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Subscribe to RSSChina has been shutting down internet and social media sties that have been fuelling rumors of a military coup, ITV's Angus Walker reports from Beijing.
China's government shut down some social media websites this week after photos of tanks on the streets were posted online. The images sparked false rumors of a coup.
ITV News' Angus Walker reports from Beijing.
Check out more China coverage on msnbc.com's Behind The Wall blog.
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This is why we need our government controlling all forms of communication..
We need to be watchful of what the teapartybaggers are doing and planning to undermine our government.
Yeah, that's not an Orwellian nightmare...
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
(This message has been brought to you in part by nothing new here-1200374 in cooperation with Big Brother and the New Democratic Socialist Party of America).
And no, I'm not a "teabagger" but I recognize inveterate stupidity with a dangerous habit of expansion of government when I see it.
It's too bad that the very first post on this article had to be so insanely ignorant ....
There is no such organization as the "New Democratic Socialist Party of America". You must be a "teabagger".
Marlen ....If this administration wins the election . They will have no qualms in naming themselves as such......
Im in no way a teabagger, and I believe the republicants are set to destroy this nation, but as a democrat I support their right to spew whatever hate filled bigot minded rhetoric they like, its a right even though they may want to control who has that right, they cant.
Wait, is this first post sarcasm? I honestly can't tell. It's too absurd for any rational person to honestly contemplate, but using the term "teapartybagger" makes it seem like you're being serious.
Proof yet again that liberals are closet fascists.
I take it you're not familiar with the term "satire," WMG, Phil...
@marlen & toasty
Sarcasm and Satire rarely translate well on forums-- as this thread has clearly illustrated...
That's because when we try the sarcasm tag, the html blocker stops us.
/sarcasm
u still wearing tin foil on your head???? the right wants less govenment not more like the left but teabaggers are minority lol im not one of them but its really funny to see people post things to attack other parties on subjects that has nothing to do with us polical system what does coup in china has to do with anything u hating tin foil on the head BEEP
Unless it involves a trans-vaginal ultrasound, then the Tea Party is all for it.
It has everything to do with the US political system .......The mainstream media uses China as a shining example of how socialism "works" . Did you see how quickly this story was pulled off the main news page? Not an accident. We should learn from China so that we do not become China....
Ruken, the Tea Party was an alliance against big government, not a grass-roots Republican movement. While I'm sure there are people in the Tea Party who don't mind the idea, there were plenty of participants who would be just as horrified as you seem to be.
By now the Tea Party has been absorbed into the Republican party machine, and as a result has lost most of its independent appeal. Us libertarians are quite disappointed.
I am Tea Party and as said we want MORE freedom for the individual, not less. We are anti big government/big brother.
No, we have not been absorbed by the republican party, if anything we have absorbed them. Does ANY party get everything they want? Of course not.
As most people should know the Tea Party is not a party, it's a movement. That's why most of the party smearing techniques don't work. You can't demonize opposition to crony capitalism, you can't demonize more personal freedom, etc. so all the name calling, propaganda, etc. is irrelevant.
Huh. That may be true, actually. My information about the Tea Party movement comes from the mainstream media (I live in San Francisco, the antithesis of anti-government activism), and the media's understanding of the Tea Party ranges from condescending to merely clueless.
I honestly thought by now that the Republicans had co-opted Tea Party protests and used it to fire their ideological base. Maybe not.
Yeah, having government in control of the internet is a great idea. <--- sarcasm.
As a card-carrying liberal, I believe government should have some say in communication (like what frequencies to use for certain technologies), but they should stay out of content entirely. Especially on the internet.
It isn't government's job to determine what can or cannot be said, can or cannot be seen on the internet, no matter what it is.
