Dec 12 2012: Well, I'm a westerner living in China. I've been here for a year and a half now, which isn't very long, but long enough to agree with what he said in the talk.
China does have copies of all of those other blocked websites, and it even has its own Google. It doesn't make much sense to block social networking like Facebook and Twitter while then allowing a Chinese version to exist, except for two reasons. One, as he stated, it keeps the public complacent while allowing the CCP to monitor and censor anything they don't like.
I also think that having their own version gives more jobs to Chinese people, to be honest. Spain, for example, has its own version of Facebook, called Tuenti. However, especially when compared to Facebook, almost no one uses it. Most people, if they have Tuenti, also have Facebook. I know people who dropped Tuenti for Facebook. This more or less destroyed Tuenti. However, in China, there is no Facebook. There is Weibo. Because there is no competition (Facebook), Weibo is really pretty big, although only in China. So in that way, I do think that China was somewhat smart. They were giving their own people a chance to start their own companies without fear of competition from established giants like Facebook.
On the flipside, studying English in China is a very big deal. However, contact with foreigners, especially outside of Beijing and Shanghai, is fairly limited. As a result, most Chinese people don't speak very good English. Censorship really hurts them here, because most students can't afford to study abroad, and then they are not allowed to use the networks that the rest of the world is using. This isolates Chinese citizens, and really damages their ability to connect with the rest of the world. It's kind of a shame.
Dec 9 2012: I'm in China right now. The censorship is really obnoxious. The obvious websites, like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter are all blocked, but sometimes you can't use Google, and CNN pages won't load. I haven't tried any other news pages, but I've been told that it's more or less the same.
I have a VPN now, and I can chat with family and friends back home. Last year I didn't have one, and it was annoying on a level that's really impossible to understand if you're from a country that does not have this kind of censorship.
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A comment on Conversation: Open Source in America vs Closed Source in China
China does have copies of all of those other blocked websites, and it even has its own Google. It doesn't make much sense to block social networking like Facebook and Twitter while then allowing a Chinese version to exist, except for two reasons. One, as he stated, it keeps the public complacent while allowing the CCP to monitor and censor anything they don't like.
I also think that having their own version gives more jobs to Chinese people, to be honest. Spain, for example, has its own version of Facebook, called Tuenti. However, especially when compared to Facebook, almost no one uses it. Most people, if they have Tuenti, also have Facebook. I know people who dropped Tuenti for Facebook. This more or less destroyed Tuenti. However, in China, there is no Facebook. There is Weibo. Because there is no competition (Facebook), Weibo is really pretty big, although only in China. So in that way, I do think that China was somewhat smart. They were giving their own people a chance to start their own companies without fear of competition from established giants like Facebook.
On the flipside, studying English in China is a very big deal. However, contact with foreigners, especially outside of Beijing and Shanghai, is fairly limited. As a result, most Chinese people don't speak very good English. Censorship really hurts them here, because most students can't afford to study abroad, and then they are not allowed to use the networks that the rest of the world is using. This isolates Chinese citizens, and really damages their ability to connect with the rest of the world. It's kind of a shame.
A comment on Conversation: Open Source in America vs Closed Source in China
A reply on Conversation: Why can't I enjoy freedom? Because I am Chinese.
I have a VPN now, and I can chat with family and friends back home. Last year I didn't have one, and it was annoying on a level that's really impossible to understand if you're from a country that does not have this kind of censorship.