Saturday, September 1, 2012

Egypt's President Morsi Visits China, Baidu Censors "Arab Spring" and "Jasmine Revolution"

On August 29, 2012, the state-sponsored China Daily reported:
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping said in Beijing on Wednesday that the ongoing visit of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi "will increase mutual understanding and trust" between China and Egypt.
. . . .
Xi said the growth of Sino-Egyptian relations can be attributed to the fact that the two are both developing countries, have the common goals of maintaining state sovereignty and social stability, and share the common interests of promoting peace and stability in the region and the world at large.
These screenshots were taken on August 30 and show:
  • a Baidu web search for "Jasmine Revolution" (茉莉花革命) only returns results from a white list of about a dozen websites controlled by the central government and the Communist Party;
  • the same search on Baidu's Tieba forum and Zhidao question-and-answer products returns no results at all. Tieba says "Apologies, in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, this bar cannot be opened at this time" (抱歉,根据相关法律法规和政策,本吧暂不开放), while Zhidao simply says it is unable to find any results.
  • a Baidu web search for "Jasmine Revolution China" (茉莉花革命 中国) returns no results, just a notice saying: "Search results may not comply with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, and have not been displayed." (搜索结果可能不符合相关法律法规和政策,未予显示。).

This screenshot shows Baidu also bans Tieba forums on the "Arab Spring." (阿拉伯知春)

Translation: Xu Zhiyong's Statement in His Own Defense

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