According to Wikipedia, there are now 187 government agencies under the direction of, involved in joint operations with, using computer security software provided by, and/or are partially/completely funded by Homeland Security:
US Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Customs And Border Protection (CBP
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
The US Coast Guard (USCG)
The US National Guard
US Northern Command (US NorthCom)
US Southern Command (US SouthCom)
US Secret Service
Office Of The Inspector General
Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Protective Service
National Communications System
Directorate for Science and Technology
Office of Health Affairs
Office of Intelligence And Analysis
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Office of Legislative Affairs
Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement
Office of the Executive Secretariat
National Cyber Security Center
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Directorate for Management (financial agency)
Office of Policy
Office of Operations Coordination
Amanda ....what is also disturbing is just how many Govt. Agencies you listed .....There is just to damn many . We need to consolidate.....
You want disturbing? Look into Bari Shabazz. H O L Y Shiite.
Why the heck do we even HAVE an "Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service"? Fire those mooks and put the funding into the Office for Civil Rights/Liberties. Given how little attention they've gotten under the last two administrations, they might need a bigger staff.
Ha ! You can't have a Coup in China .........Remember Tiananmen Square ? They will run you over with those tanks. China is so beyond it's people ever being able to rise in protest. Be careful what you wish for Liberals.......Being trapped in a society and oppressed is not all it's cracked up to be . No matter how productive that society is .....it succeeds on the backs and with the blood of it's people.
All successful societies succeed on the backs and blood of their people, because people ARE the society, not the figureheads in a nation's given capital.
The difference is merely who gets the credit and benefits. Despite whining about the 1% and corporate greed and so forth, it's not that hard to make it in America. In China it's much more difficult, and you probably need to join the ruling party if you don't want the government to stomp on your business.
pvaldes, you didnt get the content of the story straight, its a military coup....they have tanks....lol
My point exactly .....In America we are free to come and go as we please. Succeed or not succeed. Hard work is rewarded....The 1% invest in America if they see that they will be rewarded. If the feel that they will be punished for their investment ....they stop investing . It's called capitalism. It is what we are .....
@Nothing .....It is just people posting pictures of tanks.....That does not mean their is actually a "Military Coup" More importantly the govt. shut down the internet to silence the masses.
PValdes you are blind, the 1% are the ones driving the coups. China is a corporate controlled state now. America is the same. The militarization of America is being driven by corporations. You haven't noticed how each police unit is now a military one with full body armor, assault weaponry, and tanks? The erosion of rights both domestically and internationally? What you have to go through to travel? To get a job you have to go through drug tests, background checks, credit histories? This is not being driven by socialism it is being driven by corporatism. The concept is not new it is what Eisenhower warned of in his farewell address except now it is not just restricted to defense corporations. They are literally militarizing every aspect of people's lives.
The next thing that you need to realize is that this is not a Democrat or Republican agenda it is happening with both parties, Obama, Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich all represent this same basic philosophy. What this country needs is to heel the corporate dogs, they are subverting our government, a government which has been specifically defined as being, "to secure these rights," "...among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That says NOTHING about corporations, only about protecting people and their rights.
It's not the Chinese government who's workers have been in the news lately, I'm pretty sure the factory says Foxconn and they are contracted by Apple.
Dan ....I don't disagree with you when it comes to the size of our Government and it being dictated by corporations(both sides)...but "The Militarization of America "?? I would attribute that to the liberal (socialist) party that holds the White House....the NDAA .....trust me I am not blind.
Dan, none of those problems you named (the over-equipping of police, erosion of civil rights, tests and whatnot) are driven by corporatism. A lack of civil liberties does not benefit businessmen. In fact, it benefits practically nobody, but is insisted by the masses when fear overrides their common sense. For example, airlines would be ECSTATIC if the TSA were abolished, because their businesses suffer every time an abuse incident surfaces in the media.
Governments and corporations work together all the time, but what you fail to understand is that 90% of the time businesses are just trying their best to keep the government out of their hair and let them do business. Corporations are regulated extensively, from where and how they can do business to exactly how they can count their money and the value of their property. If the government had a lighter hand then corporations wouldn't bother and they could just do their business.
So... why the tanks if no coup?
A monster truck show, of course! Line the tanks all up, side-to-side, as a brave, proud worker of the People's Republic of China tries to jump over all of them (as flames explode around the row of tanks for dramatic effect) in a big-wheeled Chinese vehicle that is obviously not based on any American capitalist junk!
