Iran and China show their colors nice and bright during troubles. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, so when a government tries to stop communication and the press during troubled times, we know that the government is diseased.
Urumqi has lost its Internet rights. We just saw this in Iran, so it’s no surprise that another brutal dictatorship (one that the US considers most favorable to trade with) pulls the same crap.
It’s my impression that the Han Chinese feel that their government is generally moving in the right direction. Sure, freedom is coming slowly, but it’s coming. The Internet exists, so the government can’t keep people completely in the dark. That’s true, but God knows they’re trying.
I guarantee that people in Beijing are hearing a story of Uighur violence and rioting, as opposed to brutal suppression by the vicious regime in power.
I hate the Chinese government (as I may have mentioned before).
I find this an interesting contrast to what’s been going on in Iran, where despite the best efforts of the Iranian government we still got a pretty good picture of what was going on there. What’s the difference? Technology? I know the Chinese have a very sophisticated systems for monitoring and trapping communications on the Internet, but shouldn’t we still be seeing some video getting out somehow? Is it just too remote, too hard to get to? Or are we just not as interested? I don’t remember hearing anything in the runup to this about “tensions rising” or anything like that, just all of a sudden hundreds are dead and thousands are arrested. Was I just not paying attention to the right places?
The BBC does have some video, but it’s of wounded people more than people BEING wounded.
The people of Iran who protested are students and young people who are, I’m guessing, somewhat technologically savvy. I’d guess that the Uighurs are mostly not (being a poor and oppressed minority).
Even before this happened, your average Uighur probably wasn’t blogging or setting up proxy servers. That’s my guess, plus the possibility of the West caring less and being fatigued by the whole thing.