Charles Xue - The Newest Victim In The War For Digital Freedom

Think that the wealthy and elite are immune from the current attack upon Internet freedom?

Think again.

US billionaire held in Chinese blogging crackdown

BEIJING (AP) -- Police have detained a Chinese-American billionaire on suspicion of visiting a prostitute as China cracks down on bloggers on its already heavily restricted Internet.

Police and state media say venture capitalist Charles Xue was detained Friday evening in a Beijing neighborhood along with a woman.

He is a naturalized American citizen who has over 12 million followers on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo. He regularly reposts reform-minded content and comments on other issues including China's air quality and food safety.

The People's Daily on Monday reminded the country's "big Vs" - popular bloggers whose social media profiles are verified as genuine - that they should "use their right to expression responsibly."

Xue's arrest follows a string in recent days of people who triggered scandals online.

Source

Though we are discussing China, which is notoriously repressive with Internet freedoms... We are also discussing an American citizen - one who is very much involved in the tech and online worlds...

Charles Xue, 59, has been an Independent Director of our company since July 2009. His current term expires in 2014. Mr. Xue was the original founder and is the chairman of the board of directors of ChinaEdu Corporation, a leading NASDAQ-listed educational service provider in China. Before that, Mr. Xue was the original founder of UT Starcom, a NASDAQ-listed company and a global leader in the manufacture, integration and support of Internet protocol-based, end-to-end networking and telecommunications solutions, and served as its chairman and vice chairman from 1991 to 2001. Mr. Xue received his postgraduate degree in East Asia History Specialty from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983.

Forbes Profile of Charles Xue

An evil, evil man Tweeting about air quality and food safety. A true enemy of the state.

Here is a rather interesting snippet from a FAS.org PDF on the subject of China and censorship from last year.

U.S. efforts to promote Internet freedom have broadened. Since the early 2000s, policy makers
have focused on supporting censorship circumvention techniques and their use in China,
protecting the privacy of Chinese Internet users, and discouraging or preventing U.S. information
and communications technology companies from aiding Beijing’s censorship efforts and public
surveillance system. According to some analysts
, counter-censorship technology has proven to
have a vital, but limited, impact on the promotion of freedom and democracy in the PRC. They
have advocated a broader approach or the development of a more comprehensive and robust mix
of tools and education for “cyber dissidents” and online activists in China and elsewhere,
including the following: software and training to help dissidents and civil society actors
communicate securely through evading surveillance, detecting spyware, and guarding against
cyberattacks; archiving and disseminating information that censors have removed from the
Internet; developing means of maintaining Intern
et access when the government has shut it down
entirely; and providing training in online communication, organization, and advocacy.

Here is a speculative thought worth pondering... Has the CIA just delivered up a made to order Chinese analog for Snowden? A high profile case to desensitize people, worldwide, to the "new normal" - a world where the Internet is no longer free in any way, shape, or form and will only exist as a data mining operation and marketing tool?

Yes, the specifics are different - but so are the cultures.

Oh, and from the same FAS pdf... If you want a glimpse into the future of the west, read the following:

The Public-Private Nexus

Some experts argue that China’s success in maintaining control over the Internet is based largely upon its reliance on private sector actors and profit motives. By imposing non-coercive incentives for compliance, the government has been able to maintain a fairly reliable system of control at relatively little cost. In order to maintain their business licenses and operate in China, domestic and foreign Internet companies are required to abide by a rough set of guidelines issued by central and local government agencies—and thus encouraged to practice self-censorship. Companies that have learned how to prosper in this environment include Baidu, China’s largest search engine, Sina Weibo, which offers a Twitter-like micro-blogging platform, and Tencent, which provides instant messaging services.

Large Internet portals are estimated to each employ hundreds of people to filter online discussion. Sina Weibo is said to employ approximately 1,000 people to monitor and censor expression on its social networking service. In May 2012, Sina instituted a point system in which customers are given a number of starting points that are deducted if the they post “harmful” content. If a customer’s cache of points falls to zero, then his or her account is terminated. Service providers are often torn between providing interesting content and allowing wide-ranging discussion, on the one hand, and complying with government guidelines, on the other, both of which can affect their economic survival.

Another aspect of the PRC government’s ability to control online information is the degree to which the xperience of the Internet user in China resembles that of Internet users in freer environments elsewhere. The abundant array of offerings on China’s Internet, vibrant news coverage, public discourse on a range of issues, and selective rather than widespread use of coercive measures, such as arrests of netizens who use the Internet for political purposes, has diluted opposition to China’s censorship regime. Although their foreign counterparts are blocked, Chinese can search terms on Baidu, engage in social networking on RenRen and Kaixinwang, and
blog or “Tweet” via Sohu and Sina platforms. These phenomena have even been referred to by Chinese officials as “Internet democracy.” One U.S. expert states that “China’s 500 million Internet users feel free and are less fearful of their government than in the past. The communications revolution has transformed China in many ways, but the Communist Party has thus far succeeded—against all odds and expectations—in controlling it to remain in power.”

Read the above carefully... Large companies choosing to employ in house censors to avoid the hassle of having to deal with the governmental ones coming to call...

Is it all sinking in yet?

We are in the midst of a global series of informational false flags with the sole goal to put a very small group of nations into absolute control of all digital communications... And of course the handful of mega Corporations who already hold that control will not mind, at all, having their monopolies legally mandated and supplied with soldiers and criminal statutes to uphold it all.

For those of us who love the Internet and love freedom - these are very dark days. This story might well suggest that not even the rich and powerful are immune.

reply to post by Hefficide


I fear this will be the future of America only this time they'll arrest us in the name of terrorism

reply to post by starwarsisreal


'They' are working on it, every day.

The plan is to identify and tax every weapon. It's in rahm's play book. Those who pass the comprehensive psychological tests, those who support the OS, any and all of 'em, will be allowed 'immunity'. The masters will need to check up on their homes from time to time to make sure everything is kosher. Everyone else will be house and property searched using the latest in technofascist RnD. On a regular surprise basis. Ammo will be the biggest draw, heavily taxed, and criminalized, and easiest to find.

The smartest, and most capable of running things, at your service.

Until... they are running for their lives.

It's a real pity that folk confuse 'ability' with 'evil'. lol.

They made their bed. Maybe we should tuck them in. It's getting late.

The weapons crush will automatically attract scads of folk into the swat/nsa camp. It'll be dynamike..they'll only come after the bad guys.

They have the technology to do it. Just like they have the technology to round up the internet, which notice, just a few years ago, drew derision and mirth among the masses.

They could never do that!

Next, they need the smart meters. This, too, is something that must not happen.

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