--but seriously, that's China's government for ya: they treat the symptom (the media who distribute the tank pics) without curing the problem (that whole oppressive, bad governance thing). They can only stop the flood of truth for so long.
Because if you had tanks, wouldn't you?
They will be here any minute.
From Wikipedia:
Many people are intimidated by China, but they are skating on thin ice and won't be an actual threat until after the revolution...should it survive.
Meh, I don't think a revolution is in the works, honestly. Nor do I see them as a threat.
Sure, they're an economic superpower, but so what? More things to buy, more money floating around is a good thing.
There are two China's, the burgeoning middle class and elite, and the peasant class. China allows the middle class much more freedom because they are becoming like us, with cars, private homes, TV's, etc. China does not view them as a threat.
China's real problem is all the peasants that have not moved up the economic chain yet. They are much more prone to protest and even riot. China wants stability above all else and it's this uneasy mass of humanity that is it's worse threat. One of the reasons they are trying to grow so fast is they want to move as many people out of this class as possible, as soon as possible.
Since they are already seeing uprisings my guess is they are very sensitive about rumors like this, particularly after the Arab spring incidents. You don't have to agree with them to understand them.
From my reading I get the distinct opposite impression, actually; China's middle class are more educated, cosmopolitan, and have access to more communication. China's greatest enemy for the 21st century has always been the Internet, and that's not something that many rural farmers have going for them.
I think change will come from the middle, not the bottom. Could be wrong, though. I get most of my info from The Economist.
I have decided to watch our own government carefully. China is not the only nation seeking to exercise total control over the media and individual Internet and telecommunications. This includes the entire spectrum digital transmission of information. The news media not being an exception. I don't know what will cause it but there will be a crisis created between now and the presidential election. I'm thinking the economy will bust again. People are not buying and making expensive purchases. They don't feel secure making large scale financial commitments. Industry will take a hit because of that lack of trust for the market. Like a snow ball rolling down hill, jobs will take a hit because of the lack of buyers. By October and the end of the fiscal year the money crunch will be on and the dissatisfied will be heading to the polls to vote. If this is going to be the first total electronic vote in this country, I have a hunch it will be the first and last garbage in and garbage out vote in this countries history. A computer is only as good as the information fed into it. Feed in incorrect information and you end up with misinformation in the end. A sham. Guess that kind of explains why government wants total control of the Internet and news media. Oh well, will see what comes down. In any event it should be a more than interesting end of year.
The biggest current problem for our economy is lack of investment. Consumption is actually running quite high, but not enough people are saving and investing, which is why the recovery has been so slow to knock down unemployment.
And of course the more they spend the less they can save and invest which only perpetuates the problem. That's why raising taxes is counter productive, it takes even more money out of peoples pockets.
Ask yourself, why is a payroll tax cut that impacts SS good while a regular tax cut that impacts bureaucrats bad? Because bureaucrats are telling you so of course! In a choice between screwing you or them, they win every time. :<)
Dont forget that our current President, The one who took the Presidential Oath of office that promises to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the USA Made a recent comment.........
"the Constitution has out lived its usefulness"...........USA President B. Obama
The Dismantling of our constitution is a highway to EMPIRE.....Are you ready to say HAIL OBAMA??? Or will he simply rename himself CAESAR???
The Constitution, a Guarantee to Every citizen of Inalienable Rights........INALIENABLE. That Word alone makes this a Timeless Document, not one to be discarded when someone finds it Inconvenient.
The Statement alone borders on TREASON!!
This is not about the LEFT or the RIGHT anymore, This is about keeping your children and grandchildren from living under an Emperor
Homeland Security has already been granted the SAME POWERS the German GESTAPO Had Before Germany Invaded Austria.
WAKE UP AMERICA.....And WAKE Up Your ELECTED OFFICIALS Because This has got to stop RIGHT NOW!!
If we dont put the Djinni Back in the Bottle it will soon be impossible.
Remember, a Very Few can Trigger a fight, One that you may not agree with but will nonetheless get caught up in.
