“From a pair of computer screens in a lime green bedroom in Upper Manhattan, a 27-year-old man from China is working to bring about a popular uprising.
Two months after calls shot across the Web for a Tunisian- and Egyptian-style “Jasmine Revolution” in China, he is among the few online dissidents still trying to promote a popular protest movement inside the country. The effort has failed to provoke any major street demonstrations, but it has led to a fierce crackdown by the authorities.”
From The New York Times
Tag Archives: Jasmine Revolution
Trying to Stir Up a Popular Protest in China, From a Bedroom in Manhattan
April 29, 2011 – 2:30 pm
Chinese government fights to win over country’s microbloggers
March 9, 2011 – 2:09 pm
“China’s wary government is a world champion in internet censorship, but Communist Party leaders now want to master the trickier feat of actively shaping online opinion.
The results so far don’t match the zap and crackle of China’s young, who have embraced microblogs as their latest tool for spreading information and opinions that can make Party officials see red. But there’s no mistaking the Party’s determination to reach China’s 450 million Internet users.
President Hu Jintao recently called the “virtual world” his next battleground, and the nation’s Party-run parliament, now in session, has brought talk about how to win over or control the country’s microbloggers.”
From The Globe and Mail
In China, Strolling for Reform
March 4, 2011 – 1:46 pm
““A single spark can start a prairie fire,” Chairman Mao famously declared, and a collective of young mainland- and overseas-based Chinese activists are taking his words to heart, using high-tech crowd-rallying techniques to organize spontaneous demonstrations in dozens of cities across China.
The growing protest movement, inspired by the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, was launched with an announcement on the Chinese-language news site boxun.com, based in Durham, North Carolina, and for which we serve as translators.
The lesson from past crackdowns was to apply even more decentralized tactics. Today’s organizers — who seek to launch a “molihua” (jasmine) revolution — have used social networks like Sina Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), Facebook and Google groups to spark public meetings in large cities in every province over the past two weeks.”
From The New York Times
After Protest Video, U.S. Envoy’s Name Censored Online
February 24, 2011 – 4:27 pm
“China’s Internet censors have blocked searches for the Chinese name of Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China, on popular microblogging sites after a video and photos were posted online of him appearing outside a McDonald’s in Beijing where activists had urged people to start a “Jasmine Revolution” in China.
You can still search for Mr Huntsman’s name in English on Sina Weibo and other popular micro-blogging sites, but searches for his Chinese name “Hong Bopei” on Sina Weibo produced a message saying: “According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results cannot be shown.””
China Co-Opts Social Media to Head Off Unrest
February 22, 2011 – 10:50 am
“BEIJING—China’s domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, added his voice to calls for tighter Internet controls as censors ratcheted up temporary online restrictions, a day after a failed attempt to use social-networking sites to start a “Jasmine Revolution” in China.
Only a handful of people turned up Sunday for the planned protests, as police detained or confined to their homes dozens of activists across China and Internet censors blocked searches for the word “Jasmine” on Twitter-like microblogging sites and other websites.”
