China’s online censors can be merciless in their deletion of blog postings or
forum comments that are deemed “too sensitive,” particularly involving anything
to do with the so-called “Three T’s”: Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan.
Post-earthquake negativity, though, has been tolerated. “Nine billion yuan
[$1.3 billion] has been raised but how much will actually get to the disaster
zone?” one skeptical commenter asked on a forum on Baidu, China’s leading search
engine.
Discussions focusing on discrepancies between the amount of donations
declared by the Chinese Red Cross and the corresponding numbers issued by the
Ministry of Civil Affairs also have met with minimal interference, Mr. Kennedy
said.
However, the government has not turned a blind eye. More than a dozen people
have been arrested for “spreading rumors” online, and political blogger Guo Quan
was detained for questioning the risks posed by cracked dams and damaged nuclear
facilities.