FEW started things in Serbia/Bosnia but it ran up to a Major battlefield...All the govt needs is an excuse to declare Martial Law and the Dictatorship Begins. The Constitution will be suspended and your EMPIRE will have Begun.
EVERYBODY needs to begin to think MODERATE or Everyone will suffer and Nobody more than the Children of Our Country!!
Another bald faced lie? Is that all you guys really have these days? Lies upon lies?
When you see a photo of tanks on an American Street the thought is Parade! When they are in China the thought is Coup.
I Think I like our way of thinking. The last two Coups in America did not involve tanks at all.
When was the last time anyone saw a tank column in an American parade?
0bama has talked repeatedly about wanting complete control over communication in America, and no one seems to be able to see that this China syndrome, this symptom of dictatorial rule, is already here.
Really? When? I've seen a lot of evidence of Obama seeking to expand executive power, but never on the topic of controlling private communication. Can you link to an article about it?
SF....... Really? What was that SOPA thing about ? .....Surely you have not forgotten that ?
Or how about that NDAA thing ? Check that out.....
SF Accountant: See post 3.1 above.
I'm aware of (and oppose) both those acts, but neither of them seem to be an attempt to "control" communication to any degree that would be useful to the federal government. SOPA was an industry bill with very specific legal boundaries. The NDAA bill COULD, possibly, be used in this sense to imprison people for saying things the administration doesn't like, but that's an awfully crude tool for "controlling communication".
I'm going to have to file those under "general contraction of civil liberties". For now, the Internets are still pretty free 'round here.
0bama signed his pet bill (look on youtube for Rachael Maddow's 2009 piece about 0bama and his grab you off the streets law wants, the same thing that he said that he would not sign in 2011, go ahead, look it up) that allows him and his lackeys to snap you and me off the street and spirit us away to some secret place for the rest of our lives because someone sees us as a 'possible threat'.
If you don't see that what is going on here (with the help of ALL politicians) is at least as bad, terrible, dangerous, subversive of the US Constitution, as what is going on in any Third World Country; you qualify for the title, 'Village Idiot'!
The US government, through Holder and the Department of (In)Justice, (a joke department) put more than 2,500 firearms in the hands of the Mexican cartels through a gun running scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The US government is responsible for the 300+ murders of Mexicans, and the 2 murders of US Federal Agents by people using those firearms that the US DOJ put in Mexico.
The DOJ got caught. Have you heard ANYTHING about this? No, it is like there is a news blackout about it. You would think that the president of Mexico would be screaming his head off over the murder of 300 of his people by firearms that were run into his country by the US government, but that has not happened. Instead, Calderon turned into a mute for several months, until now, when he is whining about the US needing gun control.
The US needs gun control because the US federal government and the DOJ ran guns into Mexico!
This action is a blatant attempt by the federal government and the 0bama administration to create a problem that they can show-u with the fix for.
This is a direct attack on the intelligence of Americans; that is shaky, and the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment gives Americans the Right, and the Obligation, to fight the enemies of America, whether they be from without, or within.
Americans have become afraid of their government. That is the end of part one of the take-over of America by the government. Notice, I do not say, OUR government!
Do you really think that Big Brother isn't alive and very healthy in America!
Big Brother in America stamps out dissension, and their illegal deeds, every day.
Just look at how much you do not know about Operation Fast and Furious, a travesty against the American people, that should be FRONT PAGE NEWS for weeks on end. Nothing!
The US government does a very good job of making anything that they have a problem with, go away.
I know.
You don't want to think about this.
It hurts your head.
You might have to do something about it.
Maybe you're next!
Not that good a job.
I mean, I don't know anyone who's never heard of Operation Fast and Furious, and what a calamity it was.
If that's the administration's idea of successful media oppression, Obama needs to get some tips from Mister Jintao.
Not that I don't appreciate the idea behind your post, though.
The good news is gun sales are through the roof. There are literally million dollar backlogs of orders, more and more citizens are arming them selves in response to these draconian laws.
Worst case scenario: Government attempts to use emergency powers to confiscate all weapons, a few revolt, the military moves in and another civil war breaks out. Not likely but there is no such thing as impossible. Even if the odds are a million to one, that one could be tomorrow.
