Open Source repression

Xiao Quiang at Many2Many writes about a new Chinese website where citizens can report illegal or "unhealthy" uses of the Internet. He also points to an article on how censorship works in China, by Princeton professor Perry Link. Link compares the Chinese methods with those of the Soviets:

The Chinese Communist Party rejected these more mechanical methods in favor of an essentially psychological control system that relies primarily on self-censorship. Questions of risk — how far to go, how explicit to be, with whom to ally and so on — are moved inside the cerebrums of every individual writer and editor... By “fear” I do not mean a clear and present sense of panic. I mean a dull, well-entrenched leeriness that people who deal with the Chinese censorship system usually get used to, and eventually accept as part of their natural landscape...

...the “vagueness” of the charges is hardly new. Such vagueness is purposeful and has been a fundamental tool in Chinese Communist censorship for decades. It has the following four advantages...