Big surprise there…
In preparation for the August Olympic Games in Beijing, China has installed hardware and software in all hotels, to make it easier for state security to monitor foreign visitors that use the Internet. Some foreign owned hotels leaked the documents (orders from the Chinese government to install the systems) to U.S. government officials, who made it public. The foreign owned hotels in Beijing were threatened with closure if they did not comply.
Years ago, the Chinese government promised there would be open access to the Internet during the games. This despite the fact that the Chinese Internet is designed to be easily monitored by a huge (over 30,000 people) bureaucracy that does nothing but monitor Internet use (and imprisons those who say anything the state does not approve of.)
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has apologized to member nations for China’s failure to allow free access to the Internet during the games. The IOC is meeting with Chinese officials to try and resolve this matter.
Meanwhile, intelligence officials are trying to figure out what the Chinese are up to here, as none of the facts presented so far fit together.
Link: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20080731.aspx
Oh, please. It doesn’t take an intelligence analyst (I’m a former one, myself) to figure out what the Chinese government is up to. Dissidents, on behalf of political and religious prisoners, are likely to benefit from the influx of foreign sympathizers to China. The internet is a big threat to any totalitarian regime, so you can bet Bejiing will watch everyone like a hawk.
I won’t be watching the olympics, simply because China will use it as a propaganda platform; parading their floats, acrobats, and cheering throngs, like putting makeup on a pig.
What scares the Chinese government the most, is information leaking out that freedom of speech isn’t part of the ‘communist utopia’, and transgressors usually pay the price with imprisonment, torture, and death.
Not exactly a tourist attraction.