Best case scenario: Government pulls another waco/ruby ridge debacle and they are so embarrassed they pull in their horns for a couple more decades. Fast and furious is a mini version of this.
I may be wrong but I don't think politicians are stupid enough to really follow through with anything big since they would be primary targets if it should happen. It's to the point now that even liberals are beginning to fear big brother and are arming themselves.
Perhaps something has to come to a head as politicians from both parties seem to going their own way rather than serving the people. If we are honest, we have to admit we are not arguing good vs evil, we are arguing the lesser of two evils.
Phil. Check out Bari Shabazz. google it. By the way I priced some lever action rifles today at wallmart. Might pick up a Marlin 30-30.
I've gotta hand it to Obama, he's helped the firearms sector more than any other president in recent memory (perhaps throughout history!).
Heh. And we called him anti-business!
You do not control the firearms by controlling the firearms...
You restrict the sale of ammunition...
After Obama's election, you could still buy the guns, though at a higher price...
It was the ammunition that was in short supply or not available at all...
Even the availability of reloading equipment/supplies were reduced...
If you go back and look at the numbers, you will see that the shortage was caused by a massive upswing in sales. Everyone who owned a gun that had fear in their hearts went out and bought extra ammo.
Get in there Anonymous and crack the Chinese governments ass a good one....for the Chinese citizens.
Now Anonymous.
Anonymous get into the CHinese governments hive and get their military information out to the rest of the world.
Establish internet connections for them that can not be blocked by the Chinese government.
Here come the Men In Black China. We ARE VENDETTA.
China don't Fock around. If they catch Anonymous Aholes they will throw them in prison for 30 years. I DARE YOU TO ATTaCK CHiNA. When you try to steal their info they will probably send a worm or virus or BOT back at you. Later will pick you up and make you disappear. Huh? Dwight who?
Yeah, Anonymous tends to go after soft targets. Companies, churches, stuff like that. Occasionally a government website, but nothing that might put them on some spymaster's hit list.
A Mexican drug cartel's threats were enough to keep them from taking action against them. China's a WAY bigger fish.
fb what, We aren't your big brother and We are not anyone's friend, end of bce ~>2008-12, just sitting back watching everything around Me getting destroyed... lol..
He. Coup. yeah. Right. Whatever. Who knows what really happened, but one can conjure up the following fantasy scenario and probably come within a stone throw of the truth.
Somewhere around March 22, right before bedtime, Communist China's chief secret policeman, a piece of work named Zhou Yongkang - acknowledged enemy of goodness, kittens, dumplings, babies and the current president of China - received a report that his enemies were, at that very moment, plying his buddy Bo Xilai's lieutenant, Wang, with sodium penthanol in a windowless room somewhere deep below Beijing - the type of room with a drain in the floor and hooks in the walls. He panicked, pulled out his Rolodex and woke up a few PLA generals, thinking that his only chance to avoid having to follow Wang and Bo into that same windowless room was to organize a coup. Most of the generals were too busy entertaining their mistresses or being wined and dined by Mitt Romney's campaign fundraisers, to bother taking his call and the couple of them who did spontaneously laughed in his face. Realizing that there was nothing else he could do and that he's a dead man walking, he proceeded to drink himself to sleep.
He woke up a few hours later, in a cold sweat and with nightmarish images of his own harvested internal organs being dined upon by Xi, the president and the premier - all three of whom had been scheming for decades to achieve just this end. He then noticed that his security detail had been replaced overnight with guys from the CMC whose guns were rather conspicuously pointed in the general direction of his chest. At at that point, he decided that his best course of action was to call up the premier and pledge his undying and eternal loyalty to the motherland, kicking best buddy Bo under the bus and hoping that putting a knife into the back of his protege just might let him live long enough to make it to t'ai chi practice that day.
Two weeks later, a man (actually a robot dummy made by the tortured workers of Foxconn) resembling Zhou appeared at the side of the premier, waving stiffly to the crowd and saying nothing at all. Coup over.