Bay Networks in bed with commie censors?

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. IT SHOULD NOT BE
INTERPRETED AS A POSITION OR A STATEMENT OF MY
EMPLOYER.

Ok, it looks like Bay Networks made a sweet deal with
Chinese commies. Essentially, they will provide
technology for the state propaganda network and
censored Internet.

Their "partnership" with censors of a communist regime
is repugnant. Using the modern technology to build a
giant brainwashing machine is very scary.

Some companies will do anything for a buck, though.

How about boycotting their products in U.S. and other
democratic countries?

--vadim

    Chinese intranet to launch in February

    January 15, 1997
    Web posted at: 12:40 a.m. EST

    HONG KONG (Reuter) -- Bay Networks Inc. and the China Internet
    Corp., controlled by Beijing's state news agency, have formed a
    partnership to create a nationwide intranet in China, the companies
    said Tuesday.

    The companies declined to disclose the value of the deal that will
    establish a network covering more than 50 cities, 20 of them by the
    end of 1997. An intranet is an internal network that uses Internet
    global computer network technology.

    Access in and out of the intranet is possible -- intranets can be linked
    to the Internet proper -- but access can be controlled.

    The first phase connecting Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and the
    southern city of Guangzhou is to be launched next month, offering
    tailored information mostly in Chinese to government entities, joint
    ventures and corporations in China.

    Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

2

Since you are a person that saw up-front and close the democratizing
effects of a telecommunications network on the democratization of a
communist country, I find this a rather surprising statement.

The network will let more Chinese citizens communicate with each other
than ever before. And I strongly expect that there will be dozens of
gateways between this "intranet" and China's Internet providers.

You, of all people, should realize that withholding commnications
technology sterngthens and isolates communist regimes. But hooking them
into the global capitalist economy at the state level will eventually pay
dividends by creating a bourgeois class (the educated middle class) which
will force democratization to occur.

Not everybody follows the U.S. model of democracy, for instance Canada
does not. But that doesn't mean we aren't free and it doesn't mean we
aren't happy.

Have you changed from a Soviet imperialist into an American imperialist?
Don't you realize that parallelism can be exploited in politics as well as
in routing? Create millions of small opportunities for Chinese people to
share information and they will do the rest.

Michael Dillon - Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com

3

:Their "partnership" with censors of a communist regime
:is repugnant. Using the modern technology to build a
:giant brainwashing machine is very scary.

How so ? Communications is actually loosening communism
as it was in China. Fax machines have helped, and anything
that facilitates the exchange of ideas will only make
China bend closer to a 'democracy standard'. If you see
how China has changed from 10 years ago to now (some form
of capitalism), you will see that they cannot and will not
run the country as communism was once run.
:
:Some companies will do anything for a buck, though.
:

I don't think this has anything to do with
commercialism. Are you implying that Cisco and/or
other US firms would turn this deal down (and or not
pursue it?).

:How about boycotting their products in U.S. and other
:democratic countries?

Should we also boycott Coke, McDonalds, KFC, McDonald
Douglas, etc ? Since they all profit from the people
of a 'communist' country that does not endorse the
same personal freedoms that we do.

Ed

: Chinese intranet to launch in February
:
: January 15, 1997
: Web posted at: 12:40 a.m. EST
:
: HONG KONG (Reuter) -- Bay Networks Inc. and the China Internet
: Corp., controlled by Beijing's state news agency, have formed a
: partnership to create a nationwide intranet in China, the companies
: said Tuesday.
:
: The companies declined to disclose the value of the deal that will
: establish a network covering more than 50 cities, 20 of them by the
: end of 1997. An intranet is an internal network that uses Internet
: global computer network technology.
:
: Access in and out of the intranet is possible -- intranets can be linked
: to the Internet proper -- but access can be controlled.
:
: The first phase connecting Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and the
: southern city of Guangzhou is to be launched next month, offering
: tailored information mostly in Chinese to government entities, joint
: ventures and corporations in China.
:
: Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
: