{"id":4646,"date":"2011-04-22T03:11:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T10:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4646"},"modified":"2011-04-22T03:20:03","modified_gmt":"2011-04-22T10:20:03","slug":"china-cyber-war-over-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/22\/china-cyber-war-over-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"China: Cyber War Over Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

I seldom sign, let alone pass on, petitions to other countries, or even to legislators that do not represent me, because they have no incentive to consider my opinion, but with impending talks with the US on human rights, China is so sensitive that they are waging an undeclared cyber war against the site that hosts a petition to free Chinese activist Ai Weiwei.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"22China\"<\/p>\n

The United States says it will hold hold human rights talks with China in Beijing next week, amid a Chinese crackdown on government critics that has drawn US condemnation.<\/p>\n

The “discussions will focus on human rights developments, including the recent negative trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, and arrests and convictions,” the State Department said in a statement on Friday\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>><\/p>\n

Yesterday I received the following email:<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Tom,<\/p>\n

\"22ai-weiwei\"The petition demanding the release of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has nearly 100,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Here’s how we know it’s really gotten Beijing\u2019s attention: For the past three days, the Change.org website has been repeatedly targeted by cyber attacks coming from China that aim to bring our site down, which would keep people from signing the petition.<\/p>\n

Our engineers are working around the clock to fend off the attacks and, for now, the petition is still up.<\/p>\n

We need to let the Chinese government know that illegal tactics from within its borders won’t stop the mounting pressure on them to release Weiwei. If you haven’t already, please join nearly 100,000 Change.org members and add your name to the petition now.<\/p>\n

To recap: Acclaimed dissident artist Ai Weiwei — who helped design the famed \u201cBird\u2019s Nest\u201d stadium for China\u2019s Olympics — was arrested on April 3rd by Chinese security forces at the Beijing airport. His office and studio have been ransacked, and no one has heard from him since.<\/p>\n

The international art community banded together, demanding his release — and the directors of more than twenty leading museums (including the Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim) started a petition on Change.org that has garnered worldwide attention, including in the New York Times, LA Times, and Guardian.<\/p>\n

The campaign has helped to give rise to an international outcry. Political leaders around the world are calling for Weiwei’s release and activists have organized peaceful protests at Chinese embassies and consulates.<\/p>\n

Though China is desperate to silence its critics, the pressure to free Weiwei continues to grow. You can help by signing the petition now:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.change.org\/petitions\/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei<\/a><\/p>\n

Autocratic governments know that the internet is a democratizing force, and they’ll do everything they can to suppress online activism. Know that we stand with you for change, and that we will continue to fight to make sure your voice can be heard.<\/p>\n

– Patrick and the Change.org team<\/p>\n

P.S. Due to these repeated attacks, our site may be slower than usual or unavailable at times over the next few days. Thanks for your patience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The attack also affects other organizations using Amazon servers, including Reddit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I figure it like this.\u00a0 Not only do I feel angry about a foreign government committing such an attack in this country, but also\u00a0 I support the campaign to\u00a0 free Ai Weiwei.\u00a0 If it bothers China this much for this petition to exist, I\u2019m damn well going to sign it, even if it takes many more attempts to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

I urge you to join me in this.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I seldom sign, let alone pass on, petitions to other countries, or even to legislators that do not represent me, because they have no incentive to consider my opinion, but with impending talks with the US on human rights, China is so sensitive that they are waging an undeclared cyber war against the site that […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}