China is a hot bed of political dissent. At least, it would be if the government didn’t have a vice grip on literally everything; from newspapers, to books to the Internet, anything that goes against the government defined social ideals, is either suppressed, locked in prison or murdered quietly in the night.
The latest form of expression to come under the angry, Red fist of the Chinese government is online gaming. Apparently they believe that certain online games (of which the BBC report does not name names) contain religious and political material that would otherwise warrant a death squad knocking on the door of one of their citizens. Of course, this sort of thing is somehow a challenge to their absolute power, hence it must be monitored closely.
With 23 million online gamers, China is right up there with the U.S. or Korea for the revenue it generates, and game developers would be Elliott-Smith-depressed to find out that they had lost out on the whole region. Since Congress is doing right by us for once, maybe it’s time they convinced China to loosen some of those crazy-tight rules they have regarding censorship. I’m sure an influx of American ducats could soften up the stone heart of the Red Giant.
