Experience the censored Chinese internet at home!

I don't know their motives, but I know that the Firefox plugin developed by Aram Bartholl, Evan Roth, and Tobias Leingruber, is pretty sweet. It allows internet surfers anywhere in the world to surf through a Chinese proxy, therefore experiencing all the same disconnections as someone living in China. It's a wonderful demonstration which I hope will raise awareness among the West about the actual conditions in China. That and the following two articles.

They each deserve posts of their own, but I supply them here as background reading for someone who actually wants to know about internet censorship in China, rather than having a dismissive and falsely sympathetic attitude. Few people really believed me that you can Google image search for "Tiananmen Square tank man" and you will get tons of results. They are thumbnails and you can't get to the websites hosting them, but the police don't kick down your door days afterward to interrogate you.

How does the Great Firewall actually work?
This article describes the technical setup of it, as well as offers some surprising insights:

Think again of the real importance of the Great Firewall. Does the Chinese government really care if a citizen can look up the Tiananmen Square entry on Wikipedia? Of course not. Anyone who wants that information will get it—by using a proxy server or VPN, by e-mailing to a friend overseas, even by looking at the surprisingly broad array of foreign magazines that arrive, uncensored, in Chinese public libraries.

Absolutely true. You can get to anything through a proxy, it's just a slow pain in the ass. Like rush hour traffic.

Many Americans assume that China's internet users are unhappy about their government's control of the internet, but this survey finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government.

At the risk of seeiming like an apologist for annoying policies, I'll just point out that big bad China isn't the only country which routinely and categorically censors the internet for it's citizens--though it be the only one any Americans could name.
Perhaps Turkey should just ban the entire Internet
Pakistan joins the axis of No Tube
Russia Looking To Ban Goth And Emo Music And Websites

Presidential Policy: If you're right on China, you're wrong on something else.

There appears to be a loose correlation between good China policy and being a bad president.

The most forward thinking policy of all was implemented by Nixon, the guy who tapped the phones of the opposition and even had his cronies burglarize the Democratic National Convention office in order to win reelection. Nixon was the first president to visit modern China. He broke through a policy of rapprochement, an easing of hostilities and growth of political, economic, and cultural ties, which was continued though his lame successors, Ford, Carter, and Regan.

Then after the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989 the US imposed economic sanctions and moral censure which precluded a warm relationship through the prosperous Clinton years.

Recently George W. Bush’s policy toward China has returned to rapprochement which among most other 911 foreign policy, is surprisingly enlightened. He even went to the Olympics; a simple gesture which meant a lot to the Chinese. The United States and China are closer today than any time since 1949, which is good for the global economy, good for Chinese, good for Americans, and anyone who fears the prospects of a third World War. Coming in around 25 percent, with the second lowest approval rating since Gallup, W. Bush is leaving the office to a new candidate in January.

What’s Obama’s view of China? “…China is rising, and it’s not going away. They’re neither our enemy nor our friend. They’re competitors. But we have to make sure that we have enough military-to-military contact and forge enough of a relationship with them that we can stabilize the region.” Low hopes for the Sino-American relationship; Obama will make a great president.

John McCain on the other hand, the hawkish president who is more likely to continue a heavy-handed American foreign policy around the world, said explicitly in the debates he does not think we should think of China as our competitor. A wise view. What a terrible president he'll make.