that contain them and possibly take action. In tests, postings that included long sections of the list were allowed to remain on several sites, but quickly removed from others. One site also blocked the computer used to conduct the tests from posting anything else.

In addition, on most sites, at least some of the sensitive phrases cannot be posted at all. Depending on the site, filters replace the offending words with asterisks or block the entire message.

Below is the list. Obscenities have been withheld.

Names of People

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bao Tong

Chen Yonglin

Cui Yingjie

Ding Jiaban

Du Zhaoyong

Gao Jingyun

Gao Zhisheng

He Jiadong

He Weifang

Hu Xingdou

Hu Yuehua

Hua Guofeng

Huang Jingao

Jiang Mianheng

Jiang Yanyong

Jiang Zemin

Jiao Guobiao

Jin Zhong

Li Zhiying

Liang Yuncai

Liu Jianfeng

Liu Junning

Liu Xiabobo

Nie Shubin

Nie Shubin (repeated)

Sun Dawu

Wang Binyu

Wang Lixiong

Xu Zhiyong

Yang Bin

Yang Dongping

Yu Jie

Zhang Weiying

Zhang Xingshu

Zhang Zuhua

Zhao Yan

Zhou Qing

Zhu Chenghu

Zhu Wenhu

Zi Yang (in English)

Ziyang (in Chinese)

Ziyang (in English)

zzy (in English, abbreviation for Zhao Ziyang)

Chinese Politics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17th party congress

Babaoshan

Beat the Central Propaganda Department

Blast the Central Propaganda Department

Block the road and demand back pay

Chief of the Finance Bureau

Children of high officials

China liberal (in English)

Chinese Communist high officials

Denounce the Central Propaganda Department

Down with the Central Propaganda Department

Impeach

Lin Zhao Memorial Award

Patriots Alliance

Patriots Alliance (abbreviated)

Patriots Alliance Web

Police chase after and kill police

Pollution lawsuit

Procedures for dismissing an official

Red Terror

Set fires to force people to relocate

Sons of high officials

The Central Propaganda Department is the AIDS of Chinese society

Villagers fight with weapons

Wang Anshi's reform and the fall of the Northern Song dynasty

Specific Issues and Events

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy corpses

Cadres transferred from the military

Cashfiesta

Cat abuse

Changxin Coal Mountain

China Youth Daily staff evaluation system

Chinese orphanage

Chinese Yangshen Yizhi Gong

Demobilized soldiers transferred to other industries

Dongyang

Dongzhou

Fetus soup

Foot and mouth disease

Fuzhou pig case

Gaoxin Hospital

High-speed train petition

Hire a killer to murder one's wife

Honghai Bay

Horseracing

Jinxin Pharmaceutical

Kelemayi

Linyi family planning

Market access system

Mascot

Military wages

No Friendlies

Prosecutor committed suicide

Pubu Ravine

Shanwei government

Suicide of deputy mayor

Suicide of Kuerle mayor

Swiss University of Finance

Taishi village

Top ten worst cities

Wanzhou

Weitan

Zhang Chunxian welcomes supervision against corruption

Falun Gong

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terms related to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, including phrases from its "Nine Commentaries" manifesto against the Communist Party:

Chinese Communist Party brutally kills people

dajiyuan (in English)

Defy the heavens, earth and nature. Mao Zedong

Epoch Times

Epoch Times (written with a different character)

Epoch Times news Web site

Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party

Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party (abbreviated)

falundafa (in English)

flg (in English)

Fozhan Qianshou Fa

Guantong Liangji Fa

In the Chinese Communist Party, common standards of humanity don't exist

Li Hongzhi

lihongzhi (in English)

Master Li

minghui (in English)

Mother and daughter accused each other, and students and teachers became enemies

New Tynasty TV Station

Nine Commentaries

No. 1 evil cult in the world

Obedient citizens under its brutal rule

People become brutal in violence, Chinese Communist Party

People developed a concept of the Chinese Communist Party, but

People who could escape have escaped, and had people to seek refuge with

Quit the party

Run the opposite direction of the so-called ideals of Communism

Shenzhou Jiachifa

Spring Festival Gala of the World's Chinese

Steal people's painstaking work

Truth, Compassion, Tolerance

Zhenshanren (in English)

Overseas Web Sites, Publications and Dissident Groups

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Century China Foundation

China Issues Forum

China Renaissance Forum

China Society Forum

China Spring

Chinese Current Affairs

Chinese World Forum

EastSouthWestNorth Forum

EastWestSouthNorth Forum

Forum of Wind, Rain and the Divine Land

Freedom and Democracy Forum

Freedom to Write Award

Great China Forum

Han Style

Huatong Current Affairs Forum

Huaxia Digest

Huayue Current Affairs Forum

Independent Chinese PEN Center

Jimaoxin Collection

Justice Party Forum

New Birth Web

New Observer Forum

North American Freedom Forum

reminbao (In English)

remingbao (In English)

Small Reference

Spring and Summer Forum

Voice of the People Forum

Worldwide Reader Forum

You Say I Say Forum

Zhengming Forum

Zhidian Jiangshan Forum

Zhongshan Wind and Rain Forum

Taiwan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Establish Taiwan Country Movement Organization

Great President Chen Shui-bian

Independent League of Taiwan Youth

Independent Taiwan Association

New Party

Taiwan Freedom League

Taiwan Political Discussion Zone

Ethnic Minorities

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

East Turkestan

East Turkestan (abbreviated)

Han-Hui conflicts

Henan Zhongmu

Hui rebellion

Hui village

Langcheng Gang

Nancheng Gang

Nanren Village

Tibet independence

Xinjiang independence

Zhongmu County

Tiananmen Square

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memoirs of June 4 participants

Redress June 4

Tiananmen videotape

Tiananmen incident

Tiananmen massacre

Tiananmen generation

World Economic Herald

Censorship

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cleaning and rectifying Web sites

China's true content

Internet commentator

News blockade

International

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indonesia

North Korea falls out with China

Paris riots

Tsunami

Other

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Armageddon

Bomb

Bug

Handmade pistol

Nuclear bomb

Wiretap

Chinese People Tell the Truth

Chinese People Justice and Evil

China Social Progressive Party

Chinese Truth Report

Dazhong Zhenren Zhenshi

Jingdongriji

Night talk of the Forbidden City

People's Inside Information and Truth